The Toronto Maple Leafs have some important games coming up, but they cannot afford to look past Saturday night when they visit the last-place Montreal Canadiens.
Under interim coach Martin St. Louis, the Canadiens are believing in themselves and the results show it. After Thursday’s 4-3 home loss to the Eastern Conference-leading Florida Panthers, Montreal is 9-4-3 since Feb. 17.
“I think we showed we can play with any team in the league,” Canadiens defenceman Joel Edmundson said. “A couple of months ago, we couldn’t do that. Right now, the way we’re playing, we can give any team a run for its money.”
The Maple Leafs learned that on Feb. 21 when they lost 5-2 in Montreal. The teams have split two games this season.
“There is trust,” said Montreal forward Paul Byron, who scored Thursday. “It makes a big difference. We know we can win every night. Our style of play is really better than before. … We are not as bad as at the start of the season. There are good players, good young people. Cole [Caufield] and Nick [Suzuki] have so much potential.
“There is a good group. We can forget the past and focus on the future. We must forget the dark months of November, December and January.”
The Maple Leafs, who play Florida and the Boston Bruins next, have made some changes since they last played the Canadiens.
Rookie goaltender Erik Kallgren has had an impact recently and will start against Montreal.
Defenceman Mark Giordano and forward Colin Blackwell were obtained in a trade with the Seattle Kraken on Sunday.
Giordano and Blackwell made their Toronto debuts Wednesday in a 3-2 victory over the visiting New Jersey Devils.
Teamed mostly with Timothy Liljegren and getting some power-play duty, Giordano logged 18:35 in ice time. Blackwell recorded 8:21 playing on the fourth line and also had some brief shifts on the power play and in a penalty-killing role.
Giordano was obtained to give the defence a needed boost and he did.
“When he was out there, and the puck was on his stick, things seemed to settle down and you could just tell he’s a veteran,” Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said. “He knows how to play. Despite coming in [to] new teammates, new city, new system, all those kinds of things, he’s just confident and moving pucks, defending, getting in people’s way so I really liked his play.”
Ilya Mikheyev and Pierre Engvall scored short-handed goals and Mitch Marner scored his career-best 27th goal in the victory.
Auston Matthews assisted on Marner’s goal to match his career high with 80 points (46 goals, 34 assists). With 19 games left, Matthews is one away from matching his career high in goals, and two from his career high in assists.
In an encouraging development Wednesday, veteran goaltender Petr Mrazek had a decent game, stopping 20 shots. He had struggled mightily for nearly a month (allowing 20 goals in five games) and was put on waivers, which he cleared Monday.
“I thought he looked really good.” Keefe said “I thought he looked calm and confident. Tough game you know you only get a few shots [three] in that first period, not a lot of work and the couple of shots he got were tough saves there. All of a sudden, in the second period things turned and there were a lot more really good looks for them that I thought he looked good. That was a great step for him.”
Mrazek is scheduled to start Sunday when Toronto plays host to Florida.
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.
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.
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.
