Alex Ovechkin scored two goals to move into a tie for third place on the NHL’s all-time list and the visiting Washington Capitals defeated the Calgary Flames 5-4 on Tuesday night for their third straight win.
The forward scored in the second period and added an empty-net goal to tie Jaromir Jagr (766) for third place all-time. Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom became the ninth pair of teammates to play 1,000 NHL games together.
Nic Dowd scored the go-ahead goal for Washington, and Nick Jensen had three assists. Vitek Vanecek made 31 saves.
Elias Lindholm scored twice for Calgary, which saw its 13-game home point streak end. Dan Vladar made 22 saves.
Coyotes 9, Red Wings 2
Nick Schmaltz had two goals and two assists to lead Arizona to a road romp over Detroit.
Jakob Chychrun and Nick Ritchie each had two goals and an assist for Arizona, which has won three in a row and four of its last five. Christian Fischer and Clayton Keller added third-period goals for Arizona, which has scored 17 goals in the last two games.
Robby Fabbri and Jakub Vrana tallied goals for Detroit, which has lost five of its last six.
Blackhawks 8, Ducks 3
Patrick Kane set a career high with six points as Chicago beat visiting Anaheim.
Kane had a goal and five assists — surpassing his previous career high of five points, accomplished twice in his 15-year career. Dylan Strome tallied three goals and an assist on his 25th birthday, Alex DeBrincat had a goal and three assists, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 29 saves for the Blackhawks, who had lost six of their previous eight.
Ryan Carpenter and Jonathan Toews added Chicago’s other goals. Jakob Silfverberg, Trevor Zegras and Adam Henrique scored for Anaheim in the opener of a five-game road trip. John Gibson was lifted after yielding five first-period goals.
Devils 5, Avalanche 3
Yegor Sharangovich had a goal and an assist as New Jersey rallied from three goals down to beat Colorado in Newark, N.J.
Nathan Bastian, Ty Smith, Damon Severson and Tomas Tatar also scored for the Devils, who have won two in a row. Jesper Bratt had three assists, Jack Hughes notched two assists and Nico Daws stopped 23 shots.
Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon tallied a goal and two assists, Cale Makar and Mikko Rantanen had a goal and an assist each and Darcy Kuemper made 38 saves. The league-leading Avalanche fell to 1-2-1 in their past four games.
Maple Leafs 6, Kraken 4
Auston Matthews scored three goals to raise his league-leading total to 43 as Toronto defeated visiting Seattle.
William Nylander, John Tavares and Mitchell Marner each had a goal and an assist for the Maple Leafs, who won for the fifth time in seven games. TJ Brodie and Michael Bunting added two assists apiece. Jack Campbell made 26 saves.
Colin Blackwell had a goal and an assist for the Kraken, and Carson Soucy, Alex Wennberg and Jaden Schwartz also scored. Philipp Grubauer stopped 26 shots for Seattle, which fell to 0-3-0 on a five-game road trip.
Jets 7, Lightning 4
Pierre-Luc Dubois and Kyle Connor scored two minutes apart in the third period to break open a tie game, helping host Winnipeg beat Tampa Bay.
Paul Stastny scored twice and Josh Morrissey tallied a goal and assist for Winnipeg. Meanwhile, Mark Scheifele recorded a goal with three assists as the Jets improved to 3-1-1 in their last five.
Ryan McDonagh, Victor Hedman, Alex Killorn and Ross Colton each scored for the Lightning, who had won seven of eight overall and four straight on the road.
Predators 2, Stars 1
Captain Roman Josi scored the go-ahead goal with 1:22 remaining in the third period vs. Dallas, propelling host Nashville to its fourth win in six games.
Josi followed a four-assist performance in Nashville’s 8-0 romp at San Jose on Saturday by scoring his 15th goal of the season. Ryan Johansen also scored in the third period and Juuse Saros made 22 saves to improve to 12-4-1 in his career vs. Dallas.
Defenseman John Klingberg scored 32 seconds into the third period for the Stars, who saw their four-game winning streak come to a halt.
Senators 4, Blues 1
Josh Norris and Tim Stutzle had a goal and two assists each as visiting Ottawa beat St. Louis to snap a five-game losing streak.
Brady Tkachuk, who grew up in St. Louis watching his father Keith play for the Blues, and Alex Formenton also scored for the Senators. Colin White notched two assists and Anton Forsberg made 22 saves to earn the victory.
David Perron scored and Jordan Binnington stopped 24 shots for the Blues, who are winless in their last four games (0-3-1). The Blues also lost winger Pavel Buchnevich, who was knocked out of the game by a high hit from Austin Watson late in the third period.
Panthers 4, Penguins 3
Carter Verhaeghe scored the eventual game-winning goal and added an assist as visiting Florida held off Pittsburgh for a fourth straight win.
Sam Reinhart, Aaron Ekblad and Anthony Duclair also scored and Aleksander Barkov added two assists for the Panthers, who blew a two-goal, first-period lead before getting the next two. Sergei Bobrovsky made 32 saves.
Bryan Rust and Sidney Crosby each had a goal and an assist while Jake Guentzel also scored for the Penguins, who lost their second in a row. Tristan Jarry stopped 25 shots.
Wild 5, Rangers 2
Kevin Fiala scored two goals, Marcus Foligno added one goal and two assists and Minnesota pulled away for a win over New York in Saint Paul, Minn.
Ryan Hartman and Joel Eriksson Ek also scored for the Wild, who snapped a two-game skid. Minnesota’s Cam Talbot stopped 23 of 25 shots.
Dryden Hunt and Mika Zibanejad scored for the Rangers, who lost for the first time in four games. New York goalie Alexandar Georgiev gave up five goals on 28 shots to fall to 7-9-2.
Flyers 2, Golden Knights 1
Justin Braun and Oskar Lindblom each scored a goal and Carter Hart made a career-high 47 saves as host Philadelphia defeated Vegas.
Scott Laughton had assists on both tallies for the Flyers, who won their second game in a row. Hart had 17 saves in the third period as the Flyers finished 3-4-1 on their longest homestand of the season.
Evgenii Dadonov scored the lone goal for the Golden Knights, who had their two-game winning streak snapped. Robin Lehner stopped 19 shots.
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.
