The Canucks picked up a nice win against the Sabres on Saturday afternoon.
BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Canucks have played plenty of warm-weather hockey this week with bad results. It turned out that what they really needed was for the hockey to be played in the afternoon and in Buffalo.
The temperature on the shores of Lake Erie hit 17 C, not far off the fine weather seen during the week in Florida.
Whatever the weather, the Canucks put together a much improved performance against the Sabres, winning 6-3 at the KeyBank Center.
The Sabres did score early but the Canucks, as they did in both Florida and Tampa, played a strong first period and tied the game up later in the period.
But unlike in their previous two games, they kept things rolling in the second and into the third, outscoring their hosts 4-2 in the process.
Captain Bo Horvat was delighted with his team’s performance.
“We wanted to come out hard and I thought we did that tonight and I think we played a full 60 minutes, we haven’t done that in a little bit and we stepped it up even harder in the third,” he said.
The Canucks got two goals from Brock Boeser, plus singles by Bo Horvat, J.T. Miller and Jake Virtanen, plus an empty-netter by Loui Eriksson. The Sabres got goals from Brandon Montour, Sam Reinhart and Zemgus Girgensons.
Here’s what we learned …
Slick mitts
Boeser has scored two goals in two straight games now on deft tips in front.
His first-period tally saw him deflect a Troy Stecher shot off the side boards essentially behind his back.
“I think the went off the D’s skate after, so you know sometimes you get lucky,” he said. “The main thing is getting good position on their defence because if they box you out, you’re not going to be able to get that tip so you know it’s something I’ve been working on.”
His second goal of the game was a patented wrist shot, fired after an unconventional give-and-go with Chris Tanev.
He’s up to 16 goals on the season and has recorded points in six-straight road games: he has four goals and four assists in that span.
“He’s not looking to shoot often, so you have to expect to get the puck back,” Boeser said, with a grin, of the sequence with Tanev.
Tanev admitted he initially thought about a shot on the play.
“I was. I sort of had to reach for it a bit so I mean I didn’t think I could get much on it and (Boeser) sort of slid into that open area and I think both their guys thought I was going to shoot it,” the veteran defenceman said.
What a high note for the winger to be riding in on to his home state on Sunday.
Tyler Motte also showed some crafty work with the puck when he set up Virtanen for the game’s fifth goal, a cross-crease backhanded pass right on the tape for Virtanen, who made no mistake with the finish.
Vancouver Canucks right wing Brock Boeser (6) makes a pass during the first period against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center.
Timothy T. Ludwig /
USA TODAY Sports
Captain’s call
Bo Horvat is playing some of the best hockey of the season.
Since Christmas he has three goals and six assists, while playing tough minutes.
The third goal was the go-ahead marker early in the second period, as he took a rebound off his initial pass attempt to Quinn Hughes off the wing and willed it home past Carter Hutton.
“It’s nice to finally get the bounces coming our way,” he said of the goal. “I was talking before the game would be nice to shoot a puck in the net for once. And thankfully we got a couple here tonight.”
Buffalo Sabres left wing Conor Sheary (43) watches as Vancouver Canucks goaltender Jacob Markstrom (25) dives to make a save during the second period at KeyBank Center. Mandatory Credit: Timothy T. Ludwig-USA TODAY Sports
Timothy T. Ludwig /
USA TODAY Sports
Stout defence
After four straight games giving up more than 30 shots — and five out of six games since Christmas — the Canucks limited the Sabres to a tidy 28 shots against.
“That was our best game since that win in Calgary, I think,” coach Travis Green said.
Keep away
In a shift reminiscent of one midway through Tuesday’s game in Tampa where the Canucks never found a way to take possession of the puck, which would let them get off the ice. In Tampa it meant a quintet of Canucks were on the ice for two-minute-long shift before taking a penalty.
On Saturday, a pair of Canucks had a shift half again as long, with a worse ending.
Alex Edler and Tim Schaller ended up on the ice for more than three minutes because they were stuck on the ice killing a penalty. There was only one whistle. early in the penalty-killing scenario.
The Sabres never relinquished the puck even after the power play expired; it wasn’t until Brandon Montour scored at 8:44 that play came to an end.
Holy post
Was there a hole in the post to the right of Sabres goalie Hutton? The officials took a long time to review a goal that turned out not to be.
All that was shown in the building was an overhead view that made it seem as if a Boeser wrist shot had picked the corner of the net.
It wasn’t until the Sabres broadcast showed a side view that it was clear that the shot had gone well over the net.
It was all a bit baffling as to why the review lasted so long.
“They showed us the overhead view and, you know, it kind of looks like it went in there but then there’s that one view where you could see I missed by a couple feet,” Boeser said about it, again with a grin.
Skid marks
Coming into Saturday’s game, Hutton hadn’t won in 10 straight starts.
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.
