Oman holds on to edge Nepal with one ball to spare in cricket thriller

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.

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.

TORONTO – Second-half goals by Cucho Hernandez and Andrés Herrera lifted defending champion Columbus to a 2-0 win over Toronto FC in MLS play Wednesday.

Toronto had more of the attack in a scoreless first half but it took Hernandez just six minutes to show his quality after coming on to start the second half.

Canadian Jacen Russell-Rowe set up the goal, staving off defender Richie Laryea to feed the 25-year-old Colombian star. Hernandez paused, took a look to see where goalkeeper Sean Johnson was and curled a shot past the diving ‘keeper from the edge of the penalty box for his 14th goal of the season.

The goal, before an announced crowd of 21,355 at BMO Field, snapped a 231-minute drought for Columbus.

Herrera, on loan from Argentina’s River Plate, padded the lead in the 70th minute, winning a battle with Raoul Petretta in the Toronto penalty box before slotting a low shot past Johnson for his first MLS goal. Toronto argued that the Argentine wingback had fouled Petretta in getting the ball but referee Guido Gonzales Jr. was unmoved.

Columbus (15-5-8) arrived in third place in the Eastern Conference, five places and 14 points ahead of Toronto (11-16-3). A playoff position already clinched, the Crew were hoping to leapfrog Cincinnati into second spot.

Coming off a 2-0 weekend win over visiting Austin FC, Toronto had won four of six league outings (4-2-0) since losing 4-0 to Columbus on July 6 at Lower.com Field. The Crew were 3-2-2 and had failed to score in their last two outings (a 4-0 loss to visiting Seattle and 0-0 draw at rival FC Cincinnati).

Toronto is looking to move up the table past seventh-place Charlotte, to avoid the wild-card playoff that pits No. 8 against No. 9 with the winner taking on the top seed in the conference (currently Inter Miami).

Two key players exited early on the night, however.

Toronto captain Jonathan Osorio, who required treatment on his left thigh late in the first half, was replaced by Tyrese Spicer at halftime. And Italian star Lorenzo Insigne limped off in the 69th minute.

Federico Bernardeschi came close to putting Toronto ahead in the seventh minute, taking a fine pass from Alonso Coello and cutting into the penalty box only to see his powerful left-footed shot hit the crossbar with goalkeeper Patrick Schulte beaten.

Schulte made a fine foot save to deny Insigne from close-range in the 22nd minute off a Bernardeschi feed on a TFC counter-attack.

Columbus’ first shot on goal — right at Johnson — came from Herrera in the 35th minute.

Hernandez, the 2023 MLS Cup MVP, came on to start the second half in place of Uruguayan forward Diego Rossi.

A scrambling Johnson made an acrobatic one-handed save to stop a deflected Hernandez cross in the 57th minute. Five minutes later, Derrick Etienne Jr.’s shot nicked a Columbus defender and squibbed off-target.

Hernandez had a chance at a second goal in the 89th minute but a sliding Sigurd Rosted got a foot to the ball.

Toronto midfielder Brandon Servania came on in the 82nd minute, his first MLS action since undergoing surgery to repair a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament in October 2023.

Toronto was thin in defence with Nicksoen Gomis, Henry Wingo and Kevin Long out with hamstring injuries and Shane O’Neill suspended for yellow-card accumulation. Rosted and Etienne came in for Gomis and Wingo.

Toronto fielded a back three of Petretta, Rosted and Laryea.

Rossi was the only one of Columbus’ three designated players in the starting 11 with captain Darlington Nagbe and Hernandez on the bench to start as coach Wilfried Nancy looked to deal with a congested schedule.

Russell-Rowe started up front for Columbus. The 22-year-old from Brampton, Ont., who spent seven years with the Toronto academy, had two assists in June 2022 at BMO Field in his first MLS start to help the Crew defeat Toronto 2-1.

Columbus came into the game with the league’s stingiest defence, conceding 1.04 goals a game.

Toronto has conceded 53 goals, 25 more than Columbus, which has collected more points (8-3-4, 28 points) on the road in league play this season than Toronto had at home (7-8-0, 21 points).

The Columbus game was the first of four in an 11-day stretch that will see TFC visit Colorado on Saturday, Vancouver on Sept. 25 in the Canadian Championship final and Chicago on Sept. 28. Toronto will then close out the regular season at home to the New York Red Bulls on Oct. 2 and Inter Miami on Oct. 5.

—

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024