Team Canada defenseman Colton Parayko (55) and Team United States forward J.T. Miller (10) fight in the first period during a 4 Nations Face-Off ice

Team USA forward J.T. Miller responded to comments by his New York Rangers teammate Matt Rempe on Wednesday. Rempe had called the three fights in the opening nine seconds of the USA-Canada 4 Nations Face-Off game on Saturday “the coolest thing ever.”

Speaking to the media on the sidelines of team practice in Boston, Miller said he hadn’t heard about Rempe’s reaction to his fight.

“I’ve been around Rempe for a couple of weeks now. He’s a pretty awesome guy. For him to say that, it makes me pretty pumped up,” Miller said.

Canada native Rempe said he was excited to watch the final of the 4 Nations Face-Off on Thursday. Speaking about the explosive USA-Canada encounter in the round-robin stage, he said:

“That was the coolest thing. I wanted to run through a wall.”

The USA defeated Canada 3-1 in the game played in Montreal in front of a packed arena. This was their first win against Canada in a best-on-best international tournament since the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, NHL.com reported.

Emotions were running high and erupted in the opening seconds of the game, as fights broke out between USA forward Matthew Tkachuk and Canada forward Brandon Hagel, USA’s Brady Tkachuk and Canada’s Sam Bennett before Miller squared off against St. Louis Blues’ $52-million defenseman Colton Parayko with less than 10 seconds on the game clock.

“Mayhem,” Canada coach Jon Cooper said via NHL.com. “That was the first minute.”

Team USA forward Matthew Tkachuk said the opening moments were “a lot of fun.”

“I think the message we wanted to send is ‘It’s our time,'” Matthew Tkachuk said. “We’re in a hostile environment, and we wanted to show that we’re not backing down.”J.T. Miller said USA players were “fired up” by Canadian fans’ boos

On Friday, J.T. Miller downplayed the political situation that led to Canadian hockey fans booing whenever the USA national anthem was played in the past few weeks. Speaking to the media before Saturday’s game, Miller said the booing only motivated him and his teammates.

“I think we like it, not politically, but we just had a sense of, we know where we’re at in Canada, and I think that fires us up more than anything,” Miller said per NHL insider Noah Strang.

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly also commented on the Canadian fans’ actions, saying that the league had taken notice of the situation. He added that the negativity had lessened and hoped it would taper off.