Canada beat the USA in the record-breaking 4 Nations Face-Off championship game with Toronto Maple Leafs teammates Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews squaring off against each other on international ground.

Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews flew home together from Boston after the 4 Nations Face-Off final at TD Garden.

“They get paid the big bucks, but at the end of the day, they grind it, too,” Leafs forward Steven Lorentz, who made a terrific play to set up David Kampf’s 3-0 goal, said of Matthews and Marner. “They’re obviously very skilled and they can put the puck in the net, but when the minutes get up there with them, you don’t really see it a whole lot.

Mitch Marner, whose fingerprints were on two goals including Connor McDavid’s winner, won the border war against Auston Matthews, in a Boston barn where Toronto was eliminated three times in a first-round Game 7 series in which he and Matthews had little consolation of being their team’s leading scorer.

Despite being best friends when playing for the Maple Leafs, Team USA captain Auston Matthews admits something surprising about he and Canadian winger Mitch Marner at 4 Nations Face-Off.

As the NHL season resumed on Saturday, it was merely two days since the United States fell to Canada 3-2 in overtime of the 4 Nations Face-Off championship.

The Leafs have officially confirmed the statuses of Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews for tonight's game following the 4 Nations Face-Off break. While Mitch Marner continues to ride the high of winning the 4 Nations Face-Off with Team Canada,

Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube had a bit of a chuckle on Thursday when he was asked whether he would consider giving captain Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner a rest for Toronto’s first game, on Saturday at home against the Carolina Hurricanes, following the 4 Nations Face-Off.