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Stars' comeback win typical of wild bubble hockey, coach says – ESPN

Published

4 years ago

August 21, 2020

3:01 AM ET

The Calgary Flames started Game 6 of their quarterfinal series against Dallas by scoring three goals before the Stars had recorded a shot. The Stars’ response was record-breaking: They scored seven consecutive goals in a 7-3 win to eliminate the Flames, marking the first time in Stanley Cup playoff history that a team trailed by three goals and then led by four in the same game.

It was one of the wildest emotional swings in a postseason tournament that has seen its share of them. Dallas coach Rick Bowness says he believes “the bubble” is to blame for that.

“It’s great that we’re playing and that we’re back. But it’s tough. That game was a mess, for both sides. It’s tough to explain, but I don’t think people understand how tough it is living in this bubble,” said Bowness, referring to the two hub cities in Edmonton and Toronto that the NHL created to restart its season during the coronavirus pandemic.

“Give the league a lot of credit. They’ve done the best job they can. Everyone is handling it as best they can. But it’s tough. This bubble living is not what you think it is. Until you’re living it day to day, you don’t understand what everyone is going through.”

Bowness said the stress of bubble life is “a little bit of everything” as this point in the postseason, which is in its fourth week.

“I can only speak for myself,” said the coach, whose team is staying in the Edmonton hub. “I’ve gone a couple of days where I haven’t even gone outside. The way we’re set up here, the hotel is connected to the rink. You walk from the hotel, you’re in a tunnel, you get to the rink, then you go back and right to your room. You’ve really gotta make a concerted effort just to get outside and get some fresh air.

“Everyone is making it the best of it that they can. Again, I give the league credit: They made us all feel safe and secure here. Everyone is getting tested. Everyone is wearing masks. That being said, it’s not like we’re walking out to a park. We’re going to a courtyard, and there are three other teams sitting there. You go to the gym, and you’re working out with the people you’re playing against that night. Everyone deserves a lot of credit for making the best of it. People think living in a bubble is great. It’s tough. It’s mentally tough. And everyone is making the best of it.”

That certainly applies to the Stars, who advance to the Western Conference semifinals to face the Colorado Avalanche, who eliminated the Arizona Coyotes in five games.

Their rally started with a breather. Dallas called a timeout after Rasmus Andersson scored to give Calgary a 3-0 lead just 6 minutes, 34 seconds into the game.

“The mood wasn’t good. I think everyone understood that we hadn’t played our game yet. Pucks are exploding off our sticks at that moment. We were in a hole. It was a good time to catch our breath,” Dallas center Joe Pavelski said.

The message was clear: They needed to chip away at the deficit before the end of the period. Defenseman Miro Heiskanen got one back for Dallas on the power play just over three minutes later.

“I think we need to score on that one. Down 3-0, we need to score and get back into the game,” he said.

In the dressing room between periods, the Stars were reenergized. “We knew that if we could score one goal, we would be on them,” center Radek Faksa said. “We showed lots of character, and then we dominated in the game.”

Rookie Denis Gurianov scored 59 seconds into the second period and then tied the score at 3-3 at 3:25 of the second when the puck deflected off of him and trickled through Calgary goalie Cam Talbot, who was pulled by coach Geoff Ward and replaced by David Rittich after that goal.

“I could feel it coming. Can’t say I blame him. I would have done the same thing if I were him. … It was a 3-0 hockey game for us,” said Talbot, who reentered the game in the third period. “I’ve been there all playoffs for us. When we needed it the most, I wasn’t there. Some of those shots are obviously savable. The onus is on me there. As much as I hated getting pulled, he had to do something.”

It didn’t make a difference. Faksa scored at 5:47, Pavelski at 7:22 and then Gurianov completed his hat trick at 15:30 of the second period. Gurianov added a fourth goal in the third period, becoming the second rookie in NHL history to record four goals in a playoff game.

“Tough first period. We just went into the locker room and forgot about it,” he said.

In the process, the Stars won a game their fans and players won’t soon forget. That includes Pavelski, playing in his 143rd Stanley Cup playoff game.

“It was right there, if we’re talking about comebacks. You play enough playoff games, you see a few things, and this one’s right there with it,” he said. “It just feels good to win. It feels good to end it tonight.”

For Bowness, it was just another night of unpredictable bubble hockey.

“It’s every team. Every game I’m watching has emotional swings,” he said. “Listen, until you live what we’re going through, you have no idea what we’re going through. That’s not to be negative — it’s not. We’re dealing with it the best we can. The way we’re living, and playing, is going to lead to a lot of emotional swings. It’s not your typical playoffs. It’s just not.”

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Flames re-sign defenceman Ilya Solovyov, centre Cole Schwindt

Published

7 hours ago

September 18, 2024

Anne Joseph

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.

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

Published

7 hours ago

September 18, 2024

Anne Joseph

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.

—

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

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Vancouver Canucks will miss Demko, Joshua, others to start training camp

Published

7 hours ago

September 18, 2024

Anne Joseph

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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