It sure didn’t look like the Montreal Canadiens got the kick in the pants that typically comes from changes like what we witnessed on Sunday with the firing of Marc Bergevin. They stepped onto the ice the same disconnected group of players who had started the season with just six wins. The Vancouver Canucks came out with all the momentum despite playing a day earlier, jumping out to four shots early and only being denied a goal by some point-blank saves from Jake Allen.
Allen was no stranger to such an onslaught, facing 50 shots the game before and being the deciding factor in a win over the Pittsburgh Penguins. He was prepared to hold his team in at the start, doing so with little help on the defensive side.
Michael Pezzetta injected a bit of life in his team and the Bell Centre crowd with a big hit in the opening minutes, but it wasn’t enough to turn the tide on its own. The Canucks very nearly found a goal by keeping the puck out of Allen’s reach in a scramble in front of the net, but the referee lost sight of the puck and bailed out the home side with a whistle just before the puck was put in.
With shots 10-1 for Vancouver, another attack earned a power play when Nick Suzuki was called for tripping up Elias Pettersson. Pettersson took the punishment into his own hands by scoring 12 seconds into Suzuki’s sentence, a rare goal for the 23rd-ranked power play versus the league’s 29th-ranked penalty kill.
The Canadiens earned a sarcastic cheer when Tyler Toffoli registered the team’s second shot after the goal, but it did herald a shift in momentum starting from the midpoint of the period. It was followed soon afterward by a blue-line shot off the post from Ben Chiarot as the Canadiens slowly began to even up the shot counter by shifting the play to the offensive zone.
Fittingly, in a period that was a story of two halves, Montreal got its happy ending. With 80 seconds to go, Jonathan Drouin carried the puck into the zone on a turnover, and while the defencemen drifted back toward their net at his pace, Ryan Poehling was racing to the post at the other side. Poehling’s stick blade was the closest thing to the goaltender when Drouin was ready to pass, and he simply needed to hit it with the puck to tie the game.
The Canadiens picked up where they left off in the second with a quick chance at the side of the net for Josh Anderson, taking advantage of some good work from Artturi Lehkonen along the wall to keep possession. A shot from a similar spot on a later shift from Christian Dvorak also had promise after a cross-ice pass, but he took a bit too long on his release, focusing on accuracy rather than speed, and that allowed Thatcher Demko to get across to make the save.
With that, the game abruptly shifted in favour of the Canucks as the cycle of trading momentum continued. The Canadiens had gotten the shots nearly even after their large deficit earlier, but Vancouver started building up their advantage again.
Following a brief chance for Montreal on offence, Vancouver collected the puck and started up ice. Their zone entry was far from dangerous, going three-on-three with Habs defenders in proper positions, but that structure quickly dissolved with miscommunication between the players. Josh Anderson tokk the puck away along the boards, where Jeff Petry had gone over for support, while Sami Niku skated to the opposite corner to serve as a breakout option. Anderson decided to play the puck back in the direction he had come, and right onto an unfriendly stick. Conor Garland had continued on his path to the net while Niku had peeled off, and the defenceman was therefore in no position to cover the Canucks forward, who had plenty of space to put his team back on top.
Yet again, the Canadiens started playing better in the second period while being down a goal. They spent several shifts in the offensive zone, with their best moments coming with Drouin, Lehkonen, and/or Cole Caufield on the ice, but Demko was able to deny their chances to prevent another late tying goal from the home side.
The Canucks netminder probably expected to have to show more heroics when the third period began with a power play for Montreal, but the Habs couldn’t get any sustained pressure and gave him an easy two minutes to deal with.
Vancouver looked much more dangerous on its attempt to play a man up when Pettersson caught Jake Evans flatfooted in the neutral zone, drawing his second call of the night. Both units were getting the puck to the front of the crease where they wanted it, but the shooters just failed to get their sticks on very dangerous pucks in close.
It was Evans’s turn to be spilled to the ice a minute after he exited the box. His teammates didn’t seem to be eager to take advantage of the odd-man situation he’d earned them, however, keeping the puck along the boards for nearly the full duration of the power play. At the very end, Nick Suzuki decided to move the puck to the middle, deked around a defender who came out to meet him, and sent the puck to the net. He and three teammates lunged in looking to knock home the rebound, but after a few seconds of bashing away in front of Demko the whistle blew and the chance was gone.
In the final moments, desperate for an equalizer, Lehkonen was doing his best to win the puck and set something up, but to no avail. The final desperate attempt came with a half-chance off the rush in the dying seconds, but no goal came of it as the Canadiens fell by a 2-1 score.
It was the sixth failure in six tries to follow up one win with another. At the very least it wasn’t a lopsided score as the other five had been, but they all get recorded in the loss column just the same. With the defeat, they broke a tie and fell two points behind the Canucks in the standings, now fourth-worst by points and third if you go by the better metric of points percentage given that they’ve played more games than any other team in the NHL. The top odds for the draft lottery aren’t so far out of reach, and that’s probably the best outcome the team can hope to glean from this season.
TORONTO – Reigning PWHL MVP and scoring champ Natalie Spooner will miss the start of the regular season for the Toronto Sceptres, general manager Gina Kingsbury announced Tuesday on the first day of training camp.
The 33-year-old Spooner had knee surgery on her left anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) after she was checked into the boards by Minnesota’s Grace Zumwinkle in Game 3 of their best-of-five semifinal series on May 13.
She had a goal and an assist in three playoff games but did not finish the series. Toronto was up 2-1 in the semifinal at that time and eventually fell 3-2 in the series.
Spooner led the PWHL with 27 points in 24 games. Her 20 goals, including five game-winners, were nine more than the closest skater.
Kingsbury said there is no timeline, as the team wants the Toronto native at 100 per cent, but added that “she is doing really well” in her recovery.
The Sceptres open the PWHL season on Nov. 30 when they host the Boston Fleet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — A top official of the Pakistan Cricket Board declined Friday to confirm media reports that India has decided against playing any games in host Pakistan during next year’s Champions Trophy.
“My view is if there’s any problems, they (India) should tell us in writing,” PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi told reporters in Lahore. “I’ll share that with the media as well as with the government as soon as I get such a letter.”
Indian media reported Friday that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has communicated its concerns to all the Champions Trophy stakeholders, including the PCB, over the Feb. 19-March 9 tournament and would not play in arch-rival Pakistan.
The Times of India said that “Dubai is a strong candidate to host the fixtures involving the Men in Blue” for the 50-over tournament.
Such a solution would see Pakistan having to travel to a neutral venue to play India in a group match, with another potential meeting later in the tournament if both teams advanced from their group. The final is scheduled for March 9 in Pakistan with the specific venue not yet decided.
“Our stance is clear,” Naqvi said. “They need to give us in writing any objections they may have. Until now, no discussion of the hybrid model has happened, nor are we prepared to accept one.”
Political tensions have stopped bilateral cricket between the two nations since 2008 and they have competed in only multi-nation tournaments, including ICC World Cups.
“Cricket should be free of politics,” Naqvi said. “Any sport should not be entangled with politics. Our preparations for the Champions Trophy will continue unabated, and this will be a successful event.”
The PCB has already spent millions of dollars on the upgrade of stadiums in Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi which are due to host 15 Champions Trophy games. Naqvi hoped all the three stadiums will be ready over the next two months.
“Almost every country wants the Champions Trophy to be played here (in Pakistan),” Naqvi said. “I don’t think anyone should make this a political matter, and I don’t expect they will. I expect the tournament will be held at the home of the official hosts.”
Eight countries – Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, England, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and Afghanistan – are due to compete in the tournament, the schedule of which is yet to be announced by the International Cricket Council.
“Normally the ICC announces the schedule of any major tournament 100 days before the event, and I hope they will announce it very soon,” Naqvi said.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Ottawa‘s Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand are through to the doubles final at the WTA Finals after a 7-6 (7), 6-1 victory over Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the United States and Australia’s Ellen Perez in semifinal action Friday.
Dabrowski and Routliffe won a hard-fought first set against serve when Routliffe’s quick reaction at the net to defend a Perez shot gave the duo set point, causing Perez to throw down her racket in frustration.
The second seeds then cruised through the second set, winning match point on serve when Melichar-Martinez couldn’t handle Routliffe’s shot.
The showdown was a rematch of last year’s semifinal, which Melichar-Martinez and Perez won in a super tiebreak.
Dabrowski and Routliffe will face the winner of a match between Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend, and Hao-Ching Chan and Veronika Kudermetova in the final on Saturday.
Dabrowski is aiming to become the first Canadian to win a WTA Finals title.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
