It's the rematch fans craved and Canada's 5-3 win over Finland on Monday afternoon clinched it: another battle with Team USA in the NHL 4 Nations Face-Off championship game Thursday night in Boston.

"The last thing we wanted to do was go home today. We'd love to play the Americans again. We feel like we could beat those guys. We plan on playing a little better this time," said Canada's Nathan MacKinnon, who had two goals in the win.

The Americans' 3-1 win over Canada on Saturday night was the talk of the sports world thanks to the raucous atmosphere in Montreal, three fights in the opening nine seconds of the game and thrilling play befitting this "best on best" tournament. The victory clinched a spot in the 4 Nations title game for the U.S., before Canada set up the sequel with its regulation win Monday.

"The message we wanted to send is that it's our time right now. Show that we're not backing down," said Team USA's Matthew Tkachuk, who set a record for the earliest fight in an NHL international game against Canada.

"I didn't hear him say that, but he's trying to make some noise, which he likes to do," Canada goalie Jordan Binnington said. "We're just going to stick to our job here."

Canada finished its job against Finland, although things got a little tense near the end. After conceding a 4-0 lead, Finland scored three goals in the last 7 minutes of the game before Sidney Crosby's empty-netter ended the comeback and sent Canada to the championship final. The U.S. game against Sweden on Monday night was rendered meaningless in the process.

Crosby relished the chance to play the U.S. again.

"You look at the last game and the intensity ... both teams got to know each other pretty well, pretty quickly. It'll be a great challenge," the Pittsburgh Penguins captain said.

Canada entered the 4 Nations Face-Off as the favorite. ESPN BET has the Americans favored in the championship game (-125).

"I don't care who's favored or who's not. We came here to win this," Canada coach Jon Cooper said. "I'm really looking forward to the game. It's why we came here. Regardless if other people think we're underdogs, everybody in that room thinks we have a really, really good chance to win."

Besides the stakes being higher, there will be two big differences in this rematch. Canada will have star defenseman Cale Makar in its lineup after he sat out the game against the U.S. because of an illness. He returned to play a game-high 23 minutes, 57 seconds against Finland.

"That's obviously huge," Crosby said. "He plays all situations and he's so good back there. Obviously gave us a big boost."

The Americans, meanwhile, will have home-ice advantage in front of a partisan crowd at TD Garden in Boston.

"Obviously we had our crowd behind us the last time and they got theirs in a couple of days, so it's going to be exciting," Canada's Brayden Point said.

The environment will be an unusual one for Team Canada star Brad Marchand, who is also captain of the Boston Bruins.

"At the end of the day, I've been booed everywhere. So I'm not too worried about it," he joked Monday.

MacKinnon said Canada can't give the U.S. the chances they gave its opponent last Saturday.

"I just think they're so dangerous. Not a lot was really going on for either team and we kind of gave them a couple looks. They have so much talent that they're going to score," he said. "All the best players in the league are sharing the same ice and the shots are like 20-20. So it just shows that how tight everyone's checking right now. I just think any opportunity we want to make them earn and not give them free chances."

Cooper downplayed the idea that Canada was motivated by a rematch with the Americans more than a 4 Nations championship.

"Even if the U.S. wasn't in the final ... we want in this. We came here for this purpose and now it's 'win one more game.' It just happens to be against the team that beat us after the fireworks that went off on Saturday night," he said. "It should be a pretty good made-for-TV event."