Sports

Markstrom makes 40 saves, Flames defeat Wild in double shutout

Published

2 weeks ago

March 8, 2023

Harry Miller

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Jacob Markstrom made 40 saves in his first shutout of the season, and the Calgary Flames won 1-0 against the Minnesota Wild in a shootout at Xcel Energy Center on Tuesday.

Markstrom made three more saves in the four-round shootout.

“I thought our guys did a great job of making sure that I saw most of the pucks,” Markstrom said. “A lot of sharp blocks. … It’s the second game of a back to back, and we need to string games together. Nice to get one of these.”

Nazem Kadri and Tyler Toffoli scored in the shootout for Calgary (29-23-13), which won 5-4 against the Dallas Stars on Monday, when Markstrom made 29 saves.

The Flames moved within four points of the Winnipeg Jets for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference. The Jets have one game in hand.

“You know what, we’re fighting for points,” Calgary coach Darryl Sutter said. “We know that. There were one or two rough games at home and everybody threw us under the bus, so good on them.”

Video: CGY@MIN: Toffoli helps Flames to shootout win

Filip Gustavsson made 26 saves in his second straight shutout for Minnesota (36-21-7), which had won four straight and visits Winnipeg on Wednesday. The Wild extended their point streak to 10 games (8-0-2).

Minnesota pulled within two points of first-place Dallas in the Central Division. The Wild are three ahead of the Colorado Avalanche, who won 6-0 against the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday.

“We played really well,” Minnesota coach Dean Evason said. ” … We had our opportunities. There’s no question their goalie played good. They play sound defensively, but we still had lots of good looks. We did a lot of really good things in this hockey game.”

Jared Spurgeon appeared to score for the Wild off a rebound at 3:14 of overtime, but video review initiated by the NHL Situation Room determined Spurgeon preceded the puck into the offensive zone and was offside prior to his goal.

“You think you win it there for a second and have to come back,” said Spurgeon, who is Minnesota’s captain. “Thought we played a good game. We had chances and obviously they played a good game as well. But we got one point. Obviously, we’d like two, but we’ve got a big one tomorrow as well.”

Gustavsson and Markstrom took turns denying 2-on-1 attempts in the first period.

Gustavsson stopped Elias Lindholm on a short-handed breakaway at 2:37.

“Today we gave up a few odd-man rushes in the first period then we started to clean it up,” Gustavsson said. “That’s the way we’ve been playing the past couple of weeks and months. Not giving up too many 2-on-1s and odd-man rushes and that stuff. I think that and stick on puck and blocks.”

Markstrom then made a save on Kirill Kaprizov at 10:08 with the rebound just missing Mats Zuccarello.

Video: CGY@MIN: Markstom stops 40 shots in 1-0 shootout win

Gustavsson kept it 0-0 at 12:50 after Jake Middleton gave the puck away for Dillon Dube to get a snap shot off.

Gaudreau held the puck too long in a 3-on-1 attempt against Markstrom, who made the pad save at 4:16 of the second period.

“‘Marky’ was outstanding all night, kept us in it and gave us a chance in the shootout,” Toffoli said. “”Honestly, I’m so happy for him. He’s an incredible guy, a great teammate. Obviously the start of the year wasn’t his greatest. Obviously a lot of people were all over him for it, but I think he’s really stepped up, especially these last two games. Even before this he was keeping us in games we weren’t winning. I’m just really happy for him and glad we could get him a win.”

Gustavsson again kept it 0-0, reaching back to cover up a rebound that dribbled loose from a Jakob Pelletier snap shot at 18:21 of the second.

Flames defenseman Rasmus Andersson swatted a loose puck from the air, preventing a goal at 1:28 of the third period to keep it 0-0.

Frederick Gaudreau scored Minnesota’s lone goal in the shootout.

NOTES: Calgary’s penalty kill went 7-for-7. … Markstrom had a 40-save shutout for the second time with the Flames (Oct. 28, 2021; 45 saves at the Pittsburgh Penguins). He is the third goalie in Flames history with multiple such performances, joining Dan Bouchard (three times) and Mike Smith. … Gustavsson can tie Devan Dubnyk for most consecutive shutouts in Wild history at three. Dubnyk did it twice: Oct. 25-29, 2016, and Nov. 9-14, 2017. … Forward Oskar Sundqvist had one shot in 11:46 of ice time in his Wild debut after being traded from the Detroit Red Wings on March 3.

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Quick Reaction: Raptors 111, Bucks 118

Published

7 hours ago

March 20, 2023

Harry Miller

	O. Anunoby37 MIN, 22 PTS, 4 REB, 1 AST, 1 STL, 8-12 FG, 4-5 3FG, 2-2 FT, 1 BLK, 0 TO, -1 +/- Not much more you could ask for from OG tonight, except maybe for some more touches down the stretch. His run of great form continued against the Bucks tonight where he played phenomenally on both ends.
	P. Siakam39 MIN, 13 PTS, 12 REB, 7 AST, 2 STL, 5-14 FG, 1-5 3FG, 2-2 FT, 0 BLK, 1 TO, -12 +/- Siakam is one of the better players in the league in terms of finding ways to impact the game when his shot isn’t falling, but boy the shot would have been nice to have tonight. He’s cooled down a bit from his unfathomably hot start earlier in the season. It’s not a cause to be concerned just yet, but as the team around him starts to hit their stride, it’ll be even sweeter as Pascal does as well.
	J. Poeltl31 MIN, 20 PTS, 6 REB, 0 AST, 0 STL, 10-18 FG, 0-0 3FG, 0-0 FT, 2 BLK, 1 TO, -17 +/- It was nice to finally have someone who can take the Brook assignment without Nurse having to implement an entire scheme to make up for the lack of size. Even so, it wasn’t the greatest performance from the big man tonight, who went a shocking -17 in his 30 minutes.

	S. Barnes13 MIN, 5 PTS, 2 REB, 1 AST, 1 STL, 2-3 FG, 1-2 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, -5 +/- The X-ray came back negative thankfully, but Scottie missed the second half with a wrist injury. He was playing well up until his departure. While the loss is tough to swallow, it’s important to keep in mind that Mr. 4th Quarter had to watch it from the locker room.
	F. VanVleet38 MIN, 23 PTS, 4 REB, 11 AST, 1 STL, 9-21 FG, 3-8 3FG, 2-3 FT, 0 BLK, 4 TO, 3 +/- Fred always plays well against the Bucks and tonight was no different. He kept the ball moving and made shot after shot for a team that desperately needed it.
	P. Achiuwa20 MIN, 5 PTS, 5 REB, 3 AST, 0 STL, 2-3 FG, 0-1 3FG, 1-2 FT, 1 BLK, 0 TO, 7 +/- The numbers are underwhelming sure, but Precious looked like vintage Precious tonight. In a good way, too. Getting Precious back into a rhythm this season hasn’t been easy but he’s slowly finding his step, and was absolutely a positive on the floor tonight in a matchup where his physicality on defence was necessary.
	G. Trent Jr.33 MIN, 18 PTS, 3 REB, 0 AST, 1 STL, 6-18 FG, 5-10 3FG, 1-2 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, 3 +/- This is a different Raptors team when Gary is on. He played great early on but it trailed off toward the latter half. I think he’ll continue to excel in his role off the bench, but in particular with Scottie out for the second half, Gary couldn’t deliver when they needed it tonight.

	C. Boucher16 MIN, 5 PTS, 3 REB, 0 AST, 0 STL, 2-4 FG, 0-1 3FG, 1-1 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, -3 +/- A pretty unremarkable stretch from Boucher all things considered. The Bucks are not a great match-up for him either and it showed.
	W. Barton13 MIN, 0 PTS, 2 REB, 2 AST, 0 STL, 0-6 FG, 0-2 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 1 TO, -10 +/- The Barton minutes were, too put it bluntly, bad. He got an extended run in the fourth and it cost the team a lot more than it should have. The backup PG revolving door may continue until game 82 at this rate.
	Nick Nurse Outside of a questionable lineup to open up the fourth, Nurse did fine to put us in a position to win against perhaps the best team in the league.

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UPEI coach defends team’s actions at the U Sports Men’s Hockey National Championship

Published

11 hours ago

March 19, 2023

Harry Miller

CHARLOTTETOWN –

The University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) coach is defending the team’s actions, after the University of Alberta (U of A) team skated off the ice without handshakes at the U Sports Men’s Hockey National Championship in Charlottetown.

The crowd booed and hurled trash as the U of A’s team left the ice after defeating UPEI in the semifinals Saturday night.

During the third period, the teams got into an on-ice fight following a hard hit against U of A’s goalie.

Speaking to reporters, University of Alberta’s head coach Ian Herbers said he made the decision to not take part in the traditional handshake for safety reasons.

“Didn’t feel safe for our players. I thought something else would happen and then get into a bigger incident, and then create bigger havoc, and then be a big black eye for our league, so I didn’t want that opportunity to happen,” said Herbers. “I felt it was safer for our players and better for the league not to get into a situation like that.”

Someone in the crowd hurled a beer can at the U of A team as they left the ice.

Some players on UPEI’s team said the choice to shake hands was disrespectful.

“Honestly it’s kind of classless. Yeah it was a rough game, but it’s hockey,” said UPEI player Keleb Pearson. “Some of the plays, yeah, they shouldn’t have happened, but come on, at least you can shake our hands.”

University of Prince Edward Island’s head coach Forbes MacPherson defended his team’s behaviour on the ice.

“There was one incident that happened with 14 minutes left in the game,” said MacPherson. “Nothing else happened after.”

MacPherson said that the incident on the ice isn’t representative of the team’s behaviour.

“At no point was there multiple incidents. There was one incident,” said MacPherson. “All year there was only one team in our conference that had less penalty minutes than us.”

Sunday’s bronze medal game began with a reminder that abuse against players, staff, and officials would not be tolerated.

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Sharks’ James Reimer declines to wear Pride-themed jersey

Published

13 hours ago

March 19, 2023

Harry Miller

San Jose Sharks goalie James Reimer won’t take part in pre-game warmups, saying the team’s decision to wear Pride-themed jerseys in support of the LGBTQ community runs counter to his religious beliefs.

The Manitoba-born goalie, who got his start playing minor hockey in the small town of Arborg, said in a statement Saturday that he made the decision based on his Christian beliefs, adding that he “always strived to treat everyone with respect” and that members of the LGBTQ community should be welcome in hockey.

“In this specific instance, I am choosing not to endorse something that is counter to my personal convictions, which are based on the Bible, the highest authority in my life,” Reimer said.

A statement from Goaltender, James Reimer: <a href=”https://t.co/GwhWxhbmb4″>pic.twitter.com/GwhWxhbmb4</a>

—@SanJoseSharks

Reimer is the second NHL player this season to refuse to take part in warmups with Pride-themed jerseys, with Philadelphia’s Ivan Provorov declining to in January. Reimer was not slated to start in Saturday night’s home game against the New York Islanders, which is Pride night.

Additionally, the New York Rangers opted not to wear Pride jerseys or use Pride stick tape as part of their night in January despite previously advertising that plan.

The Sharks said in a statement that they are proud to host Pride Night, saying the event reinforces the team’s commitment to inclusiveness.

“As we promote these standards, we also acknowledge and accept the rights of individuals to express themselves, including how or whether they choose to express their beliefs, regardless of the cause or topic,” the team said in a statement. “As an organization, we will not waver in our support of the LGBTQIA+ community and continue to encourage others to engage in active allyship.”

A statement from the San Jose Sharks: <a href=”https://t.co/nnhkcBS07V”>pic.twitter.com/nnhkcBS07V</a>

—@SanJoseSharks

The You Can Play Project, which works to promote inclusiveness in sports, said the organization was disappointed in Reimer’s actions.

“Religion and respect are not in conflict with each other, and we are certainly disappointed when religion is used as a reason to not support our community,” the organization said.

“Wearing pride jerseys, like any celebration jersey worn, is not about the personal feelings of an athlete; rather the communication from the team that a community is welcome in the arena and the sport.”

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