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Maple Leafs left singing Blues, then swing three-player trade with Arizona – Toronto Sun

Published

3 years ago

February 20, 2022

Harry Miller

Publishing date:

Feb 19, 2022 • 11 hours ago • 3 minute read • 15 Comments

St. Louis Blues forward Brayden Schenn (10) watches the puck deflect off Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Jack Campbell (35) for a goal at Scotiabank Arena. Photo by Dan Hamilton /USA TODAY Sports

William Nylander was up and down like the Stockholm stock market — and so were a lot of volatile Maple Leafs.

Negatives eventually overwhelmed positives and put Toronto in the red against the Blues, a team that counter-rushes as well as any NHL power. St. Louis emerged 6-3 winners at Scotiabank Arena, with the Leafs completing a three-player depth trade with Arizona after the game.

Nylander scored two for the Leafs after a long drought that had produced just two goals since New Year’s Day. He also wore the goat horns on yet another Toronto too-many-men call. But he was hardly alone, with coverage and turnovers an issue throughout the team all evening.

“We battled back well to tie it (3-3) at the beginning of the third and just lost our man,” Nylander said of Brandon Saad’s winner.

Nylander’s line was on for that goal, but defenceman Timothy Liljegren gave the puck up at the Leafs blueline, a mistake ending with some nifty passing and Jack Campbell flailing with no support.

On another 2-on-1 goal, Campbell stretched to make a great pad save, but Brayden Schenn was still left alone to knock in his own rebound while lying on the ice.

“Jack doesn’t have a chance to be good tonight,” coach Sheldon Keefe said dismissively of his team’s inability to handle the Blues. “He gives up five (and one empty-netter) but some of them were gifts.”

Long after his comments, the Leafs announced they’d acquired veteran forward Ryan Dzingel and defenceman Ilya Lyubushkin from the Arizona Coyotes for idled forward Nick Ritchie and Toronto’s choice of a third-round selection in 2023 or a second-round selection in 2025.

The 6-foot-2, 208-pound Lyubushkin, a right-handed shot, has nine assists in 46 games this year, while the unproductive Ritchie experiment ends and he gets out of AHL limbo. It’s unknown if the new duo will get to Montreal in time for Monday’s game against the Canadiens.

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Saturday was a sloppy start for the Leafs blueliners and for Campbell. He left a fat blocker rebound for Blues’ sniper Pavel Buchnevich, a rush generated by GTA grads Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou. Then came a 2-on-1 drop pass by popular ex-Leaf Tyler Bozak to Klim Kostin, who picked the far corner.

Campbell settled down and Nylander was twice able to solve Ville Husso, a fine Finn currently leading the league in goals-against average. Nylander broke away on a delayed penalty in the first period and also got velocity on an Alex Kerfoot feed to tie it. But that was answered 29 seconds later by Schenn.

After 15 games without a goal following his hot start in January, defenceman TJ Brodie stepped into a drive past a partially screened Husso.

“We knew they are a rush team,” a glum Brodie said. “Three or four guys, a second wave that comes.”

A Ryan O’Reilly tip off a point shot clinched it.

The Blues seemed to get away with a bench minor after the Leafs were flagged yet again. Nylander thought his mate was at the gate before he touched the puck, but all these too-many-men brain cramps are grating on Keefe.

“We’ve had some under different circumstances and sometimes things happen,” Keefe said. “Sometimes they are bang-bang, but this one tonight was not good. We had more than enough time to process what was going on and let that puck go by.”

None of the evening’s goals were on the power play, with the two top units in the league getting just one chance each. The Leafs’ opportunity was after Torey Krug got an extra roughing minor while wrestling Michael Bunting.

With the attempt to add Adam Brooks to the roster this week thwarted on the waiver wire by Winnipeg, Liljegren was re-inserted as the 21st man on the roster and put back in the lineup as Jake Muzzin’s partner. Sandin went back to the left side after one game on the right with Justin Holl, while Travis Dermott sat.

The Leafs will practise Sunday before games against two current non-playoff teams, Montreal and Columbus, continuing to clear up unfinished business on the schedule from the COVID-19 cancellations around Christmas.

It was the second game at SBA with half-capacity since the most recent pandemic regulations were eased, an announced crowd of 9,098.

Since just before the SBA opened in 1999, the Blues have now built a record of 14-1-2 in 17 games in Hogtown. They were also missing injured leading scorer Vladimir Tarasenko

lhornby@postmedia.com

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Canada’s Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Routliffe pick up second win at WTA Finals

Published

5 hours ago

November 5, 2024

Anne Joseph

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe remain undefeated in women’s doubles at the WTA Finals.

The 2023 U.S. Open champions, seeded second at the event, secured a 1-6, 7-6 (1), (11-9) super-tiebreak win over fourth-seeded Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in round-robin play on Tuesday.

The season-ending tournament features the WTA Tour’s top eight women’s doubles teams.

Dabrowski and Routliffe lost the first set in 22 minutes but levelled the match by breaking Errani’s serve three times in the second, including at 6-5. They clinched victory with Routliffe saving a match point on her serve and Dabrowski ending Errani’s final serve-and-volley attempt.

Dabrowski and Routliffe will next face fifth-seeded Americans Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk on Thursday, where a win would secure a spot in the semifinals.

The final is scheduled for Saturday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Nov. 5, 2024.

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Allen nets shutout as Devils burn Oilers 3-0

Published

15 hours ago

November 4, 2024

Anne Joseph

EDMONTON – Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his career as the New Jersey Devils closed out their Western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.

Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored for the Devils (8-5-2) who have won three of their last four on the heels on a four-game losing skid.

The Oilers (6-6-1) had their modest two-game winning streak snapped.

Calvin Pickard made 13 stops between the pipes for Edmonton.

TAKEAWAYS

Devils: In addition to his goal, Bratt picked up his 12th assist of the young season to give him nine points in his last eight games and now 15 points overall. Nico Hischier remains in the team lead, picking up an assist of his own to give him 16 points for the campaign. He has a point in all but four games this season.

Oilers: Forward Leon Draisaitl was held pointless after recording six points in his previous two games and nine points in his previous four. Draisaitl usually has strong showings against the Devils, coming into the contest with an eight-game point streak against New Jersey and 11 goals in 17 games.

KEY MOMENT

New Jersey took a 2-0 lead on the power play with 3:26 remaining in the second period as Hischier made a nice feed into the slot to Bratt, who wired his third of the season past Pickard.

KEY RETURN?

Oilers star forward and captain Connor McDavid took part in the optional morning skate for the Oilers, leading to hopes that he may be back sooner rather than later. McDavid has been expected to be out for two to three weeks with an ankle injury suffered during the first shift of last Monday’s loss in Columbus.

OILERS DEAL FOR D-MAN

The Oilers have acquired defenceman Ronnie Attard from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenceman Ben Gleason.

The 6-foot-3 Attard has spent the past three season in the Flyers organization seeing action in 29 career games. The 25-year-old right-shot defender and Western Michigan University grad was originally selected by Philadelphia in the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Attard will report to the Oilers’ AHL affiliate in Bakersfield.

UP NEXT

Devils: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.

Oilers: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.

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Mahomes throws 3 TD passes, unbeaten Chiefs beat Buccaneers 30-24 in OT

Published

15 hours ago

November 4, 2024

Anne Joseph

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Patrick Mahomes threw for 291 yards and three touchdowns, and Kareem Hunt pounded into the end zone from two yards out in overtime to give the unbeaten Kansas City Chiefs a 30-24 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night.

DeAndre Hopkins had two touchdown receptions for the Chiefs (8-0), who drove through the rain for two fourth-quarter scores to take a 24-17 lead with 4:17 left. But then Kansas City watched as Baker Mayfield led the Bucs the other way in the final minute, hitting Ryan Miller in the end zone with 27 seconds to go in regulation time.

Tampa Bay (4-5) elected to kick the extra point and force overtime, rather than go for a two-point conversion and the win. And it cost the Buccaneers when Mayfield called tails and the coin flip was heads. Mahomes and the Chiefs took the ball, he was 5-for-5 passing on their drive in overtime, and Hunt finished his 106-yard rushing day with the deciding TD plunge.

Travis Kelce had 14 catches for 100 yards with girlfriend Taylor Swift watching from a suite, and Hopkins finished with eight catches for 86 yards as the Chiefs ran their winning streak to 14 dating to last season. They became the sixth Super Bowl champion to start 8-0 the following season.

Mayfield finished with 200 yards and two TDs passing for the Bucs, who have lost four of their last five.

It was a memorable first half for two players who had been waiting to play in Arrowhead Stadium.

The Bucs’ Rachaad White grew up about 10 minutes away in a tough part of Kansas City, but his family could never afford a ticket for him to see a game. He wound up on a circuitous path through Division II Nebraska-Kearney and a California junior college to Arizona State, where he eventually became of a third-round pick of Tampa Bay in the 2022 draft.

Two year later, White finally got into Arrowhead — and the end zone. He punctuated his seven-yard scoring run in the second quarter, which gave the Bucs a 7-3 lead, by nearly tossing the football into the second deck.

Then it was Hopkins’ turn in his first home game since arriving in Kansas City from a trade with the Titans.

The three-time All-Pro, who already had caught four passes, reeled in a third-down heave from Mahomes amid triple coverage for a 35-yard gain inside the Tampa Bay five-yard line. Three plays later, Mahomes found him in the back of the end zone, and Hopkins celebrated his first TD with the Chiefs with a dance from “Remember the Titans.”

Tampa Bay tried to seize control with consecutive scoring drives to start the second half. The first ended with a TD pass to Cade Otton, the latest tight end to shred the Chiefs, and Chase McLaughlin’s 47-yard field goal gave the Bucs a 17-10 lead.

The Chiefs answered in the fourth quarter. Mahomes marched them through the rain 70 yards for a tying touchdown pass, which he delivered to Samaje Perine while landing awkwardly and tweaking his left ankle, and then threw a laser to Hopkins on third-and-goal from the Buccaneers’ five-yard line to give Kansas City the lead.

Tampa Bay promptly went three-and-out, but its defence got the ball right back, and this time Mayfield calmly led his team down field. His capped the drive with a touchdown throw to Miller — his first career TD catch — with 27 seconds to go, and Tampa Bay elected to play for overtime.

UP NEXT

Buccaneers: Host the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.

Chiefs: Host the Denver Broncos on Sunday.

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