REGINA — Zach Collaros was absolutely livid after the Winnipeg Blue Bombers overtime loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the annual Labour Day Classic Sunday.
Sports
Collaros, Bombers furious over head butt and their own performance against Riders in Labour Day Classic loss
“It happens all the time.”
The Bombers fell behind 10-0 early, fought their way back to take the lead late, allowed the Riders to score four points in the final few minutes to tie the game, and then lost in overtime.
The Riders got a touchdown plunge from backup quarterback Antonio Pipkin in overtime and a two-point convert from Shawn Bane to go up 32-24.
The Bombers had a chance to match, but after Collaros hit Kenny Lawler with a 35-yard touchdown strike, the Bombers failed to get the two-point convert and lost in overtime for the second time this season.
“We have to execute on the goal-line,” said Collaros, who completed just 13 of 26 pass attempts, for 279 yards and two touchdowns, and threw a first-quarter interception.
“Turn the ball over early, give them three points, lose by (two).”
While the Robertson hit was clearly the thing that had Collaros closest to the boiling point, he also lamented going 4-for-9 for 102 yards in first half, with all but two yards coming on one drive.
“Not good enough,” he said. “We didn’t execute. What did we complete? Three passes in the first half? It was terrible.
Collaros had to sit out three plays after taking the hit from Robertson earlier in the fourth quarter, but the Bombers scored a touchdown anyway, as running back Brady Oliveira crossed the goal-line for the second time in the game, giving Winnipeg its first lead, 24-20 with 4:05 left.
With his history of concussions, Collaros couldn’t believe the officials failed to even throw a flag, originally, at Robertson, instead needing the command centre to get the call right.
Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea was equally incredulous.
“Ridiculous,” said O’Shea, whose team will host the Riders next Saturday in the Banjo Bowl at IG Field.
“I’m not sure why there’s not a flag on the field and it has to go to the command centre. I do not understand that. I hear it too many times that they didn’t see it. I’m not sure what the standard is any more and I’m on the rules committee. I have no clue.
Collaros lost for the first time in seven Labour Day appearances (with Hamilton, Saskatchewan and Winnipeg) and the Bombers fell to 9-3 on the season, failing to clinch a playoff spot in the West Division. The Riders improved to 6-5 behind a strong performance from one-time third-string quarterback Jake Dolegala, and are starting to look very much like a playoff team.
The Riders, jubilant in their locker room after the game, didn’t exactly defend Robertson’s actions, but said they don’t expect him to be suspended.
Many people on the Winnipeg side of things would disagree.
“Suspended?” Robertson said. “Whatever, I ain’t thinking about that.”
“I didn’t see it, so I can’t comment, but I’m disappointed that we got the penalty after we stopped them on second down. That was an emotional game, I thought we lost our composure a couple times, I lost mine a little bit as well. The one that Pete got, from what I was told upstairs, he earned that one.”
The Bombers very nearly pulled out the win despite playing from behind for most of the game.
Collaros managed to put together only one good drive in the first half, going 100 yards in three plays, hitting Dalton Schoen, Nic Demski and Drew Wolitarsky with long passes to get into the end zone.
It was 13-7 for the Riders at the half and they upped their lead to 16-7 before the Bombers started to come back.
With Winnipeg up by four and under four minutes to play, kick returner Jamal Parker let Adam Korsak’s 65-yard punt go into the end zone and gave up a single that proved important, given that the Riders then needed only a field goal to tie the game, and they got it.
“I would absolutely do that every time, get the field position,” O’Shea said. “You start on the 40. If you run that out, you’re putting your offence backed up, you punt and they’re in instant field position. I think I’d do that again and again.”
O’Shea also had Parker concede a single point earlier in the fourth quarter, even though the Riders were called for no yards. O’Shea declined the penalty in order to get the ball on the 40, but could have accepted the penalty and been on the 30.
Receiver Nic Demski had a big day for the Bombers, with five catches for 118 yards, but like the rest of his teammates, he was in no mood look at positives after such a heart-wrenching loss.
“They made more plays than us and that’s what it comes down to,” Demski said. “We made too many mistakes early on and it’s hard to play catch-up in a high-end environment like this, against a good team, good defence, good offence. They came to play in all three phases and we were playing catch-up all game. They were executing and I feel like we weren’t.
Oliveira, the CFL’s rushing leader, ran 17 times for 88 yards and had the two scores, continuing his outstanding season.
“It’s frustrating man. I hate losing. I frickin hate losing.”
Dolegala was excellent, completing 22 passes for 326 yards and no touchdowns, nor interceptions. The Riders, who suffered injuries to starting quarterback Trevor Harris and backup Mason Fine this season, seem to have found a good one in Dolegala, who has led them to back-to-back wins over the 8-4 B.C. Lions and the 9-3 Bombers.
“I think it was one hell of a game for the fans, not for the Blue Bombers,” O’Shea said. “We’re not happy with that and nobody will be. But the Riders played well and certainly they made one more play than we did.”
The two teams will meet again next Saturday and there could be plenty of bad blood. There were numerous misconduct penalties for unnecessary roughness on both sides and no one is going to forget the Robertson head butt any time soon.
It remains to be seen if he’ll even be allowed to play on Saturday, but the Bombers are already preaching to not lose focus in the rematch.
“We’re not going to put a frickin hit marker on him,” Oliveira said. “In that moment, the refs need to make a way better call. It was blatant, right in front of my face.
“You play clean between the whistles, we take pride in playing physical between the whistles for an entire 60 minutes. After the whistle, it’s dirty, head-butting our quarterback, blatantly, in the face.
“I’m frustrated right now but we can’t let that affect our focus and preparation.”
Continue Reading
CALGARY – Ryan Lomberg and Brayden Pachal each had a goal and assist on Saturday night to lead the Calgary Flames to a 4-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks in NHL pre-season action.
Blake Coleman and Adam Klapka also scored for Calgary, which is 4-0-1 through five games.
Jonathan Lekkerimaki and Aatu Ratyu were the marksmen for Vancouver, which is 2-2 in exhibition play.
Dan Vladar, who stopped 17 of 19 shots in 40 minutes of action, got the win. Devin Cooley made nine stops in relief.
Artus Silovs, beaten four times on 24 shots, gave way to Nikita Tolopilo to start the third. Tolopilo had eight saves.
Calgary opened the scoring at 4:23 when Pachal’s rising wrist shot from the blue line through a maze of bodies eluded Silovs, who never saw it.
The Flames surged in front 2-0 three minutes later when Lomberg corralled a MacKenzie Weegar rebound in the slot and fired a shot just inside the goalpost.
Lomberg, 29, who broke into the NHL as a Flame in 2017-18, re-signed in the off-season in Calgary as a free agent after four years with the Florida Panthers, which was capped off by winning the Stanley Cup.
Vancouver got on the scoreboard at 8:35 of the second on a fortuitous bounce.
Lekkerimaki’s shot from the slot deflected off Flames defenceman Artem Grushnikov, went high into the air, and with seemingly nobody aware of where the puck went, it toppled over Vladar and landed in the Calgary net.
Since being drafted by Vancouver in the first round, in 2022, Lekkerimaki has spent the past two seasons in his native Sweden.
This will be the 20-year-old’s first season in North America and with three points (1 goal, 2 assists) in three games in the pre-season, he’s making a push for a job with the Canucks.
One of the players he is competing against is Raty, who after Calgary had taken a 3-1 lead, again got the Canucks back within one on a perfect shot after being set up on a 2-on-1 by Conor Garland.
Raty, a second-round pick in 2021, was acquired from the New York Islanders in the Bo Horvat trade. He’s spent most of the past two seasons in the AHL.
The Flames restored their two-goal cushion later in the second with Klapka firing a shot past Silovs for his third goal in as many pre-season games.
Klapka, who stands 6-foot-8, is looking to make the team’s fourth line. The 24-year-old has shown some offensive pop with three goals in as many pre-season games.
His physicality was also on display Saturday, throwing an open-ice hit in the first period on Nils Aman that sent the Canucks forward flying. In the third, a heavy hit on Akito Hirose send the defenceman careening into the sideboards. Hirose had to be helped off the ice.
UNEXPECTED OFFENCE
Known more for his physicality, Pachal has never had a multi-point game in his 62 career NHL regular-season games. The 24-year-old was in his fifth season with the Vegas Golden Knights organization when he was claimed off waivers by Calgary last February.
HUBERDEAU-MANTHA COMBO
Left-winger Jonathan Huberdeau played in his second pre-season game for Calgary and has been the case throughout camp, the right-winger was veteran Anthony Mantha, who the Flames signed to a one-year deal as a free agent. On this night, Yegor Sharangovich was at centre. In the first game, the two were centred by Martin Pospisil.
UP NEXT
Canucks: Visit the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.
Flames: Host the Seattle Kraken on Monday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 28, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
EDMONTON – When the key to a win is work ethic, it is not surprising to see Mattias Ekholm rise to the occasion.
Ekholm had a goal and two assists as the Edmonton Oilers snapped a three-game skid with a 5-4 victory over the Seattle Kraken on Saturday.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Noah Philp, Vasily Podkolzin and Raphael Lavoie also scored for the Oilers, who improved to 2-3 in NHL pre-season play.
“They are a hard-working team, no matter who they have in the lineup, so we expected that,” said Oilers forward Derek Ryan, who picked up a couple of assists.
“There were points in the game where we were kind of matching that intensity and work ethic and things were going well for us. We let the work ethic dip a little bit and then the game gets away from us. It is a good message to the guys who were playing and the whole group that it starts with work.”
Jacob Melanson, Eduard Sale, John Hayden and Ben Meyers responded for the Kraken, who fell to 1-3 in exhibition action.
“I thought we were getting up the ice well, playing fast, playing north,” said Meyers. “I think we probably just gave up a little bit too much to win that game, but I thought offensively we played pretty well and we had our chance.”
The Oilers started the scoring just over three minutes into the opening period as both defenders tried to cover Connor McDavid on a two-on-one, but he made a nice backhand pass back to Nugent-Hopkins, who beat Kraken goalie Philipp Grubauer upstairs blocker side.
Seattle tied the game nine minutes into the first after Oilers goalie Calvin Pickard made a couple of saves in tight before Melanson was able to poke it in from the crease.
Pickard left the game soon afterwards after teammate Noah Philp got angled into his own netminder, hitting him in the head. Pickard did not return to the game.
Olivier Rodrigue replaced Pickard in the Edmonton net and surrendered a power-play goal with six minutes to play in the first as Ryan Winterton lifted a deft pass over a defender across to Sale for the goal.
Edmonton knotted the game with 2:43 remaining in the first frame as Ekholm spotted Philp driving the net and completed a long saucer pass through a couple Kraken players to allow him to wrist it home.
Seattle made it 3-2 5:32 into the second period after Rodrigue attempted to direct a puck away from the net, only to have it hit Hayden and carom into his net.
With two minutes left in the middle period, the Kraken added to their lead as Meyers elected to shoot on a two-on-one opportunity, beating the Oilers’ goalie upstairs.
Edmonton got that goal back just 26 seconds later as Derek Ryan threaded the needle to a trailing Ekholm and he beat Grubauer to make it 4-3.
The Oilers tied the game six minutes into the third on a short-handed tally as Ryan made a great play to draw the defenders his way before sending it over to Podkolzin for the easy tap-in.
Edmonton avoided overtime with 2:53 remaining in the final frame as Lavoie battled hard to retrieve the puck before swinging out front and sending a shot through Grubauer’s legs.
Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch has been impressed with Lavoie’s skills as a sniper.
“He’s got good hands and an even better shot,” he said. “He showed great skill on that goal.”
NOTES
The Oilers still had 41 players in camp — with four goalies, 13 defencemen and 24 forwards. … Seattle was down to 37 players at camp — 33 skaters and four goalies — after cutting eight players before Friday’s contest against Vancouver. … Edmonton had both of the players in camp who are on PTOs in the lineup on Saturday, forward Mike Hoffman and defenceman Travis Dermott. … Grubauer made his first appearance since last Sunday’s 6-1 loss to Calgary, during which he allowed four goals on 19 shots.
UP NEXT
Kraken: Visit the Calgary Flames on Monday.
Oilers: Host the Vancouver Canucks on Monday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 28, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
CHICAGO (AP) — Jonathan Dean scored his first Major League Soccer goal in the 84th minute for the Chicago Fire on Saturday night in a 1-1 draw with Toronto FC.
Ariel Lassiter cut back to evade a defender and the played an arcing ball from the left corner of the area to the back post, where a charging Dean tapped in a one-touch finish from point-blank range to cap the scoring.
Prince Owusu converted from the penalty spot in first-half stoppage time to give Toronto (11-17-4) a 1-0 lead at halftime.
Chicago (7-16-9) has just one win and four losses in its last six games.
Chris Brady a save for the Fire.
Sean Johnson stopped two shots for Toronto.
—
AP MLS:
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
Sports20 hours ago
Flames remain hot in pre-season, beat Canucks 4-2
News21 hours ago
Hajrullahu kicks record-tying eight FGs to lead Argos past Alouettes 37-31
Sports21 hours ago
Oilers end pre-season skid with 5-4 win over Kraken
Sports5 years ago
AP source: Bears acquiring quarterback Nick Foles from Jaguars – Sportsnet.ca
Investment5 years ago
dynaCERT Inc. Invites You to Join Us at the Vancouver Resource Investment Conference | INN – Investing News Network
Media1 year ago
12 Bizarre Things People Did Just To Make Social Media Content
-
News22 hours agoCanada announces $10 million for humanitarian assistance in Lebanon
-
News22 hours ago
North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson treated for burns after accidentally touching exhaust pipe
-
News21 hours ago
Hurricane Isaac and Tropical Storm Joyce move through the open Atlantic far from land
-
Economy22 hours ago
Tentative deal reached in Metro Vancouver grain strike, federal minister says
-
News22 hours ago
At least 64 dead and millions without power after Helene’s deadly march across the Southeast
-
Politics22 hours ago
B.C.’s NDP, Conservatives nominate full slates of candidates for Oct. 19 election
-
News21 hours ago
Hajrullahu kicks record-tying eight FGs to lead Argos past Alouettes 37-31
-
News22 hours ago
Walz attends Michigan-Minnesota college football game before final prep for Tuesday’s debate
