EDMONTON – After seeing five shots in six months, Thatcher Demko faced five in the opening eight minutes on Tuesday and 43 in his first National Hockey League start since March 10. Fortunately for the Vancouver Canucks, he hasn’t forgotten how to play goal.
Just like Brock Boeser hasn’t forgotten how to score, and the Canucks, who fended off elimination by beating the Vegas Golden Knights 2-1, haven’t forgotten how to believe in themselves when not many others did.
With starting goalie and team MVP Jacob Markstrom unable to play due to an undisclosed injury, Demko came in covered in cobwebs and left covered in glory with a titanic performance that extended the Canucks’ unlikely playoff run to at least Game 6 against the Knights on Thursday.
Vegas still leads the second-round series 3-2. But the Canucks are still in the fight and have put at least a little more pressure on the heavily-favoured Golden Knights, who outshot Vancouver 42-17.
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“You never know when you have to go in,” Demko said, having had only eight minutes of playoff relief before Tuesday’s unexpected start. “I just wanted to stay sharp through the whole process from training camp (in July) and getting into the bubble. I just wanted to be ready to help out.
“I know I’ve been doing my thing in practice to make sure my details are where they needed to be. Obviously, it’s a little bit different in a game. But everything you see in the game you’ve seen at some point in practice, and you just have to rely on that kind of thing.”
Sleep and healthy eating help, too, apparently.
“He’s a guy that goes to bed early and eats the right way,” defenceman Quinn Hughes said of Demko, eliciting a quick smirk from teammate Elias Pettersson during the post-game video call. “We knew that when he gets his chance, he’s going to be pretty dialled in. I don’t think anyone was surprised at how well he did, to be honest. We know how good he is. I think we all have a lot of confidence and faith in him.”
Demko made 22 saves in the first half of the game — Vancouver tested Vegas goalie Robin Lehner six times — and kept it scoreless until 15:12 of the second period when Knights defenceman Shea Theodore weaved through a series of Canucks’ shadows before burying a top-corner shot.
The goal felt like it might release a dam-burst of Vegas offence. Instead, on the next shift, Boeser worked a give-and-go with J.T. Miller before redirecting a backhand past Lehner to make it 1-1. All those shots and scoring chances and dominant shifts for the Knights to finally take a lead, and it lasted for just 24 seconds.
Somehow tied going into the third period, the Canucks exhorted themselves to play one good period and at 3:19 of the third, Pettersson deflected Boeser’s shot amid a jungle of players after Vancouver coach Travis Green had reunited his 6-40-9 Lotto Line, restoring the Boeser-Pettersson-Miller trio that was one of the NHL’s best for most of the season.
It was just the second goal in 12 playoff games for Boeser, who had had only one assist in the series.
“I don’t think we’d played together this series yet,” Boeser said. “And when we got reunited, I felt we were clicking pretty well. We knew where each other were. It was fun.
“I know I haven’t been scoring, and I know I need to score goals. I’ve been trying to bring my work ethic each and every game and contribute something to the team. It was nice to get one. I think it will definitely help the confidence. Hopefully I can keep playing this way.”
Boeser was the best Canuck not wearing goalie pads. Through two periods, he had 40 per cent of Vancouver’s 10 shots on goal.
The Golden Knights’ Jonathan Marchessault had eight shots of his own. Max Pacioretty had five shots. Both may have slept less fitfully than Demko after the game.
“I think it was lights out at maybe 10:05 or 10:10 p.m.,” Demko said when asked about his sleep Monday night after learning he’d be replacing Markstrom with the Canucks’ season in the balance. “These guys go to bed a little bit later than I do, but I like to be rested. I like to know I did everything I could to be ready to go.
“I slept great last night, thankfully. When you’re going into these games you try not to think too much and just go out and play. I’ve put in the work leading up to this point; you’ve just kind of got to rely on that.”
No one on the Canucks is saying how long Markstrom may be out, but the goalie who started Vancouver’s first 14 playoff games was unable to back up on Tuesday. So he is hurt, not merely tired.
“It’s funny, we didn’t even talk about that or mention that,” Hughes said of the players’ reaction to the goaltending switch. “(Thatcher) was awesome tonight, our best player. We’re fortunate to have two goalies like that.”
If the Canucks somehow win again on Thursday, the seven-game series will be decided the next night. By then, it will be the teams’ fifth playoff game in seven days. They may need two goalies each. Or three.
“We’ve got a really good team; we know that,” Hughes said. “The coaching staff believes in us and, most importantly, we believe in ourselves. We’ve got good leadership in the sense that we knew we didn’t play well in the first two periods and we went in the locker room and knew we needed to come back and push a little bit. I think that’s what we did.
“I think there’s a lot of faith in the group. We know they’re a really good team, but we think we’re a good team too.”
Better than almost anyone expected before these playoffs began.
EDMONTON – The Edmonton Oilers signed defenceman Travis Dermott to a professional tryout on Friday.
Dermott, a 27-year-old from Newmarket, Ont., produced two goals, five assists and 26 penalty minutes in 50 games with the Arizona Coyotes last season.
The six-foot, 202-pound blueliner has also played for the Vancouver Canucks and Toronto Maple Leafs.
Toronto drafted him in the second round, 34th overall, of the 2015 NHL draft.
Over seven NHL seasons, Dermott has 16 goals and 46 assists in 329 games while averaging 16:03 in ice time.
Before the NHL, Dermott played two seasons with Oilers captain Connor McDavid for the Ontario Hockey League’s Erie Otters. The team was coached by current Edmonton head coach Kris Knoblauch.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) — Maria Sharapova, a five-time Grand Slam singles champion, led the International Tennis Hall of Fame’s fan vote her first year on the ballot — an important part to possible selection to the hall’s next class.
The organization released the voting results on Friday. American doubles team Bob and Mike Bryan finished second with Canada’s Daniel Nestor third.
The Hall of Fame said tens of thousands of fans from 120 countries cast ballots. Fan voting is one of two steps in the hall’s selection process. The second is an official group of journalists, historians, and Hall of Famers from the sport who vote on the ballot for the hall’s class of 2025.
“I am incredibly grateful to the fans all around the world who supported me during the International Tennis Hall of Fame’s fan votes,” Sharapova said in a statement. “It is a tremendous honor to be considered for the Hall of Fame, and having the fans’ support makes it all the more special.”
Sharapova became the first Russian woman to reach No. 1 in the world. She won Wimbledon in 2004, the U.S. Open in 2006 and the Australian Open in 2008. She also won the French Open twice, in 2012 and 2014.
Sharapova was also part of Russia’s championship Fed Cup team in 2008 and won a silver medal at the London Olympics in 2012.
To make the hall, candidates must receive 75% or higher on combined results of the official voting group and additional percentage from the fan vote. Sharapova will have an additional three percentage points from winning the fan vote.
The Bryans, who won 16 Grand Slam doubles titles, will have two additional percentage points and Nestor, who won eight Grand Slam doubles titles, will get one extra percentage point.
The hall’s next class will be announced late next month.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The driver charged with killing NHL hockey player Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew as they bicycled on a rural road had a blood-alcohol level of .087, above the .08 legal limit in New Jersey, a prosecutor said Friday.
Gaudreau, 31, and brother Matthew, 29, were killed in Carneys Point, New Jersey, on Aug. 29, the evening before they were set to serve as groomsmen at their sister Katie’s wedding.
The driver, 43-year-old Sean M. Higgins of nearby Woodstown, New Jersey, is charged with two counts of death by auto, along with reckless driving, possession of an open container and consuming alcohol in a motor vehicle. At a virtual court hearing Friday, a judge ordered that he be held for trial after prosecutors described a history of alleged road rage and aggressive driving.
“’You were probably driving like a nut like I always tell you you do. And you don’t listen to me, instead you just yell at me,’” his wife told Higgins when he called her from jail after his arrest, according to First Assistant Prosecutor Jonathan Flynn of Salem County.
The defense described Higgins as a married father and law-abiding citizen before the crash.
“He’s an empathetic individual and he’s a loving father of two daughters,” said defense lawyer Matthew Portella. “He’s a good person and he made a horrible decision that night.”
Higgins told police he had five or six beers that day and admitted to consuming alcohol while driving, according to the criminal complaint. He also failed a field sobriety test, the complaint said. A prosecutor on Friday said he had been drinking at home after finishing a work call at about 3 p.m., and having an upsetting conversation with his mother about a family matter.
He then had a two-hour phone call with a friend while he drove around in his Jeep with an open container, Flynn said. He had been driving aggressively behind a sedan going just above the 50 mph speed limit, sometimes tailgating, the female driver told police.
When she and the vehicle ahead of her slowed down and veered left to go around the cyclists, Higgins sped up and veered right, striking the Gaudreas, the two other drivers told police.
“He indicated he didn’t even see them,” said Superior Court Judge Michael J. Silvanio, who said Higgins’ admitted “impatience” caused two deaths.
Higgins faces up to 20 years, a sentence that the judge said made him a flight risk.
Higgins has a master’s degree, works in finance for an addiction treatment company, and served in combat in Iraq, his lawyers said. However, his wife said he had been drinking regularly since working from home, Flynn said.
Johnny Gaudreau, known as “Johnny Hockey,” played 10 full seasons in the league and was set to enter his third with the Columbus Blue Jackets after signing a seven-year, $68 million deal in 2022. He played his first eight seasons with the Calgary Flames, a tenure that included becoming one of the sport’s top players and a fan favorite across North America.
Widows Meredith and Madeline Gaudreau described their husbands as attached at the hip throughout their lives. Both women are expecting, and both gave moving eulogies at the double funeral on Monday.
