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Maple Leafs bring familiar power-play woes to unfamiliar Round 2 territory

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TORONTO — For a game unlike any the Maple Leafs have played in decades, a game their city has been anxiously craving for 19 years, Toronto’s first steps onto this long-awaited second-round ground felt oddly familiar.

The Leafs on the wrong end of a winnable game, a playoff series started on the wrong foot, and, by no coincidence, the blue-and-white’s star-studded power play coming up with goose eggs when it needed gold.

Tuesday night at Scotiabank Arena, where the home side dropped Game 1 of their Round 2 bout with the Florida Panthers, it was those familiar missed opportunities that, once again, stung the most.

“Offensively, for us, we didn’t get a whole lot happening at 5-on-5, I didn’t think,” head coach Sheldon Keefe said after the final buzzer had sounded on a 4-2 loss to the Cats. “Our power play, especially the first and third power play that we had, I thought we had a ton of really good looks, moved the puck very well.

“But we need to get one over the line. The power play could’ve made a real difference in the game here tonight.”

Trace Tuesday’s loss back to the opening puck-drop, and even further, to the scouting report on both of these clubs, and the goose eggs weigh even heavier.

Coming into Game 1 of this new test, there was no question of the biggest imbalance that could potentially tilt the ice, and the series, in Toronto’s direction. Florida entered the post-season as the most penalized club still playing. Through the first round, they found themselves shorthanded more than any other playoff club. What’s worse, they were exceptionally porous during those frequent trips to the box, checking into these playoffs having allowed the most power-play goals-against of any team in the mix, and holding onto that reputation through the first-round.

For a Maple Leafs power play that finished as the second-most lethal in the league over 82 regular-season games — and then added a Conn Smythe winner to its top unit — this should’ve been an opportunity to feast. And five minutes into Game 1, Florida served up a silver platter: two early trips to the box courtesy of a Sam Bennett elbow and a Gustav Forsling trip — two chances for Toronto’s best to get their touches, feel the rhythm of the game, and put Florida behind early.

Instead, double-zeroes.

“Obviously it would’ve been great to a score a goal on one of those,” Keefe said of the early chances. “Especially the first power play — we were moving it really well, and couldn’t get it to go in for us.”

It certainly felt, in those early minutes, like something was building for the Leafs. A power-play deflection from Auston Matthews nearly went, then another from Ryan O’Reilly. On the next man-advantage session, another big shot from Matthews, blocked by Radko Gudas, and then a puck bouncing just an inch away from an open Matthew Knies.

They had the crowd roaring in approval, the momentum seeming to be swinging their way, even without them fluttering the twine.

But by the time the period was up, it had all been for naught, Toronto held scoreless and Florida drawing first blood just minutes after time ran out on the Leafs’ second 5-on-4 chance.

What do Maple Leafs need to improve before Game 2 vs. Panthers?

“I thought the second half of the first period we definitely had a lull,” Keefe said of how the game turned on the heels of Florida’s penalty kills. “Which was partly a lull by us and partly [that] Florida went up a notch.

“They did to us what they did to Boston.”

They’d get two more tries before the game was through, both arriving just when a Maple Leafs goal could’ve changed everything.

The next one came moments after Knies got Toronto on the board in the second period with a spectacular move for his first big-league goal — a power-play follow-up would’ve allowed Toronto to even the score at 2-2, in one blistering three-minute stretch. They didn’t.

The last came in the final 40 seconds of the game. The home side trailed 4-2, this one seemingly done and dusted. But an errant stick from Bennett that got the blood rolling down O’Reilly’s face granted Toronto one last, wild chance to reclaim Game 1. Thirty-seven seconds, double-minor, two goals down. A quick one in the cage, and you can bet the Panthers bench would’ve been looking up at the clock with a touch of worry.

Instead, the Cats closed it out, and Toronto finished 0-for-4 on the man-advantage, losing by a pair of goals.

‘Got to do a better job of making it harder’: Marner says Leafs need to up intensity

“I mean, we’re trying to score on it,” Mitch Marner said of the power-play stumbles post-game. “We’re trying to make plays. We did pretty well getting things around the net — we’ve just got to do a better job of getting second opportunities.”

His coach saw it the same way.

“One of the big differences in our scoring chances that we had here tonight, whether you look at power-play chances or the 5-on-5 chances, 6-on-5 chances, I thought we had a lot more tonight in closer to the net than we had in the previous series,” Keefe said. “You know, we’ve got to make good on those. There’s a lot of stuff in tight — we’ve just got to get it up and over.

“We’ve got to finish those.”

It’s still early. Neither of these teams need any reminding of how long a series can stretch, how much can change after Game 1. If there’s a silver lining for the Maple Leafs, it’s that Florida gave them the opportunities everyone expected them to — right from the jump, in fact.

And according to head coach Paul Maurice, we shouldn’t expect that to change any time soon.

“We have just accepted the fact that we will be in the box more than the opponent. Only because it’s been true the last eight games,” the Panthers coach said of his club post-game. “So, we just tell Sergei to get lots of sleep.”

Maurice made clear his opinion that the Panthers are getting tagged with calls they might not deserve as a result of their reputation with the officials. But the only path forward is to simply work through it, he said.

Panthers’ Maurice on officiating: ‘We will be in the penalty box more than the opponent’

“It’s something we talk about in the room — we’ve been doing it all year,” Maurice explained. “It was exactly like when I went into Winnipeg — it was a team that previously had barked a lot, about everything. We were that team last year. So, we’ve got to take it on the chin a little bit, to earn the reputation that we’re right men. We can accept that.”

Whether the veteran coach is correct or not, the result is the same for the Maple Leafs. They’re going to get their chances. The question is whether or not they can make good on enough of them by the time this series wraps.

The only problem is the roots of Toronto’s power-play woes stretch back further than the first period of Game 1. After dominating for much of the regular season, the blue-and-white’s man-advantage stumbled down the season’s home stretch. In Round 1, it was anything but consistent, capitalizing in key moments early in the series, but going cold late.

Even as Toronto broke its first-round curse and ousted the Tampa Bay Lightning, they had to do it in spite of missing these same opportunities rather than by taking advantage of them, the club going 0-for-4 on the power play in Games 5 and 6 against the Bolts.

Tuesday’s result extends that to three straight post-season games — and eight straight power-play opportunities — without a tally. Trace it back even further, to the beginning of the Matthews-Marner era, and the club has seen its power-play numbers drop from the regular season to the post-season in five of the past six years.

The same trend is holding true now. Against this team in particular, though, there’s little doubt the Maple Leafs will get every opportunity to rewrite that story, too.

Their next chance comes Thursday.

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Washington Capitals 3-2 win ends Dallas Stars’ winning streak

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17 hours ago

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October 18, 2024

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Tom Wilson, Dylan Strome and Taylor Raddysh scored to help the Washington Capitals end the Dallas Stars’ season-opening winning streak at four with a 3-2 victory Thursday night.

Wilson’s goal was his third in three games, Strome his second of the season and Raddysh his first since joining the team in free agency last summer. Charlie Lindgren made 22 saves as the Capitals wrapped up this early homestand with back-to-back wins.

The Stars fell from the ranks of the league’s unbeaten teams despite a short-handed goal by Colin Blackwell and one at even strength from Jason Robertson. Rookie Oskar Bäck set up Blackwell for his first NHL point.

Casey DeSmith was screened on two of the three goals he allowed on 26 shots.

LIGHTNING 4, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 3

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Nikita Kucherov scored the winning goal with less than a minute to play just 1:27 after Brandon Hagel had tied it and Tampa Bay rallied to beat Vegas.

Kucherov’s second goal of the game with 55 seconds left was his sixth of the season.

Janis Moser had a goal and two assists for the Lightning, who remain unbeaten. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves.

Brayden McNabb, Pavel Dorofeyev and Ivan Barbashev had goals for Vegas. Adin Hill turned aside 21 shots.

Jack Eichel, with two assists on Thursday, now has 10 points this season in five games and reached reached double-digit points faster than any other player in Vegas history. He is the 10th U.S.-born player to accomplish the feat.

After Barbashev put Vegas up 3-2 early in the second, Hagel pulled Tampa Bay even at 3 with 2:22 remaining in the third.

BLUE JACKETS 6, SABRES 4

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Kirill Marchenko and Mathieu Olivier each had a goal and an assist and Daniil Tarasov made 21 saves to help Columbus to a win over Buffalo.

Yegor Chinakhov, Adam Fantilli, Zachary Aston-Reese and Damon Severson also scored for Columbus, and Zach Werenski added two assists.

Ryan McLeod, Owen Power and JJ Peterka scored for Buffalo, and Jiri Kulich added his first NHL goal. Devon Lev stopped 19 shots for the Sabres (1-5-1), who have lost two straight road games and five of their first six overall.

CANUCKS 3, FLORIDA 2, OT

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — J.T. Miller scored 2:09 into overtime and Vancouver got their first win of the season, beating Florida.

Teddy Blueger and Quinn Hughes had goals for Vancouver, with Kevin Lankinen stopping 26 shots.

Anton Lundell got his fourth goal in the last three games for Florida and Jesper Boqvist also scored for the Panthers, who got 30 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky.

Florida remained without forwards Aleksander Barkov (lower body) and Matthew Tkachuk (illness).

DEVILS 3, SENATORS 1

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Jacob Markstrom stopped 30 shots and lost his shutout bid in the final minutes as New Jersey beat Ottawa.

Erik Haula, Nathan Bastian and Paul Cotter scored for the Devils, who won for the third time in four games and improved to 5-2-0.

The Senators, who were coming off an 8-7 overtime victory against Los Angeles on Monday, struggled to beat Markstrom.

Brady Tkachuk was the only scorer for the Senators, beating Markstrom, with a power-play goal with 65 seconds remaining in the third period.

Anton Forsberg, making his second straight start and hoping to rebound after getting pulled Monday, made 32 saves in the loss.

Haula opened the scoring early in the second period and Bastian added a short-handed goal, giving New Jersey a 2-0 lead after 40 minutes. Cotter scored midway through the third.

RANGERS 5, RED WING 2

DETROIT (AP) — Artemi Panarin had his eighth career hat trick and New York rolled to a victory over Detroit.

Panarin became the first Rangers player to have multiple points in the first four games of a season. He scored twice on the power play. Vincent Trocheck also had a power- play goal and assisted on all of Panarin’s goals.

Jonathan Quick made 29 saves in his season debut. Victor Mancini also scored.

The Rangers have won the last five meetings, including twice this week. New York had a 4-1 home victory over Detroit on Monday night.

Moritz Seider and J.T. Compher scored for Detroit. Red Wings goalie Cam Talbot was pulled in the second period after allowing five goals.

KINGS 4, CANADIENS 1

MONTREAL (AP) — David Rittich made 26 saves a night after being benched in the second period in Toronto, helping road-weary Los Angeles snap a three-game losing streak with a victory over Montreal.

Los Angeles improved to 2-1-2 on a season-opening, seven-game trip necessitated by arena renovations.

Rittich rebounded after allowing four goals on 14 shots in a 6-2 loss to the Maple Leafs. Alex Laferriere, Mikey Anderson, Andreas Englund and Adrian Kempe scored.

Justin Barron scored for Montreal (2-3-0). Sam Montembeault stopped 28 shots. He made a save on Kevin Fiala on a penalty shot.

BLUES 1, ISLANDERS 0, OT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Joel Hofer made 34 saves and assisted on Jake Neighbours’ goal at 2:04 of overtime in St. Louis victory over New York.

Hofer had his second career shutout in his and the team’s second overtime victory of the season.

Philip Broberg carried the puck into the New York zone and made a centering pass to Neighbours for the winner.

Islanders goalie Ilya Sorkin made 29 saves.

Blues defenseman Nick Leddy sat out because of a lower-body injury, the first game he has missed this season. Leddy played in all 82 games last season.

OILERS 4, PREDATORS 2

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Brett Kulak scored twice and Connor McDavid added his first goal of the season to lead Edmonton to a victory over reeling Nashville.

Jeff Skinner also scored and Calvin Pickard made 25 saves for the defending Western Conference champion Oilers, who have won consecutive games after beginning the season with a three-game skid.

Filip Forsberg and Jonathan Marchessault scored and Juuse Saros made 32 saves for Nashville (0-4).

Forsberg’s goal midway through the first period gave Nashville its first lead of the season. That lasted less than six minutes before Kulak tied it.

Kulak sealed it with an empty-netter in the final minute for the defenseman’s first career two-goal game.

BLACKHAWKS 4, SHARKS 2

CHICAGO (AP) — Tyler Bertuzzi and Nick Foligno each scored a power-play goal, and Chicago beat San Jose.

Taylor Hall and Jason Dickinson also scored for Chicago. Connor Bedard and Teuvo Teravainen each had two assists.

Hall, who missed most of last season because of right knee surgery, put the Blackhawks in front 4:20 into the first period. It was Hall’s first goal since Nov. 5 and No. 267 for his career.

Tyler Toffoli and Fabian Zetterlund scored for San Jose, which trailed 3-0 early in the second. William Eklund and Mikael Granlund had two assists each.

The Sharks dropped to 0-2-2 under Ryan Warsofsky, who was promoted to head coach in June.

Petr Mrazek had 20 saves for Chicago, and Vitek Vanecek made 23 stops for San Jose.

KRAKEN 6, FLYERS 4

SEATTLE (AP) — Eeli Tolvanen, Jordan Eberle, and Shane Wright scored three goals in less than three minutes in the second period and Seattle held off a Philadelphia rally in a victory.

Tolvanen’s goal broke a 2-2 tie at the 14:57 mark. Eberle made it a two-goal game with a goal at 17:44. Eight seconds later, Wright scored to give Seattle a three-goal lead.

Jared McCann tied the game at 2-2 with the first of Seattle’s four second-period goals.

Cam York and Jamie Drysdale scored to pull Philadelphia within 5-4 in the third period, but Oliver Bjorkstrand responded with a goal to push Seattle’s lead to two with just over five minutes left in the game.

Scott Laughton scored twice for the Flyers in the first period, while Brandon Montour scored one in for the Kraken.

Chandler Stephenson had an assist in his 500th NHL game. Seattle’s Philipp Grubauer had 21 saves.

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Canada’s Dabrowski, New Zealand’s Routliffe out of Japan Women’s Open after walkover

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October 17, 2024

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OSAKA, Japan – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe are out of the Japan Women’s Open tennis tournament.

Spain’s Cristina Bucsa and Romania’s Monica Niculescu advanced to the final on Thursday by way of walkover.

The fourth seeds were supposed to play the top-seeded Dabrowski and Routliffe in the semifinals.

Bucsa and Niculescu will next face third-seeded Ena Shibahara of Japan and Laura Siegemund of Germany in the final.

Dabrowski and Routliffe defeated Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Eri Hozumi in the quarterfinals 6-2, 6-4 on Wednesday to advance.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

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Mountain West commissioner says she’s heartbroken over turmoil surrounding San Jose State volleyball

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October 17, 2024

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LAS VEGAS (AP) — Mountain West Conference Commissioner Gloria Nevarez said Thursday the forfeitures that volleyball teams are willing to take to avoid playing San Jose State is “not what we celebrate in college athletics” and that she is heartbroken over what has transpired this season surrounding the Spartans and their opponents.

Four teams have canceled games against San Jose State: Boise State, Southern Utah, Utah State and Wyoming, with none of the schools explicitly saying why they were forfeiting.

A group of Nevada players issued a statement saying they will not take the floor when the Wolf Pack are scheduled to host the Spartans on Oct. 26. They cited their “right to safety and fair competition,” though their school reaffirmed Thursday that the match is still planned and that state law bars forfeiture “for reasons related to gender identity or expression.”

All those schools, except Southern Utah, are in the Mountain West. New Mexico, also in the MWC, went ahead with its home match on Thursday night, which was won by the Spartans, 3-1, the team’s first victory since Sept. 24.

“It breaks my heart because they’re human beings, young people, student-athletes on both sides of this issue that are getting a lot of national negative attention,” Nevarez said in an interview with The Associated Press at Mountain West basketball media days. “It just doesn’t feel right to me.”

Republican governors of Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming have made public statements in support of the cancellations, citing a need for fairness in women’s sports. Former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee in this year’s presidential race, this week referenced an unidentified volleyball match when he was asked during a Fox News town hall about transgender athletes in women’s sports.

“I saw the slam, it was a slam. I never saw a ball hit so hard, hit the girl in the head,” Trump replied before he was asked what can be done. “You just ban it. The president bans it. You just don’t let it happen.”

After Trump’s comment, San Diego State issued a statement that said “it has been incorrectly reported that an San Diego State University student-athlete was hit in the face with a volleyball during match play with San Jose State University. The ball bounced off the shoulder of the student-athlete, and the athlete was uninjured and did not miss a play.”

San Jose State has not made any direct comments about the politicians’ “fairness” references, and Nevarez did not go into details.

“I’m learning a lot about the issue,” Nevarez said. “I don’t know a lot of the language yet or the science or the understanding nationally of how this issue plays out. The external influences are so far on either side. We have an election year. It’s political, so, yeah, it feels like a no-win based on all the external pressure.”

The cancellations could mean some teams will not qualify for the conference tournament Nov. 27-30 in Las Vegas, where the top six schools are slated to compete for the league championship.

“The student-athlete (in question) meets the eligibility standard, so if a team does not play them, it’s a forfeit, meaning they take a loss,” Nevarez said.

Ahead of the Oct. 26 match in Reno. Nevada released a statement acknowledging that “a majority of the Wolf Pack women’s volleyball team” had decided to forfeit against San Jose State. The school said only the university can take that step but any player who decides not to play would face no punishment.

___

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