Sports
Jets take high-octane offense into contest with Predators
Dec 28, 2024; Winnipeg, Manitoba, CAN; Winnipeg Jets center Gabriel Vilardi (13) celebrates his third period goal with left wing Nikolaj Ehlers (27) and center Mark Scheifele (55) against the Ottawa Senators at Canada Life Centre. Mandatory Credit: James Carey Lauder-Imagn Images The Winnipeg Jets, owners of the highest point total (53) and the most wins (26) in the NHL, will host the struggling Nashville Predators on Monday.
Winners of three straight, the Jets trailed the visiting Ottawa Senators 2-0 early in the second period on Saturday night before scoring four straight goals en route to a 4-2 victory.
Kyle Connor and Mark Scheifele, Winnipeg’s leading goal-producers with 22 apiece, tied the contest in the second period and Gabriel Vilardi and Nikolaj Ehlers scored within a span of 1:32 in the middle of the third period. Vilardi’s winner came on the power play 9:47 into the third and was set up by a one-touch pass from Ehlers.
“Our power play, when we play it the right way and play it fast, get pucks to the net and get some chaos going, that’s when we’re at our best,” Ehlers said. “When we work it around slow, it’s not very good. … I think with the skill that we have on both our power plays, things will open up once you get that chaos going.”
Ehlers had two assists to go along with his goal while Scheifele and Connor each added an assist. Connor Hellebuyck made 33 saves for the Jets, who have points in seven of their last eight (6-1-1).
“We didn’t try to chase it, I think that was the biggest thing,” said Scheifele, who has 10 goals and eight assists in his last 12 games. “When we got down 2-0, there was still lots of game left. Sometimes you can go and try to chase offense, but we just tried to stick to our game. We knew that if we did the right things over and over, good things would happen. It showed.”
Connor leads Winnipeg with 49 points, while Scheifele is second with 44.
The Predators fell 7-4 to the St. Louis Blues on Friday night in St. Louis. Nashville was 3-0-1 in its previous four games before the loss.
“There were some opportunities there to win the hockey game,” Nashville coach Andrew Brunette said. “Unfortunately we did some things early in the game that was hard for us to come back and obviously taking a penalty there late, I thought we had good momentum. That one hurt.
“I didn’t like our mindset early in the game right from the first goal against. We didn’t do that the whole (previous) homestand. … We weren’t playing quite as direct as we have been playing.”
The Blues scored the first two goals of the game and led 4-2 after the opening period.
Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault each had a goal and Mark Jankowski and Nick Blankenburg also scored for the Predators. Juuse Saros gave up five goals on 15 shots before being replaced by Justus Annunen in the second period. Annunen made 12 saves.
“It was just too sloppy early,” Stamkos said. “I know it’s coming off (the Christmas break), but those are the games you want to be on the right side of, to build the momentum off of what we did before the break. I thought it was a missed opportunity, but … too sloppy with just giving them some chances with our own mistakes.”
–Field Level Media
Sports
Michael Lorenzen, double plays help Rockies top Mets
Apr 24, 2026; New York City, New York, USA; Colorado Rockies pitcher Michael Lorenzen (24) delivers a pitch during the third inning against the New York Mets at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images Michael Lorenzen tossed a season-high seven innings and earned the win Friday night for the visiting Colorado Rockies, who beat the New York Mets 4-3 in the opener of a three-game series.
Jake McCarthy laced the tiebreaking RBI double in the sixth while Troy Johnston had what proved to be the decisive two-run single an inning later for the Rockies, who improved to 11-16. Colorado didn’t win its 11th game last season until June 3, when it was 11-50.
TJ Rumfield hit into a run-scoring groundout in the fifth while Ezequiel Tovar finished with two hits.
Marcus Semien hit into a run-scoring double play in the second and Brett Baty delivered a two-run single in the eighth for the Mets, who had won two straight following a 12-game losing streak.
Baty, Mark Vientos and Ronny Mauricio had two hits apiece.
Lorenzen (2-2), who entered Friday with a 7.48 ERA and pitched beyond the fifth just once in his first five starts this season, gave up one run on seven hits and no walks while striking out three. He induced three double plays in his longest outing since last Sept. 19, when the right-hander tossed 7 2/3 innings for the Kansas City Royals in a 20-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays.
The Mets immediately rallied in the eighth against Jaden Hill, who gave up four singles, including Baty’s hit, while recording one out. But Antonio Senzatela entered and got Vientos to line into a double play.
The four double plays were the most for the Mets since they hit into four against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sept. 9, 2019.
Senzatela threw a perfect ninth to close out his second save.
Freddy Peralta (1-3) took the loss for the Mets after allowing two runs on seven hits and three walks while striking out eight over 5 2/3 innings.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Junior Caminero, Jonathan Aranda each homer twice as Rays beat Twins
Apr 24, 2026; St. Petersburg, Florida, USA; Tampa Bay Rays infielder Jonathan Aranda (8) celebrates a home run during the fourth inning against Minnesota Twins at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Pablo Robles-Imagn Images Junior Caminero hit a pair of tape-measure home runs and drove in three runs and Jonathan Aranda also homered twice to lead the Tampa Bay Rays to a 6-2 victory over the visiting Minnesota Twins in the opener of a three-game series on Friday night.
It was the fifth career multi-homer game for Caminero, who has hit six home runs during a nine-game hitting streak.
Drew Rasmussen (2-0) picked up the win, allowing one run on five hits over six innings. He walked one and struck out six. Bryan Baker retired all three batters he faced in the ninth for his fifth save.
Brooks Lee homered and doubled in a 3-for-4 game and Royce Lewis also homered for Minnesota, which took its seventh loss in the last eight games
Taj Bradley (3-1), traded by Tampa Bay to Minnesota at the last year’s trade deadline for reliever Griffin Jax, allowed six runs on seven hits over 6 1/3 innings in his first start against the team that drafted him in the fifth round of the 2018 MLB Draft.
Bradley, who came into the contest third in the American League with a 1.63 ERA, allowed four homers after giving up none in his first five starts of the season.
Tampa Bay took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on a 450-foot blast over the batter’s eye in center field by Caminero, the longest home run of his career.
The Rays extended the lead to 2-0 in the third inning when Nick Fortes led off with a double, was moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by Taylor Walls and scored on a groundout to first by Chandler Simpson.
Aranda led off the bottom of the fourth with a home run down the right field line to make it 3-0, but the Twins cut the lead to 3-1 in the fifth on Lee’s fourth home run.
Aranda led off the sixth with his second homer of the game and sixth of the season, a 414-foot drive deep into the bleachers in right to make it 4-1. Tampa Bay then broke the game open in the seventh when Caminero clubbed a two-run homer, this one a 435-foot drive off the batter’s eye in center, to extend the lead to 6-1.
Lewis ended the scoring with a leadoff homer down the left field line in the ninth off reliever Trevor Martin.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Celtics eke out Game 3 win vs. Sixers, regain series lead
Apr 24, 2026; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum (0) drives to the basket against Philadelphia 76ers forward Paul George (8) during the first half at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images Jayson Tatum scored 11 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter as the visiting Boston Celtics defeated the Philadelphia 76ers 108-100 on Friday in Game 3 of their first-round playoff series.
Jaylen Brown matched Tatum with 25 points, while Payton Pritchard added 15 points for the second-seeded Celtics, who lead the best-of-seven series 2-1. Derrick White and Nikola Vucevic each chipped in 11 points for Boston.
Tyrese Maxey scored 31 points on 12-of-31 shooting for the seventh-seeded Sixers, who will attempt to even the series Sunday night when the teams reconvene back in South Philly.
Paul George (18 points) and Kelly Oubre Jr. (17) also made key contributions for the hosts, while VJ Edgecombe pitched in with 10 points but shot just 5 of 17, including 0 of 7 from long range. Edgecombe grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds.
Early in the third quarter, the Sixers embarked on a 12-0 run to turn a 64-55 deficit into a three-point lead. The Celtics regained the advantage shortly thereafter and went on to lead 79-74 after three quarters, thanks to two 3-pointers by Pritchard late in the session.
Philadelphia trailed 84-80 early in the fourth before Maxey made a tough fadeaway and a 3-pointer to put the Sixers ahead by a point.
However, the visitors responded with eight straight points. Brown found White for a layup before scoring the final four points of the burst, guiding Boston to a 92-85 edge with 5:39 remaining.
George and Andre Drummond helped bring the Sixers within 97-96 with 2:19 left, but Tatum answered with a 3-pointer. Following another Philadelphia bucket, Pritchard drained a 3-pointer at the shot-clock buzzer to make it 103-98 with 1:17 to go.
Philadelphia again made it a one-possession game, but Tatum swished a long 3-pointer with 26.6 seconds left to punctuate his dynamic performance.
Boston made seven 3-pointers in the first quarter en route to a 29-24 lead after 12 minutes.
The Celtics went ahead by double digits early in the second quarter as Baylor Scheierman’s 3-pointer made it 41-31. The Sixers chipped away and got within 47-45 with two minutes left in the half before Boston made a mini-push to bring a 54-47 lead into the locker room.
–Field Level Media
