William Nylander could sense the anticipation building right from warmup.
Jack Campbell described the “electric” atmosphere of the Maple Leafs’ first regular-season home crowd in 19 months.
The duo made sure the majority of those in attendance went home happy Wednesday.
Nylander scored the winner early in the third period and Campbell made 31 saves, including some massive stops early with his teammates stuck in the starting blocks, as Toronto defeated the Montreal Canadiens 2-1 in the season-opener for both clubs.
“Just incredible,” Campbell said. “The fans were just super loud and super into the game.
William Nylander cashed early in the third to give the Maple Leafs a 2-1 lead they never looked back on. 1:10
Pierre Engvall had the other goal for home side in front of 18,493 masked and fully vaccinated spectators at Scotiabank Arena — the venue’s first crowd for a game that mattered since March 10, 2020, because of COVID-19.
“It was very special,” Nylander added. “Such a long time [since] we played with fans.”
Jonathan Drouin, who’s back with the Canadiens after leaving the team back in the spring to deal with anxiety and insomnia, replied for Montreal.
“It was nice to get one,” he said. “But I wish we got the two points instead.”
Jake Allen stopped 28 shots for the Canadiens, whose surprising run to last season’s Stanley Cup final included a stunning comeback from a 3-1 series deficit against the Leafs in the first round.
Wanted it.<br>Got it.<br>Scored it. <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/LeafsForever?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#LeafsForever</a> <a href=”https://t.co/Lq9rzIdYBl”>pic.twitter.com/Lq9rzIdYBl</a>
It looked like they might heap another dose of heartache — granted with the stakes much lower — immediately after puck drop Wednesday.
“The first 10 minutes we were not good,” Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “Took us a while to really get comfortable in the game. From then on I thought the effort was really strong. The guys worked, competed.
“It was a tight game right to the end … happy that we find our way to get on the right side.”
Teams cope with key absences
Toronto was minus No. 1 centre Auston Matthews, who led the NHL with 41 goals in just 52 games during the NHL’s pandemic-shorted 2021-22 campaign, because of a wrist injury that hasn’t fully healed from surgery, while star winger Mitch Marner dressed after leaving Tuesday’s practice following a collision.
On the other side, Montreal started life in earnest without captain and bruising defenceman Shea Weber due to potentially career-threatening ankle and foot injuries that will keep him sidelined this season, while starting goaltender Carey Price entered the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program last week and will be away from the team until at least early November.
Nylander snapped a 1-1 tie 66 seconds into the third when he took a pass from Morgan Rielly off the rush before faking a slapshot and firing upstairs on Allen’s shortside.
“It’s just what happened,” Nylander said with a grin. “I didn’t really plan on doing anything. Just the way it unfolded.”
The winger had a solid playoffs for Toronto despite his team’s failure to advance — something Keefe said bodes well moving forward.
“Clutch goal for us,” he said. “When you get a chance like that with one of your best players you’re obviously expecting him to be able to capitalize.
“He did just that.”
Montreal had a terrific opportunity to get back even with a 5-on-3 power play for 1:44, but the Leafs survived thanks to a shot block by Justin Holl with Brendan Gallagher staring at a wide-open net.
The Canadiens got another man-advantage chance with under nine minutes to go in regulation when Nylander went off for tripping. They came up empty handed once again before Toronto held on late.
“The penalty kill was a huge factor,” Holl said. “Any time you can win or tie the special teams battle, we feel pretty confident our ability 5-on-5.”
Home fans ‘a real factor’
Fans of both teams milled about Toronto’s downtown core in the hours before the game, including near the atrium off Maple Leaf Square that was used as a COVID-19 testing site for arena staff, team employees and media last season.
The 48th Highlanders, who have performed at every Toronto curtain-raiser since Maple Leaf Gardens opened in 1931, kept the tradition alive virtually last season, and were back with their pipes and drums on the ice prior to warmups.
With a group of front-line workers in attendance, Hamilton-based Arkells rocked out in a pre-recorded performance outside the Leafs’ locker room before anthem singer Martina Ortiz Luis encouraged fans to take over the singing of O Canada with Scotiabank Arena mostly full for the first time in 582 days.
“Right from the time I walked out onto the bench or the introductions it was just different,” Keefe said. “It’s been a long time since we’ve seen the place full like that. I thought the crowd was engaged right from the start.
“They were a real factor in the game.”
While that crowd, which was short of a sellout, was ready to go, Toronto certainly wasn’t as Montreal had five excellent scoring chances in the game’s first three minutes on the razor-sharp Campbell.
The Canadiens eventually jumped in front at 7:22 of the first when Drouin scored off a 2-on-1 rush after the Leafs turned the puck over at the offensive blue line.
“My head’s clearer,” Drouin said when asked how he feels now compared to when he stepped away back in April. “I’m more in the game, I’m more focused, I’m more ready.
“Going to the rink was a completely different experience for me than the past couple years.”
The Leafs would finally get in gear, and Engvall scored the first power-play goal of his career at 10:12 when he fired past Allen.
Montreal’s goaltender was then bailed out by the iron twice, including late in the period on a deflected Rasmus Sandin effort that rang off the crossbar and had the crowd buzzing.
“You really take for granted playing in front of fans when you have a year like last year,” Holl said. “It was really terrific.
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.
