OSTRAVA, CZECH REPUBLIC —
Alexis Lafreniere scored seven seconds after the United States tied the game late in the third period as Canada beat its North American rival 6-4 on Thursday in the opener for both countries at the 2020 world junior hockey championship.
Barrett Hayton, with two, Connor McMichael, Nolan Foote and Ty Dellandrea, into an empty net, also scored for the Canadians, who got 28 saves from Nico Daws.
Lafreniere, the projected No. 1 pick at the 2020 NHL draft, added three assists.
“He’s an amazing player,” McMichael said about Lafreniere. “The way he carried the team today and did the things he did was incredible. We’re obviously happy to have him.”
After Shane Pinto buried his second of the night for the U.S. with 3:18 left in regulation on the Americans’ third power-play goal of the night, the 18-year-old Lafreniere scored on a slick move to put his team back in front.
Lafreniere knocked a down a backhand saucer pass through the slot by American defenceman K’Andre Miller, then got in alone on Spencer Knight before deking forehand and sliding the puck just past the right pad of the sprawled-out netminder.
“I got lucky to knock it down. I just tried to get it to the net. I was lucky enough to put it in,” said Lafreniere.
The U.S. pressed late with the extra attacker, but Dellandrea sealed it into an empty net with 70 seconds left on the clock.
Nick Robertson, with a goal and an assist, and Arthur Kaliyev also scored for the Americans, who got 26 saves from Knight.
The Americans saw their streak of 12 straight victories to open the under-20 event snapped.
The countries usually face off later in the tournament when placed in the same group — often on New Year’s Eve — but instead met on Boxing Day.
In Group B’s early game, hosts Czech Republic upset Russia 4-3 inside a raucous Ostravar Arena.
Next up for Canada is Saturday’s tilt with the Russians, while the U.S. goes right back at it Friday versus Germany.
Down 2-0 after the first period where they didn’t generate much of anything offensively, the Canadians came out flying in the second with three goals in just over 10 minutes.
McMichael, the Ontario Hockey League’s scoring leader before joining the national team, got things started at 3:31 when he took a feed from Akil Thomas off the rush and beat Knight.
Hayton, who was loaned to Canada for the tournament by the Arizona Coyotes and was named captain on Wednesday, tied it on a power play at 6:34 when he took a pass from Lafreniere at the top of the face-off circle and wired a one-timer shortside just seven seconds after Pinto went off for holding.
Foote, whose father Adam won two Stanley Cups with the Colorado Avalanche and also captured gold at the 2002 Winter Olympics, then gave Canada its first lead at 13:03 on another man advantage when he beat Knight upstairs.
“We just tried to keep it simple and get pucks to the net,” said Lafreniere. “I think that worked out pretty good. Our power play was good. We’ve got to keep working, keep getting better.”
Pinto appeared to score the Americans’ third power-play goal in three chances late in the period, but time expired before the puck entered the net in front of 8,693 fans.
Daws, who was making his international debut for Canada at any level, made a couple big stops in the third period to keep his team ahead before Hayton beat Knight on another power play off a feed from Lafreniere at 10:47.
But Robertson, a Toronto Maple Leafs prospect, got the Americans back within a goal at 4-3 on a wicked shot with 7:45 left in regulation before Pinto tied it with the Americans’ third power-play goal of the game.
“That was really fun,” said McMichael. “You can tell we had a lot of nerves in the first period, but we got back to our game in the second and third.”
Canada, which according to the website eliteprospects.com is icing its youngest-ever roster at the world juniors with an average age of 18.6 years, found itself down 2-0 after 20 minutes.
Pinto, a 2018 first-round pick of the Ottawa Senators, opened the scoring on a deflection at 3:10 with Hayton in the box.
The goal came as Canadian fans at Ostravar Arena were in the process of passing a giant flag across the lower bowl.
Canada couldn’t connect on a man advantage of its own, but started to get going midway through the period with an energetic shift capped by hulking six-foot-six defenceman Kevin Bahl using a 10-inch height advantage to lower the boom on Bobby Brink.
The Canadians didn’t really threaten Knight’s goal, and the Americans doubled their lead with 1:28 left in the first on another power play when Trevor Zegras drew the puck through his legs after Bahl fell at the blue line before finding Kaliyev.
The U.S. came in having won four straight and six of its last 11 against Canada at the world juniors after picking up just two victories — albeit in the 2004 and 2010 gold-medal games — in the countries’ 10 previous meetings dating back to the 2000 tournament.
While none of the players on the ice Thursday had ever suited up against one another on this stage, there’s plenty of familiarity at lower age groups, including at the under-18 worlds and the annual Hlinka Gretzky Cup summer showcase.
One of the players with zero familiarity is the undrafted Daws, who came out of nowhere with a banner start to the OHL season to grab the starting job despite having never played for Canada before this month.
The Canadians, who have won the world juniors 17 times since the event’s official inception in 1977, finished a disappointing sixth at last year’s tournament in Vancouver and Victoria, B.C., following a stunning overtime loss to Finland in the quarterfinals.
On the other side, the Americans headed to the Czech Republic having won a program-record four straight medals, including last year’s second-place finish after losing to the Finns in the final.
Canada won the tournament in both 2015 and 2018 in North America, but hasn’t topped the podium in Europe since the last time the Czech Republic hosted in 2008.
This report was first published by The Canadian Press on Dec. 26, 2019
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.
