Canadian hockey fans began booing the American national anthem at Bell Centre in Montreal when Team USA played there on Saturday — sparking three fights to break out in the first nine seconds of the game, which the US won 3-1 with Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau in attendance.

Earlier in the day, the White House had poked fun at its opponent, saying it looked forward to the US "beating our soon-to-be 51st state, Canada".

Chantal Kreviazuk, who performed the Canadian anthem prior to the 4 Nations Face-Off title game Thursday changed a lyric as a rebuke to President Trump's repeated remarks about making the country the 51st state.

Chantal Kreviazuk, the Grammy-award winning singer from Winnipeg, changed the lyrics to O Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off game against the United States on Thursday to sing "that only us command" instead of "in all of us command.

Team Canada lifted the coveted trophy thanks to an epic game-winning shot from Toronto-born Connor McDavid about eight minutes into overtime.

Hagel's comments came in response to Team USA’s pre-planned approach to their round-robin matchup, which featured three fights in the first nine seconds — starting with one featuring Hagel and Matthew Tkachuk — with the Americans plotting the bouts in advance through a group chat.