They’d been used together, then split back up onto separate lines as the Winnipeg Jets continued a search for something that might provide a spark.
But at a time where goals had suddenly become extremely hard to come by — nine in total during the previous seven games, for those of you scoring at home — it was Scheifele and Ehlers who ignited an offensive outburst of epic proportions in a wild game that became an 8-4 victory over the New Jersey Devils on Friday night.
For a Jets team that had dropped six of the past seven games and had gone from a Central Division leader to below the playoff line in a matter of weeks, this goal-scoring explosion was a welcome sign.
Scheifele, who had been limited to just one assist over his previous five games and had only two goals in 16 games for the season, recorded his fourth career hat trick and chipped in an assist to pace the offensive attack.
Earlier in the day, Scheifele had been grilled about his slump and he calmly said it was just part of the game.
It was something he’d gone through before and he knew if he kept working at his game and doing the right things, his fortunes would eventually turn around.
That power of positive thinking and internal belief brought a variety pack of goals which was something to behold — with each of them showcasing a different skill.
The first was all about his soft hands in tight, as Scheifele took a pass from Neal Pionk in the slot and made a move that was filled with finesse, a quick strike deke that was buried on the backhand to open the scoring.
The second goal was all about explosiveness, as Scheifele picked up the puck in his own zone late in the second period.
Sensing that time was about to expire, Scheifele saw an opportunity to catch his opponents off guard and his ability to accelerate through the neutral zone forced Devils defenceman Jonas Siegenthaler on his heels.
Instead of rushing to get his shot off, Scheifele’s slight cut to the middle created a lane and he rifled a quick wrister off through the skates of Sigenthaler that caught Jonathan Bernier by surprise with just 5.9 seconds to go.
The power-play marker helped improve the Jets’ 2-for-36 run with the man-advantage and also chased Bernier — who allowed six goals on 32 shots before giving way to Mackenzie Blackwood to start the third period.
Scheifele wasn’t done there, providing an exclamation point just prior to the midway point of the third period, taking a perfect pass from Blake Wheeler (who finished with three assists as he gets set to play in his 1,000th NHL game on Sunday) for a one-timer after Kyle Connor executed a smart zone entry with speed to get the play started.
Scheifele wasn’t the only one providing highlight-reel moments in this game.
Ehlers was back doing what he does best, showing off his explosive speed and shot on a line with Pierre-Luc Dubois and Andrew Copp.
Ehlers and Dubois were frequent linemates last season, but the chemistry wasn’t immediately evident, though the circumstances are also vastly different this time around.
Dubois found Ehlers for a pair of goals on Friday, including a one-timer that basically came from behind him.
Ehlers casually described the play, noting he’d been working on something similar during the morning skate with Connor.
“I mean, I know where the net is but I didn’t look at the net once, just trying to surprise the goalie and I did and obviously very happy about it,” said Ehlers.
That’s when Scheifele interrupted to ensure those in the press room and those listening at home understood the degree of difficulty of the play in question.
“He’s being modest, it was a very skilled play,” said Scheifele, whose appreciation of the play was evident in the tone of his voice. “It’s like (looking) over the shoulder catching a football, you’ve got to time it perfectly. It was pretty sweet.”
Much like Scheifele, Ehlers needed this kind of a performance.
He’d gone five games without recording a single point and many of his scoring chances were coming from the perimeter.
Although he’s one of the players who can score from distance, Ehlers needed to get back to playing a speed game and work at getting to the harder areas on the interior.
That’s precisely what he did in this game.
“That’s an involved Nikolaj Ehlers. He’s in the game,” said Jets head coach Paul Maurice. “He’s on the inside of the game, not fading out for that, not pulling up, not trying to do something high on that entry. So confidence is everything. And if you go as a line and you score two goals, then you feel good and you’re excited about the next night.”
With three days between games — and coming off a disappointing 1-0 loss to the Arizona Coyotes — the Jets spent ample time in the film room looking at ways to generate more dangerous offensive chances.
To see that work translate into eight goals was an encouraging sign, but it was merely a step — not a celebration of fully putting the offensive challenges in the past.
The Devils had some issues with puck management and defensive-zone coverage, but they also made life miserable on the Jets for a stretch, especially when they turned a 3-0 deficit after 7:39 of the game into a 4-3 lead before the second period was 80 seconds old.
“It should have never gotten to that. I think after the 3-0 (goal), we stopped playing and gave them time and space to make their plays,” said Ehlers. “They are a young and skilled team and they’re going to make those plays. That’s something that we got to, as a team, look at and not let happen again.”
Just when it looked like the roof might cave in on the Jets, they found a way to settle things back down.
By the time the final buzzer had sounded, it was the Jets that scored the final five goals of the game to improve to 11-8-4 on the season.
Instead of dealing with a sky-is-falling narrative that was seemingly building toward a crescendo, the Jets instead quieted some of the outside noise and generated some good feelings heading into Sunday’s marquee matchup against the red-hot Toronto Maple Leafs.
Sure, there were some self-inflicted wounds to clean up, but this was an important step forward.
With only two wins over the past eight games, nobody is doing cartwheels or jumping for joy.
But when frustration is mounting and a team is searching for answers, any win is a welcome one — especially when two offensive drivers who had been a little too quiet of late were out there leading the charge.
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.
