Grades, top players from Canada's victory over Finland - ESPN

With a berth in the 4 Nations Face-Off championship game on the line, Canada started off hot with two quick goals from Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon en route to a 5-3 win over Finland.

There was late drama, as the Finns scored three goals in the third period to pull within a goal, before Canada's captain Sidney Crosby scored an empty-net goal to seal the deal.

The win pushes Canada's round-robin point total to five, putting them out of reach of Sweden:

Here are grades for Canada and Finland, including the biggest takeaways, the key player to watch in the next game for Canada and lingering questions for both countries.

This was the Canada we expected to see at 4 Nations. The Canadians were immediately engaged on both sides of the puck and finally got their star-studded offense rolling with three first period goals from Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon and Brayden Point.

Having Cale Makar back in the lineup — after he missed Saturday's matchup against the U.S. with an illness — gave the Canadians' defense a noted boost, as he and Colorado teammate Devon Toews were excellent anchoring the team's blue line.

Coach Jon Cooper put Jordan Binnington back in net for this one, and Binnington rewarded his coach's confidence with a solid showing between the pipes. And Cooper's changes to his forward groups — particularly creating a top line of McDavid, Point and Mark Stone — paid off with a more balanced attack.

The key, though, was that Canada (mostly) didn't make the sort of costly mistakes (i.e. turnovers) they did against Sweden and the U.S. Canada was solid in every aspect and appeared to be at their most dangerous heading into a final clash with the Americans.

The Finns looked deflated when McDavid scored Canada's