TORONTO — It goes down as a win but feels like anything but for Nick Arbuckle.
Arbuckle threw a touchdown pass and ran in for a TD himself as the Toronto Argonauts held on for a wild 17-16 victory over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Friday night.
Hamilton got the ball at the Toronto 50-yard line with 2:23 left in the fourth quarter after a Cariel Brooks interception. The Ticats scored on Sean Thomas Erlington’s 20-yard run less than a minute later but Michael Domagala’s tying convert attempt hit the upright.
“Overall I feel like me and the offence just did not play well enough to win in the second half,” Arbuckle said. “It feels like a loss almost for me.
“That interception I threw at the end, that’s going to sit with me for the next 24 hours, for sure. I was trying to throw the ball away and I didn’t even get it to the sideline. Like, who does that? There were a lot of plays we left out there on offence.”
After the touchdown, Toronto took the ball to midfield with 25 seconds remaining and punted. The Ticats took over at their 18-yard line with 13 seconds left but only got as far the Argos’ 45-yard line as time expired.
“An ugly win is a good win regardless,” said Toronto running back John White IV, who rushed for a game-high 84 yards on 12 carries. “The football gods were looking out for us … we definitely were on the edge of our seats.”
Arbuckle staked Toronto to a 14-7 halftime advantage but the home team deserved better. The Argos held the ball for over 18 minutes and accumulated 217 offensive yards (compared to 154 yards for Hamilton).
Arbuckle had Toronto at the Hamilton 16-yard line in the second quarter but was intercepted in the end zone by the Ticats’ Tunde Adeleke.
“I’ll take any win at this point in the year,” Toronto head coach Ryan Dinwiddie said. “Bad win, good win, it is what it is but we’ll learn from it.
“We know we have to be better. The players were upset when I got (into locker-room) … I think those guys know we left a lot on the field and we were pretty sloppy. We’re not happy with our performance at all.”
Toronto (3-2) earned the narrow victory just four days after dropping a 32-19 decision to Hamilton (2-3) on Labour Day. The Argos improved to 2-0 at BMO Field this season while the Ticats suffered their first loss in three games.
The contest drew 9,702 spectators.
Hamilton finished with Dave Watford at quarterback as starter Dane Evans remained on the sidelines when the Ticats’ offence came on the field with under six minutes remaining. Evans, who threw for 248 yards and two TDs on Labour Day, finished 19-of-27 passing for 192 yards with a touchdown and interception.
“When I tried to stand up, man, it started to hurt,” said Evans, adding he wasn’t exactly sure about the nature of the injury. “I tried to throw on the sideline (but) it wasn’t happening.
“It (injury) is in a weird spot. If I can’t throw I’m not an asset to the team.”
Watford finished 6-of-10 passing for 78 yards. Arbuckle completed 23-of-37 attempts for 236 yards with a TD and two interceptions.
D.J. Foster scored Toronto’s other touchdown. Boris Bede added the converts and a field goal.
Papi White had Hamilton’s other touchdown. Domagala added a convert and field goal while also punting as incumbent Joel Whitford (groin) was injured before the game.
Domagala’s 28-yard field goal at 4:23 of the fourth pulled Hamilton to within 17-10. It came after Evans’s 19-yard run left the Ticats a yard short of a first down to effectively end a 60-yard, 11-play march.
The Ticats had a solid chance to cut into Toronto’s lead after Valentin Gnahoua’s deflection of Bede’s punt and ensuing no-yards penalty put them at the Toronto 51-yard line. But an incompletion and Shawn Oakman’s sack of Evans for a five-yard loss forced the punt.
Toronto opened the second half with a crisp 12-play, 79-yard march but settled for Bede’s 26-yard field goal at 6:56 of the third for a 17-7 lead.
Evans pulled Hamilton to within 14-7 with a 39-yard touchdown pass to white at 4:32 of the second after Foster’s 40-yard TD catch at 1:56.
Arbuckle opened the scoring with a one-yard TD run at 13:02 of the first to cap a 10-play, 54-yard march. It was aided by a successful challenge that turned an incompletion into a pass-interference call on Hamilton’s Kameron Kelly that put Toronto at the Ticats’ one-yard line.
And it marked the first time in three games that Hamilton had trailed on the scoreboard.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2021.
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It’s a small sample size, littered with lucky goals, but this is not the start Skinner or his teammates were hoping for
Published Apr 25, 2024 • Last updated 6 hours ago • 4 minute read
This isn’t Stuart Skinner’s fault, necessarily, but it’s his problem.
Nine goals have snuck past him in the first two games and a series lead has evaporated, along with home ice advantage and any sense of invincibility the Edmonton Oilers might have had over the L.A. Kings.
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Between the three fluke goals in Game 1 and the seeing-eye shot, the circus deflection and the lucky break that set up Anze Kopitar’s overtime winning breakaway in Game 2, there is no question he and the Oilers have been on the wrong side of fortune so far.
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“Since the third period of Game 1, just some really tough bounces are happening,” said the Oilers goalie. “Every shot they take seems to hit off a guy’s stick, hit off a skate. Their whole team does a really good job of getting traffic. They’re getting some good puck luck right now. That’s how hockey works sometimes.”
The Kings have potted some weird ones, to be sure, but you can’t just shrug Game 2 off to bad luck.
Was Skinner too deep in the net on the OT winner? Should he have saved the Drew Doughty breakaway goal in which the Kings defenceman never even got a shot off? Would it have been nice to come up with a timely stop when Adrian Kempe was all alone in front of him three minutes into the game?
Yes to all.
“Kempe made a nice shot, but it’s a shot that I saw and I can stop a puck like that,” admitted Skinner, who couldn’t do much on Kempe’s double-deflection goal to make it 2-0. “That’s great hand-eye coordination by him. That’s a good goal. Hockey players make great plays. You just got to, you know, move on and move forward.”
Goaltending is a coin toss at the best of times. Colorado’s Alexandar Georgiev looked like he was drowning in Game 1 against the Jets (seven goals on 23 shots) but he turned around and stole the show in Game 2 (two goals on 30).
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Eighteen goalies have seen action through the first two games of each series and nine of them have save percentages below .900, including Connor Hellebuyck (.870), Jake Oettinger (850) and Stuart Skinner, who ranks 15th out of 18 at (.857).
It’s a small sample size, littered with lucky goals, but this is not the start Skinner or his teammates were hoping for. After going 5-6 with a 3.68 goals against average, .883 save percentage and getting pulled four times in last year’s playoffs, this is supposed to be his rebound performance, a chance to show that he’s the mature backbone he’s been all season.
Odds are he still will, but now the pressure is just a little heavier after surrendering Game 2 and giving the Kings life.
We’ve seen from Skinner that he is absolutely capable of pulling out of a dive. He had brutal to start this season — worse, even than Jack Campbell, who is buried in the minors right now — and he emerged as one of the top regular season goaltenders in the league.
In mid-December he got shelled in Tampa Bay (five goals on 22 shots), then gave up three goals on 21 shots in a loss to the Islanders. After that, he strung together 12 straight wins.
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“I’ve seen him take ownership and accountability and come out really solid and play superbly,” said head coach Kris Knoblauch. “I have no doubt he can do that. Any time he’s had an off game he’s always been able to play really well for us.”
The Oilers need to see that fire again. Their playoff hopes are resting on it.
But the players in front of him are in the same boat. Drew Doughty shouldn’t be walking in all alone on a breakaway. Yes, Kopitar got a good bounce in OT, but Darnell Nurse was slow to read and react and could only watch the winning goal from a distance. Evan Bouchard and Warren Foegele can’t make those costly gaffes three minutes into the game.
“There is a lot to clean up,” said Knoblauch. “They’re a good team, they’re going to get chances, but we’re giving them some opportunities we didn’t need to. And we didn’t generate as many chances (as Game 1).”
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The Oilers didn’t lose a 2-1 snooze fest, they lost a 5-4 shootout in their own building. That’s not cool. And suddenly a series that looked so under control just a few days ago is now up for discussion.
As is their goaltending. Skinner hasn’t been dreadful. He won Game 1 and was just OK in Game 2, a night when the breaks were beating the boys. But he needs to be better, because the series is yup for grabs now.
It might not be Skinner’s fault, but it is his problem.
E-mail: rtychkowski@postmedia.com
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Bob Cole, whose voice and lively language were the Saturday night soundtrack to hockey games over a broadcasting career that spanned more than half a century, has died.�
Cole, who was 90, died Wednesday night in St. John’s surrounded by his family, said his daughter, Megan Cole.
“Thank you for decades of love for his work, love of Newfoundland and love of hockey,” Megan Cole told CBC News on Thursday.
Cole said her father had been healthy “up until the very end.”
Cole’s trademark call — “Oh, baby!” — was one of many signposts he brought to play-by-play commentaries that earned him the love of fans and even players themselves.
“His legacy will be that the players adored him. That’s not easy,” longtime Hockey Night in Canada host Ron MacLean said in an interview Thursday.
“He always said the game’s the thing, not the show, but the players so respected him… He was comfortable. He was professional. He was talented.”
Cole, who said he still got goosebumps in his mid-80s when he stepped into an arena broadcasting booth, called one of the most famous plays in Canadian sports history: Paul Henderson’s Summit Series goal in 1972, against the Soviet Union.
Cross Talk1:06Bob Cole on 1972 Paul Henderson goal
Bob Cole on 1972 Paul Henderson goal
“His voice is iconic. It’s all I associated with watching hockey growing up. He has a close spot in a lot of Canadians’ hearts over the years,” Steven Stamkos, captain of the Tampa Bay Lightning captain, said in 2019, when Cole called his final game — a classic Original Six matchup between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens.
“That was the guy you grew up listening to,” Leafs captain John Tavares said at the time.
As Cole wound down his career in 2019, players paid tribute, such as teams skating with their sticks raised high in the air.
“Well, well, well — Ottawa, pretty classy. Thanks very much,” an emotional Cole said as he commented on a Senators tribute made just for him.
Already a prominent figure in St. John’s broadcasting, Cole leapt to national broadcasts in 1969 when he started calling NHL games for CBC Radio.
He moved to television in 1973 and would be a staple of Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts for decades to come. He called many Stanley Cup final series over the years, and gave sports fans thrills with on-the-spot comments, some of which have resonated for generations.
Legendary broadcaster Bob Cole is preparing for his final sign-off. After 50 years in the booth, he is leaving Hockey Night in Canada on April 6.
“They’re going home,” he repeatedly said on Jan. 11, 1976, when Russia’s Red Army hockey team temporarily headed to the changing room during a heated match with the Philadelphia Flyers, then the reigning Stanley Cup champs.
The incident occurred during the first period, when Flyers defenceman Ed Van Impe, who had just finished serving a penalty, delivered a hard check on Valeri Kharlamov. The Russian star lay prone on the ice for several minutes, prompting Red Army coach Konstantin Loktev to pull his team off the ice in protest when no penalty was called. The Russian team would eventually return to finish the game.
Rooted in radio, Cole knew that what hockey fans heard could add to their enjoyment of the game.
“I get a great charge out of making exciting sound, if you want to call it that,” he told The Canadian Press in a 2022 interview, after he received a lifetime achievement award from the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television.
“It’s the feel of the game that got me started and I managed to hang onto that, I think, or tried to for so long.”
For guidance on how to call a hockey game, Cole once went straight to the top with an audition tape: legendary broadcaster Foster Hewitt.
Inspired by Hewitt in his childhood — “radio was my everything,” he told Ian Hanomansing in a 2019 interview — Cole in his early 20s tracked down Hewitt in Toronto.
WATCH | Bob Cole speaks with Here & Now’s Debbie Cooper in 2016 about the life-changing advice he got from Foster Hewitt: [embedded content]
Hewitt not only agreed to listen to the tape but took Cole into the studio to give him feedback on the spot.
“It was a dream you would never imagine could happen — Foster Hewitt is talking to me about how he does, how he thinks about a hockey game,” Cole said in 2016 interview with CBC to promote Now I’m Catching On: My Life On and Off the Air, a memoir he wrote with sportswriter Stephen Brunt.
Hockey was not the only sport Cole loved. He curled for many years, twice skipping teams that represented Newfoundland and Labrador at the Brier in the 1970s.
The Toronto Maple Leafs honour Bob Cole for his final call in Toronto.
During his lengthy broadcasting career, he anchored the news for Here & Now, CBC’s flagship TV news program in Newfoundland and Labrador, and was also quiz master on CBC’s Reach for the Top in Newfoundland and Labrador.
His voice appeared outside sports, too. Actor and producer Allan Hawco asked Cole to voice the recap intro heard at the beginning of most episodes of the series Republic of Doyle.
Barb Williams, executive vice-president of CBC, said in a statement that the public broadcaster is mourning the loss of Cole.
“What a gift he had. And what a loss to the entire hockey community,” Williams said in a statement. “Like every hockey fan across the country, we are deeply saddened.… Bob will always hold a special place in our hearts at CBC.”
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