What you need to know: Canada vs. Europe Game 2

Team-Europe's-Andrej-Sekera-(2)-skates-in-alone-but-is-stopped-by-Team-Canada-goalie-Carey-Price-(31)-during-second-period-World-Cup-of-Hockey-finals-action-in-Toronto-on-Tuesday,-September-27,-2016.THE-CANADIAN-PRESS/Nathan-Denette

Team Europe's Andrej Sekera (2) skates in alone but is stopped by Team Canada goalie Carey Price (31) during second period World Cup of Hockey finals action in Toronto on Tuesday, September 27, 2016.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

Canada and Europe will face off in Game 2 of the World Cup of Hockey Final Thursday night, and there’s a lot on the line.

The best-of-three final got underway Tuesday night, with Team Canada claiming a 3-1 victory despite a less-than-perfect game.

Sportsnet Stats on Twitter

A Canada win means a World Cup title for the home team, while it’s do-or-die for Team Europe if they want to push the series to a third and final game, which would take place Saturday night.

Here’s what you need to know prior to puckdrop.

WCOH_EURvsCAN_Twitter_GAME-2-TON

NEED TO KNOW: TEAM CANADA
• This is Team Canada’s eighth appearance in the final at a World Cup/Canada Cup. A victory tonight would give them their sixth title. (Canada also won in 1976, 1984, 1987, 1991 and 2004.)

• Team Canada hasn’t lost in a best-on-best game since the preliminary round of the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

• Canada’s top line of Sidney Crosby, Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron have combined for 22 points all tournament — including six points in Game 1 of the final alone — and have also topped the stat charts individually.

Sportsnet Stats on Twitter

Sportsnet Stats on Twitter

NEED TO KNOW: TEAM EUROPE
• Europe’s top line of Anze Kopitar, Marian Hossa and Tomas Tatar has combined for nine points through five games.

• After going goalless in preliminary play, Tatar has three goals in his last two games. After scoring twice in the semi-final against Sweden (including the OT winner) he scored Europe’s lone goal in Game 1 of the final.

• Jaroslav Halak, widely considered Europe’s best hope of defeating Canada, stopped 35 of 38 shots Tuesday night to keep Canada to its lowest scoring total all tournament. (Canada had scored at least four goals in each of their first four games until the final.)

Here are the highlights from Game 1:

More pregame reads & videos:
Imperfect Canada more than good enough in Game 1
Team Europe made two-too-many mistakes in ugly contest
What a provincial best-on-best Canada Cup would look like
Zdeno Chara doesn’t know why Toronto boos him
Watch: Europe will need something special Thursday to force a Game 3
Sidney Crosby in class by himself at World Cup of Hockey

When submitting content, please abide by our submission guidelines, and avoid posting profanity, personal attacks or harassment. Should you violate our submissions guidelines, we reserve the right to remove your comments and block your account. Sportsnet reserves the right to close a story’s comment section at any time.