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Matthews extends career-best goal streak as Leafs heap added misery on flailing Canucks – CBC.ca

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Auston Matthews has never had a run like this in the NHL.

And in the process, the Maple Leafs star helped heap more misery on a flailing opponent once again left searching for answers.

Matthews scored twice — including a stunning finish that materialized out of almost nothing — to extend his goal streak to a career-best seven consecutive games Saturday as Toronto thumped the Vancouver Canucks 5-1.

“I try to have the same mindset whether the puck’s going in or not,” said the 23-year-old centre, who also buried a pair in Thursday’s 7-3 victory over Vancouver, and is always more eager to talk about a teammate’s success than his own.

WATCH | Matthews strikes twice against Canucks:

Auston Matthews potted his ninth and tenth goals of the season in Toronto’s 5-1 win over Vancouver. 0:56

With the Leafs already up 1-0 in the first period, Matthews stepped past Canucks defenceman Jalen Chatfield in the blink of an eye before roofing the puck shortside on Braden Holty to extend his streak.

“That goal … it happens so fast that I don’t think anybody on the ice was really ready for it,” Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “Just how quickly he went from going around the defender to putting it in the net … it was impressive.

“I think in both these games we’ve played here, he could have had four or five. He was really feeling it.”

Simmonds, Hyman supplement offence

Wayne Simmonds, with two of his own, and Zach Hyman, with a goal and an assist, provided the rest of the offence for Toronto (9-2-1). Frederik Andersen, who was just over two minutes away from registering his first shutout of the season, finished with 27 saves.

Mitch Marner added three assists to extend his point streak to seven games, while Mikko Lehtonen chipped in with two more for his first two-point night in the NHL.

Toronto is now 7-0-1 over its last eight and sits atop the North Division with 19 points, one better than the Montreal Canadiens.

“We’re controlling the puck well,” Marner said. “When that’s happening, it’s a good sign from us.”

It’s also been a very bad sign for Vancouver (6-9-0), which got a late goal from Brock Boeser in losing a fourth straight game in regulation this week.

“We need to expect a little more out of ourselves,” said Holtby, who made 26 stops. “As a group we need to be a whole lot better.”

WATCH | Week 3 roundup of the NHL’s North Division:

In our new weekly segment, Rob Pizzo catches you up on the week that was in the all-Canadian division in the NHL. 3:11

Playing their league-leading 15th contest, the Canucks have now surrendered an NHL-worst 60 goals in 2020-21, and have given up at least five against nine times.

“Everything looks difficult for our team,” Vancouver head coach Travis Green said. “Simple plays look hard right now.

“It’s not coming easy, and maybe that’s a little bit of a mental thing.”

The teams play seven more times in the NHL’s abbreviated season, including Monday back inside a fan-less Scotiabank Arena because of COVID-19 protocols to wrap up this three-game set.

Looking for a spark, Green reunited the “Lotto Line” of Boeser (No. 6), Elias Pettersson (No. 40) and J.T. Miller (No. 9), while Vancouver winger Loui Eriksson — in the fifth season of albatross $36-million US, six-year contract — made his 2020-21 debut alongside Bo Horvat and Tanner Pearson.

WATCH | CBC Sports’ Rob Pizzo highlights NHL’s Black trailblazers:

Willie O’Ree broke the league’s colour barrier in 1958, and there have been a lot of firsts since then. Rob Pizzo walks you through 9 trailblazers for Black History Month. 1:52

The Canucks, who qualified for the second round of the 2019-20 pandemic-delayed playoffs before undergoing a number off-season changes as key veterans left in free agency, were once again far from good enough versus the high-flying Leafs.

Toronto opened the scoring at 4:42 of the first when its lethal power play, which has now scored in 11 of its 12 outings, went to work. Simmonds took a pass from Marner at the side of the net and, with the cross-ice option to Matthews taken away by a defender, instead roofed his fourth of the season in off the bar.

“I’ve seen that goal a couple times,” Marner said of the veteran winger’s finish. “It’s impressive to see it with my own eyes tonight, though.”

Simmonds then hit two posts on the same shift as Vancouver, which didn’t register a shot attempt until Justin Bailey forced a save out of Andersen almost nine minutes in, struggled to keep up.

Boeser spoils Andersen’s shutout

Pettersson, who would find iron at the end of a power play late in the period, had a chance on a partial break Andersen turned aside before Matthews went to work with his ninth to extend that torrid goal run.

“He’s been playing great,” Marner said of his red-hot linemate. “When you give him time and space, it’s usually a goal.”

The Leafs made it 3-0 at 7:36 of the second when Marner wove into the Vancouver zone and found Lehtonen, who in turn fed a great pass for Hyman to tap in his third.

The Canucks showed some life later in the period, with Andersen making a good save on Nils Hoglander. Miller then blasted a one-timer that beat the Leafs netminder, but Toronto correctly challenged for offside.

Matthews, who played second fiddle to Jason Spezza on Thursday with the veteran registering his first hat trick in nearly five years, put his team up by four with his 10th at 1:28 of the third when he outraced Miller to Holtby’s clearing attempt before firing five-hole.

“Just how powerful he can be an how crafty he is, it’s fun to watch,” Andersen said. “It’s nice to see him be as dominant as he is.”

Simmonds, who left the game after taking a shot off his hand later in the period, added to Vancouver’s pain 1:48 later when he tipped home his fifth off point shot from Lehtonen, who was inserted into the lineup with Travis Dermott (leg) out injured.

Boeser spoiled Andersen’s shutout bid when he scored his sixth on a deflection with 2:04 left in regulation on a Canucks’ man advantage.

But that could do little to sour the Leafs’ mood following another dominant performance.

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Decathlon world champ LePage dealing with low of missing Olympics while rehabbing

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It’s still difficult to put into words for reigning world decathlon champion Pierce LePage.

The 28-year-old from Whitby, Ont., had to withdraw from the Paris Olympics due to a herniated disc in his back. LePage suffered the injury in the spring but pushed to still compete. However, on July 17, he announced on social media that he would not be in Paris and needed surgery.

“I feel like there’s regret obviously — like, yes, I want to be there and things like that,” LePage said. “But I feel like there’s a lot of people and a lot of fans, friends, support, family, all the people that feeling I kind of let down, let myself down, let my coach down so I felt pretty guilty about that for a long time and still, you know going through the motions.

“Obviously it’s tough. I’m world champion. I had a lot of hopes and a lot of goals going into the Games,” he added. “It’s hard to put into words what I felt, but yeah, it sucked. But I was happy to push through as far as I could with the injury.”

LePage tweaked his back in the “end of March, early April,” doing an exercise in the gym. About two weeks later, while training for the long jump, he landed awkwardly, causing the herniated disc in his back.

LePage competed in several individual events in 2024, mostly indoors, but not a decathlon. He was also granted a medical exemption to not compete at Canadian national trials in June.

He said he knew it was “over” after a warm-up for his final competition in July before leaving for Paris. His pole broke prepping for the pole vault and hit the mat, but for the next couple of days had “a lot of nerve symptoms and a lot of pain” that stopped him from even jogging.

“Athletes go through injuries. It’s not anything new and I’ve always been someone who’s always been able to compete through injury, regardless of how severe it is,” LePage said. “So I thought that when it happened that that must be another case of small setback. I’ll be able to do it if I have some pain, like that’s fine, I’ll do whatever.

“But just the nature of the injury is that if it’s pushing on your nerves, you can’t get the results you want out of it.”

LePage, who will be one of 11 RBC Olympians who will be part of this year’s RBC Training Ground National Final on Saturday in Halifax, had surgery in August and says his progression in rehab has been good, although he doesn’t have a recovery timeline. However, he plans to be back well before the 2025 world championships in Tokyo next September.

LePage was coming off a massive 2023 season, claiming the first international title of his career in Gotzis, Austria, then winning his first world title in Budapest, Hungary, some months later. His mark of 8,909 points in Budapest was a personal best, world lead and sixth-best all-time score.

He also became the first Canadian to win a world title in the event. LePage earned his first worlds medal in 2022, with silver, behind world-record holder Kevin Mayer of France.

He finished 2023 as the top-ranked decathlete in the world, still holding that position until the Paris Olympics.

The 2023 season showed how tough LePage would be to beat, especially when healthy. He finished fifth at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 dealing with a torn patella in his right knee. At the 2022 worlds, he competed through a torn patella in his left knee.

Many expected Canada to decathlon win gold and silver in Paris. Damian Warner of London, Ont., was the reigning Olympic champion heading into Paris and earned silver behind LePage at the 2023 worlds.

However, Warner withdrew with just a couple of events left in the decathlon in Paris after failing to clear the opening height of 4.60 metres in the pole vault on all three of his attempts. Warner fell from second to 18th, with no chance of climbing back into the mix.

LePage pointed to reasons for both men to be driven for redemption in Tokyo next year.

“I’m the world champion. I want to defend my title next year,” he said. “I’m sure Damian feels similar thoughts on not wanting to stop right there.

“No one likes to not finish decathlon. That is definitely drive to doing it again and kind of redeem ourselves, I suppose.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 29, 2024.

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Pro Women’s Hockey League announces plans to expand by 2 teams for 2025-26 season

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The six-team Professional Women’s Hockey League is launching its expansion process with plans to add two franchises for the start of the 2025-26 season, a league executive announced Tuesday.

Speaking at the ESPNW Summit in New York, senior vice president of business operations Amy Scheer said the league will begin sending requests for proposals to several markets starting as early as next week, while also accepting applications.

”(We’re) looking for the right market size, right fan base, right facilities, right economic opportunity — so a lot of research to be done over the next couple months,” Scheer said, without specifying which markets the league might be targeting. “But yeah, looking to continue to build the league and grow the number of teams.”

Among the U.S. expansion candidates are Detroit and Pittsburgh, where the PWHL hosted neutral site games during its inaugural season last year. Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia would also be regarded as candidates after both were considered before the league established teams in Boston, New York and Minnesota. Denver and Seattle are also considered potential candidates.

In Canada, where the league has teams in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, Quebec City has already announced its intention of being a candidate for an expansion franchise. Calgary would be a potential option with the city previously being home to the Inferno from 2011 to 2019, before the Canadian Women’s Hocky League folded.

Scheer also announced the league plans to hold neutral site games in nine markets across North America, and is considering holding an outdoor game. Scheer added the league is also working on holding games in Europe, without specifying when that might happen.

The PWHL’s second season opens on Nov. 30, and features an expanded schedule with each team playing 30 games — up from 24 last year. The league has yet to announce where it’s neutral site games will be played.

Quebec City councilor Jackie Smith announced earlier on Tuesday that the PWHL has agreed to play a neutral site game at the city’s Videotron Centre on Jan. 19. The PWHL’s schedule has Ottawa playing Montreal on that day, with the site yet to be determined.

Smith called the development the first step in Quebec City landing an expansion team.

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AP Women’s Hockey:

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Canada’s Eltorgman falls to Israel’s Poleshchuk at Cambridge Classic squash tourney

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TORONTO – Canadian squash player Salah Eltorgman dropped a 7-11, 11-4, 11-9, 11-7 decision to Israel‘s Daniel Poleshchuk in quarterfinal play Tuesday at the Cambridge Group of Clubs Classic.

Eltorgman, from Toronto, was the lone Canadian left in the men’s draw of the Pro Squash Association tournament, which is a companion event to the Canadian Women’s Open.

The lone Canadian remaining in the women’s draw, Hollie Naughton of Mississauga, Ont., was scheduled to play Melissa Alves of France in the quarterfinals on Tuesday evening.

Naughton, the world No. 26, is ranked three positions higher than Alves, who dispatched top-seeded Nele Coll of Belgium on Monday.

Semifinals will be played Wednesday in the Allen Lambert Galleria at Brookfield Place.

The finals are set for Thursday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 29, 2024.

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