Jack Campbell has put in some extra work since joining the Maple Leafs. The newly-acquired Toronto netminder hasn’t disappointed.
Campbell made 35 saves before Kasperi Kapanen scored on a partial breakaway 3:43 into overtime after Arizona had a goal of its own called back in the extra period as the Leafs downed the Coyotes 3-2 on Tuesday.
Toronto picked up Campbell in a trade with the Los Angeles Kings last week to shore up its shaky crease situation with Frederik Andersen nursing a neck injury.
The 28-year-old is now 2-0-1 in his three starts for the Leafs, with each requiring OT.
“It’s been incredible,” Campbell said of the first week with his new club. “I can’t speak enough about the character of the room. The guys are so welcoming.
“I was pretty nervous going into such a solid team.”
WATCH | Maple Leafs claim full points in OT win:
Kasperi Kapanen scored the game winner and John Tavares had a highlight reel assist in Toronto’s 3-2 win. 1:42
Zach Hyman had both goals in regulation for Toronto (30-19-8), while Alexander Kerfoot added two assists.
Carl Soderberg and Christian Dvorak replied for Arizona (28-23-8), which was playing the second of a back-to-back and its third game in four nights. Adin Hill made 38 saves.
“It sucks. We think we won there for a minute, but that’s the way it goes,” Hill said. “It was a hard-fought game.”
Kapanen, who was made a healthy scratch earlier this month after being late to practice, pulled the puck to his forehand and beat Hill upstairs during the 3-on-3 extra period to score his 11th of the season and snap a 13-game goal drought.
“I think everyone here knows that’s my go-to move,” Kapanen said. “That’s been working for me and I decided to try it and [hope] it’d go in. It did.”
It looked like the Coyotes had won the game earlier in OT when Jakob Chychrun fired between Campbell’s pads just as a Hyman penalty expired, but the goal was overturned after video review showed Derek Stepan interfered with the Toronto goalie.
“I usually don’t get too emotional in the game,” said Campbell, who didn’t leave his crease after the puck went in. “The guy bumped me pretty good.”
‘We need these points’
With the victory, Toronto remained in third place in the Atlantic Division, two points up on Florida. The Panthers, who have a game in hand, beat the New Jersey Devils 5-3 on Tuesday.
“We need these points,” Kapanen said. “Lucky enough, they called [the Arizona OT goal] back and we were able to win.”
Arizona pushed ahead 2-1 late in the middle period, but Hyman scored his second goal of the night and 16th overall 1:33 into the third when he took a no-look, one-knee feed from John Tavares in the slot.
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“I’m doing the same thing I’ve been in years past,” said Hyman, who’s just five goals off the career-high he set last season despite missing the first 19 games of 2019-20 with a knee injury. “I’m just being more patient and more confident with the puck.”
Campbell, who didn’t get word he’d be starting in place of Andersen until sometime after Tuesday’s morning skate, made a nice stop on Taylor Hall midway through the third on a Coyotes’ power play before Hill robbed Kerfoot on a short-handed breakaway.
Campbell was called upon again on a 2-on-1 with seven minutes to go — stopping Soderberg’s initial shot and the follow-up with his glove even though he couldn’t find the puck as it bounced in the air.
Toronto Maples Leafs goaltender Jack Campbell makes a save during the third period against the Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press)
Toronto got a late power play when former Leafs winger Phil Kessel went off for tripping, but Hill was there to deny Auston Matthews on a one-timer.
With not much happening at either end through most of an uninspired opening 40 minutes at a sleepy Scotiabank Arena, Soderberg slotted home his 14th with 46.8 seconds left in the middle period off a sloppy scramble from a Toronto perspective in front of Campbell.
Following Monday’s 3-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens where Antti Raanta made 26 saves, Arizona turned to Hill — the club’s third-stringer — with Darcy Kuemper still out injured as the Coyotes continue their pursuit of a playoff spot out West.
He made a nice stop on another Matthews one-timer on the power play in the second before the centre blasted another shot off the post.
Tavares and Leafs defenceman Justin Holl both played after sitting out Monday’s practice with an illness, while winger William Nylander, who sat out the last two games sick, was back in for the home side. Hyman was also in the lineup despite skipping Monday’s session with what the team called “bumps and bruises.”
Toronto started with a line of Nylander, Matthews and Mitch Marner — an expensive trio that accounts for nearly $29.5 million US in annual average value on the salary cap — but they couldn’t generate much of anything.
Busy week ahead
Tuesday marked the start of a stretch of four games in six nights that will also see Toronto host Dallas on Thursday before visiting Ottawa on Saturday and Buffalo on Sunday. Arizona visits Ottawa on Thursday.
The Coyotes jumped in front 64 seconds into the opening period on the game’s first shot when the puck popped into the slot to Dvorak, who buried his 17th with Campbell out of position and at his mercy.
The Leafs woke the crowd out of its slumber at 14:23 when Tyson Barrie’s one-timer hit Hyman in front and went in for his 15th.
“The boys have played great,” Campbell said. “It felt like a playoff game out there. Both teams didn’t give each other much, but Kappy made a great play to seal the deal.”
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.
CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.
It won’t be an easy assignment.
Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.
“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”
Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”
Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.
After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.
“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”
Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.
“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.
A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.
“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”
But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.
“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”
Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”
“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.
Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.
“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”
While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.
“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”
The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.
“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
