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The 2024 NHL Stadium Series will be held at MetLife Stadium in February as a two-day event featuring four rival teams, the league announced on Saturday.

The New Jersey Devils will host the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday, Feb. 17, in an outdoor night game. The New York Islanders will host the New York Rangers on Sunday, Feb. 18, at a time yet to be determined.

The Rangers had to be designated as the road team against the Islanders because of their Madison Square Garden lease agreement, which forbids them from playing a home game anywhere but MSG.

The event will mark the first time four NHL teams have played outdoor games at the same venue in front of fans. The games will be broadcast on ESPN.

The Stadium Series event joins a 2023-24 season NHL outdoor game schedule that includes the Heritage Classic between the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers on Oct. 29 at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, and the NHL Winter Classic on Jan. 1, 2024, between the Vegas Golden Knights and the Seattle Kraken at Seattle’s T-Mobile Park.

Initially, the NHL’s plan for MetLife Stadium was to have the Rangers face the Devils in a single game between the archrivals, who met in the Stanley Cup playoffs this postseason.

“There’s been many iterations of what we wanted to do here. But when we started getting into the matchups, the game, the tri-state area and the great hockey that’s being played in the New York area, we felt this would be unique and a way to keep our outdoor games fresh,” Steve Mayer, NHL chief content officer and senior executive vice president, said.

“Obviously, the goal is to continue our incredible streak of 37 straight sellouts [in outdoor games], and we really feel very confident that these two matchups will fill two buildings, two days in a row, which for us will be unprecedented.”

The capacity for the two MetLife games is something the NHL is still determining. The NHL said that MetLife Stadium will be undergoing some renovation next offseason in preparation for the 2026 FIFA World Cup Soccer that will impact some of the low-level sideline seating.

“We will be losing a few seats due to that,” said Dean Matsuzaki, NHL executive vice president of events.

The NHL anticipates attendance will be over 75,000 for each game. Currently, the third-largest crowd for an outdoor game was 76,126 for the 2019 Winter Classic at the University of Notre Dame.

MetLife Stadium is home to the NFL’s New York Giants and New York Jets and is located minutes from New York City. But Mayer said the plan is to emphasize that the games are being held in New Jersey, despite the presence of the New York teams.

“We’re going to get super creative. We’re going to highlight. It’s our goal that when somebody tunes in to watch this, they know we’re playing in New Jersey. We’re going to look at all the things that New Jersey area has to offer,” Mayer said, adding that the league plans to “lean into the music scene with some of those typical names” associated with the state.

“When it comes to entertainment, which we always focus on, and I think we’re going to go bigger because of the weekend. We’ll try to do something in between games, after games and before games that really celebrates not only hockey, but the music of the area as well,” Mayer said.

This is the sixth regular-season outdoor game for the Flyers, who are 1-3-1 in those events. Philadelphia last played outdoors in February 2021 against the Boston Bruins in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. The Rangers are playing their fifth outdoor game, having gone 4-0-0. Their most recent outdoor game was the 2018 Winter Classic at New York City’s Citi Field. The Devils (0-1-0) and Islanders (0-1-0) are both playing their second outdoor game, having both lost to the Rangers at Yankee Stadium in 2014.

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Ohtani’s blast caps 6-run 9th in wild Dodgers rally

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Ohtani's blast caps 6-run 9th in wild Dodgers rally

PHOENIX — Shohei Ohtani hit a three-run homer to cap a six-run ninth inning and the Los Angeles Dodgers rallied for a wild 14-11 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday night.

The Dodgers trailed 11-8 entering the ninth inning after blowing an early five-run lead.

Andy Pages and Enrique Hernandez hit consecutive run-scoring doubles to open the ninth inning against Kevin Ginkel (0-1). Max Muncy tied it at 11-11 with a run-scoring single and Ryan Thompson replaced Ginkel to face Ohtani.

It didn’t go well for Arizona.

Ohtani, who doubled twice, fell into a 1-2 hole before launching his 12th homer near the pool deck in right to put the Dodgers up 14-11. He finished with four RBIs.

Tanner Scott worked a perfect ninth save in 11 chances.

The Dodgers roughed up Eduardo Rodriguez to take an 8-3 lead through three innings, but couldn’t hold it.

Lourdes Gurriel Jr. hit a tying grand slam in the fifth inning, then Ketel Marte and Randal Grichuk hit solo shots off Alex Vesia (1-0) in the eighth to put Arizona up 11-8.

Pages finished with three RBIs and Hernández extended the Dodgers’ homer streak to 13 straight games with a solo shot in the second inning.

Marte homered twice for the Diamondbacks. Rodriguez allowed eight runs on nine hits in 2⅔ innings.

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Marchand’s OT score cuts Panthers’ deficit to 2-1

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Marchand's OT score cuts Panthers' deficit to 2-1

SUNRISE, Fla. — Brad Marchand scored on a deflected shot at 15:27 of overtime and the Florida Panthers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-4 on Friday night to cut their deficit in the Eastern Conference semifinal series to 2-1.

Aleksander Barkov, Sam Reinhart, Carter Verhaeghe and Jonah Gadjovich scored for Florida, which got 27 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky. Evan Rodrigues had two assists for the Panthers. They 13-2 in their last 15 playoff overtime games.

John Tavares scored twice, and Matthew Knies and Morgan Rielly also scored for the Maple Leafs. Joseph Woll stopped 32 shots.

Game 4 will be in Sunrise on Sunday night.

Florida erased deficits of 2-0 and 3-1, and that’s been almost impossible to do against Toronto this season.

By the numbers, it was all looking good for the Maple Leafs.

  • They were 30-3-0 when leading after the first period, including playoffs, the second-best record in the league.

  • They were 38-8-2, the league’s third-best record when scoring first.

  • They had blown only 11 leads all season, none in the playoffs.

  • They were 44-3-1 in games where they led by two goals or more.

Combine all that with Toronto having won all 11 of its previous best-of-seven series when taking a 2-0 lead at home, Florida being 0-5 in series where it dropped both Games 1 and 2, and leaguewide, teams facing 0-2 deficits come back to win those series only about 14% of the time.

But Marchand — a longtime Toronto playoff nemesis from his days in Boston — got the biggest goal of Florida’s season, rendering all those numbers moot for now.

The Leafs got two goals that deflected in off of Panthers defensemen: Tavares’ second goal nicked the glove of Gustav Forsling on its way past Bobrovsky for a 3-1 lead, and Rielly’s goal redirected off Seth Jones’ leg to tie it with 9:04 left in the third.

Knies scored 23 seconds into the game, the second time Toronto had a 1-0 lead in the first minute of this series. Tavares made it 2-0 at 5:57 and just like that, the Panthers were in trouble.

A diving Barkov threw the puck at the night and saw it carom in off a Toronto stick to get Florida on the board — only for Tavares to score again early in the second for a 3-1 Leafs lead.

Florida needed a break. It came.

Reinhart was credited with a goal after Woll thought he covered up the puck following a scrum in front of the net. But after review, it was determined the puck had crossed the line. Florida had life, the building was loud again and about a minute later, Verhaeghe tied it at 3-3.

Gadjovich made it 4-3 late in the second, before Rielly tied it midway through the third.

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Vegas’ Roy dodges suspension for G2 cross-check

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Vegas' Roy dodges suspension for G2 cross-check

NEW YORK — Vegas Golden Knights forward Nicolas Roy was fined but not suspended Friday for cross-checking the Edmonton OilersTrent Frederic in the face in overtime of Game 2 of the teams’ second-round playoff series.

The NHL Department of Player Safety announced the fine of $7,813, the maximum allowed under the collective bargaining agreement, after a disciplinary hearing with him.

Roy attempted to play the puck while it was airborne but made contact with Frederic’s head instead, resulting in a laceration for the Oilers forward.

Frederic briefly exited the game before making a quick return to the ice. Edmonton, however, failed to capitalize on the ensuing five-minute power play but won not long after on a goal by Leon Draisaitl from Connor McDavid.

Vegas trails the best-of-seven series 2-0 with Game 3 on Saturday night at Edmonton.

Information from The Associated Press and Field Level Media was used in this report.

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