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William Nylander scores Leafs shootout winner in Vegas as Campbell shines again – Toronto Sun

Published

3 years ago

January 12, 2022

Harry Miller

Publishing date:

Jan 12, 2022 • 41 minutes ago • 4 minute read • 5 Comments

Robin Lehner #90 of the Vegas Golden Knights defends the net as Auston Matthews #34 of the Toronto Maple Leafs tries to get a shot off under pressure from Zach Whitecloud #2 of the Golden Knights in the first period last night. Photo by Ethan Miller /Getty Images

William Nylander finished what he started on Tuesday night in the desert.

The winger opened the scoring against the Vegas Golden Knights and later scored the only goal in a shootout, giving the Maple Leafs a 4-3 win at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Nylander, the last shooter in the skills competition, lifted a shot over goalie Robin Lehner’s catching glove and was the only player on either side to score in the shootout.

At the Leafs’ end, Jack Campbell, who was brilliant all night, stopped Evgenii Dadonov, Chandler Stephenson and Jonathan Marchessault in the shootout.

Auston Matthews scored in his eighth consecutive road game, dating to Nov. 24 at Los Angeles.

Despite the fifth win in six games for the Leafs, coach Sheldon Keefe wasn’t willing to excuse some bumps the team experienced for the second game in a row. Three nights earlier in Colorado, the Leafs had a 3-0 lead and lost in overtime. In Vegas, a 3-1 lead in the third period disappeared.

“The fact we got three out of four points in these two games is a very good sign for our team, and the fact you can take some valuable lessons,” Keefe said. “I don’t think it was a defensive issue (against Vegas). It’s more an issue of we have to relax and play the game and make some plays and play on offence and control the play.

“We can’t just be on our heels and that’s what I didn’t like about tonight. We didn’t push back offensively.”

The Leafs will seek to fix some of those issues on Wednesday night in Arizona against the Coyotes, who sit last in the NHL. Petr Mrazek will start in goal.

“It’s a game we can’t overlook,” Keefe said. “We should be a little aggravated about how we have let these leads slip away in these two games. We have not played a clean game yet on this trip.”

The victory carried a couple of milestones for Campbell, who turned 30 on Sunday. He recorded his 18th win, setting a personal high for one season. It came in his 26th start, tying a career high set in 2019-20 with the Leafs and Los Angeles Kings.

In short, the steady Campbell has emerged as a star and will get serious consideration to help represent the Atlantic Division at the all-star game in Vegas on Feb. 4-5.

“The big question coming in for him was, can he stay healthy?” Keefe said. “He has done a great job of that. Despite the workload, there hasn’t been a time when he has felt unable to practise or is sore. We’ve managed his workload on some practice days, but that is preventative more than anything. He’s in a good place with his body and managing it well.

“Regardless of how he answers questions (when Campbell is hard on himself after losses), the proof is when he’s in the net. He’s even-keeled. He goes out and prepares for the next day and comes back and is ready to play. He has been great all season.”

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Shots on goal through 65 minutes were 34-18 for Vegas. Neither team had a good scoring chance in overtime.

Vegas tied the game at 11:48 of the third when Alex Pietrangelo faked and then fired a shot past Campbell during a 5-on-3 Vegas power play. With Kyle Clifford serving a tripping minor, the Leafs were penalized for too many men on the ice.

Just prior to the bench minor, Lehner stopped Ondrej Kase on a short-handed breakaway. Kase was back in the Leafs lineup after missing the previous two games with a minor injury he suffered in the gym last week.

William Karlsson cut the Toronto lead to 3-2 at 1:34 of the third period after Reilly Smith beat Morgan Rielly and Alex Kerfoot on the forecheck to retrieve the puck.

The second period was representative of what the best teams sometimes have to do to win hockey games — get sharp netminding to guide them through a rough patch.

The Leafs were flat as the second progressed, going 11 minutes without a shot on goal, and required Campbell to make some top-notch saves (including a blocker stop on Marchessault). After Campbell bought his teammates time, Matthews and Ilya Mikheyev scored five minutes apart to put Toronto up 3-1.

“I don’t know if I have any more words to describe how well he has played for us,” Matthews said of Campbell. “He came up big for us like he has all year. He kept us in. I can’t really speak any more highly about Soup.”

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Kase and Michael Bunting connected on a couple of short passes to set up Matthews for a doorstep deposit at 11:43. With the assist, Kase ran his point streak to seven games.

At 16:46, Mikheyev scored his fourth goal in five games when he put the bounce from a Wayne Simmonds shot off the end boards past Lehner.

The game was tied 1-1 after one period.

Nylander put the Leafs up 1-0 at 1:22 after he took a smart feed from Rielly and broke past Vegas defenceman Brayden McNabb to score on a forehand deke.

At the 13-minute mark, Keegan Kolesar scored 38 seconds after Nick Ritchie took a needless hooking minor in front of the Vegas net.

The Leafs remained without forwards Mitch Marner and Pierre Engvall, who are in COVID-19 protocol. The Golden Knights were missing four players on protocol — defencemen Shea Theodore and Alec Martinez and forwards Nicolas Roy and Nolan Patrick.

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Canada’s Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Routliffe pick up second win at WTA Finals

Published

10 hours ago

November 5, 2024

Anne Joseph

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe remain undefeated in women’s doubles at the WTA Finals.

The 2023 U.S. Open champions, seeded second at the event, secured a 1-6, 7-6 (1), (11-9) super-tiebreak win over fourth-seeded Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in round-robin play on Tuesday.

The season-ending tournament features the WTA Tour’s top eight women’s doubles teams.

Dabrowski and Routliffe lost the first set in 22 minutes but levelled the match by breaking Errani’s serve three times in the second, including at 6-5. They clinched victory with Routliffe saving a match point on her serve and Dabrowski ending Errani’s final serve-and-volley attempt.

Dabrowski and Routliffe will next face fifth-seeded Americans Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk on Thursday, where a win would secure a spot in the semifinals.

The final is scheduled for Saturday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Nov. 5, 2024.

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Allen nets shutout as Devils burn Oilers 3-0

Published

19 hours ago

November 4, 2024

Anne Joseph

EDMONTON – Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his career as the New Jersey Devils closed out their Western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.

Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored for the Devils (8-5-2) who have won three of their last four on the heels on a four-game losing skid.

The Oilers (6-6-1) had their modest two-game winning streak snapped.

Calvin Pickard made 13 stops between the pipes for Edmonton.

TAKEAWAYS

Devils: In addition to his goal, Bratt picked up his 12th assist of the young season to give him nine points in his last eight games and now 15 points overall. Nico Hischier remains in the team lead, picking up an assist of his own to give him 16 points for the campaign. He has a point in all but four games this season.

Oilers: Forward Leon Draisaitl was held pointless after recording six points in his previous two games and nine points in his previous four. Draisaitl usually has strong showings against the Devils, coming into the contest with an eight-game point streak against New Jersey and 11 goals in 17 games.

KEY MOMENT

New Jersey took a 2-0 lead on the power play with 3:26 remaining in the second period as Hischier made a nice feed into the slot to Bratt, who wired his third of the season past Pickard.

KEY RETURN?

Oilers star forward and captain Connor McDavid took part in the optional morning skate for the Oilers, leading to hopes that he may be back sooner rather than later. McDavid has been expected to be out for two to three weeks with an ankle injury suffered during the first shift of last Monday’s loss in Columbus.

OILERS DEAL FOR D-MAN

The Oilers have acquired defenceman Ronnie Attard from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenceman Ben Gleason.

The 6-foot-3 Attard has spent the past three season in the Flyers organization seeing action in 29 career games. The 25-year-old right-shot defender and Western Michigan University grad was originally selected by Philadelphia in the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Attard will report to the Oilers’ AHL affiliate in Bakersfield.

UP NEXT

Devils: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.

Oilers: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.

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Mahomes throws 3 TD passes, unbeaten Chiefs beat Buccaneers 30-24 in OT

Published

19 hours ago

November 4, 2024

Anne Joseph

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Patrick Mahomes threw for 291 yards and three touchdowns, and Kareem Hunt pounded into the end zone from two yards out in overtime to give the unbeaten Kansas City Chiefs a 30-24 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night.

DeAndre Hopkins had two touchdown receptions for the Chiefs (8-0), who drove through the rain for two fourth-quarter scores to take a 24-17 lead with 4:17 left. But then Kansas City watched as Baker Mayfield led the Bucs the other way in the final minute, hitting Ryan Miller in the end zone with 27 seconds to go in regulation time.

Tampa Bay (4-5) elected to kick the extra point and force overtime, rather than go for a two-point conversion and the win. And it cost the Buccaneers when Mayfield called tails and the coin flip was heads. Mahomes and the Chiefs took the ball, he was 5-for-5 passing on their drive in overtime, and Hunt finished his 106-yard rushing day with the deciding TD plunge.

Travis Kelce had 14 catches for 100 yards with girlfriend Taylor Swift watching from a suite, and Hopkins finished with eight catches for 86 yards as the Chiefs ran their winning streak to 14 dating to last season. They became the sixth Super Bowl champion to start 8-0 the following season.

Mayfield finished with 200 yards and two TDs passing for the Bucs, who have lost four of their last five.

It was a memorable first half for two players who had been waiting to play in Arrowhead Stadium.

The Bucs’ Rachaad White grew up about 10 minutes away in a tough part of Kansas City, but his family could never afford a ticket for him to see a game. He wound up on a circuitous path through Division II Nebraska-Kearney and a California junior college to Arizona State, where he eventually became of a third-round pick of Tampa Bay in the 2022 draft.

Two year later, White finally got into Arrowhead — and the end zone. He punctuated his seven-yard scoring run in the second quarter, which gave the Bucs a 7-3 lead, by nearly tossing the football into the second deck.

Then it was Hopkins’ turn in his first home game since arriving in Kansas City from a trade with the Titans.

The three-time All-Pro, who already had caught four passes, reeled in a third-down heave from Mahomes amid triple coverage for a 35-yard gain inside the Tampa Bay five-yard line. Three plays later, Mahomes found him in the back of the end zone, and Hopkins celebrated his first TD with the Chiefs with a dance from “Remember the Titans.”

Tampa Bay tried to seize control with consecutive scoring drives to start the second half. The first ended with a TD pass to Cade Otton, the latest tight end to shred the Chiefs, and Chase McLaughlin’s 47-yard field goal gave the Bucs a 17-10 lead.

The Chiefs answered in the fourth quarter. Mahomes marched them through the rain 70 yards for a tying touchdown pass, which he delivered to Samaje Perine while landing awkwardly and tweaking his left ankle, and then threw a laser to Hopkins on third-and-goal from the Buccaneers’ five-yard line to give Kansas City the lead.

Tampa Bay promptly went three-and-out, but its defence got the ball right back, and this time Mayfield calmly led his team down field. His capped the drive with a touchdown throw to Miller — his first career TD catch — with 27 seconds to go, and Tampa Bay elected to play for overtime.

UP NEXT

Buccaneers: Host the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.

Chiefs: Host the Denver Broncos on Sunday.

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AP NFL:

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