Jesse Puljujarvi scored two goals in a 46-second span of the first period and the Edmonton Oilers went on to beat the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets 5-2 on Thursday, ending a six-game losing streak.
Brendan Perlini had a goal and an assist for the Oilers, who had scored six goals total in their past five games. Edmonton’s Derek Ryan and Warren Foegele also scored, Puljujarvi added and assist, and Stuart Skinner made 36 saves.
Gustav Nyquist and Justin Danforth scored for Columbus, while Elvis Merzlikins stopped 25 of 29 shots over two periods. Joonas Korpisalo and stopped all 15 shots he faced in the final period for the Blue Jackets, who have lost eight of 10 games (2-7-1).
Canadiens 3, Flyers 2
Jonathan Drouin scored the only goal in a shootout, and host Montreal beat Philadelphia in front of no fans to snap a seven-game losing streak.
Less than two hours before the game, the Canadiens announced that no fans would be allowed in the arena because of rising COVID-19 cases.
Artturi Lehkonen and Laurent Dauphin each scored in regulation for the Canadiens, who ended an 0-6-1 skid and earned just their second victory in 11 games. Max Willman and Jackson Cates scored for the Flyers, who had won three in a row.
Islanders 3, Bruins 1
Cal Clutterbuck scored twice and Semyon Varlamov carried a shutout into the final minute for the New York, which beat depleted Boston in Elmont, N.Y.
Anthony Beauvillier snapped a 14-game scoreless streak by scoring the middle goal for the Islanders, who have won three of five since an 11-game losing streak (0-8-3). Varlamov made 40 saves before Mike Reilly’s shot caromed off the top post and into the net with 53.1 seconds left.
Linus Ullmark, who drew the start with No. 1 goalie Jeremy Swayman among the six players in COVID-19 protocols, made 25 saves for the Bruins, who have lost two straight and four of six (2-2-2).
Golden Knights 5, Devils 3
William Karlsson and Nicolas Roy scored 33 seconds apart in the third period to lift Vegas to a victory in Newark, N.J.
Defenseman Dylan Coghlan scored a power-play goal and William Carrier and Jonathan Marchessault also scored for the Golden Knights, who have posted 33 goals during their last seven games (6-1-0). Reilly Smith had a pair of assists and Robin Lehner finished with 23 saves before leaving in the late stages for his role in a skirmish.
Tomas Tatar collected a goal and an assist and Jack Hughes and Jimmy Vesey also scored for the Devils, who have lost four in a row and eight of their past nine (1-7-1).
Lightning 2, Senators 1
Victor Hedman scored the tiebreaking goal on the power play — set up by Steven Stamkos’ 900th career point — and Tampa Bay beat visiting Ottawa.
Hedman, who also had an assist, notched his seventh goal this season as the Lightning won their sixth straight at home. Alex Killorn also scored for Tampa Bay. Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy posted 25 saves and set an NHL record by earning his 63rd win in the 2021 calendar year.
Thomas Chabot notched his first goal and Anton Forsberg made 25 saves for the Senators, who had their two-game winning streak broken and fell to 0-13-0 when trailing after two periods.
Hurricanes 5, Red Wings 3
Nino Niederreiter scored twice, including a tiebreaking goal 18 seconds into the third period, as roster-strapped Carolina beat Detroit in Raleigh, N.C.
Carolina played with just 16 skaters because of COVID-19 protocols.
Hurricanes goalie Frederik Andersen made 23 saves. Sam Gagner, Dylan Larkin and Tyler Bertuzzi scored for the Red Wings. Alex Nedeljkovic, playing for the first time against his former team, stopped 28 shots for Detroit.
Kings 4, Panthers 1
Jonathan Quick made a season-high 41 saves in Sunrise, Fla., as Los Angeles routed short-handed Florida, which played without seven players due to COVID protocols and two more out with injuries.
Olli Maatta, Anze Kopitar, Dustin Brown and Arthur Kaliyev scored for the Kings.
Matt Kiersted scored for the Panthers, his first NHL goal. Sergei Bobrovsky made 27 saves for the Panthers, who still lead the NHL in home wins (14-3-0).
Sabers 3, Wild 2 (SO)
Tage Thompson scored the only goal in a shootout to give Buffalo a win in Saint Paul, Minn.
Dylan Cozens and Mark Pysyk scored, and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 30 saves, for the Sabres, who won consecutive games for the first time since Oct. 25 and Oct. 28.
Jon Merrill and Kirill Kaprizov scored for the Wild, who had their six-game home winning streak snapped and are winless (0-2-1) in three straight for the first time this season. Minnesota’s Cam Talbot made 38 saves.
Predators 5, Avalanche 2
Filip Forsberg tallied two goals and an assist, Tanner Jeannot notched a goal and an assist, and host Nashville beat Colorado as both teams dealt with COVID-19 issues.
Roman Josi and Mattias Ekholm also scored, Colton Sissons had three assists, Alexandre Carrier had two assists and Juuse Saros stopped 24 shots for Nashville. Mikko Rantanen had a goal and an assist, Valeri Nichushkin scored and Pavel Francouz made 30 saves for the Avalanche.
The Predators have seven players and four coaches, including the entire bench staff, on the protocol list. Karl Taylor — coach of the Milwaukee Admirals, Nashville’s AHL affiliate — served as the acting coach. Colorado added four players to the protocol list: goaltender Darcy Kuemper, Cale Makar, Andre Burakovsky and J.T. Compher.
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.
