No. 1 Dawgs dedicate win to late coach Dooley
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Kirby Smart is pretty sure late Georgia coach Vince Dooley was looking down on the No. 1 Bulldogs on Saturday and probably enjoyed the first half — but not so much the second — in a 42-20 victory over the rival Florida Gators.
Dooley, who guided the Bulldogs to a national championship in 1980, died on Friday at his home in Athens, Georgia. He was 90.
“To the Dooleys back home in Athens, I know they are together,” Smart said. “It meant a lot for us to win that game for them. All that Vince has meant to our university and such an ambassador of our program and really all of college football. … He has meant so much to us and in honor of him and their family, it was special. It was a tough time for that to happen.”
After taking a 28-3 lead at the half, a multitude of Georgia errors allowed the Gators to cut the deficit to only eight points after Florida quarterback Anthony Richardson threw a 78-yard touchdown to Xzavier Henderson with 3:31 left in the third quarter.
A Georgia personal foul helped set up Florida’s first touchdown of the second half, and then Bulldogs tailback Kenny McIntosh lost a fumble on the first play of the next drive. Gators defensive back Trey Dean III recovered the ball at Georgia’s 27, and Florida ended up kicking a field goal to make it 28-13.
On the Bulldogs’ next possession, quarterback Stetson Bennett underthrew a pass, which was intercepted by Florida’s Amari Burney. Richardson connected with Henderson three plays later, after the Bulldogs busted coverage in the secondary.
Georgia scored touchdowns on each of its next two possessions to end the threat and beat Florida for the fifth time in the past six meetings.
“I’m sure Coach Dooley enjoyed that; I’m sure he was watching,” Bennett said. “You know, sometimes you take what they give you and sometimes you give them what they’re going to take.”
Smart knows his team will have to clean things up before next week’s showdown against No. 3 Tennessee at Sanford Stadium. That game will go a long way in deciding which team will win the SEC East, and it will be the first top-five matchup played at Sanford Stadium since the No. 4 Bulldogs lost 13-7 to Bo Jackson and No. 3 Auburn in 1983, ending a 23-game SEC win streak, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
“Any win, any win exudes confidence,” Smart said. “You guys criticize the wins, I am great with the wins. In the SEC, when you beat Florida, any win, they are hard to come by. They are tough, they are physical, they are hard-fought. I am proud of them and the way our guys played.”
Smart, a former Georgia defensive back, said he didn’t learn of Dooley’s death until the team landed in Jacksonville on Friday. Smart said he received a text from Dooley’s son, Derek, a former Tennessee head coach.
“We took off and were not aware of anything and then the phones started dinging and the text messages started coming through,” Smart said. “We knew that it was kind of imminent. I got to visit with him a little last week and sat down. He was in the training room and we got to talk for a while, and of course I did not know that it would be the last time, but that is probably my fondest memory.”
Smart said Dooley was in a suite with his family during last year’s SEC championship game and CFP National Championship, in which Georgia defeated Alabama 33-18 to win its first national title in 41 years.
“My kids have gotten to be around him, and it’s funny because my kids had no idea,” Smart said. “They were like, ‘Who is this old coach? Who is this old guy?’ Now they know the history and what all he stood for and what his family did for this university. Got a lot of respect for him.”
OTTAWA, Ontario — Danny Nelson scored the eventual game-winner in the third period and Trey Augustine made 38 saves, leading the United States to a 4-1 win over Canada on Tuesday night and into the top spot in Group A at the world junior hockey championship.
Cole Hutson and Cole Eiserman each had a goal and an assist for the Americans. Ryan Leonard scored into an empty-net.
Bradly Nadeau scored for Canada, which allowed three goals on seven American power plays. Carter George stopped 24 shots.
Canada finished third in the pool and will face Czechia in Thursday’s quarterfinals. The Americans face Switzerland.
“We’re not here to beat Canada tonight,” Augustine said. “We’re here to win a gold medal.”
The other matchups will have Group B winner Sweden take on Latvia, and Finland square off with Slovakia.
Canada and the U.S. played in the same building exactly 16 years to the day at the 2009 event, when John Tavares scored a memorable hat trick in Canada’s 7-4 comeback victory on New Year’s Eve. The Canadians went on to win a fifth straight gold.
“That’s something that’s storybook-like,” Eiserman said of beating Canada on home soil in the tournament’s marquee round-robin matchup. “Something that you’ve dreamt of.”
The teams met on New Year’s Eve for the first time since Dec. 31, 2016, when Canada picked up a 3-1 victory in Toronto. The U.S. got revenge less than a week later with a 5-4 shootout win in the title game in Montreal.
The Americans opened this under-20 tournament with a 10-4 win over Germany followed by a 5-1 victory over Latvia before losing to Finland 4-3 in overtime. Canada started with a 4-0 defeat of Finland before falling to Latvia 3-2 in a shootout and then rebounding to beat Germany 3-0.
The Canadians had a power play to start the third period while trailing 1-0 after Leonard took a roughing call at the end of the second. Nadeau blasted a one-timer for his first goal of the tournament off a feed from Brayden Yager at 1:58.
Nelson restored the U.S. lead at 4:22, taking a pass from Huston and beating George with his third goal.
The U.S. scored its third power-play goal of the game at 13:21 when Eiserman scored his second and put the game out of reach at 3-1 after a boarding penalty by Canada’s Easton Cowan.
Leonard scored into the empty net with 1:52 left in regulation to spark chants of “U-S-A! U-S-A!”
George, who entered with consecutive shutouts that bookended the Latvia loss, saw his streak end at 133:02 on Tuesday’s first power play to silence the beer-chugging crowd at Canadian Tire Centre.
In the first period, Hutson took advantage of a failed Canadian clearing attempt on a U.S. power play and scored his second goal of the tournament.
Tempers flared later in the period when Canada’s Luca Pinelli and Zeev Buium of the U.S. went off for roughing and then jawed at each other in the penalty box.
Leonard hit another post for the Americans and Carson Rehkopf fired an effort that Augustine, who entered with an .879 save percentage in two starts, got enough of with his glove at the other end before tempers again boiled over at the buzzer.
In another Group A game, Finland beat Latvia 3-0 and finished second in the group. In Group B, Switzerland beat Kazakhstan 3-1 to secure a spot in the quarterfinal round. Also, Sweden completed a sweep of its four preliminary round games, beating Czechia 4-2 in another Group B game.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Greg Wyshynski, ESPN
New York Rangers star goaltender Igor Shesterkin has been placed on injured reserve with an upper-body injury, an NHL source told ESPN on Tuesday.
The Rangers recalled NHL veteran Louis Domingue from the AHL Hartford Wolf Pack. Shesterkin’s backup, Jonathan Quick, is 5-4-0 in 12 games this season with a .907 save percentage and a 2.69 goals-against average.
Shesterkin stopped 21 of 25 shots in the Rangers’ 5-3 loss to the Florida Panthers on Monday night. During that game, Panthers forward Sam Bennett was checked into Shesterkin’s upper body by Rangers defenseman Ryan Lindgren. Shesterkin was down on the ice briefly but didn’t leave the game.
Shesterkin, 29, is 11-15-1 in 27 games this season with a .906 save percentage and a 3.10 goals-against average. While the Rangers are 20th in goals against per game this season, Shesterkin is second among all goalies with 13 goals saved above replacement, according to Stathletes.
It has been an eventful month for Shesterkin. He signed a contract extension with the Rangers on Dec. 6 that makes him the highest-paid goalie in NHL history: an eight-year, $92 million deal that starts in the 2025-26 season. The 2022 Vezina Trophy winner is in the final year of a four-year deal with an average annual value of $5.66 million.
The injury to Shesterkin is the latest bit of adversity for the Rangers this season. They are 16-19-1 after 36 games, having lost four in a row and going 2-8-0 in their past 10. The Rangers were seven points out of a playoff spot entering Tuesday night.
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