The Toronto Maple Leafs emerged victorious from an evenly-contested Saturday night matchup against Vancouver thanks to a Martin Marincin third-period game-winning goal (for real).
First Period
Auston Matthews, an absolute force on the forecheck the past few games, created a turnover on first shift, leading to an early Leafs cycle and scoring chance for Zach Hyman. This is the kind of tone-setting shift the Leafs have been getting from Matthews often lately:
The Leafs were then able to open the scoring via an unlikely source in Frederik Gauthier, who beat a shaky Thatcher Demko from the slot for his seventh of the season. It wouldn’t have been possible if not for the play back to the point by Kasperi Kapanen from his knees down low while under duress.
To this point, the Canucks had yet to register a shot on net. As is often the case in hockey, this was mentioned on the broadcast before the first Vancouver shot of the night went in. Rasmus Sandin was in a position to make a play on the puck but was bodied off of it by a hungrier Jay Beagle, and it was in the back of the net before the Leafs or Frederik Andersen could react.
It’s not a high-flying wrister, but the deception and strength in Matthews’ release totally fooled Thatcher Demko, who looked like he had no clue what happened. Even the slow-motion replays made it difficult to track exactly where and how this puck snuck through the Vancouver netminder.
The first period was by far the game’s most entertaining between the four goals and some physical play both ways, including a well-timed hit by Rasmus Sandin stepping up in the neutral zone. Sandin has brought an understated willingness to mix it up in this area of the game since he’s become a Leaf:
The Leafs were doing a good job of limiting the Canucks’ access to the slot and were holding steady in the defensive end before a second mistake deep in their own end turned into a second tying goal for the Canucks.
Sandin is in a good position here, but doesn’t tie up Tanner Pearson in front of goal to snuff out the threat.
Late in the first, Toronto found themselves on the power-play after Kapanen was high-sticked battling in front of the Vancouver net. While they were unable to convert, the Leafs were dangerous moving the puck with a few great-looking PP sequences:
There was a questionable penalty assessed to Dermott that put the Leafs down a man, but Toronto did a great job giving the Canucks’ power play no room to work with and it resulted in the Leafs drawing a penalty for an abbreviated PP of their own.
Like the previous opportunity, Toronto couldn’t find the twine but there were some quality looks, including this airmailed Frederik Andersen pass for a partial breakaway for William Nylander:
The game seemed to slow down and settle into a cagier affair through the middle portion of the middle frame, while both Andersen and Demko found their grove. Any opportunities were hard-earned, with a lot of numbers back defensively for both teams:
The Leafs’ worst segment of the game came in the final passages of the second period as they got back on their heels and the Canucks were able to get on top of them for successive cycle shifts, with the Leafs — with some particularly rough sequences from Martin Marincin — unable to clear their lines. The Leafs were fortunate the game was 2-2 heading into the third after this late chance:
Your eyes aren’t deceiving you: Martin Marincin really did score on a solo rush here. This was a good breakout sequence from the Leafs, starting with a won battle along the wall, a short bump pass to Tavares, and Marincin identifying the opportunity to jump up and showing the confidence to go for goal.
While the Leafs gained some momentum from the 3-2, it came to a halt due to this questionable penalty assessed to Nylander on what appeared to be a 50-50 puck battle with both players tugging at one another.
Vancouver did not test Andersen in a serious way and the Leafs were able to keep their lead intact.
The pace of the game settled down from there as Toronto played a responsible game in possession of the lead. The Leafs did generate a couple of sequences of sustained pressure in search of an insurance marker:
Vancouver then pulled their goalie, but it was to no avail as Zach “the Sidney Crosby of 6-on-5” Hyman put it away by blocking a shot, making a good defensive play, and icing the game with the empty-net goal.
After last Saturday night’s debacle, the Toronto Maple Leafs have responded admirably with three well-earned wins over the week. It’s quite the turnaround for a team that appeared to be on life support last week after a number of demoralizing defeats; even more interesting, two of the teams that doled out the shellackings, Pittsburgh and Carolina, are now struggling majorly (a lot can change in a hurry in this league). This wasn’t the Leafs’ best effort of their three straight wins; they were dangerous early but not as consistently threatening offensively as they are when they’re at the top of their game, and the xGF% and CF% (expected Goals and shot attempts) slightly favoured the Canucks over the 60 minutes. But the team is clearly digging in deeper through all the adversity and their overall team play, in terms of how they’re checking back and supporting the puck defensively, is really encouraging. They’re now finding ways to win rather than new and interesting ways to lose — this time complete with the “deepest” of depth scoring courtesy of Frederik Gauthier and Martin Marincin.
The best and at times worst player for the Leafs tonight had to be Martin Marincin, who was having a tough time handling the puck at times throughout the game before he went into beast mode to start the third period. At even strength, he registered a 38.46 CF%, a 42.31 FF%, a 35.29 SF%, a 39.82 xGF%, a 38.89 SCF%, and a 20.00 HDCF%. The third period was his best of the night as he was playing with a lot of confidence and the puck seemed to be finding him a lot out there. He also did a bang-up job on the penalty kill of getting himself into shooting lanes for key shot blocks. It was a 60-minute encaspulation of the good and bad of Marty Marincin, but the good definitely outweighed the bad on the whole.
Auston Matthews was again pursuing pucks aggressively on the forecheck to good effect and playing 200 feet better than he ever has in his young career. He recorded a 50.00 CF%, a 66.67 FF%, a 66.67 SF%, an 80.82 xGF%, a 61.54 SCF%, and a 60.00 HDCF% at even strength. In the matchup against the Elias Pettersson, Tyler Toffoli and JT Miller line, the Canucks’ best offensive trio didn’t generate a single shot on goal at 5v5 in the ~10:30 against Matthews’ line. On top of his sublime offensive contributions, his leadership in regards to buying in and playing responsibly over 200 feet has been exemplary since the Leafs have turned their fortunes around. It was the Matthews line on the ice for the key faceoff late on that led to Hyman’s empty-net goal; while Matthews lost the initial draw, the line did a good job of staying composed and protecting the middle of the ice for a few key shot blocks before Dermott (two assists, +2) did a nice job of skating the puck out of danger and finding Marner, who made a nice airmail play into Hyman to end the game.
The D pair that drew the majority of that above-mentioned matchup was Travis Dermott–Justin Holl pairing, which had a second consecutive solid outing. It’s important to mention how the Matthews line (which drew a good chunk of the Barkov matchup in Florida as well) is supporting this pairing in terms of defending in five-man units and owning the puck/tiling the ice, but the pair did a good job protecting the middle of the ice, were moving the puck well, and jumped up into the rush effectively when the opportunity presented itself. With Jake Muzzin, Morgan Rielly, and Cody Ceci out of commission for the next few weeks, Dermott, Holl, and Tyson Barrie are carrying the load and keeping the Leafs team afloat on a backend with minimal experience at the NHL level. Holl and Dermott are rather green as far as cumulative NHL experience goes, but they are de facto veterans on this unit for the time being and their first two games in the top pairing role have been pretty reassuring against very credible top-line opposition in the Pettersson and Barkov lines.
One “game within the game” against the Vancouver Canucks is the faceoff circle, where they’re a particularly strong team with over 54% success rate on the season (2nd in the NHL). The Leafs are third in the category, though, and came out with 54% of the draws on the night. As John Tavares mentioned before the game, it was a point of emphasis in the prescout how competitive the Canucks are at winning draws and puck battles off of the initial draw, and the Leafs executed well in that detail of the game.
Some wondered if this might be a Jack Campbell start on home ice before the team hits the road for the California road trip, but the Leafs are rolling with Frederik Andersen with the aim of getting him back into a groove, and this was largely mission accomplished in that regard. He might’ve had a fighting chance on the 2-2 Tanner Pearson goal, but he was solid otherwise and made some key saves late in the second and as the Canucks generated a bit of a push late on. The numbers: 25 saves, a .926 SV%, and a .778 HDSV%. As important as anything right now is getting Andersen’s confidence back where it needs to be, and he appears to be working his way there one start at a time.
Last leap year – so, y’know, four years ago – William Nylander made his NHL debut for the Toronto Maple Leafs, as did Kasperi Kapanen and Zach Hyman (Nikita Soshnikov too). Been quite the ride since.
NAPA, Calif. (AP) — David Lipsky shot a 7-under 65 on Thursday at Silverado Country Club to take a one-stroke lead after the first round of the Procore Championship.
Winless in 104 events since joining the PGA Tour in 2022, Lipsky went out with the early groups and had eight birdies with one bogey to kick off the FedEx Cup Fall series at the picturesque course in the heart of Napa Valley wine country.
After missing the cut in his three previous tournaments, Lipsky flew from Las Vegas to Arizona to reunite with his college coach at Northwestern to get his focus back. He also spent time playing with some of the Northwestern players, which helped him relax.
“Just being around those guys and seeing how carefree they are, not knowing what’s coming for them yet, it’s sort of nice to see that,” Lipsky said. “I was almost energized by their youthfulness.”
Patton Kizzire and Mark Hubbard were a stroke back. Kizzire started on the back nine and made a late run with three consecutive birdies to move into a tie for first. A bogey on No. 8 dropped him back.
“There was a lot of good stuff out there today,” Kizzire said. “I stayed patient and just went through my routines and played well, one shot at a time. I’ve really bee working hard on my mental game and I think that allowed me to rinse and repeat and reset and keep playing.”
Mark Hubbard was at 67. He had nine birdies but fell off the pace with a bogey and triple bogey on back-to-back holes.
Kevin Dougherty also was in the group at 67. He had two eagles and ended his afternoon by holing out from 41 yards on the 383-yard, par-4 18th.
Defending champion Sahith Theegala had to scramble for much of his round of 69.
Wyndham Clark, who won the U.S. Open in 2023 and the AT&T at Pebble Beach in February, had a 70.
Max Homa shot 71. The two-time tournament champion and a captain’s pick for the President’s Cup in two weeks had two birdies and overcame a bogey on the par-4 first.
Stewart Cink, the 2020 winner, also opened with a 71. He won The Ally Challenge last month for his first PGA Tour Champions title.
Three players from the Presidents Cup International team had mix results. Min Woo Lee shot 68, Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ont., 69 and Corey Conners of Listowel, Ont., 73. International team captain Mike Weir of Brights Grove, Ont., also had a 69.
Ben Silverman of Thornhill, Ont., had a 68, Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, B.C., and Roger Sloan of Merritt, B.C., shot 70 and Adam Svensson of Surrey, B.C., had a 71.
Lipsky was a little shaky off the tee for much of the afternoon but made up for it with steady iron play that left him in great shape on the greens. He had one-putts on 11 holes and was in position for a bigger day but left five putts short.
Lipsky’s only real problem came on the par-4 ninth when his approach sailed into a bunker just shy of the green. He bounced back nicely with five birdies on his back nine. After missing a 19-foot putt for birdie on No. 17, Lipsky ended his day with a 12-foot par putt.
That was a big change from last year when Lipsky tied for 30th at Silverado when he drove the ball well but had uneven success on the greens.
“Sometimes you have to realize golf can be fun, and I think I sort of forgot that along the way as I’m grinding it out,” Lipsky said. “You’ve got to put things in perspective, take a step back. Sort of did that and it seems like it’s working out.”
Laird stayed close after beginning his day with a bogey on the par-4 10th. The Scot got out of the sand nicely but pushed his par putt past the hole.
Homa continued to have issues off the tee and missed birdie putts on his final four holes.
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic is moving on to the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open.
The Mississauga, Ont., native defeated the tournament top seed, Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) in the round of 16 on Thursday.
Stakusic faced a 0-4 deficit in the third and final set before marching back into the match.
The 19-year-old won five of the next six games to even it up before exchanging games to force a tiebreaker, where Stakusic took complete control to win the match.
Stakusic had five aces with 17 double faults in the three-hour, four-minute match.
However, she converted eight of her 18 break-point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
PARIS (AP) — French judicial authorities are investigating the disappearance of two Paralympic athletes from Congo who recently competed in the Paris Games, the prosecutor’s office in the Paris suburb of Bobigny confirmed on Thursday.
Prosecutors opened the investigation on Sept. 7, after members of the athletes’ delegation warned authorities of their disappearance two days before.
Le Parisien newspaper reported that shot putter Mireille Nganga and Emmanuel Grace Mouambako, a visually impaired sprinter who was accompanied by a guide, went missing on Sept. 5, along with a third person.
The athletes’ suitcases were also gone but their passports remained with the Congolese delegation, according to an official with knowledge of the investigation, who asked to remain anonymous as they were not allowed to speak publicly about the case.
The Paralympic Committee of the Democratic Republic of Congo did not respond to requests for information from The Associated Press.
Nganga — who recorded no mark in the seated javelin and shot put competitions — and Mouambako were Congo’s flag bearers at the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games, organizers said.
