Sports
Canucks 2, Wild 0: DeSmith stands tall and Vancouver finds a way
The veteran backup stood tall early in the game, as the Wild swarmed the Vancouver end, playing what seemed like keepaway for a baker’s dozen of minutes.
DeSmith did exactly what was needed from him, holding down the fort while his teammates struggled to find their way.
And then they did.
The Wild came into the night red-hot, having won their first four games since a coaching change last week, John Hynes taking over for Dean Evason.
And they played like a team with new belief in themselves through those opening stages of the game.
When the rest of his team found their game, then took a late first period lead, their own confidence revived, nearing the level they had plenty of early in the year but had struggled to find lately.
With a trio of big opponents to come over the final three games of this early-December homestand, it was a good time to find their confidence.
“We said in between periods, this was a spot where we need to be comfortable, sitting on a low-scoring one goal (lead), at home against a good team. They’re obviously a really quality opponent. And they were going to come out hard (in the second), which they did and I thought we weathered the storm,” DeSmith said post-game.
Game of two halves
The first two periods were practical mirror images: Minnesota badly outshot the Canucks in the first, while the Canucks reversed the situation on the Wild in the second.
In the first, the Canucks took 13:18 to get their first shot on goal and the Wild ended up getting 23 shot-attempts at five on five, against just nine for Vancouver.
“I was just freezing my toes off,” Minnesota goalie Filip Gustavsson said. “I just tried to do some skating drills in the crease to get going.”
The Canucks finished the period strong and got Höglander’s goal to put them on the front foot after facing that torrent of early pressure.
The third was a calm, competent effort by the Canucks.
Tocchet wasn’t too happy with how his team started — maybe it was because of the day off on Wednesday he’d given them, he quipped — but he was happy how they righted the ship and overall kept Minnesota to the outside on the night.
“We didn’t really have the puck the first 10 minutes and then they started going through guys and our neutral (zone defence) was better. For some reason we were backing up,” Tocchet said.
“Yeah, they had the puck a lot but I thought we were OK outside of the fact early on we were sleeping a little bit. But I thought the second or third, you know, we played our game.”
And even as they were weathering the Minnesota storm, Miller noted the quality of Minnesota’s chances was rather poor and that in itself gave the Canucks some confidence
“If they’re getting five or six or seven grade-A chances — and it feels like it’s 3-0 but it’s not — that makes a big difference. I think we’re proud of the way we defended it.”
Steady and strong
Casey DeSmith, who hadn’t started in two weeks, said he likes getting shots in early.
DeSmith claimed he didn’t know he’d never lost to the Wild. He was 4-0-0 with the Penguins and had posed a 93.1 save percentage over those four wins.
” I didn’t know that. I don’t think it’s anything in particular,” he said of his success facing the Wild. “Just try and show up every game and sometimes it goes my way. Sometimes it doesn’t.”
DeSmith’s shutout was the first by a Canucks backup since Anders Nilsson had a shutout against, yes, the Wild, Oct. 24, 2017.
Garland’s relentless energy
The pass that Conor Garland made to Teddy Blueger will show up on the highlight reel, but it was an all-around industrious night for the pesky winger.
He only has two goals on the season and certainly, at his salary, you need more goals.
But the goals are going to come. Over the course of his career, he’s averaged a goal about every four games. That’s a 20-goal scorer.
He’s too good a player to not start burying some chances.
“Winning’s more fun,” he said.
Shoot where the big man ain’t
Nils Höglander maybe didn’t mean for things to play out the way they did, but it was a smart play to wait for his new enormous teammate to take away the eyes of Minnesota goalie Filip Gustavsson.
Nikita Zadorov glided on a smart angle across the plane of vision linking the Swedish shooter and the Swedish goalie and Höglander’s shot clearly got lost to Gustavsson’s eyes as he barely flinched as the puck sailed past his glove and into the Minnesota net.
“Ha I guess so,” Höglander smiled about the timing of Zadorov’s drive to the net.
“A great read and a great screen,” Gustavsson said. “Höglander was just waiting there and he saw an opportunity.”
The sequence was a reminder that one mistake can cost you and the Canucks’ attack happened after Minnesota failed to get the puck in deep in the Canucks’ end and then Wild star Kirill Kaprizov got caught flat-footed and couldn’t back-check to prevent Höglander and his mates from racing away on an odd-man rush.
How is that possible?
Not once, but twice J.T. Miller was robbed on a late second period power play by Gustavsson.
The first Miller didn’t get his shot up high enough, instead burying his bang-bang opportunity into the goalie’s leg pad.
The second was on the doorstep and despite the shorter distance looked like it might be the higher degree of difficulty.
What looked like was going to be Miller’s 15th goal of the season instead clattered off the post, rather than into the net.
“That (second) one was easier,” he said. “All I had to do was chip it. The other one, I had to shoot it. It was a hard pass. That (second) one, I just missed it.”
“I was joking to Petey it was a bad pass, though.”
J.T. Miller or Rambo
During one of the breaks, the Canucks’ game entertainment crew ran a “retro rewind” feature with a young fan, asking him to name various things from the 1980s. He started off well, proudly declaring that Gizmo from Gremlins, was, indeed Gremlins.
But his success rate started to waver and by the time he got to the image of Sylvester Stallone as Rambo, he was a little at a loss.
Instead, he declared the image was of Miller.
“That’s funny, that’s awesome!”
What a difference a year makes
The last time Minnesota visited Vancouver, last March 2, the Wild skated away with a 2-1 win.
Vancouver’s lone goal was scored by Brock Boeser, but just his 12th of the season, a reminder of how much of a struggle last season was.
He has 18 goals already this season, and nearly had a 19th, putting a backhand shot off the post on a breakaway in the third period.
“Oh I know,” he said with a smile post-game. “I think it just rolled a little off my stick. But I still got good wood on it. I was happy with the shot.”
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.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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.
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