Billy Kapogiannis kept screaming long after the television camera stopped recording. He found himself yelling as he left his seat inside Amalie Arena and realized he was still going even after crossing a street, walking outside in a warm, victorious evening in Tampa, Fla.
“I just couldn’t stop,” he said with a laugh. “I don’t know what the hell came out of me.”
His reaction made him famous to television viewers and social media users on Monday night, releasing a primal scream after watching Leafs forward Alex Kerfoot cap an unlikely comeback with an overtime goal to secure a 3-1 lead over the Lightning in their first-round playoff series. Kapogiannis was seen on the Sportsnet broadcast screaming into his phone, before abandoning the call to scream into space.
By Tuesday morning, raspy and happy, he had forgotten who was on the other end of that call.
“It could have been Jesus Christ at that point, I don’t know,” he said. “I just answered: ‘Hi, Jesus! It’s the Leafs!’”
Kapogiannis is a restaurant server and entrepreneur from Aurora, Ont., just north of Toronto, who flew to Florida on a whim. Sam Cortese, a friend and colleague, was standing next to him when the camera zoomed in after the win. Cortese was laughing as Kapogiannis screamed to the heavens.
“That’s the passion, that’s what being a Leaf fan is,” said Kapogiannis. “That’s what the world doesn’t understand: We’re not fans, we are Leaf fans, and there’s a difference.”
He cheers for teams in other sports, including the Dallas Cowboys.
“When it comes to the Leafs, I don’t know what happens to me,” he said. “I just go mental, if you want to know the truth.”
Tampa built a 2-0 lead through the first period and kept adding distance into the second. The Lightning were ahead 4-1 when Kapogiannis leaned over to Cortese to say he had to use the restroom. It was near the halfway point of the third period in Game 4.
He was on his way to the facilities when Auston Matthews scored. It was 4-2, and Kapogiannis made it back to his seat in time to witness the events that followed.
“I’m getting chirped all night,” he said. “This one guy in front of me just kept chirping and chirping and chirping. I’m like, ‘Relax, bro: (The series is) still 2-1, take it easy.’
“And bang! And bang! And bang! The goals kept coming. I’m like, ‘Oh my god, I’m going to lose my mind over here.’”
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Kapogiannis works at Avenue, an Italian restaurant in Kleinburg, a 45-minute drive north of Scotiabank Arena. Cortese is a chef. They are also partners in VTL Indoor Golf & Academy, an indoor golf facility in Vaughan. (It was a customer who offered them the tickets in Tampa.)
At 59, Kapogiannis is old enough to have been alive when the Leafs won their last Stanley Cup, but not to have any living memory. He has been a fan of the franchise for his whole life, with the playoff run of 1993 seared into his memory.
He said he has twice served former Leafs captain Darryl Sittler. Once, he said, the retired forward left a sweater inside the restaurant. Someone passed him a cell number for Kapogiannis, who set the sweater aside for safekeeping.
On Monday, Kapogiannis spotted someone in Tampa wearing a Sittler jersey. He snapped a photo and sent it to Sittler.
He said Sittler texted back: “Go Leafs! Enjoy.”
The Leafs were also still in Tampa on Tuesday morning. With two days between games, they opted to stay the night, before returning to Toronto for a practice on Wednesday.
Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe suggested the extra day would help players decompress from the chaos of their frenzied comeback from a 4-1 deficit. (It would also, he said, give staff more time to decide if forward Michael Bunting would return to the lineup for Game 5 on Thursday, following a three-game suspension for elbowing Tampa defenceman Erik Cernak in Game 1.)
“We’ve got to prepare to win one hockey game — one very challenging hockey game,” Keefe said in a brief Zoom session with reporters on Tuesday. “Anything else outside of our preparation, and then our execution when game time comes, is a distraction.”
Kapogiannis was still dealing with the endless distraction of his mobile phone. His nephew called him during the game, as well as his niece and his brother. At first, the messages were about his appearance on the television broadcast.
When those images hit social media, his phone became a pinwheel of dings and notifications. Cortese was still sorting through his messages on the morning after. They were scheduled to fly out later in the evening.
They would head back to the arena for a few photos. Kapogiannis would smile, but it was difficult to do much more screaming. His was hoarse.
“I have no voice,” he said. “I just kept screaming.”
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.
