EDMONTON — Dillon Dube and his linemates may be third on the Calgary Flames depth chart, but they are grabbing headlines in the NHL playoffs.
Dube scored twice Tuesday while linemates Milan Lucic and Sam Bennett pasted players into the boards and won puck battles in a 3-2 win over the Dallas Stars in the opener of their of their best-of-seven, first-round NHL playoff series.
It was a continuation of their play from the best-of-five qualifying round, when they scored four goals and nine points and set a physical tone in a 3-1 triumph over the Winnipeg Jets.
“At the start of the game we knew it had to be like (the) Winnipeg (series): get on them and push the pace right away,” said Dube following the afternoon contest in an empty Rogers Place.
“We were fortunate enough to get those two right away to get ourselves a lead in the start and kind of just kept rolling with that for the rest of the game. It felt good.
“Our line’s gotta keep playing that simple game that leads to that success.”
Rasmus Andersson broke a 2-2 tie for eighth-seeded Calgary. Denis Gurianov and Jamie Benn replied for Dallas, which went 1-2 in the seeding round to earn the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference.
The first goal came on the power play, with Dallas winger Alexander Radulov off for interference. Lucic threaded a cross-ice pass to Dube, who one-timed a shot past the outstretched glove of Dallas netminder Anton Khudobin.
As the Flames celebrated, Radulov swore a blue streak at the refs as he skated back to the Stars bench.
Dube’s second goal was highlight-reel stuff, undressing third-pairing Dallas defenceman Andrej Sekera.
Blasting down the right wing, Dube went wide around Sekera, swooped in front of the net, held the puck and tucked it past a sprawled Khudobin.
“I came through with some speed. At that point I just wanted to challenge him. If worse came to worse, we would just kind of battle it into the corner,” said the 22-year-old Dube, a second-round pick (56th overall) in 2016.
“Luckily enough, I got a step on him and was able to get to the net.”
A native of Golden, B.C., Dube had a busy period. He later went off for cross-checking Dallas forward Jason Dickinson head first into the boards. (“That’s a dangerous play. I’m going to call it every time,” a referee could be heard barking at Dube afterward in the empty arena).
Dube jumped out of the penalty box and took the puck on a breakaway, but was foiled on the shot by Khudobin.
Dallas pushed back in the second period, peppering Calgary goalie Cam Talbot with shots to even the score.
Gurianov fired a wrist shot from the blue line that appeared to bounce off the back of Calgary defenceman T.J. Brodie and in. Nine seconds later, Benn wristed a knucklepuck from the blue line that bounced in front of Talbot, under his stickside arm and in.
Calgary regained the lead late in the period, with Sekera again playing a leading role. Andersson whipped the puck from the right faceoff circle and it deflected off Sekera’s stick and over Khudobin’s shoulder.
Sekera said he was playing the odds: “I just tried to take the middle away and let him shoot from a bad angle. I tried to put a stick there and block it but it went off my stick. Those things happen in sport.”
The game also featured a title bout of team super pests Corey Perry and Calgary’s Matthew Tkachuk. The two dropped the gloves off the draw in the first period and exchanged haymakers before Tkachuk knocked Perry down.
The two are famous for antics, pre and post-whistle, that get under opponents’ skins. In the second period, Lucic mixed it up with Perry for shooting the puck after the whistle.
Dallas defenceman Miro Heiskanen said the Stars weren’t ready when the puck dropped.
“We weren’t good in the first period. We’ve got to be right away when the game starts and that’s the reason why we lost today,” said Heiskanen.
Perry added: “They were ready and I thought our last two periods is the better way we want to play.”
Khudobin started instead of the Stars’ No. 1 goalie, Ben Bishop. A three-time Vezina Trophy nominee, Bishop was out for two of three games in the round-robin seeding round but dressed for the Calgary contest. Khudobin looked sharp in the Stars’ final round-robin game, a 2-1 shootout victory over St. Louis.
Each team had 26 shots.
The game was a microcosm of the Stars’ season: strong defence, not enough offence.
The top four defenders — Jamie Oleksiak, Heiskanen, John Klingberg and Esa Lindell — allowed few rebounds or close-in shots.
But the offence fell short. The team’s leading scorer Tyler Seguin (17 goals, 50 points in the regular season) returned to the lineup after being deemed unfit to play for two of the round-robin games, but did not have a shot on net and was minus-1.
Dallas averaged 2.58 goals per game (26th in the NHL) in the regular season and scored just five times (once on the shootout) in three round-robin games.
But they allowed 2.52 goals per game on average. Only the Boston Bruins were stingier (2.39).
This is the first time these two teams have met in the playoffs since the Stars moved to Dallas. Calgary played the Minnesota North Stars in the final four in the spring of 1981, losing 4-2.
Game 2 goes Thursday night.
All Western Conference post-season games are being played at Rogers Place. Players are also staying isolated to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published August 11, 2020.
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.
