TJ Brodie, left, of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals go after the puck in the second period at Capital One Arena on Feb. 28.Rob Carr/Getty Images
We are now 53 games into the season, and the Maple Leafs are within one point of first place in the National Hockey League’s Atlantic Division.
On Monday, they won in Washington – a place that has been very unkind to them historically – on a late goal by Rasmus Sandin that propelled them to a 5-3 victory.
It was a night where the Capitals returned to Washington for the first time since Russia went to war against Ukraine. Hours before the teams took the ice, the NHL issued a statement that condemned the invasion.
Perhaps hockey seems insignificant at this moment, but many of its players are Russians. The most famous, of course, is Washington superstar Alexander Ovechkin, a supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin. When given an opportunity on Saturday, Ovechkin refused to rebuke Putin.
Although embassies near the U.S. Capitol have been shining blue and yellow lights in support of Ukraine, it didn’t appear that anything special was done inside Capital One Arena on Monday. At least not from what was shown during Sportsnet’s telecast.
If hockey is supposed to be apolitical, then why did the NHL feel it necessary to say its piece? Along with the condemnation, it also announced it was suspending its relationships with business partners in Russian and pausing its Russian language social and digital media sites.
“We also remain concerned about the well-being of the players from Russia who play in the NHL on behalf of their NHL clubs, and not on behalf of Russia,” the league said. “We understand they and their families are being placed in an extremely difficult position.”
It is with that as a backdrop that Toronto and Washington engaged in a matchup between one of the most prolific scorers in NHL history and the younger buck vying to replace him.
Ovechkin and Auston Matthews squared off only hours after the Maple Leafs’ centre received honours as last week’s NHL player of the week.
Matthews has been on an extended hot streak and has taken over the NHL lead with 37 goals. Ovechkin is five back but has dominated Toronto throughout his career. The Great No. 8 ranks first in goals (41) and points (73) against the Maple Leafs despite the fact that he has never played in the same division.
There is no doubting Ovechkin’s place in hockey history. The 36-year-old entered the contest needing only three more game-winning goals to pass Gordie Howe (121) for the second most in NHL history and was five goals from passing Jaromir Jagr (766) for the the third most all time.
As often is the case, a game that featured two of the sport’s brightest stars wasn’t determined by either of them.
Two days after they scored 10 goals in a defeat of the Red Wings in Detroit, the Maple Leafs jumped on the Capitals with three in the first 20 minutes and then held on for the win.
They are now 35-14-4 and are one point behind the first-place Florida Panthers and have 74 points, same as the second-place Tampa Bay Lightning. The latter is ahead of them because Toronto has played more games.
Mitch Marner, who had four goals and two assists on Saturday, assisted on two goals in the first period as Toronto jumped out to a 3-1 lead.
It took just 2 minutes 35 seconds for Michael Bunting to bury a beautiful pass from Marner to put the Leafs up 1-0. It was the 18th goal of the season for Bunting, which is tied for the most among all NHL rookies, and his sixth point since Saturday.
“Right now, they are going in for me,” Bunting said. “I can’t get too high on the highs or too low on the lows.”
Conor Sheary deflected a shot by Nicklas Backstrom past Toronto goalie Petr Mrazek to tie it at 1-1 with 3:37 left in the first period. But the Maple Leafs regained control by scoring twice on Ilya Samsonov in the final 1:11, first on a sharp wrist shot by William Nylander, then on one by Justin Holl. The latter came with just two seconds remaining and ended Samsonov’s evening after he gave up three goals on 10 shots.
Tom Wilson scored on a power play 10:34 into the second period to trim Toronto’s lead to 3-2. Wilson deflected a booming one-timer by Ovechkin past Petr Mrazek for the score. Wilson later scored short-handed early in the third to tie it again.
That set up the wild ending, with Sandin scoring first and then Pierre Engvall getting an empty netter with 1:01 left.
Mrazek got the starting nod and registered 29 saves in his ninth win of the season. On Saturday, he replaced Jack Campbell in the third period and went on to earn the 10-7 win over Detroit.
Campbell had a 7-2 lead after two, but gave up three quick goals to allow the Red Wings back into the game before he was pulled.
He has allowed four goals or more in eight of his last 14 appearances and 14 in his last three starts.
“Jack was so good early in the season. and we were celebrating that, but you have to be prepared for it to go the other way,” Sheldon Keefe, the Maple Leafs head coach, said earlier Monday. “Maybe you don’t want to have such extremes, but he has done really well for us.
‘”It is a mental block kind of thing going on right now that he is working through. But he’ll get there.”
Toronto got the fast start it needed and the one that Washington head coach Peter Laviolette feared.
The Maple Leafs are 23-4-2 when they score first, 21-2-2 when they lead after one period and 26-0-2 when they lead after two.
“They score a bunch of goals,” Laviolette said in the morning. “Their power play is dangerous, they move the puck well and they have a lot of high-end skill out there. It is a good challenge for us.”
Neither team entered the game in a very good stretch. Toronto was 5-4-1 in its previous 10, while Washington was 5-5 and had lost five straight at home.
Toronto’s next game is back home at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday against the Buffalo Sabres.
The Maple Leafs have had their ups and downs, but more of the former than the latter. A year after another disappointment in the playoffs they are stalking the leaders like never before.
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.
