‘Terrific’ Montgomery lifts Rangers to Game 1 win
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Bradford Doolittle, ESPN Staff Writer
HOUSTON — Jordan Montgomery came up big in the Texas Rangers‘ biggest game of the year, continuing a personal scoreless streak, helping his club to preserve a perfect postseason and, just maybe, earning a new nickname in the process.
Montgomery outdueled future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander on Sunday, tossing 6⅓ scoreless innings in Texas’ 2-0 Game 1 victory over the defending champion Houston Astros in the American League Championship Series. The gem was Montgomery’s second straight scoreless effort in the playoffs, as pitching remains the key to Texas’ startling 6-0 postseason mark.
“If [starting] doesn’t raise your game in the playoffs, I don’t think you’re doing it right,” Montgomery said. “Obviously, I was super excited to take the ball tonight. And anytime I can give my team a chance to win, I’ll do my best.”
The Rangers, the AL’s No. 5 seed, have opened each of their three playoffs series on the road and won every Game 1, becoming just the fourth team to accomplish the feat. The Texas staff has posted a 1.83 team ERA during the spree and recorded four quality starts, most of any postseason team, including two from Montgomery.
No one had a better vantage point of Montgomery’s mastery than Rangers catcher Jonah Heim, who singled, walked and drove in one of the Rangers’ two runs. It was Heim who might have given Montgomery a new moniker, calling him “Big Guy” as he threw his arms around the clutch lefty in the clubhouse.
“That was the first time [calling him that],” Heim said. “I don’t know where that came from. But it’s a good one.”
Montgomery carved up the Astros by mixing in curveballs, four-seam fastballs and a few changeups along with his trademark sinker, moving all of his offerings around the strike zone and just out of it. The vaunted Houston offense was off-balance all through Montgomery’s outing.
“Nothing’s straight, and nothing’s the same,” Heim said. “Same release point, ball gets on you, big guy. Sometimes, he steps on the brakes with his curveball, and other times, he rams in a four-seam on you. It makes my job easy.”
Montgomery had to be on his game because Verlander was proving to be almost as stingy against the high-scoring Texas offense, holding the Rangers to Heim’s RBI single in the second and a solo homer by Leody Taveras on a hanging Verlander slider in the fifth.
“Sometimes, you have to tip your hat,” Verlander said. “Jordan pitched incredibly well.”
With both Montgomery and Verlander throwing into the seventh inning, Game 1 had as close to an old-school pitching duel as you get in an era of quick hooks for starters. The contest was the first in this year’s playoffs in which both starters went six-plus innings.
“Both sides, great pitching,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said. “We just found a way to get a couple of runs across the board. That was the difference in the game, obviously. But our guy was really good, Monty; terrific job he did.”
Montgomery struck out six batters, getting Houston’s star slugger Yordan Alvarez for three of the whiffs. Montgomery threw 90 pitches and scattered five Houston singles. He said he felt like he had plenty left in the tank too when he was taken out of the game.
“I thought in the seventh that I had a little longer leash and that I would at least go until someone got on base or whatever, but obviously, [Bochy] pulled me,” Montgomery said. “I was trying to go as deep as I could.”
Montgomery had more than a little help from his defense, as well, with rookie left fielder Evan Carter making a leaping grab of an Alex Bregman liner in the first. Carter, 21, then made the play of the game by nabbing an eighth-inning Bregman drive against the fence in left-center, a play that resulted in a double play after Jose Altuve failed to retouch second base while retreating to first base.
“Our guys played well,” Bochy said. “Our defense was outstanding tonight. The kid, Carter, what a game he had out there.’
Carter also scored the first run of the game on Heim’s single after stretching a grounder that leaked into right field into a double.
“I’m just having fun. That’s what it’s all about,” Carter said. “We’re playing a game. And it’s a fun one too.”
Everyone on the Texas side of Minute Maid Park was having fun after the Rangers grabbed the series lead against their cross-state nemesis. But the Rangers also know that the Astros, playing in their seventh consecutive ALCS, are not going to be daunted by one two-run loss.
“We’ve lost Game 1 of some playoff series before,” Verlander said. “And that’s the great thing about this team. Obviously, nobody is sitting in the locker room right now happy. But it’s very matter-of-fact. OK, we just got punched. How do you answer?”
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Kristen Shilton
TORONTO — The Maple Leafs‘ offense was missing in action again in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals Wednesday night, as a 6-1 loss to the Florida Panthers now has Toronto facing playoff elimination.
The Leafs, who were shut out 2-0 in Game 4, didn’t score until the final two minutes of Game 5 and now trail 3-2 in the best-of-seven series after holding a 2-0 lead.
Toronto’s top skaters were, again, invisible. Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander have yet to record a goal in the second round. And now the Leafs will have to log consecutive wins to extend their postseason.
“I think everybody’s got to look in the mirror,” Matthews said. “Myself included. Everybody wants to be better. Everybody wants to win.”
Matthews has just three goals in the Leafs’ last 21 games. He was third on the team in regular-season scoring, with 33 goals in 67 games.
It wasn’t just Matthews, though. Toronto was lifeless from the start of Game 5 and never seemed to challenge Florida at either end of the ice.
The Panthers heavily outplayed the Leafs throughout the first period, and it was defenseman Aaron Ekblad who finally beat goaltender Joseph Woll to give Florida a 1-0 lead through 20 minutes.
While Woll kept Toronto in a tight matchup, it was clear already the Leafs were struggling to keep up with the Panthers.
“We played slow,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said. “They were fast, they were on us, they were hungrier. That’s the first period, and that sets the tone for the game. It is hard to explain it. We all need to be better, me included. You can’t start the game that way, that’s a big thing for me.”
The Panthers opened the floodgates in the second period, helped by a landslide of Leafs mistakes. Dmitry Kulikov extended Florida’s lead with a goal tipped in by Leafs forward Scott Laughton‘s stick. Then Marner’s attempt to execute a spinning backhand pass in his own zone led to a turnover in the neutral zone that was picked up by Jesper Boqvist and snapped past Woll to give Florida a 3-0 lead midway through the second frame.
Boqvist entered the lineup in Game 5 to replace the injured Evan Rodrigues, who left Sunday’s Game 4 following a hit from Leafs defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson.
Niko Mikkola made it 4-0 before the end of the period, giving three Florida defensemen goals on the night.
By the time A.J. Greer scored Florida’s fifth goal — the first playoff make of his career — in the third period, it was time for Toronto to make a change in net, with Woll being replaced by Matt Murray.
Frustrated fans, who had booed the Leafs off their own ice to end the second period, began throwing items onto the sheet, including a Matthews jersey. People were exiting in droves by early in the third period.
“We didn’t give them much reason to stick around,” Matthews said.
Woll finished the game with five goals on 25 shots for an .800 save percentage.
Florida wasn’t done after Woll’s departure, though, with Sam Bennett adding a power play goal to give the Panthers a 6-0 lead halfway through the third period.
Toronto’s top skaters have had no response for Florida’s suffocating pressure — or Sergei Bobrovsky‘s impressive play.
Since giving up 13 goals to Toronto through the series’ first three games, Bobrovsky has been airtight in denying the Leafs any opportunity to score.
Berube tried making adjustments. He inserted David Kampf and Nicholas Robertson into the lineup for Game 5 to try and generate a spark, and moved Max Pacioretty to the top line during the game in an effort to generate some momentum. Nothing seemed to help.
Toronto hadn’t registered a goal since 10:56 of the third period of Game 3 until Robertson put one past Bobrovsky with 90 seconds left Wednesday night. It was all too little, too late.
“Tonight, it wasn’t a good game for anybody,” Berube said. “Anybody. All of us. it was not a good game.”
Leafs defenseman Chris Tanev was quick to shoulder the burden of Toronto’s defeat, echoing a refrain heard around the locker room from players determined not to let this be the penultimate game of their season.
“I’ll take responsibility,” Tanev said. “I need to be better. If I’m a minus player [at minus-2 in Game 5], we’re probably not going to win the game. It’s on me. I’ll take responsibility for the game.”
Game 6 is Friday in Florida.
LAS VEGAS — Kasperi Kapanen scored on a scramble in front of the net at 7:14 of overtime, and the Edmonton Oilers beat the Vegas Golden Knights 1-0 in Game 5 on Wednesday night to advance to the Western Conference finals for the second year in a row.
The Oilers, who last season made it to the Stanley Cup Final before losing in seven games to Florida, will play Dallas or Winnipeg in the next round. The Stars, who lead their series 3-1, will go for a series win Thursday night.
Kapanen’s goal backed up another shutout performance from goalie Stuart Skinner, who made 24 saves and drew several chants of “Stu! Stu!” from Oilers fans in the crowd. Skinner, who was benched two games into the playoffs, also blanked the Golden Knights in Game 4. This was his third start in a row in replacing injured Calvin Pickard.
Adin Hill made 29 saves for Vegas.
Both teams also were involved in the two most recent scoreless playoff games to reach overtime. The Oilers lost to Winnipeg on May 21, 2021, five days after the Golden Knights were defeated by Minnesota.
Edmonton’s only other 1-0 overtime playoff victory occurred in 1997 over Dallas. Vegas has yet to win a postseason game by that score in OT.
The Golden Knights played without captain Mark Stone because of an upper-body injury that caused him to sit out most of Game 3 on Saturday. He played in Game 4 on Monday but was far from being at full health.
Neither team scored through the first two periods, and prime scoring chances were at a premium. There were only five high-danger chances, according to Natural Stat Trick, and the Golden Knights had four of them.
But each team had a grade-A chance early in the third period. Vegas’ Brett Howden whiffed on a tap-in after taking a fantastic pass from Jack Eichel, and shortly after Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl failed to convert on a breakaway. Connor McDavid had a chance on a 2-on-1 to end the game in regulation but was denied by Hill with 1:06 left.
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