Not knowing her next opponent yet, Taylor Heise took the diplomatic approach in saying she didn’t have a preference who the United States would face in the Women’s World Hockey Championship gold-medal game.
And yet, when offered the chance to say anything derogatory about Canada, Heise laughed and said, “nope” three times on Saturday before adding: “We’ll keep that to the ice if we need to.”
And it’s on the ice where one of global sports’ and women’s hockey’s fiercest and longest-running rivalries — U.S. versus Canada — will be settled yet again on Sunday, when the bordering nations meet for gold for the 22nd time in 23 tournaments since the championships were established in 1990.
The Canadians were far more vocal in looking forward to a rematch, especially a year after the Americans beat them 6-3 to win gold at the tournament held outside of Toronto. It’s not lost on the Canadians having a chance to return the favor with the championships being held in central New York.
“I think it would feel a little bit special considering they beat us last year on home soil,” Canadian assistant captain Blayre Turnbull said. “So yeah, I think, it’s a big game and it’s one that we’re ready for and one that we can’t wait to get started.”
The Americans advanced on Saturday with a 5-0 win over Finland, in an outing Laila Edwards scored a natural hat trick and Aerin Frankel stopped 15 shots to set a single-tournament record with her fourth shutout.
The Canadians followed with 4-0 win over Czechia, more widely known in English as the Czech Republic. Emily Clark and Jocelyne Larocque had a goal and assist each, and Ann-Renee Desbiens stopped nine shots for her second shutout of the tournament.
Desbiens, for one, hasn’t forgotten the 6-3 loss in last year’s final.
“You always want to beat them. Whether it’s a Rivalry Series, world championship, it doesn’t change,” Desbiens said. “Obviously, I remember last year, I remember what happened. And, we want this story to be different this year.”
In the meantime, Czech coach and former Canadian national team player Carla MacLeod made a point to emphasize how much the gap is beginning to close between the rest of the world and the sport’s two dominant North American teams.
“There was some animosity out there, and I take that as a compliment to Czech,” MacLeod said of an outing that featured several big hits and a shoving match that resulted in roughing penalties issued to Canada’s Marie-Philip Poulin and Czechia’s Noemi Neubauerova in the third period. “If the Canadians and Americans are getting frustrated playing against us, we’re doing something right.”
In a tournament where the Czechs, Finns and Germany displayed signs of beginning to close the competitive gap, the one marquee matchup remains U.S.-Canada.
Canada celebrates its win over Sweden following third period quarter final hockey action at the IIHF Women’s World Hockey Championship in Utica, N.Y., Thursday, April 11, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi
The final will be a rematch of a physical, fast-paced, end-to-end preliminary round outing on Monday, which the Americans won 1-0 on Kirsten Simms’ overtime goal.
Edwards joins Simms in being among the four U.S. players making their tournament debuts.
“She stepped up in a way that not a lot of people can. And I’m very proud of her,” said Heise, who set up Edwards’ final two goals. “I’m glad that she could prove that to herself. Because sometimes when you’re young and you get picked to a team like this, sometimes it takes a goal like that to prove to yourself that you’re here for a reason. But we all knew that before.”
The 6-foot-1 Edwards is from Cleveland and the first Black hockey player to make the U.S. national team roster. Coming off her sophomore season at Wisconsin, she is one of four Americans making their tournament debuts and now has five goals to share the tournament lead with teammate Alex Carpenter.
“It’s pretty good, I’d say,” Edwards said of her growing confidence. “Just confident in the team. So that always helps with my individual confidence. When our team’s rolling and everyone’s playing at their best and sharing the puck and just doing all sorts of things really helps with my confidence.”
Hannah Bilka and Savannah Harmon also scored for the Americans, who kept their perfect run intact in having appeared in every world championship final since the tournament was established in 1990.
The two women’s hockey global powers have met in 21 of 22 world tournament finals, with the only exception 2019, when host Finland beat Canada in the semis before losing to the U.S. in a 2-1 shootout.
The Americans have won 10 world gold medals to Canada’s 12. The U.S. is 18-17 overall against Canada in tournament play, with both teams scoring 98 goals against. Canada, meantime, has the edge in Olympic play in having won five gold medals to the Americans’ two.
CLEVELAND (AP) — Restricted free agent forward Isaac Okoro has agreed to re-sign with the Cleveland Cavaliers on a three-year contract, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press on Saturday.
Okoro’s new deal is worth $38 million, according to the person who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the contract has not been signed or announced by the team.
ESPN.com first reported the agreement, citing Okoro’s representation.
The fifth overall pick in the 2020 NBA draft, Okoro is Cleveland’s best perimeter defender, often drawing the assignment of guarding the opponent’s top scorer. Okoro also has worked to improve his offensive game.
The 23-year-old averaged 9.4 points and 3.0 rebounds in 69 games — 42 starts — last season for the Cavs, who beat Orlando in the opening round of the playoffs before losing to eventual champion Boston.
Okoro shot a career-best 39% on 3-pointers, forcing teams to come out and guard him.
His agreement caps an extraordinarily busy summer for the Cavs that began with coach J.B. Bickerstaff being fired and replaced by Kenny Atkinson. All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell signed a three-year, $150 million extension in July, ending months of speculation that he wanted out of Cleveland.
Also, power forward Evan Mobley signed a five-year, $224 deal and center Jarrett Allen signed a three-year, $91 million extension.
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
