MONTREAL >> Charlie McAvoy lined up Connor McDavid and delivered a textbook hit that sent the best hockey player in the world careening into the glass and down to the ice.

A mere 19 seconds later, Jake Guentzel scored the tying goal — McDavid scored the first one — on the way to the United States beating Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off on Saturday night in an epic clash of the two rivals. Top-line forward Matthew Tkachuk, who fought two seconds after the puck dropped to send a message, raved about McAvoy making a big impression.

“That also is a message-sending moment — probably one of the plays of the game,” Tkachuk said. “They just scored a goal, the building was rocking and Charlie comes there and pops McDavid, like one of the hardest hits I’ve seen.”

And it wasn’t McAvoy’s only hit. He also rocked Sidney Crosby in the first minute.

Coach Mike Sullivan, whose daughter Kiley is married to McAvoy, has several times mentioned how special it is to be on the same team with his son-in-law for the first time.

“Charlie is a fierce competitor,” Sullivan said. “I watch him when he plays for the Bruins. I watch what he does for them. It’s been such a privilege for me to have an opportunity to coach him here at an event like this.”

Tkachuk called McAvoy one of the best U.S. players against Canada, adding, ‘I think the rest of us, we followed him.”

It was easy to follow McAvoy given how he was leading by throwing his body around with reckless abandon.

“That hit Charlie threw on (McDavid) was kind of a game-changer,” defense partner Zach Werenski said. “He’s been known to do that. He’s great with his size, he’s really good defensively and I thought that was a perfectly timed hit to get our team going in the right direction.”

McAvoy now gets to play the championship game in his NHL home arena on Thursday night at TD Garden in Boston.