Sports
Maple Leafs snap skid, secure rare win at Canucks in shootout
Jan 31, 2026; Vancouver, British Columbia, CAN; Toronto Maple Leafs forward Max Domi (11) handles the puck against the Vancouver Canucks in the first period at Rogers Arena. Mandatory Credit: Bob Frid-Imagn Images The visiting Toronto Maple Leafs snapped their six-game losing streak with a 3-2 shootout win over the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night.
Auston Matthews redeemed himself with the game-winning shootout tally after he missed a penalty shot in overtime, adding an assist in regulation. William Nylander also scored for Toronto in the shootout while Jake DeBrusk and Elias Pettersson both missed their shots for the Canucks.
Max Domi extended his point streak to five games — his longest with the Maple Leafs — with his game-tying third-period goal. Nicolas Roy also scored for Toronto in the second period, and Joseph Woll had 28 saves.
Swedish youngsters Jonathan Lekkerimaki and Tom Willander scored for Vancouver. Nikita Tolopilo continued his strong run of play in net, stopping 39 of 41 shots.
Lekkerimaki found himself wide open in the high slot 1:55 into the second period, receiving the puck off the tape of Liam Ohgren and ripping it over the shoulder of Woll to open the scoring.
Roy tied it up towards the end of the period off a one-timer. Nicolas Robertson weaved away from defenseman Pierre-Olivier Joseph, planting the puck on Roy’s stick, who scored the first goal Tolopilo had allowed in over 110 minutes of action.
Willander restored Vancouver’s lead just over a minute later after Morgan Rielly’s turnover left the Leafs a man short on the subsequent odd-man rush. The rookie defenseman received the puck from Evander Kane at the blue line and snapped it past Woll blocker-side.
Toronto stormed back in a third period during which it outshot the Canucks 18-5. Domi knotted it at two early in the third, retrieving the puck from a tangle of skates off a tied-up faceoff and wristing it off Tolopilo’s shoulder. The puck proceeded to bounce off the netminder’s back and into the net.
Both teams exchanged chances in overtime. Garland was gifted an opportunity off a Leafs giveaway in front of the net, only to be thwarted by Woll. Matthews then had the opportunity to end the game on a penalty shot, but stickhandled the puck wide of goal before flipping it into Tolopilo’s pad.
The result marked Toronto’s first win in Vancouver since December of 2019. The Canucks have now lost 15 of their last 17 and are still yet to win consecutive games at home this season.
–Field Level Media
Sports
NBA Slam Dunk Contest Falls Flat Once Again
NBA All-Star Saturday Night honored its self-imposed curfew and ended before 8 p.m. Eastern, allowing viewers in certain markets to catch the end of “Wheel of Fortune.”
Fittingly, the conclusion of the Slam Dunk Contest that capped the festivities in Inglewood, Calif., recalled a would-be “Before & After” puzzle: VINCE CARTER BRYANT.
There stood Vince Carter, TV analyst and first dunk champ of the millennium, offering encouragement to San Antonio Spurs rookie Carter Bryant. Bryant needed a 47.5 on his second dunk of the final round to eclipse Miami’s Keshad Johnson after delivering a perfect 50 with his first.
A competition that introduced its greenhorn participants with fictitious action movie trailers had at last attained drama worthy of Tinseltown.
Instead, it limped to an anticlimactic finale as fans settled for lackluster over blockbuster again.
Johnson and Bryant defeated Jaxson Hayes of the Los Angeles Lakers and Orlando Magic rookie Jase Richardson to reach the finals. Each took part in the contest for the first time.
Along the way, Richardson fell on his back and appeared to bump his head after an ill-timed attempt on a 360 lob. He emerged uninjured.
As actor, comedian and noted roundball lover Michael Rapaport took to X to suggest the NBA “cancel this shit before someone gets hurt,” the men dunked on. Someone needed to win, and indeed, people wanted to, if only because it beat the alternative.
“Just losing in general, no matter what it is. I could care less if it was an Uno game, I could care less if it was running lines, I could care less if it’s a shooting competition,” Bryant said. “I feel like losing is something that burns. I just hate it. That’s just something you don’t want to feel.”
The same social media platforms that lazily lambasted the field for being relative unknowns featured footage of Bryant executing the very dunk he was aiming for: bouncing the ball off the glass and finishing with a thunderous reverse.
“I’ve been doing that dunk since I was 14 years old,” said Bryant, a 20-year-old from Riverside, Calif. “Just the ball didn’t roll my way tonight.”
Bryant settled for a different dunk to produce a score knowing it wouldn’t top the ever-smiling and dancing Johnson, who took the court alongside rapper E-40 and skied over him for his initial first-round dunk.
Johnson surely did his part to uphold the hype in a contest that has given fans only four participants in each of the past five All-Star weekends. As ever, the judges’ table housed dunking royalty representing an era when players’ attitudes toward the contest and game were different.
Kudos, then, to Carter. While he might have lingered around Bryant for a few seconds too long as Saturday afternoon approached evening out Cali way, he admirably threw support instead of shade. That produced what the peppy Johnson called “contagious” energy.
“I feel like he loved being out here. He loved giving back,” Johnson said. “Him being able to embrace me, embrace the other participants. You know when something is real, and I feel like his love, his knowledge he was trying to get to us and him being accessible to us, it was real love, and I felt that.”
Now for coaxing contemporary dunkers approaching Carter’s profile into the contest, too.
Whether dunks take flight outside LA or elsewhere, it shouldn’t take incentives to give fans a good show, but here we are.
Someone should grab the wheel, or else the “Wheel” could look even more attractive next year.
Sports
Baba Miller, Moustapha Thiam propel Cincinnati past Utah
Feb 15, 2026; Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; Cincinnati Bearcats center Moustapha Thiam, back, hugs forward Baba Miller after their team’s win against the Utah Utes at Fifth Third Arena. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-Imagn Images Baba Miller slammed home a dunk with 36.9 seconds remaining and grabbed a key rebound moments later as host Cincinnati rallied for a 69-65 win over Utah in Big 12 play on Sunday afternoon.
Miller finished with 13 points and seven rebounds while Moustapha Thiam added 15 and 10, respectively, to send Cincinnati (14-12, 6-7 Big 12) to its third straight victory.
Day Day Thomas led the Bearcats with 16 points and Keyshuan Tillery added 10 off the bench.
Don McHenry scored 18 points and Keanu Dawes added 16 to go along with 14 rebounds for Utah (9-16, 1-11), which fell to 0-9 in road games this season.
Ibrahima Traore converted a layup with 4:20 remaining and started a 6-0 run that put Utah up 65-60 with 1:56 left in a back-and-forth game.
Miller’s dunk with 36.9 seconds left gave Cincinnati a 66-65 lead. Dawes missed a straight-away 3-pointer with 23 seconds remaining and Miller grabbed the rebound. Thomas converted two free throws with 18 seconds left for a three-point lead.
McHenry was long on a 3-pointer with four seconds left that would have tied the game.
Cincinnati opened the game with a bang as Thiam won the opening tip to Thomas, who dribbled down the right side and lobbed to Miller for an alley-oop dunk in the opening four seconds of the game. Miller was honored before the game with a game ball by head coach Wes Miller and given a standing ovation for reaching the 1,000-point plateau in his career against UCF last Sunday.
The Bearcats took an early 14-8 lead before Utah ran off 10 straight points thanks to 3-pointers from Kendyl Sanders and Dawes and four points from Terrence Brown.
Utah was up 20-16 before Cincinnati answered with a 12-0 run, highlighted by consecutive 3-pointers from Tillery. Eventually the Bearcats built their biggest lead of the half at 32-23 on a Miller dunk with five minutes left.
But the Utes rallied with an 11-5 run and trailed by only three at 37-34 at halftime despite Cincinnati’s 18-6 advantage in the paint.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Tariq Francis' game-high 21 points enough for Rutgers to beat Maryland
Feb 15, 2026; Piscataway, New Jersey, USA; Rutgers Scarlet Knights guard Tariq Francis (0) dribbles up court against the Maryland Terrapins during the second half at Jersey Mike’s Arena. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images Tariq Francis had a game-high 21 points, Harun Zrno scored 11 of his 13 in the second half and Rutgers broke a seven-game slide with a 68-57 win over Maryland on Sunday in Piscataway, N.J.
The Scarlet Knights shot 41.5% overall, but they maintained a 50% clip with just two turnovers in the second half to win a matchup deprived of much offense.
Zrno knocked down three 3-pointers early in the second to help Rutgers pull away. Dylan Grant posted nine points and six rebounds, and Emmanuel Ogbole had a team-high nine rebounds for Rutgers (10-15, 3-11 Big Ten).
Darius Adams dropped 13 points, David Coit scored 12 and Solomon Washington racked up 11 points and 14 boards for Maryland (10-15, 3-11).
The Scarlet Knights broke away from a halftime tie by making 7 of their first 11 shots of the second half for a double-digit lead.
Zrno’s first 3-pointer of the day anchored an opening 7-0 run, which prompted a Maryland timeout. Later, he hit two consecutive open treys, and Francis’ jumper made it 44-34 Rutgers with 12:55 left. Kaden Powers added a steal and a score for a 12-point margin.
The lead ballooned to 52-39 at the 8:39 mark before Maryland clawed within five over the next four minutes.
Out of the under-4:00 TV timeout, Adams drove to the basket and was whistled for elbowing Zrno. Francis hit his only 3-pointer of the day on the ensuing possession to put Rutgers up 60-51.
Maryland drew no closer than six from there, as Jamichael Davis and Francis went 8-for-8 from the line to finish the game.
Rutgers shot 34.5% and Maryland made 34.3% in a rocky first half.
The Scarlet Knights led 18-13 with seven minutes left, but Maryland nosed ahead with an 8-2 run capped by Washington’s dunk. Rutgers answered with consecutive jumpers by Davis and Francis, but the Terrapins drew even at 27 by halftime, with Washington making 1 of 2 free throws in the final second.
–Field Level Media
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NBA Slam Dunk Contest Falls Flat Once Again
