VANCOUVER – We were going to tell you about the bad luck in the first period, and then the bad plays in the second.
We were going to explain that even with what has been a magical mystery tour this season for the Vancouver Canucks, who have two regulation losses since Dec. 5 and are on a 9-0-2 run, there are nights when it’s not going to go your way.
But then, after being down three goals in the third period, it still went the Canucks’ way. So we’re telling you now about another Vancouver win, its 33rd in 49 games heading into the National Hockey League All-Star Break.
And to do that, we’re going to start with Brock Boeser, who scored a hat trick Saturday and then set up Elias Pettersson’s overtime winner in a 5-4 victory against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Because Boeser embodies everything that used to be wrong with the Canucks that now seems inexorably right.
Nearly six years after serious back and wrist injuries halted his rookie season at 29 goals, the 26-year-old from Minnesota finally became the 30-goal scorer in the NHL he promised to be when his rebound tap-in at 6:28 of the third period tied the game 4-4, barely five minutes after the Canucks had trailed 4-1.
In the intervening years, Boeser visited hell and back, dealing with other injuries, the anguish of his father’s illnesses and death, his own guilt and anger, even what he admitted last spring became a resentment of the game that led to an unfulfilled trade request.
“I’m building towards what I can be out there,” Boeser told us in November. “I think I’m just starting to figure it out.”
Saturday he became a 30-goal scorer, although Boeser’s all-around game has raised his ceiling far beyond that simplistic threshold. Next week, after a few days off in Florida, he’ll be one of five Canuck players joining coach Rick Tocchet at the All-Star Game in Toronto.
“I don’t know if it’s hit me yet,” Boeser told reporters late Saturday. “I think more so just that we won that game; I think that’s really exciting for me right now — the fact that we came back from 4-1. We still had the mindset after the second period that, you know, if we get one on the power play, we can go from there and come back.”
Pettersson scored at 1:11 of the final period when Columbus goalie Elvis Merzlinkins stumbled and the Blue Jackets began to collapse. Boeser tipped in Quinn Hughes’ point shot at 3:24, before scoring about the easiest goal he has had this season at 6:28.
After getting nothing out of a first period when shots were 11-4 and scoring chances 13-3 for the Canucks, Vancouver surrendered four goals in the second, including a couple on giveaways by Pettersson and J.T. Miller. And yet, with the Canucks starting the third period on a power play, Boeser said everyone believed they could still win the game.
It helps that they had won 32 of them already, 30 of them in regulation time, and were 16-2-4 the previous eight weeks.
“I think we all felt that in the locker room,” Boeser said. “I think just having that mindset of going out there and really trying to get a goal on the power play, which we did, really kind of got the guys into it and gave us a little momentum there. Next thing you know, we draw another couple of penalties and make it count. I think it’s just big for our team that we have that belief.”
First-year Canuck defenceman Ian Cole, the two-time Stanley Cup winner who has been to the playoffs nine straight seasons with six different teams, said the feeling he has now in Vancouver is a familiar one.
“Being able to win games different ways,” he explained. “You find yourself, you know, in different situations in every game, right? Ideally, everything’s perfect all the time, but it’s never going to be, so you need to have a little bit — certainly resiliency — but you need to be able to kind of roll with the punches and kind of figure out the game as it transpires.
“Being able to. . . move forward and win the hockey game shows the level of resiliency that you need. And our level of confidence and maturity, being able to say (when it was 4-1), ‘It doesn’t really matter how we got here, we need to win the game, and this is what we have to do to win it,’ I think that mentality is very beneficial to play for a while into the spring and summer.”
On the winning goal, Boeser came off the bench and on to the puck, walked around leaden Blue Jacket Kent Johnson, then banked a goalmouth pass off Pettersson’s skate with 58.7 seconds remaining at three-on-three.
The second most important five-minute chunk for the Canucks began with 8:05 remaining in regulation time when referees Corey Syvret and Michael Markovic seemed to bend review-protocol guidelines to make the correct call on Vancouver defenceman Tyler Myers: a major penalty and game misconduct for elbowing, albeit inadvertently, Sean Kuraly in the face.
It led to Canuck penalty killing’s finest moment. A shorthanded unit that for much of last season was on pace to be the worst in NHL history, allowed just two shots while killing the five-minute disadvantage to get to overtime.
“Better sticks,” penalty-killer Pius Suter explained of the shorthanded unit’s massive uptick the last two months. “Today in that five minutes, I think we kind of denied them the entries. They never really got set up much. It’s just kind of good sticks and being connected. When one guy goes, all other guys are ready to jump. It’s not just one guy working on his own. Just kind of keep your head down and keep playing. Make sure you don’t get overhyped, don’t overstay shifts or do anything crazy. Just kind of keep it simple, and I think that’s what we did.”
“I guess it shows character that we can come back and we just keep going,” Pettersson said. “We got the goal and we got some momentum, got another power play and we scored again. Everybody was just into it. The fans gave us good energy. It shows what we can do when everybody’s feeding off each other.”
TORONTO – Singles star Leylah Fernandez and doubles specialist Gabriela Dabrowski will anchor Canada’s five-player lineup when the team tries to defend its Billie Jean King Cup title in mid-November.
The 26th-ranked Fernandez, the 2021 U.S. Open finalist from Laval, Que., is the lone Canadian in the top 100 of the WTA Tour’s singles rankings.
Dabrowski, from Ottawa, is ranked fourth on the doubles list. The 2023 U.S. Open women’s doubles champion won mixed doubles bronze with Felix Auger-Aliassime at the recent Paris Olympics.
Marina Stakusic of Mississauga, Ont., returns after a breakout performance last year, capped by her singles win in Canada’s 2-0 victory over Italy in the final. Vancouver’s Rebecca Marino is also back and Bianca Andreescu, the 2019 U.S. Open champion from Mississauga, Ont., returns to the squad for the first time since 2022.
“Winning the Billie Jean King Cup in 2023 was a dream come true for us, and not only that, but I feel like we made a statement to the world about the strength of this nation when it comes to tennis,” Canada captain Heidi El Tabakh said Monday in a release. “Once again, we have a very strong team this year with Bianca joining Leylah, Gaby, Rebecca and Marina, making it an extremely powerful team that is more than capable of going all the way.
“At the end of the day, our goal is to make Canada proud, and we’ll do our best to bring the same level of effort and excitement that we had in last year’s finals.”
Fernandez, who beat Jasmine Paolini to clinch Canada’s first-ever title at the competition, is ranked No. 42 in doubles.
Canada, which received an automatic berth as defending champion, will play the winner of the first-round tie between Great Britain and Germany on Nov. 17 at Malaga’s Martin Carpena Arena.
Australia, Italy and wild-card entry Czechia also received first-round byes. The tournament, which continues through Nov. 20, also includes host Spain, Slovakia, the United States, Poland, Japan and Romania.
Stakusic is up 27 spots to No. 128 in the latest world singles rankings. Marino is at No. 134 and Andreescu, the 2019 U.S. Open champion, is ranked 167th.
Canada will look to become the first team since Czechia in 2016 to successfully defend its Billie Jean King Cup title.
Malaga will also host the Nov. 19-24 Davis Cup Final 8. The Canadian men qualified over the weekend with a 2-1 victory over Great Britain in Manchester.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
PITTSBURGH – Sidney Crosby plans to remain a Pittsburgh Penguin for at least three more years.
The Penguins announced on Monday that they re-signed the 37-year-old from Cole Harbour, N.S., to a two-year contract extension that has an average annual value of US$8.7 million. The deal runs through the 2026-27 season.
Crosby was eligible to sign an extension on July 1 with him entering the final season of a 12-year, $104.4-million deal that carries an $8.7-million salary cap hit.
At the NHL/NHLPA player media tour in Las Vegas last Monday, he said things were positive and he was optimistic about a deal getting done.
The three-time Stanley Cup champion is coming off a 42-goal, 94-point campaign that saw him finish tied for 12th in the league scoring race.
Crosby has spent all 19 of his NHL seasons in Pittsburgh, amassing 592 goals and 1,004 assists in 1,272 career games.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MONTREAL – Tadej Pogacar was so dominant on Sunday, Canada’s Michael Woods called it a race for second.
Pogacar, a three-time Tour de France champion from Slovenia, pedalled to a resounding victory at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montreal.
The UAE Team Emirates leader crossed the finish line 24 seconds ahead of Spain’s Pello Bilbao of Bahrain — Victorious to win the demanding 209.1-kilometre race on a sunny, 28 C day in Montreal. France’s Julian Alaphilippe of Soudal Quick-Step was third.
“He’s the greatest rider of all time, he’s a formidable opponent,” said Woods, who finished 45 seconds behind the leader in eighth. “If you’re not at your very, very best, then you can forget racing with him, and today was kind of representative of that.
“He’s at such a different level that if you follow him, it can be lights out.”
Pogacar slowed down before the last turn to celebrate with the crowd, high-five fans on Avenue du Parc and cruise past the finish line with his arms in the air after more than five hours on the bike.
The 25-year-old joined Belgium’s Greg Van Avermaet as the only multi-time winners in Montreal after claiming the race in 2022. He also redeemed a seventh-place finish at the Quebec City Grand Prix on Friday.
“I was disappointed, because I had such good legs that I didn’t do better than seventh,” Pogacar said. “To bounce back after seventh to victory here, it’s just an incredible feeling.”
It’s Pogacar’s latest win in a dominant year that includes victories at the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia.
Ottawa’s Woods (Israel Premier-Tech) tied a career-best in front of the home crowd in Montreal, but hoped for more after claiming a stage at the Spanish Vuelta two weeks ago.
“I wanted a better result,” the 37-year-old rider said. “My goal was a podium, but at the same time I’m happy with the performance. In bike racing, you can’t always get the result you want and I felt like I raced really well, I animated the race, I felt like I was up there.”
Pogacar completed the 17 climbs up and down Mount Royal near downtown in five hours 28 minutes 15 seconds.
He made his move with 23.3 kilometres to go, leaving the peloton in his dust as he pedalled into the lead — one he never relinquished.
Bilbao, Alaphilippe, Alex Aranburu (Movistar Team) and Bart Lemmen (Visma–Lease) chased in a group behind him, with Bilbao ultimately separating himself from the pack. But he never came close to catching Pogacar, who built a 35-second lead with one lap left to go.
“It was still a really hard race today, but the team was on point,” Pogacar said. “We did really how we planned, and the race situation was good for us. We make it hard in the last final laps, and they set me up for a (takeover) two laps to go, and it was all perfect.”
Ottawa’s Derek Gee, who placed ninth in this year’s Tour de France, finished 48th in Montreal, and called it a “hard day” in the heat.
“I think everyone knows when you see Tadej on the start line that it’s just going to be full gas,” Gee said.
Israel Premier-Tech teammate Hugo Houle of Sainte-Perpétue, Que., was 51st.
Houle said he heard Pogacar inform his teammates on the radio that he was ready to attack with two laps left in the race.
“I said then, well, clearly it’s over for me,” Houle said. “You see, cycling isn’t that complicated.”
Australia’s Michael Matthews won the Quebec City GP for a record third time on Friday, but did not finish in Montreal. The two races are the only North American events on the UCI World Tour.
Michael Leonard of Oakville, Ont., and Gil Gelders and Dries De Bondt of Belgium broke away from the peloton during the second lap. Leonard led the majority of the race before losing pace with 45 kilometres to go.
Only 89 of 169 riders from 24 teams — including the Canadian national team — completed the gruelling race that features 4,573 metres in total altitude.
Next up, the riders will head to the world championships in Zurich, Switzerland from Sept. 21 to 29.
Pogacar will try to join Eddy Merckx (1974) and Stephen Roche (1987) as the only men to win three major titles in a season — known as the Triple Crown.
“Today gave me a lot of confidence, motivation,” Pogacar said. “I think we are ready for world championships.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2024.
