It may not have been what everyone expected, but you won’t find many hockey supporters north of the 49th Parallel complaining. After another convincing win, the Canadians are coming home with a commanding 4-0 lead in the Super Series.

Super pest Brad Marchand of the Val-d'Or Foreurs scored a pair of goals, helping lead team Canada to a 4-2 victory over the Russians in Game 4 of the Super Series on Saturday. Sam Gagner also added a goal and two assists, while his teammate from the London Knights, Steve Mason, stopped 45 of 47 shots between the pipes.

Phenom John Tavares of the Oshawa Generals also notched his first goal of the tournament, finishing off a spectacular passing play set in motion by Claude Giroux, who made an Ovechkin-esque pass from his backside to Sam Gagner, who fed off the saucer-pass to Tavares.

The Canadians fought off an early first period surge from the Russians, who came out of the gate firing on all cylinders. It was clear that the Russians did not want to leave home empty-handed, as they doubled the Canadians’ shot total in the opening 20 minutes by a count of 18-9.

Brad Marchand’s first of two goals late in the first period really seemed to take the wind out of the Russians’ sails, and they almost appeared to be disinterested for much of the second period. But the Russians came out flying in the third, just as they did to start the game. Alexei Grishin and Maxim Chudinov scored just 26 seconds apart to begin the frame, but that was the closest they would get.

Midway through the series, the same passion and absolute hatred for each other from the ’72 Summit Series has yet to re-appear, but the Super Series has still been a fabulous showcase of our next generation of stars. Even though a series win is essentially out of reach for the Russians, don’t expect the passion level to go down at all in Canada, if anything it will be turned up a notch or two for both teams.

Game 5 of the series will take place on Tuesday at the MTS Center in Winnipeg, where Canada will be sporting their 1972-style throwback jerseys. Jonathan Bernier is expected to get the nod in net for team Canada.