OTTAWA — The Canucks had their way with the Senators in a three-game sweep in late January, outscoring Ottawa by a combined 16-3 score in Vancouver.
Monday night proved to be far more difficult, showing the progress the young Senators have made since. The Canucks needed an overtime goal from J.T Miller and 44 saves from goaltender Thatcher Demko to dispatch the stubborn Senators 3-2.
“I’m happy we won the game, but I didn’t think we skated very well. I didn’t think we passed the puck very well,” said Canucks coach Travis Green. “Our goalie gave us the game.”
Ottawa outshot the Canucks 46-28, rallying from a 2-0 deficit with a season-high shot count. It marked the fourth time this season that Demko has made at least 40 saves, the most among NHL goalies.
Colin White, whose errant pass led to Vancouver’s second goal, forced the overtime with 2:10 remaining with a one-timer from the slot with the Ottawa net empty.
In OT, the Canucks took advantage of an Ottawa line change as Miller beat a tired Senator at the blue line and then deked Joey Daccord for the winner at 1:40.
The Senators, playing their second game in as many nights, had their chances — often helped by some sloppy Canucks play. Ottawa hit the post three times and was denied an early goal by a quick whistle.
“We looked sluggish tonight …. We just didn’t play well enough throughout the whole game,” said Green. “But we did find a way to win it.”
Miller paid tribute to Ottawa.
“That team, you can’t take them lightly,” he said. “We knew that going in. They’ve been playing really good hockey. They work really hard and they have some skill that can get you when they force you into mistakes.
“Obviously we gave them a little too much tonight, we know that.”
Ottawa didn’t get any help from its power play, which fizzled on four opportunities.
Ottawa outshot Vancouver 18-9 in the first period and hit the goalpost twice, but headed to the dressing room trailing 2-0.
Jayce Hawryluk and Tanner Pearson also scored for Vancouver (14-16-2). Josh Norris also scored for Ottawa (10-20-2).
The two teams meets again Wednesday at the Canadian Tire Centre.
“They’ve had our number this year. We owe them one for sure,” said White. “I think we’re real excited for Wednesday.”
The Canucks, kicking off a four-game road trip, arrived having won four of their last five including a 2-1 victory over the visiting Oilers on Saturday.
Ottawa was coming off a 4-3 win Sunday over visiting Toronto. But it had lost five of its previous seven, including three straight in Edmonton.
Daccord started in the Ottawa goal for the second straight game in place of No. 1 Matt Murray, who suffered an upper-body injury in the warmup prior to Sunday’s game against Toronto.
The 24-year-old Daccord, a seventh-round draft pick out of Arizona State, posted his first career NHL win with a 33-save performance as Ottawa held on to edge the Leafs 4-3. He was good again Monday.
“I think he brings a lot of confidence and a lot of swagger,” said Norris. “He’s not afraid to show that either and I think that’s important as a goalie … We feed off of that.”
The Sens recalled goaltender Filip Gustavsson from the AHL’s Belleville Senators as backup. Goaltender Marcus Hogberg, the normal No. 2, is on the injured reserve list.
The Canucks had their own injury problems. Elias Pettersson, Tyler Motte, Antoine Roussel and Jay Beagle all missed Monday’s game. Green said Pettersson would not join the team on the road trip.
Demko, who has been outstanding of late, started in goal for the Canucks for the sixth straight game and ninth in the last 10.
Miller hit the goalpost some four minutes into the game on Vancouver’s first shot on net after a giveaway by Ottawa defenceman Thomas Chabot. At the other end, Sens rookie Tim Stutzle unsuccessfully tried to recreate the backhand pass across the goal to linemate Drake Batherson that resulted in a goal Sunday.
Ottawa started fast, outshooting the Canucks 9-2 in the early going.
But Vancouver scored first at 10:14 of the first with Hawryluk poking the puck in during a goalmouth scramble after a Canucks faceoff win led to a Jordie Benn shot from the point. It was the first of the season for the former Senator.
Late in the period, a Vancouver turnover on an Ottawa power play led to Brady Tkachuk firing a shot off the post.
The Canucks made it 2-0 at 18:49 of the first after White, fighting for the puck behind his net, for some reason dumped the puck into the slot to a grateful Pearson for his sixth of the season.
“You just have to have a short memory when that stuff happens and just move forward,” said White.
Demko made a fine pad save to deny Tkachuk from in-close on the power play early in the second.
Ottawa cut the lead to 2-1 at 3:52 of the second after defenceman Artem Zub made a fine play to keep the puck in at the Vancouver blue line, sending it over to Stutzle. The German rookie’s ensuing shot hit the post but Norris hammered the rebound home for his sixth of the season.
The Sens hit the crossbar late in the second, this time on Nick Paul’s blue-line shot. Ottawa’s Austin Watson headed to the dressing room after taking a Nate Schmidt shot in the throat. He soon returned to action, his neck reddened by the contact.
Norris nailed Hawryluk in the boards at the Ottawa bench but escaped punishment.
The shot count was 29-16 in Ottawa’s favour after 40 minutes.
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.
