The Edmonton Oilers did not bring their “A” game to Rogers Place on Tuesday night.
On the other hand, the Montreal Canadiens showed up game for a battle and gave the Oilers all they could handle in a 3-2 OT win for Edmonton. Leon Draisaitl drilled home the winner from his familiar spot, on a 1-timer on the Power Play (a 4-minute one that started late in the 3rd).
CALVIN PICKARD. 8. Two strong, early saves on Armia. Got a piece of one on the Habs’ PP before it clinked off the post and out. Blocker-ed away a dangerous shot from Anderson in the 2nd. A well-timed poke check kept a loose puck away from Gallagher. Big pad save on Harvey-Pinard in the 2nd. A solid block on Roy to end the 2nd. Little chance on Montreal’s greasy 2-1 goal early in the 3rd. Got a piece of the 2-2 goal but Guhle was bearing down on him with no Oilers in sight. Stopped Anderson after a turnover deep in the 3rd Period. Pickard and Mattias Ekholm were Edmonton’s two best players.
CONNOR McDAVID. 7. Picked up a puck knocked loose by Ekholm along the wall, beat a man clean then deked the goaltender right-to-left for the 1-0. Looked like he may have had the 2-0 as well as his shot slipped through 5-hole, but the Habs’ defender Guhle swept it to safety. Circled the wagons in the 2nd then fed Ekholm for a chance. Hustled back (without one glove which had been “removed” by an attacker) to ultimately stymie a Montreal 3-on-1 after the puck his skate and cleared the zone. Terrific O-zone retrieval in OT, dished to Nurse and then again to Draisaitl for the game winner. 9 (yes, 9!) shots.
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ZACH HYMAN. 5. Nice pass in front to Kane early. Had a chance at a loose puck in front on a 2nd Period PP. hammered one off the post late in the 3rd. 4 shots,+1. Not as noticeable as he normally is.
DARNELL NURSE. 7. Strong performance. Called for a weak tripping call in the 1st made by the back referee. But Nurse’s mates killed it off. Strong stick at his own blueline on a 2nd Period PK. Swallowed up a loose puck after a turnover by his own goalie. Excellent pass to McDavid in the high slot on the OT winner, Nurse earning the secondary assist. Only allowed one 5v5 Grade A chance against on his watch.
TROY STECHER. 5. Solid. The zone entry on the eventual 2-0. 2 hits. Only a single Grade A against 5v5.
LEON DRAISAITL. 6. Leon Draisaitl was the better of this trio which over-all struggled tonight. But he too was off a half-turn. Split two defenders as he was bearing down on the Montreal net in the 2nd, but the puck chipped off his stick at the last second. 2nd Period shot off a McDavid pass. Took a hooking call, erasing a 3rd Period 4v4. Slick pass to Hyman late in the 3rd by Hyman hit the post. Hammered home the Overtime winner from just a stride or two above the goal line off a fine feed from McDavid. A rare night below 50% on the dot.
WARREN FOEGELE. 4. Struggled. Turned the puck over up the wall in the 3rd leading to a chance against. A microcosm of an off night for him as well.
MATTIAS EKHOLM. 9. Played just a tremendous game. His aggressive pinch up the left side jarred the puck loose and McDavid did the rest on the 1-0. Excellent 2nd Period chance off a long developing set-up from McDavid. Activated from the blueline then filtered a terrific pass back-door to Henrique in the slot for the 2-0. High Dangers 4-2 5v5. 2 hits, +2 in 21:07. Edmonton’s best skater tonight.
EVAN BOUCHARD. 7. Hard back-check erased a break when he was pick-pocketed at the attacking blueline. Sharp cross-ice pass for a secondary assist on the 2-0. That was his 50th assist of the season, only he and the great Paul Coffey have hit that mark in Oilers silks. 2 good shots on a 2nd Period PP. Late to release his man in the middle, leaving all of the left-hand side of the ice on the 3rd period 4v4 and Montreal capitalized on the open ice with the 2-2. On balance, though, he was quite good.
ADAM HENRIQUE. 6. Good feed in front to Nugent-Hopkins who chipped it wide. Scored his 1st as an Oiler by getting superior positioning on his man in front and then backhanding a terrific pass from Ekholm home for the 2-0. Drew the Montreal double minor which eventually produced the game winner. 50% on draws. 3 hits.
DEREK RYAN 4. Drew a roughing call in the 2nd. Credited with 3 hits. -1.
BRETT KULAK. 6. Strong, hard play on Gallagher right in front. Sharp pick-off & clear in the 2nd. Caught in no-man’s land after Ceci went on a walk-about on the 2-1 goal. Drew a 3rd Period trip with some challenging work deep in his own zone. By far the better of the two on this pair tonight.
CODY CECI. 4. Rough game. Over-committed on a Montreal rush early in the 3rd, then did not track down his man until a split-second after the puck had pinballed into the net for the 2-1. 3rd Period blocked shot. A miserable 6-21, 22% 5v5. Did have 6 hits.
MATTIAS JANMARK. 4. Quiet, quiet game. Crushed in shot shares (5v5 CF 5-13, 28%).
COREY PERRY. 4. Good defensive stick in the 1st. Made some good things happen along the walls late in the 3rd. But a generally quiet night.
Edmonton’s record now sits at 41-21-4, 86 points. They are 2nd in the Pacific, 8 back of Vancouver with 3 games in hand.
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CALGARY – The Calgary Flames have re-signed defenceman Ilya Solovyov and centre Cole Schwindt, the NHL club announced Wednesday.
Solovyov signed a two-year deal which is a two-way contract in year one and a one-way deal in year two and carries an average annual value of US$775,000 at the NHL level.
Schwindt signed a one-year, two-way contract with an average annual value of $800,000 at the NHL level.
The 24-year-old Solovyov, from Mogilev, Belarus, made his NHL debut last season and had three assists in 10 games for the Flames. He also had five goals and 10 assists in 51 games with the American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers and added one goal in six Calder Cup playoff games.
Schwindt, from Kitchener, Ont., made his Flames debut last season and appeared in four games with the club.
The 23-year-old also had 14 goals and 22 assists in 66 regular-season games with the Wranglers and added a team-leading four goals, including one game-winning goal, in the playoffs.
Schwindt was selected by Florida in the third round, 81st overall, at the 2019 NHL draft. He came to Calgary in July 2022 along with forward Jonathan Huberdeau and defenceman MacKenzie Weegar in the trade that sent star forward Matthew Tkachuk to the Panthers.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
KING CITY, Ont. – Oman scored 10 runs in the final over to edge Nepal by one wicket with just one ball remaining in ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 play Wednesday.
Kaleemullah, the No. 11 batsman who goes by one name, hit a four with the penultimate ball as Oman finished at 223 for nine. Nepal had scored 220 for nine in its 50 overs.
Kaleemullah and No. 9 batsman Shakeel Ahmed each scored five in the final over off Sompal Kami. They finished with six and 17 runs, respectively.
Opener Latinder Singh led Oman with 41 runs.
Nepal’s Gulsan Jha was named man of the match after scoring 53 runs and recording a career-best five-wicket haul. The 18-year-old slammed five sixes and three-fours in his 35-ball knock, scoring 23 runs in the 46th over alone when he hit six, six, four, two, four and one off Aqib Ilyas.
Captain Rohit Paudel led Nepal with 60 runs.
The 19th-ranked Canadians, who opened the triangular series Monday with a 103-run win over No. 17 Nepal, face No. 16 Oman on Friday, Nepal on Sunday and Oman again on Sept. 26. All the games are at the Maple Leaf Cricket Ground.
The eight World League 2 teams each play 36 one-day internationals spread across nine triangular series through December 2026. The top four sides will go through to a World Cup qualifier that will decide the last four berths in the expanded 14-team Cricket World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
Canada (5-4) stands second in the World League 2 table. The 14th-ranked Dutch top the table at 6-2.
Oman (2-2 with one no-result) stands sixth, ahead of Nepal (1-5).
Canada won all four matches in its opening tri-series in February-March, sweeping No. 11 Scotland and the 20th-ranked host Emirates. But the Canadians lost four in a row to the 18th-ranked U.S. and host Netherlands in August.
Canada which debuted in the T20 World Cup this summer in the U.S. and West Indies, is looking to get back to the showcase 50-over Cricket World Cup for the first time since 2011 after failing to qualify for the last three editions. The Canadian men also played in the 1979, 2003 and 2007 tournaments, exiting after the group stage in all four tournament appearances.
The Canadian men regained their one-day international status for the first time in almost a decade by finishing in the top four of the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier Playoff in April 2023 in Bermuda.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
PENTICTON, B.C. – Rick Tocchet has already warned his Vancouver Canucks players — the looming NHL season won’t be easy.
The team made strides last year, the head coach said Wednesday ahead of training camp. The bar has been raised for this year’s campaign.
“To get to the next plateau, there are higher expectations and it’s going to be hard. We know that,” Tocchet said in Penticton, B.C., where the team will open its camp on Thursday.
“So that’s the next level. It starts day one (on Thursday). My thing is don’t waste a rep out there.”
The Canucks finished atop the Pacific Division with a 50-23-9 record last season, then ousted the Nashville Predators from the playoffs in a gritty, six-game first-round series. Vancouver then fell to the Edmonton Oilers in a seven-game second-round set.
Last fall, Jim Rutherford, the Canucks president of hockey operations, said everything would have to go right for the team to make a playoff push. That doesn’t change this season, he said, despite last year’s success.
“The challenges will be greater, certainly. But I believe the team that we started with last year, we have just as good a team to start the season this year and probably better,” he said.
“As long as the team builds off what they did last year, stick to what the coaches tell them, stick to the system, stick together in good times and bad times, this team has a chance to do pretty well.”
Some key players will be missing as Vancouver’s training camp begins, however.
Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin announced Wednesday that star goalie Thatcher Demko will not be on the ice when the team begins it’s pre-season preparation.
Allvin did not disclose the reason for Demko’s absence, but said the 28-year-old American has been making progress.
“He’s been in working extremely hard and he seems to be in a great mindset,” the GM said.
Demko missed several weeks of the regular season and much of Vancouver’s playoff run last spring with a knee injury.
The six-foot-four, 192-pound goalie has a career 213-116-81 regular-season record with a .912 save percentage, a 2.79 goals-against average and eight shutouts across seven seasons with the Canucks.
Allvin also announced that veteran centre Teddy Blueger and defensive prospect Cole McWard will also miss the start of training camp after each had “minor lower-body surgery.”
Vancouver previously announced winger Dakota Joshua won’t be present for the start of camp as he recovers from surgery for testicular cancer.
Tocchet said he’ll have no problem filling the holes, and plans to switch his lines up a lot in Penticton.
“Nothing’s set in stone,” he said. “I think it’s important that you have different puzzles at different times.”
The coach added that he expects standout centre Elias Pettersson to begin on a line with Canucks newcomer Jake DeBrusk.
Vancouver inked DeBrusk, a former Boston Bruins forward, to a seven-year, US$38.5 million deal when the NHL’s free agent market opened on July 1.
The glare on Pettersson is expected to be bright once again as he enters the first year of a new eight-year, $92.8 million contract. The 25-year-old Swede struggled at times last season and put 89 points (34 goals, 55 assists) in 82 games.
Rutherford said he was impressed with how Pettersson looked when he returned to Vancouver ahead of camp.
“He seems to be a guy that’s more relaxed and more comfortable. And for obvious reasons,” said the president of hockey ops. “This is a guy that I believe has worked really hard this summer. He’s done everything he can to play as a top-line player. … The expectation for him is to be one of the top players on our team.”
A number of Canucks hit milestones last season, including Quinn Hughes, who led all NHL defencemen in scoring with 92 points and won the Norris Trophy as the league’s top blue liner.
Several players could once again have career-best years for Vancouver, Tocchet said, but they’ll need to be consistent and not allow frustration to creep in when things go wrong.
“You’ve just got to drive yourself every day when you have a great year,” the coach said. “You’ve got to keep creating that environment where they can achieve those goals, whatever they are. And the main goal is winning. That’s really what it comes down to.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
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