Connor nets Jets-record 41st game-winning goal
WINNIPEG, Manitoba — Kyle Connor set a franchise record with his 41st game-winning goal, scoring on a power play at 5:38 of the third lead as the Winnipeg Jets beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-2 on Friday night.
Connor’s record-setting goal moved him past Ilya Kovalchuk for the most winners in Jets-Atlanta Thrashers history.
“Our power play came up with some big goals, but our penalty kill, it’s been right up there at the top all season, and it really showed its strength tonight,” Connor said. “You can win a lot of games with a good penalty kill.”
The Jets went 2-for-6 on the power play — scoring twice during 5-on-3 advantages — and killed off all four of Tampa Bay’s chances with the man advantage in the win.
“The special teams were obviously outstanding,” coach Rick Bowness said. “[Associate coach] Scotty Arniel has done a fantastic job with the penalty kill. They won the game for us tonight because that’s a great power play.
“We’re working very hard on the power play and get those two 5-on-3s and also got a 4-on-4 goal. … Our special teams tonight won the game.”
Bowness was a winner in a milestone game. The 67-year-old was behind the bench for his NHL-record 2,600th game, including stints as a head coach, associate coach or assistant coach.
Pierre-Luc Dubois scored twice and Morgan Barron helped seal Winnipeg’s fourth straight win, scoring short-handed into an empty net with 1:26 remaining.
Connor also had an assist. Josh Morrissey added three assists and Mark Scheifele two. Connor Hellebuyck stopped 26 shots.
Anthony Cirelli had a goal and an assist, and Nikita Kucherov also scored for the Lightning, who finished a three-game trip with a 1-2-0 record. Tampa Bay is 9-9 on the road.
After missing two straight games with an illness, Andrei Vasilevsky stopped 16 of the 19 shots for Tampa Bay.
Lightning coach Jon Cooper didn’t mince words about his team’s penchant for penalties.
“It’s a complete lack of discipline,” he said. “It was embarrassing what we did.
“How many 5-on-3s you’re up against in one season, you count on maybe one hand, and we give them two minute-and-a-half 5-on-3s in one game. Unacceptable. That shouldn’t happen. And good on Winnipeg.
“Honestly, it was really a nothing game going on. That game could have been 0-0 and a shootout. They (Jets) stayed disciplined, just said, ‘Sit back and wait for Tampa to screw it up’ and they did. And that’s what happened.”
The Lightning outshot the Jets 12-4 in the first period, but the game was tied 1-all.
Cirelli scored at 11:48, converting a rebound off a Steven Stamkos shot to beat Hellebuyck.
With nine seconds remaining in the period, Dubois tipped in a wrist shot by Connor for his 18th goal of the season.
Tampa Bay took a 2-1 lead at 1:35 of the second when Kucherov’s shot went through Hellebuyck’s pads.
Winnipeg went on an 87-second, two-man advantage at 6:05. The Jets capitalized, this time with Dubois getting a piece of Morrissey’s point shot at 7:05.
The Jets broke the tie with another two-man advantage after Stamkos was sent off for cross-checking at 4:34. Vladislav Namestnikov followed him six seconds later for delay of game.
Connor’s one-timer beat Vasilevsky on the glove side for his 17th of the season.
Stamkos had a great chance to tie it up with about six minutes remaining, but his shot ended up being swiped away from the goal line by Jets defenseman Dylan DeMelo.
Connor was called for tripping with 1:52 left and Tampa Bay pulled Vasilevsky for the six-on-four, but Barron spoiled the attack.
Knight’s Choice has won the 2024 Melbourne Cup, defeating Warp Speed and Okita Soushi in a thrilling finish at Flemington on Tuesday afternoon.
The massive outsider saluted for Irish-born jockey Robbie Dolan, who claimed victory in what was his first ever ride in the “race that stops a nation”.
In what was a gripping 164th staging of Australia’s most-watched thoroughbred race, Knight’s Choice proved too strong in a sprint to the finish, pulling over the top of Okita Soushi and holding off Warp Speed by the barest of margins.
Trained by John Symons and Sheila Laxon on the Sunshine Coast, Knight’s Choice was well down the betting across all markets. It was Laxon’s second Melbourne Cup triumph after she trained Ethereal to victory 23 years ago.
“This is the pinnacle of all pinnacles, this is the Melbourne Cup,” Symons said.
Zardozi rounded out the first four.
As the field approached the final few hundred metres it appeared as though Jamie Kah, aboard Okita Soushi, would become just the second woman to ride the winner in the Melbourne Cup. But Okita Soushi was swallowed up as the winning post neared, with Knight’s Choice beating Warp Speed to the line after a peach of a ride from Dolan.
“We’ll be singing tonight after a few beers,” Dolan, who was a contestant on the 2022 edition of “The Voice”, told Channel 9.
“It is amazing and a lot of people doubted this little horse. Doubt me now.”
Laxon was more than happy with the ride, with Dolan threading his way through the field from near last on the bend.
“He started the race, and he knew how to ride him. We didn’t give him instructions, he knew what to do,” she said.
“I love it being down for the Australians. The Australian horse has done it, and Robbie is Australian now as well, so I’m thrilled to win the Cup, and it is the people’s Cup, and that’s what it is all about.”
Knight’s Choice is just the sixth Australian-bred horse to win since 1993, and the first since Vow and Declare back in 2019.
The five-year-old gelding carried only 51kg to victory and was making its first start over the 3200m trip. It had most recently come off a fifth-placed finish in the Bendigo Cup, but had showed sparing little form this preparation otherwise.
“I watched every Melbourne Cup for the last 40 years. I thought my best chance was to get him to stay the trip and, hopefully, he can run home and do the quick sectionals he can on a good track and he proved everybody wrong,” Dolan said.
MILWAUKEE — The Brewers‘ starting rotation could have a new look next season with right-handers Frankie Montas and Colin Rea heading into free agency.
The Brewers announced Monday that Montas had declined his part of a $20 million mutual option for 2025. The Brewers turned down the $5.5 million club option on Rea’s contract.
Montas receives a $2 million buyout and Rea gets a $1 million buyout.
In other moves Monday, right-hander Kevin Herget was claimed off waivers by the New York Mets, and left-hander Rob Zastryzny was claimed off waivers by the Chicago Cubs. First baseman Jake Bauers and right-hander Bryse Wilson cleared waivers and were sent outright to Triple-A Nashville.
Montas, 31, had a combined 7-11 record with a 4.84 ERA and 148 strikeouts over 150⅔ innings in 30 starts for the Cincinnati Reds and Brewers this season. He was 3-3 with a 4.55 ERA in 11 starts for the Brewers, who acquired him just before the trade deadline.
Rea, 34, was 12-6 with a 4.28 ERA this season in 32 appearances, including 27 starts. He struck out 135 in 167⅔ innings. Rea had an 8.31 ERA in September and was left off the Brewers’ NL Wild Card Series roster.
Herget, 33, had no record with one save and a 1.59 ERA in seven appearances with Milwaukee this year. He was 5-1 with four saves and a 2.27 ERA in 38 relief outings with Triple-A Nashville.
Zastryzny, 32, was 1-0 with a 1.17 ERA in nine appearances with Milwaukee. He pitched in 30 games with Nashville and went 4-0 with a 3.03 ERA.
The 29-year-old Bauers batted .199 with a .301 on-base percentage, 12 homers and 43 RBIs in 116 games this season. He also hit a seventh-inning homer that broke a scoreless tie in the decisive Game 3 of the Wild Card Series with the Mets, who rallied in the ninth to win 4-2.
Wilson, who turns 27 on Dec. 20, went 5-4 with a 4.04 ERA in 34 appearances, including nine starts.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports7 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Environment1 year agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway