Sports
Oilers, Penguins eager to put surprisingly poor starts behind them
Oct 17, 2024; Nashville, Tennessee, USA; Edmonton Oilers defenseman Mattias Ekholm (14) passes the puck against the Nashville Predators during the second period at Bridgestone Arena. Mandatory Credit: Steve Roberts-Imagn Images A pair of struggling teams desperate to change their fortunes will hit the ice when the Edmonton Oilers play host to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday.
Both the Oilers and Penguins are on a quest to rebound from disappointing extra-time setbacks in their last outing.
The Penguins arrive after surrendering a lead in the final minute of regulation en route to a 4-3 shootout loss to the Calgary Flames on Tuesday, while the Oilers wasted a two-goal third-period lead in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Carolina Hurricanes that same evening.
Edmonton, which came into the season with high hopes after reaching Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, has only two wins in seven games and owns the third-worst goal differential in the NHL (minus-13).
Despite the struggles, the message is to remain calm. After all, this is a team that rebounded from a month-long skid last season before changing its fortunes.
“I’m completely confident in our group,” defenseman Mattias Ekholm said. “I know it’s early in the year and it’s a matter of working through it, and I wasn’t expecting everybody to be firing where we left off or whatnot. It’s going to take a little bit of time, but I do like our team and I think we’re on the right track.”
The Oilers are surprisingly struggling with the man-advantage. Their vaunted power play has scored only twice this season (2-for-19) and is tied for 27th in the league at 10.5 percent, and personnel changes are being tried in the past couple of practices.
“With the way their season has gone, there’s been a lot of things to address: the power play, the penalty kill, scoring goals,” coach Kris Knoblauch said. “(The power play) was one thing that I didn’t anticipate that we were going to have problems doing.”
The Penguins, who are winless in three games, have their own concerns, having opened a four-game road trip with consecutive defeats. However, they had every chance to win in Calgary.
“Obviously there’s opportunity to get better, but I think we were a heck of a lot better than we have been in recent games,” forward Bryan Rust said. “We didn’t have huge, massive breakdowns like we did in the last three or four games, or whatever it was. So, I think that we’re definitely making strides.”
Even though the Penguins wasted a pair of third-period leads, they held momentum for most of the clash, especially the third period. They were just unable to find the insurance goal while outshooting the Flames 38-25 through overtime, nor the winning tally in the shootout.
“We had that five-on-five mentality — go in there and outwork them, get the puck out of the corner — and we score,” Rust said. “I think we needed a little bit more of that. It wasn’t there as consistently as we would have liked. … It’s still a work in progress, but I think the intentions are there. I think we’re trying to play with a little bit more pace. We’re trying to get things going in the right direction.”
That said, the Penguins have a glaring issue that must be addressed. No team has surrendered more goals than Pittsburgh, and even though goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic showed last game that he may be the one who can solidify that position, he was unable to hold the fort to the final buzzer.
“I got to do a better job of staying on pucks and just bailing us out there,” Nedeljkovic said. “I mean, it wasn’t a very difficult shot (on Nazem Kadri’s late game-tying goal). It wasn’t a very hard shot or a very well-placed shot. It was just a puck on net, so, not much else to it than that.”
–Field Level Media
Sports
Dominic Canzone, Randy Arozarena spark Mariners in win over Rangers
Jul 26, 2026; Arlington, Texas, USA; Texas Rangers center fielder Evan Carter (32) slides into second base as Seattle Mariners shortstop Colt Emerson (4) awaits the throw during the fourth inning at Globe Life Field. Mandatory Credit: Jim Cowsert-Imagn Images Dominic Canzone and Randy Arozarena hit back-to-back homers in the seventh inning as the Seattle Mariners rallied to defeat the Texas Rangers 6-4 Sunday afternoon in an American League West showdown at Arlington, Texas.
Ezequiel Duran went deep for the Rangers, who had won the first two games in the four-game series.
The Mariners snapped a four-game skid and moved past Houston and into second place in the division, 1 1/2 games behind the Rangers.
Reliever Gabe Speier (2-2) pitched 1 1/3 hitless innings with three strikeouts to earn the victory and Andres Munoz struck out the side in the ninth for his 18th save of the season.
Trailing 3-1 with one out in the seventh, Colt Emerson and Cole Young singled to left field off Rangers reliever Tyler Alexander. Cole Winn (5-3) was summoned from the bullpen and got Julio Rodriguez to fly out to second baseman Nicky Lopez. Calzone launched a three-run shot 400 feet down the right-field line to give the Mariners a the lead. Arozarena went deep to right-center on the next pitch to make it 5-3.
The Rangers got a run back in the eighth as Duran hit a solo shot to left with one out off Eduard Bazardo.
Seattle scored again in the ninth as Rodriguez was hit by a Peyton Gray pitch with one out and Canzone lined a run-scoring double to right, giving him four RBIs.
The Rangers wasted no time in taking the lead. Joc Pederson led off the bottom of the first with a double to center field and Wyatt Langford lined a single to left, putting runners at the corners. Duran lifted a sacrifice fly to center to make it 1-0.
Seattle tied it in the third as Young tripled to left-center with two outs on a ball that went off the end of center fielder Evan Carter’s mitt after a lengthy run. Rodriguez followed with a broken-bat single that left fielder Langford trapped with a sliding attempt at the catch.
The Rangers regained the lead with a pair of runs in the fourth. With one out, Brandon Nimmo reached on an infield single on a comebacker off the left foot of Mariners starter Logan Gilbert. Following a walk to Jake Burger, Carter lined a run-scoring single to right with Burger taking third on the throw to the plate. Lopez hit a grounder up the middle on which second baseman Young made a diving stop, but his flip to second from his mitt to shortstop Emerson covering the bag was high, allowing all runners to advance safely and Burger to score to make it 3-1.
Neither starter factored into the decision.
Gilbert allowed three runs on five hits over 5 2/3 innings. The right-hander walked two and struck out four.
Rangers righty Jacob deGrom gave up one run on seven hits in five-plus innings. He didn’t walk a batter and fanned four.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Jackson Koivun, 21, tops Scottie Scheffler at 3M Open for first title
Jul 25, 2026; Blaine, Minnesota, USA; With ball in hand Jackson Koivun acknowledges applause from the gallery for scoring eagle on hole 18, which made him leader in the clubhouse at -20 after the third round of the 3M Open golf tournament at TPC Twin Cities. Mandatory Credit: Nick Wosika-Imagn Images Rookie Jackson Koivun shot 5-under-par 66 to stave off hard-charging Scottie Scheffler and win on the PGA Tour for the first time at the 3M Open on Sunday at Blaine, Minn.
Koivun, 21, finished at 25-under 259 for a three-shot victory on Scheffler, who closed with a 63 at TPC Twin Cities.
Less than two months ago, Koivun was helping Auburn to its second NCAA championship in a three-year stretch. He demonstrated more poise while playing the final two rounds of his third tournament since turning pro without carding a bogey.
Denny McCarthy (66), Brian Harman (65), Chandler Phillips (67) and Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama (64) tied for third place at 20 under.
World No. 1 Scheffler birdied three consecutive holes to begin the back nine as part of his bogey-free round. He birdied Nos. 16 and 18, leaving him trailing by two strokes.
Koivun then birdied No. 16, extending the margin to three strokes with two holes to play.
Koivun, a three-time Player of the Year in the Southeastern Conference, surged into the lead across the final nine holes Saturday and then went right to work Sunday, with his approach shot on the first hole spinning back to within 2 feet of the cup for an easy birdie putt. A birdie on No. 4 pushed his lead to five strokes, with Scheffler among five golfers tied for second place at the time.
Jake Knapp shot an early 62 to rise quickly on the leaderboard and finish at 16 under, tying for 13th.
Defending champion Kurt Kitayama (68) finished tied for 24th at 13 under.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Drew Rasmussen, Rays one-hit Guardians to complete series sweep
Jul 26, 2026; St. Petersburg, Florida, USA; Tampa Bay Rays starting pitcher Drew Rasmussen (57) throws a pitch against the Cleveland Guardians in the first inning at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images Drew Rasmussen allowed one hit over seven shutout innings while Chandler Simpson manufactured the game’s lone run as the Tampa Bay Rays completed a three-game sweep of the Cleveland Guardians with a 1-0 win Sunday in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Rasmussen (9-5) walked one and struck out nine. Garrett Cleavinger pitched a scoreless eighth inning before Bryan Baker worked around a two-out walk in the ninth for his 28th save.
Simpson had two hits for Tampa Bay, which won for the sixth time in its last seven games and has the American League’s best record at 62-43.
Cleveland was held to one hit and lost its fifth straight game. The Guardians were shut out for the second consecutive game and eighth time this season.
Parker Messick (8-6) was a hard-luck loser after giving up one run on six hits over 7 2/3 innings. He struck out six with zero walks.
The Guardians went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position and have scored a total of four runs in their last four games.
Tampa Bay broke the scoreless tie with a run in the fifth inning. Simpson hit a leadoff single, moved to second on a wild pitch and then to third on Ben Williamson’s groundout before scoring on Cedric Mullins’ bunt single.
Rasmussen settled in quickly after yielding Steven Kwan’s double to begin the game. He struck out four of the next six batters and retired the last 12 batters he faced.
Cleavinger replaced Rasmussen to begin the eighth inning and recorded three outs with a strikeout on 11 pitches.
Messick retired the first seven batters he faced before Nick Fortes doubled with one out in the third inning. Fortes moved to third on Richie Palacios’ groundout, but he was stranded when Yandy Diaz lined out to first.
Tampa Bay put two runners on with one out in the seventh inning, but Messick struck out Mullins and Fortes to escape unscathed.
Baker completed the Rays’ eighth shutout of the season in the ninth by striking out Brayan Rocchio with a runner at first for his second save in as many days.
–Field Level Media
Dominic Canzone, Randy Arozarena spark Mariners in win over Rangers
Jackson Koivun, 21, tops Scottie Scheffler at 3M Open for first title
