Warren Foegele brought his best game, Leon Draisaitl brought his “A” game, and the Edmonton Oilers generally did the same, all of it adding up to be too much for the Ottawa Senators.
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Player grades: Foegele and Draisaitl power forward Edmonton Oilers past Ottawa Senators
Edmonton won the contest 6-3. Grade A shots were 16 for Edmonton, 13 for the Senators, with the subset of even more dangerous 5-alarm shots gong nine for Edmonton, eight for the Senators (running count).
Connor McDavid, 6. Super quiet first period, no shots, but he did drive a Grade A on net early in the second. He made a fine low-high pass to set up Drasaitl’s second goal. He set up Ceci for a dangerous slot shot in the third. He made a fine PK clearance in the third. Two point night due to the empty net goal.
Evander Kane, 5. He’s yet to find his form after two injuries. His bad line change led to an early Brady Tkachuk break-in opportunity. He almost slammed home a McDavid slot feed in the second. He poked the puck loose and got a break-in chance half way through the third. He made a decent board play to get the puck to McDavid on the empty-net goal.
Leon Draisaitl, 8. He had a huge game at even strength, a good sign for the Oilers. He bashed in a slot shot for Edmonton’s second goal. He started off the Virtuous Cycle on Edmonton’s third goal by blocking a zone clearance. He got off a rare Executioner’s Shot at even strength to pound in his second goal of the game and 100th point of the season. He picked off an errant pass in the o-zone slot in the third and almost scored on a backhander. He pounded Jacob Chychrun into the boards with a hard shoulder-to-shoulder hit in the third. He led the team with six shots and won 16 out of 23 face-offs. He led the Oilers with seven major contributions to Grade A shots.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, 7. He made a mid-ice steal and quick pass on Draisaitl’s first goal. He was slow to recognize the danger on Ottawa’s short-handed goal, which led to their 2-on-1 rush. He slammed a harpoon into the back of great white opposition net for Edmonton’s third goal. A moment later a loose puck popped to him and he fired another 5-alarmer off the post.
Nick Bjugstad, 6. He made a brilliant move to his backhand to stick the deadly dagger into Ottawa in the last second of the second period, giving Edmonton a 5-2 lead.
Klim Kostin, 5. He threw a huge and wicked hit late in the second. Quiet game otherwise. He played just 7:24.
Derek Ryan, 6. Fantastic shot to score on the break-in for the game’s first goal; he put it top shelf where Momma keeps the cookies, as the famous Edmonton skills coach Jim Fleming always likes to say His line had a few more buzzing shifts, but he got beat out of the corner by Drake Batherson on Ottawa’s third goal.
Devin Shore, 6. He made a clever and calm n-zone pass in the build to Ryan’s early goal.
Ryan McLeod, 6. Slick pass to Ryan on Edmonton’s first goal. He left the game for the third period, not sure why.
Cody Ceci, 7. He was hard-matched against Brady Tkachuk and his line, but held his own. He had a 5-alarm slot shot off a McDavid feed in the third.
Mattias Ekholm, 7. He made a slick pass to send in Bjugstad on his late second period goal. Was otherwise his solid self.
Evan Bouchard, 6. High event night. He failed to cut off the pass on Ottawa’s 2-on-1 shorthanded goal. He let Stutzle get away from him in the slot for a 5-alarm short in the second. He picked off a pass to start and almost finish an attacking play with a nasty one-timer shot on net in the second. He fired a power play shot off the post. He won a board battle, kicking off the sequence on Draisaitl’s second goal. He kept things a little too interesting with an atrocious turnover on a pass through the defensive slot late in the third, picked off by Claude Giroux.
Brett Kulak, 6. Quiet game, which is fine for a d-man. Nothing too bad or good. He kept a clean sheet at even strength, not one major mistake on a Grade A shot against.
Stuart Skinner, 7. He could do nothing on Ottawa’s first goal but made a fine stop a moment later on a dangerous Giroux tip. He had little chance on Stutzle’s shorthanded goal. He made a lunging stop on Stutzle in the second with Edmonton holding yet another of its one-goal lead. Failed to close down Stutzle’s fast slot shot on Ottawa’s third goal. Two huge saves off that rancid Bouchard turnover late in the third.
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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.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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.
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