As one star from Cole Harbour, N.S., is forced to only watch, another plays hero

The unremarkably unemotional person Nathan MacKinnon was neural.

During an excruciating hold off for officials to find on whether his goal counted, MacKinnon sat on the bench, occasionally glancing up to the video board hanging high above him inside the Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena.

Behind MacKinnon, head coach Jon Cooper immediately thought the goal could be offside. The video coaches working behind the scenes for Team Canada radioed to the bench: it was a good goal, and yes, they were sure.

But that didn't quell either man's nerves.

When the ruling finally came — it could have been a couple minutes or a year that passed — the officials agreed with Canada's team behind the scenes. The play was onside, and the goal counted.

MacKinnon's power-play goal held up as a the game winner as Canada clawed back from a 2-0 deficit to win its semifinal game over Finland, 3-2.

Nathan MacKinnon plays the hero as Canada defeats Finland to reach the Olympic gold-medal game

It sends Canada to the gold-medal game on Sunday at 8:10 a.m. ET. They'll face the winner of the second semifinal between the United States and Slovakia on Friday afternoon.

It took everything the Canadians had to penetrate the Finns' defensively-sound structure.

Two of the three goals came on the power play, including the gift of a high-sticking call on Finnish defenceman Niko Mikkola with less than three minutes to play.

When MacKinnon scored, the crowd erupted in Milan, Italy.

It erupted inside a bar in Cole Harbour, N.S., too, in the proud East Coast home of both MacKinnon and captain Sidney Crosby.

Crosby missed the semifinal game after suffering a lower-body injury against Czechia earlier in the week.

The chances of Crosby returning for the gold-medal game are better, Cooper said.

But without him in a close semifinal game, MacKinnon had to channel some of the clutch ability we've seen so many times from his hometown hero.

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"I'm trying to play the best I can," MacKinnon said, after he was asked about playing without Crosby on the bench. "It's difficult out there. Obviously like [Cooper] said, there's a better chance he plays in the gold than tonight."

Canadian goaltender Jordan Binnington made 15 saves in the loss, while Finland's Juuse Saros stopped 36 shots.

The Canadians found themselves in a 2-0 hole early in the second period.

The first goal came in the first period. Finland drew a penalty after some undisciplined play from Sam Bennett, who drove a Finnish player into their goaltender.

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Sebastian Aho won the first draw on Finland's power play and shovelled the puck back to Mikko Rantanen, who beat Binnington.

The second Finnish goal came off a turnover on a Canadian power play.

But the Canadians didn't wilt.

Canada's Nathan MacKinnon says 'we stuck with it and outplayed them' following victory over Finland

"We kept pushing, and we knew we would get our chances eventually," Canadian forward Nick Suzuki said.

Canada outshot Finland, 31-9, over the final two periods, and scored three unanswered goals against an opponent that makes goals hard to come by.

The comeback began with a Sam Reinhart deflection on a second-period power play, which shifted the momentum.

Defenceman Shea Theodore tied it with less than 10 minutes remaining the game.

It looked like a second-consecutive overtime game for the Canadians, before MacKinnon came up big in the dying seconds.

It might have felt tense for Canadians watching back home. But MacKinnon said the team felt calmer on the bench than they did in Wednesday's overtime win over Czechia.

"The last game was our first real test of adversity," he said. "We kind of walked through our first three. So down two, everyone’s calm, no one’s panicking."

For Crosby and defenceman Drew Doughty, who both own two Olympic gold medals, Sunday is the chance to earn a long-awaited third.

Only 24 the last time he played at an Olympics, a 36-year-old Doughty doesn't take the opportunity for granted.

"It means the world to me," he said. "It’s been a long time since the other two. I want to do this one for all of Canada, for my teammates, and for my kids."

For the rest of this team, it's the first chance to climb on an Olympic podium.

Celebrini was only seven years old in 2014 when Canada won gold in Sochi — the last time NHL players competed at the Olympics. He was just a toddler when Crosby scored the golden goal in Celebrini's hometown of Vancouver four years before that.

Now 19, Celebrini has been one of Canada's most valuable players at this tournament. In a do-or-die game where Canada had a mountain to climb, Celebrini played more than any other player on this team (25:53).

He has 10 points in five games, trailing only Connor McDavid for the tournament scoring lead.

For McDavid, who donned the captain's 'C' in Crosby's absence, it's the chance to cement a legacy. The Stanley Cup has eluded the best player in the game, the man who will be wearing the C for good someday when Crosby steps away from the game.

He was the overtime hero for Canada at last year's 4 Nations Face-Off, when the stakes felt much higher than just a hockey game.

In a potential rematch between the cross-border rivals, can McDavid find magic again?

"It is exciting," he said about playing for gold. "It has not sunk in yet."

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