Sports
NHL roundup: Jets 8-0-0 after dousing Flames
Oct 26, 2024; Calgary, Alberta, CAN; Winnipeg Jets center Cole Perfetti (91) celebrates his goal with teammates against the Calgary Flames during the third period at Scotiabank Saddledome. Mandatory Credit: Sergei Belski-Imagn Images Cole Perfetti’s power-play goal broke a third-period tie as the Winnipeg Jets continued their perfect season with a 5-3 road victory over the Calgary Flames on Saturday.
The Jets are the ninth team in NHL history to open a season with eight consecutive victories.
Kyle Connor and Mason Appleton each collected one goal and one assist, while Nikolaj Ehlers and Dylan Samberg added a goal apiece for the Jets, the league’s lone unbeaten squad. Goaltender Eric Comrie made 26 saves.
Mikael Backlund, Rasmus Andersson and Nazem Kadri replied for the Flames, who have lost two straight. Goalie Dustin Wolf stopped 30 shots.
Bruins 4, Maple Leafs 3 (OT)
Brad Marchand buried a rebound with 2:34 remaining in overtime as Boston responded to Toronto’s game-tying goal late in regulation, earning the victory.
The Bruins captain whacked at the puck in the left crease and beat Maple Leafs goaltender Anthony Stolarz (30 saves) for his first goal of the season after David Pastrnak made a slap pass from the right circle. Marchand and Pastrnak each logged a goal and an assist and Jeremy Swayman made 20 saves.
Matthew Knies and Morgan Rielly scored Toronto’s first two goals, and Mitch Marner had three assists. Knies needed only 35 seconds of second-period time to net the game-opening goal, slotting home a rebound after Auston Matthews took the puck right to the front of the net. Matthews scored the equalizer with 1:27 left in the third as Toronto earned a point.
Predators 4, Blue Jackets 3 (OT)
Jonathan Marchessault scored the overtime winner as Nashville edged visiting Columbus for its third straight win following a season-opening five-game losing streak.
Goaltender Scott Wedgewood made 25 saves for his first win of the season and second career win over the Blue Jackets. Daniil Tarasov stopped 29 shots and is winless in three career appearances against Nashville.
Marchessault deked around Blue Jackets defenseman Damon Severson and toe-dragged past Yegor Chinakhov before beating Tarasov five-hole for his second of the season at 1:44 of overtime.
Lightning 3, Capitals 0
Andrei Vasilevskiy recorded his first shutout this season and rookie Conor Geekie notched his first NHL goal as Tampa Bay shut out visiting Washington in a matchup of Eastern Conference powers.
In crafting his 35th career shutout, Vasilevskiy made 31 saves and benefited from 19 blocked shots by his teammates. The win was the 297th of his career and the Lightning’s first shutout of the Capitals since April 2014. Geekie ripped his first career goal in the third period to put his club ahead 3-0. Mitchell Chaffee and Brayden Point also scored.
The fourth-highest scoring team in the league, Washington didn’t generate many good chances against Vasilevskiy and had its five-game winning streak end. Charlie Lindgren made 17 saves.
Rangers 2, Ducks 1
Jonathan Quick made 32 saves and Artemi Panarin extended his season-opening points streak to eight games as host New York bounced back from its first regulation loss of the season and edge Anaheim.
The Rangers were stymied for most of the night by Anaheim goalie Lukas Dostal until Panarin set up Ryan Lindgren for the game’s first goal, 4:13 into the third. Will Cuylle scored 7:40 later, which ended up being the game winner after Olen Zellweger scored for the Ducks less than a minute later.
In his second start of the season, Quick earned his 395th career win and was particularly strong in the second period when he made 15 saves.
Flyers 7, Wild 5
Sean Couturier recorded a hat trick and two assists as host Philadelphia defeated Minnesota in an exciting Saturday matinee. Travis Konecny had a goal and four assists and Rasmus Ristolainen netted the game-winner for the Flyers, who had not posted a victory in regulation in any of their first seven games.
Meanwhile, the Wild had not lost in regulation in their first seven games before Saturday’s back-and-forth defeat. Marcus Foligno scored twice for Minnesota, while Kirill Kaprizov chipped in two assists.
With the game tied at 5 with about 2 1/2 minutes left, the Flyers emerged on a 4-on-2 rush into the offensive zone. Couturier put a shot on net, but Filip Gustavsson allowed a rebound in the slot and Ristolainen came charging in to jam it into the net. Ristolainen’s goal was the fifth tally during a chaotic six-goal third period. Couturier’s empty-net goal completed his second career regular-season hat trick and his first since 2019.
Kings 3, Utah Hockey Club 2
Joel Edmundson scored the first two goals in his short Los Angeles Kings career to help the hosts beat Utah.
The 31-year-old defenseman, who signed a four-year, $15.4 million deal with the Kings in July, enjoyed the first two-goal game of his career. He scored 29 goals in his first 536 regular-season games.
Clayton Keller and Logan Cooley scored for Utah, which lost its third straight.
Panthers 6, Islanders 3
Matthew Tkachuk collected his first two goals of the season for Florida, which scored the final six goals as it stormed back to beat host New York in Elmont, N.Y.
Mackie Samoskevich (first NHL goal) and Sam Bennett had the tying and go-ahead goals for the Panthers, who have won the first two games of a five-game trip (which ends with a pair of games in Finland). Sam Reinhart opened the Florida scoring, Gustav Forsling added an empty-netter in the third and Spencer Knight made 26 saves.
Dennis Cholowski, Kyle Palmieri and Brock Nelson all scored in the first for the Islanders, who have alternated losses with wins in each of their last seven games. Semyon Varlamov recorded 22 saves.
Stars 4, Blackhawks 2
Matt Duchene scored twice as Dallas remained undefeated at home this season with a 4-2 win over visiting Chicago.
Evgenii Dadonov’s first-period goal and Jamie Benn’s marker in the second gave Dallas a seemingly comfortable 2-0 lead. Then Duchene added what ended up being the game-winner with 11:10 left in regulation, as the Blackhawks later got within one on goals from Ryan Donato and Connor Bedard.
However, Jake Oettinger (22 saves) proved stout down the stretch and Duchene put home an empty-netter for the Stars, who have started 5-0-0 at home for the first time since 1998-99. Patrick Maroon had two assists and Petr Mrazek made 26 saves for the Blackhawks, who lost their fourth consecutive contest in the opener of a five-game trip.
Canadiens 5, Blues 2
Kirby Dach, Jake Evens and Joel Armia each scored a goal and earned an assist as Montreal defeated visiting St. Louis Blues to snap their four-game losing streak.
For Dach, who missed the last 80 games last season with a knee injury, it was his first goal since March 23, 2023. Alex Newhook and Cole Caufield also scored for the Canadiens. Mike Matheson and Nick Suzuki each earned two assists and Sam Montembeault made 29 saves.
Colton Parayko and Jake Neighbours scored for the Blues and Jordan Binnington made 21 saves.
Golden Knights 7, Sharks 3
Brett Howden scored two goals and Mark Stone and Pavel Dorofeyev each had a goal and two assists as Vegas moved into first place in the Pacific Division with a victory over winless San Jose in Las Vegas.
It was the first two-goal game of Howden’s career. William Karlsson had a short-handed goal and an assist in his season debut, Jack Eichel added a goal and an assist, and Tanner Pearson also scored for Vegas, which improved to an NHL-best 6-0-0 at home this season. Alex Pietrangelo chipped in two assists.
Ilya Samsonov made 23 saves for Vegas, which finished with a season-high 42 shots on goal. Mikael Granlund, Nico Sturm and Luke Kunin scored for San Jose, which has opened the season with a nine-game losing streak (0-7-2) for the second straight season after going 0-10-1 to begin last season. Vitek Vanecek finished with 35 saves.
Canucks 4, Penguins 3
Elias Pettersson scored one of four unanswered second-period goals for host Vancouver, which stormed back for a 4-3 win over Pittsburgh.
Arshdeep Bains (first NHL goal), J.T. Miller and Kiefer Sherwood also scored in the second for Vancouver, which won its fourth straight. Goaltender Kevin Lankinen stopped 21 shots as the Canucks began a three-game homestand after winning three of four during their first road trip of the young season.
Evgeni Malkin finished with a goal and two assists, former Canuck Anthony Beauvillier had one goal and one assist and Bryan Rust scored once for the Penguins, who have lost five straight.
Hurricanes 4, Kraken 1
Seth Jarvis had a goal and an assist as Carolina defeated host Seattle.
Andrei Svechnikov, Jack Drury and Dmitry Orlov also scored for the Hurricanes, who are 4-1-0 on their six-game trip that wraps up Monday in Vancouver. Goaltender Frederik Andersen made 18 saves.
Jared McCann scored the lone goal for Seattle, which went 2-2-1 on its five-game homestand after winning its first two. Joey Daccord stopped 35 of 38 shots.
Sabres 5, Red Wings 3
Tage Thompson had two goals and an assist in host Buffalo’s win over Detroit.
Jason Zucker, defenseman Bowen Byram and Jack Quinn also scored for Buffalo, which won its third straight game. Defenseman Rasmus Dahlin had three assists and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 22 saves. Thompson has 10 goals and 10 assists for 20 points in 16 games in his career facing Detroit.
Lucas Raymond had a goal and an assist and Alex DeBrincat and Michael Rasmussen added goals for Detroit, which had its three-game winning streak snapped. Defenseman Moritz Seider had two assists and Alex Lyon stopped 34 shots.
–Field Level Media
Sports
A'ja Wilson has no shortage of motivation after Aces' early exit in '24
Oct 1, 2024; Brooklyn, New York, USA; Las Vegas Aces center A’ja Wilson (22) and New York Liberty forward Breanna Stewart (30) during game two of the 2024 WNBA Semi-finals at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images LAS VEGAS — Entering her eighth season in the WNBA, Las Vegas Aces superstar A’ja Wilson is poised to build on what was arguably the most dominant individual campaign in league history.
Wilson joined Cynthia Cooper (1997) as the second player in league history to win a unanimous MVP award and joined an exclusive club as the fourth player to win the award three times. She averaged 26.9 points and 11.9 rebounds per game last season and set the all-time single-season mark for points (1,021) and rebounds (451).
Unfortunately for Las Vegas, injuries and fatigue from their two previous championship runs mounted and resulted in the team’s worst regular-season record (27-13) since 2019. The Aces’ three-peat hopes ended with a 76-62 home loss to the New York Liberty to drop their semifinal series 3-1.
It’s that loss on her home floor that served as Wilson’s motivation this offseason.
“Losing sucks, especially on your home court,” Wilson said “It still kind of burns a little bit, but I’ve used that as fuel to help my teammates understand how hard it is to win in this league. Yes, we can celebrate the two championships. They were great. But for us to move forward, we have to understand how hard this league is and value the basketball and the little things. I think that’s what we lacked last season, so we’re going to make sure that we can show up better than we did.”
While the Aces appeared to be on top of the world heading into their potential three-peat campaign in 2024, the reality inside the locker room was that both the internal and external pressure to win another championship had become suffocating. A common theme across media day was the fact that the team feels less pressure entering the 2025 season, a sentiment Wilson shared as the unquestioned leader of the team.
“(Three-peat talks) obviously impacted us, because it’s like, y’all think we don’t want to win? We’re trying as well,” Wilson said.
“I would definitely say it’s refreshing this year. I feel like this is one of my only years where it feels like there’s no weight. There’s a lot of weight to be defending champs. It’s a lot of weight to be trying to win one. We don’t have that. We actually have a clean slate to really dial into getting back to who we are culturally, like, in our system and everything.”
Leading the Aces back to the top of the mountain for a third time in four years is one of a few historically significant achievements Wilson can collect this upcoming season. Wilson could also become the first four-time MVP in league history, though the meaning of that is something she hasn’t quite allowed herself to ponder yet.
“I haven’t given it much thought, but it would be a blessing to have my name in that conversation,” Wilson said. “Every year, I try to be better than I was the year before just to give myself a chance in this league. Because the league is getting better. We’re growing. At this point, you just want to maintain your stamina. You want to maintain your mental, all of that, because the season gets hard. I can’t think too much about that just yet, but I’m definitely going to try to be better than I was last year.”
As Aces coach Becky Hammon put it, fans can expect to see an even better version of Wilson this season.
“What I see is, she went and got better,” Hammon said. “Which is hard to do when you’re already the best, but it speaks to her work ethic, her desire and her mindset this whole offseason. We talked a lot this offseason. She’s a busy lady, but I can tell you what she always does is her workouts. She’s always getting her workouts in. That comes first and foremost, she never gets her priorities jumbled up.”
When Hammon was asked what a player like Wilson would possibly need to improve after last season’s campaign, the coach did not feel like revealing too much.
“There was (something for Wilson to improve), and she did,” Hammon said. “I’m not going to tell you what it was. Actually, there were two things.”
–Will Despart, Field Level Media
Sports
Jacob Wilson joins Aaron Judge in spotlight for Yankees-A's series
May 5, 2025; West Sacramento, California, USA; Athletics shortstop Jacob Wilson (5) throws to first for an out against the Seattle Mariners during the seventh inning at Sutter Health Park. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Lee-Imagn Images The top two hitters in the majors square off Friday night when the New York Yankees face the Athletics in the opener of a three-game series in Sacramento, Calif.
It’s no surprise to see Yankees star Aaron Judge off to a superb start after winning American League MVP honors last season. He has a major league-best .400 batting average and entered Thursday’s play tied for the big-league lead with 12 homers and 34 RBIs.
But who had Athletics rookie Jacob Wilson ranking second in the majors at .357 as the season nears the quarter pole? Wilson has played in just 64 career games and quickly has solidified himself as a future All-Star, perhaps even this season.
Sharing the marquee board with Judge seems quite surreal for the 23-year-old shortstop who was the No. 6 overall pick of the 2023 draft.
“It’s a great feeling, for sure,” Wilson said of his name being mentioned with Judge. “Obviously, everybody has seen what he is doing. It’s pretty incredible watching him do his thing on a daily basis. To be up there with him is pretty cool for me.
“I’m excited to play against him this week and see what it looks like in person.”
Wilson had his first career four-hit game during Wednesday’s 6-5 home loss against the Seattle Mariners and has six multi-hit outings in the past eight games. He went 8-for-14 with one game-winning hit in the three-game series against the Mariners and is 16-for-34 (.471) with four walks during the eight-game stretch.
The hot hitting led to Athletics manager Mark Kotsay moving Wilson to the leadoff spot on Wednesday. Kotsay indicated Wilson may be sticking at the top of the lineup.
“I think you’ll see Jacob up there now,” Kotsay said. “Jacob’s earned it. … Jacob has shown enough over the last week. He’s walking and taking pitches, and, obviously, swinging the bat really well.”
Judge arrives in Sacramento in the midst of a four-game funk in which he is 2-for-15.
The two-time MVP just went 1-for-10 in a three-game home series against the San Diego Padres, but the one hit was a homer.
Judge grew up 50 miles south of Sacramento in Linden and starred for Linden High but wasn’t highly sought by major league teams. The then-Oakland Athletics selected him in the 31st round in 2010.
Judge instead went the college route and starred for Fresno State. He was chosen in the first round (32nd overall) by the Yankees in the 2013 draft.
Trent Grisham was one of the heroes of Wednesday’s 4-3, 10-inning win over the Padres. He hit a tying two-run pinch-hit homer in the eighth inning.
Grisham had two homers and five RBIs in the series against the Padres — one of his former teams — and already has 10 long balls in just 89 at-bats. He hit just nine last season in 179 at-bats.
“I’m having fun with the guys, I would say that more than anything,” Grisham said. “The clubhouse is really good in here, led by Cap (Judge). So, I would say the guys have been the most enjoyable part.”
New York is starting right-hander Will Warren (1-2, 5.65 ERA) in Friday’s series opener. Right-hander Osvaldo Bido (2-2, 4.71) will be on the mound for the Athletics.
Warren, 25, struck out a career-high eight in 4 2/3 innings while losing to the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday. He gave up five runs (three earned) and seven hits. Warren hasn’t previously faced the Athletics.
Bido, 29, received a no-decision against the Miami Marlins last Saturday when he gave up four runs on three hits over five innings. He is winless (0-1) over his last three starts. Bido hasn’t faced the Yankees.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Report: Boxing legend Manny Pacquiao coming out of retirement
Aug 21, 2021; Las Vegas, Nevada; Manny Pacquiao (right) fights Yordenis Ugas in a world welterweight championship bout at T-Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images Boxing legend Manny Pacquiao plans to end his retirement and return to the ring on July 19 against Mario Barrios in Las Vegas, ESPN reported Thursday.
Pacquiao, 46, will be fighting for the first time since losing a unanimous decision to Yordenis Ugas in 2021.
The fight will be for Barrios’ WBC welterweight championship belt. Barrios turns 30 on May 18.
Pacquiao is an eight-division champion who is slated to be inducted into the boxing Hall of Fame in June. He reportedly will formally announce his return to boxing next week. The report stated that Pacquiao has been cleared to compete by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
In recent years, Pacquiao has been focusing on his political career in the Philippines.
The boxer nicknamed “PacMan” has a 62-8-2 record with 39 knockouts during his career. He won his first major title — the WBC flyweight crown — at age 19 in 1998.
Pacquiao was 54-3-2 prior to turning 33 and 8-5 afterward. One of those losses was to Floyd Mayweather Jr. via unanimous decision in 2015, a bout that reportedly drew nearly $400 million in pay-per-view sales.
Barrios (29-2-1, 18 knockouts) fought to a 12-round, split-decision draw against Abel Ramos last November. This will be his third defense since winning the title by beating Ugas in 2023.
–Field Level Media
A'ja Wilson has no shortage of motivation after Aces' early exit in '24
Best Mothers Day gifts: Show mom some love
