After Nathan MacKinnon had just won the hockey equivalent of a sword fight in a phone booth with one of the great goalies in the world, after a 3-on-3 overtime that was about as thrilling as hockey gets, after a first period that began with what Erik Karlsson called “probably the most embarrassing part that I’ve ever been a part of on a team,” and after the North America 23-and-under team had been the adrenaline needle to the heart of this World Cup and the most fun hockey team in at least 30 years ...

After all that, the kids thought they had advanced to the semi-finals. MacKinnon roofed it over Henrik Lundqvist for a 4-3 win over Sweden and they poured onto the ice and mobbed one another, thrilled as anything.

“Honestly when I scored, I thought we were in,” said MacKinnon. “We were talking, maybe we shouldn’t have (celebrated) that hard.”

Except Sportsnet’s Scott Oake told MacKinnon that North America now needed winless Finland to beat Russia Thursday to advance. Johnny Gaudreau, who made the pass to MacKinnon, found out when he returned to the locker room and found downcast faces. The coaches knew what they needed to advance. They just didn’t tell the players.

“We knew that winning would do wonders for us,” said North America coach Todd McLellan. “We knew that getting into the situation we ended in we would still need help. But as we went down the stretch, we played to win there.”

But they didn’t go after it at all costs, and they should have. After Sweden tied this thrilling, let-them-play-forever hockey game with 13:10 remaining in the third period, nobody was double-shifted. The most dangerous guys — McDavid, Auston Matthews, Gaudreau, etc. — weren’t left out there for extra-long shifts at the end. North America played a risk-reward scenario: They would rather try to win playing straight hockey against a Sweden team playing for overtime rather than tell the players, we need this. Go for it.

The problem with that is twofold. One, North America actually could have lost in regulation and advanced: a Finland win over Russia in regulation by anything less than a pile of goals would have created a three-way tiebreak that North America would have won. The risk was not absolute.

Two, the players weren’t allowed to throw off the reins and just press like hell without fear, and as a result the most exciting team in 30 years now needs Finland to win or this thing is over. They would have played Canada in the semi, after Canada beat Team Europe 4-1 Wednesday night. What looks like the least conservative collection of great talent we’ve seen in generations might have been undone by a little too much conservatism. That would be maddening.

Because this team is great. It’s a thrill. The only two great games in this tournament have involved the kids. In the first two minutes against Sweden, McDavid skated through two zones and four Swedes and nearly got all the way to Henrik Lundqvist before Victor Hedman and Anton Stralman reached him. Then Matthews collected the puck and got knocked to his knees and kept control of the puck like he was Curly Neal dribbling for the Globetrotters, and he found Morgan Rielly, whose shot was spit back out to Matthews for a rebound goal. Then Gaudreau got behind Karlsson and drew a penalty shot. He missed.

We had seen 56 seconds of hockey. North America scored again at the 1:35 mark. On the Swedish bench, one thought was in everyone’s mind.

“Wake the f--- up,” said Karlsson. “Those first two minutes there was probably the most embarrassing part that I’ve ever been a part of on a team. They did it all. They had three breakaways, a penalty shot, penalty call with them against us, goal in the net, two goals in the net. It gave us a kind of a slap in the face.”

And there was still another McDavid breakaway after that, another Gaudreau breakaway (successful), and ANOTHER McDavid breakaway. Against what may be the world’s greatest defensive corps, North America made the game look like an amusement park. Even after Sweden slowed the game down, North America got 49 shots on goal to 38 for Sweden. They’re fresh, no salary cap, all skill and guts. This team, gimmick or not, is the best of hockey.

“You know, they’re playing fearless,” said Karlsson. “I remember being young and not really realizing what was at stake. I think that being a nation you consider those things a little bit more, and they’re probably flying a little bit more and looking a little bit better than most teams, because they’re playing a little bit reckless. Which, you know, has been their strength, and that’s the way they have to play to win games.”

“Dave Tippett has coached probably more games than probably the rest of our staff put together, and we have coaches that have been around for a while, but we became fans,” said McLellan. “Like I said, I was standing on the bench, no, no, no, and then go, go, go.”

“I definitely hope so,” said McDavid, when asked if Edmonton could play like this. “It’s definitely a lot of fun playing like this with a lot of speed. But ultimately I’m not sure we have quite that much speed ... I’m not sure we’ll be able to play quite the same way, but that would sure be nice.”

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“Obviously it’s fun hockey to play, when there’s tons of offence, and you’re focused on making plays, and you’re allowed to make those plays,” said top-line winger Mark Scheifele.

Except they weren’t. Not all the way. North America should have been true to itself, and to the soul of hockey they represent. Go for it. Go. They didn’t have much to lose, and had a potential semifinal against Canada to gain. And now, unless we all get lucky, they might never play together again.