And now for the Maple Leafs’ first shutout of the season, we give you Ilya Samsonov.
Sports
Maple Leafs put on fine defensive performance, Samsonov blanks Predators
Defensively, the Leafs were full marks for their second win in regulation in as many games and their seventh regulation victory of the season. High-danger scoring chances for the Predators were few and far between. And consider that Nashville had won nine of its previous 11 games prior to arriving in Toronto.
Simply, it was the Leafs’ most complete game of 2023-24.
“It was as tidy a game as we’ve played,” coach Sheldon Keefe said.
The Leafs are 8-1-2 in their past 11 games. Any way it’s sliced, that’s impressive.
Auston Matthews scored two more goals to bring him to 18, and John Tavares assisted on the second Matthews goal. That’s 998 career NHL points for the Leafs captain, and he has a clear opportunity to reach 1,000 on Monday night when the Leafs visit his former team, the New York Islanders.
The Leafs’ dads joined the team for the game and will travel to New York for the game against the Islanders and then against the Rangers on Tuesday. The victory helped earn the players a full day off on Sunday.
We wouldn’t suggest Samsonov had an easy night — those really don’t exist in the National Hockey League — but in his first start since Nov. 24, there wasn’t much stress for the netminder.
Good thing, too, because with Woll hurt, it’s more weight on the shoulders of Samsonov and Martin Jones to provide solid goaltending.
Samsonov had not done that much before he got sick last week, though Woll’s recent play probably would have kept Samsonov on the bench.
“If you could draw it up as a perfect game for him, that would probably be it,” Keefe said. “Doesn’t let anything in, the guys play well in front of him.
“With Woll’s injury, there’s a little bit of a pressure and attention on that position right now and for Sammy to come in and have a night like that is great for him, and something for him to build on.”
“We’re playing in the best league in the world,” Samsonov said. “You need to understand sometimes your partner is playing better than you and you need to get some work every day, harder and harder. This is where we see character.”
Samsonov is always thinking team-first, so it wasn’t a surprise to hear his thoughts on the Woll injury.
“Some shock, a little bit,” Samsonov said. “It’s not too fun to see how your partner gets an injury. I remember how I’ve been on this situation in the last year or two. It’s not great. I think he feels bad too.”
KAMPF ALERT
No one needs to be reminded that secondary scoring can be crucial in a team’s success, and if it’s the fourth line we’re talking about, a puck that goes in off a shin pad every so often would be acceptable.
Not so with David Kampf, who doesn’t fill scouting reports with lots of notable scoring chances, on Saturday night.
Kampf scored what might have been his prettiest goal with the Leafs when he went bar-down on Predators goalie Kevin Lankinen at 14:15 of the second period.
After taking a pass from Conor Timmins, Kampf burst past defenceman Ryan McDonough and went high over Lankinen’s glove for what stood up as the winning goal. Kampf’s defensive awareness often is noted by Keefe. And now Kampf has scored in consecutive games.
The Leafs didn’t sit back after the Kampf goal, and Matthews scored less than four minutes later.
Fully behind the goal line to the side of the net, Matthew used his backhand to tap the puck in after a pass from William Nylander.
The Nylander-to-Matthews combination clicked again late in the third period when Matthews went five-hole during a Toronto power play.
Noah Gregor scored a shorthanded goal, into an empty Predators net, with 91 seconds remaining.
CLAMPING DOWN
The Leafs they did enough early to keep the flies off Samsonov, allowing the goalie to settle in.
Samsonov didn’t face a shot on goal until the game was past six minutes old, and when he did eventually have a tough save to make, he calmly turned aside a Colton Sissons point-blank shot during a Nashville power play.
The Predators won’t be confused with the flashiest teams in the NHL, true, but they really could get nothing going on offence.
The 18 Nashville shots were the fewest allowed in a game by the Leafs this season. The previous low was 24, done three times.
And the 34 shot attempts that Nashville had at five-on-five were the fewest the Leafs have given up.
“That’s what we’re looking for,” defenceman Morgan Rielly said. “There was a calmness just about our group. That’s always a good sign.”
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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.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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.
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