An ugly performance by the two-time defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning led to an ugly brawl in a 5-0 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday on the opening night of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
With the game out of hard midway through the third period, Tampa Bay’s Corey Perry tried going after Toronto’s Wayne Simmonds. Nothing happened there, but Perry and Ilya Lyubushkin went at each other.
While ESPN2 cut away for a commercial, Simmonds shoved Lightning star Victor Hedman and fights broke out, including Perry and Lyubushkin throwing punches and Toronto’s Morgan Rielly punching Tampa Bay’s Jan Rutta. Rutta left the ice with a big cut on his face.
“I thought we handled their physicality well,” Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe told reporters, “both in making plays and keeping the puck moving and not getting rattled by it, and then just standing our ground when the nonsense starts late in the third.”
Perry ended up with 23 penalties in the game. Rutta had 17 and teammate Pat Maroon had 10. Lyubushkin had 16 minutes for the game, Simmonds 10 and Rielly 15.
Toronto’s Kyle Clifford also had 15 minutes, but that was because he was ejected for a boarding major against Ross Colton that could draw the interest of NHL Player Safety.
What should have been a golden opportunity for the Lightning ended up setting the tone for the Maple Leafs.
Toronto shut down that five-minute power play and other ones as the Lightning made numerous giveaways against an aggressive penalty kill.
“They did a good job of executing early on those PKs and gained some momentum and it could have been a really different game if we had scored early on that,” Lightning captain Steven Stamkos told reporters. “It was a missed opportunity for us.”
The Maple Leafs, meanwhile, got a 5-on-3 power play goal from 60-goal scorer Auston Matthews (Keefe had called a timeout to rest the first unit) and a short-handed goal from David Kampf.
“The Tampa Bay Lightning will be a far better team when they come back in here,” Keefe said. “And we’re going to have to be better ourselves.”
Mitch Marner ends playoff drought
Toronto’s Matthews and Mitch Marner had one goal between them in last season’s first-round loss to the Montreal Canadiens.
Matthews scored twice on Monday and Marner also scored. That ended an 18-game playoff goal drought for the Maple Leafs star.
Marner said it was “great” to score, but he wasn’t letting the drought bother him.
“I can’t do anything about the past,” he told reporters. “I’m here to focus on the now. I’m here to focus on what I can do to help the team win.”
Cross-checking penalty
NHL Player Safety could have a busy Tuesday. ESPN reports that the department is reviewing this cross-check by Minnesota Wild defenseman Jared Spurgeon on the ankles of St. Louis Blues forward Pavel Buchnevich.
Spurgeon received two minutes.
The Blues won 4-0 in Game 1 on a David Perron hat trick and a 37-save shutout by Ville Husso.
CLEVELAND (AP) — Restricted free agent forward Isaac Okoro has agreed to re-sign with the Cleveland Cavaliers on a three-year contract, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press on Saturday.
Okoro’s new deal is worth $38 million, according to the person who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the contract has not been signed or announced by the team.
ESPN.com first reported the agreement, citing Okoro’s representation.
The fifth overall pick in the 2020 NBA draft, Okoro is Cleveland’s best perimeter defender, often drawing the assignment of guarding the opponent’s top scorer. Okoro also has worked to improve his offensive game.
The 23-year-old averaged 9.4 points and 3.0 rebounds in 69 games — 42 starts — last season for the Cavs, who beat Orlando in the opening round of the playoffs before losing to eventual champion Boston.
Okoro shot a career-best 39% on 3-pointers, forcing teams to come out and guard him.
His agreement caps an extraordinarily busy summer for the Cavs that began with coach J.B. Bickerstaff being fired and replaced by Kenny Atkinson. All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell signed a three-year, $150 million extension in July, ending months of speculation that he wanted out of Cleveland.
Also, power forward Evan Mobley signed a five-year, $224 deal and center Jarrett Allen signed a three-year, $91 million extension.
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.
