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  • ESPN News Services

May 5, 2024, 10:37 PM ET

DALLAS — Radek Faksa broke a tie in his return to the Dallas lineup, 20-year-old Wyatt Johnston scored in another Game 7 and the Stars defeated the defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights 2-1 on Sunday night to wrap up the first-round series.

After being out with an undisclosed injury since leaving the bench late in Game 2, Faksa scored 44 seconds into the third period with a backhander from the circle to the left of goalie Adin Hill.

“It was a huge relief,” Faksa said on the TNT postgame show. “It was the biggest goal of my career. … I promised (my son) I would score a goal tonight, and I’m glad I did.”

Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger had 21 saves in his second Game 7 victory. He also had the Stars’ only penalty, though they killed that off after he was called for tripping Ivan Barbashev in front of the net midway through the third.

“The last period was a clinic. Just so proud of the guys of how we responded,” Oettinger said. “It’s a long playoffs and you’re going to need different guys to step up at different times. A lot of hockey left so hopefully a lot more heroes. It’s going to be a run ride.”

The Stars, the No. 1 seed in the West, move on to play well-rested Colorado in the second round with the first two games in Dallas. The Avalanche wrapped up their series against Winnipeg with a Game 5 victory Tuesday night.

Brett Howden scored for Vegas, which couldn’t pull off another series winner in Dallas, where last year the Knights wrapped up the Western Conference Final with a win in Game 6. Hill had 22 saves in his third game of this series after Logan Thompson started the first four.

The visitor won the first four games in this series until the home teams held serve the last three games.

Dallas has won Game 7s in each of its first two postseasons for coach Pete DeBoer, who is now 8-0 in his career in such games with four different teams. That includes the Knights’ only Game 7 wins in 2020 and 2021 when he was their coach.

Johnston scored his series-high fourth goal on a wrister from the top of the slot with 5:26 left in the first period after picking off a clearing pass by Shea Theodore that his teammate, Tomas Hertl, missed when taking a twisting swipe at it.

“It was so much fun,” Johnston said in his postgame interview on Bally Sports Southwest. “It’s what we all grew up dreaming about. As hockey players, you want to play in Game 7s. And there was so much energy in the building.”

A day after his 20th birthday last year, Johnston became the youngest player in NHL history with a game-clinching goal in a Game 7. He gathered a puck that ricocheted off the back boards in the third period of the Stars’ 2-1 win over Seattle in that second-round series.

The goal Sunday against came in quick succession after Vegas had two scoring chances. Oettinger made a tough save to deny Jack Eichel and Jonathan Marchessault then shot the rebound off the left post, and got a hit on Johnston before the Dallas youngster skated to the other end and scored about 10 seconds later.

Vegas, which returned 22 of its 27 players from the Stanley Cup-winning roster, tied it in the second period when Michael Amadio made a crossing pass to Howden, who poked the puck into the open left side of the net behind Oettinger.

The only coach other than DeBoer to win eight Game 7s is Darryl Sutter, who was 8-3 in such games over 182 playoff games over 15 postseasons with four teams.

The Knights are 2-2 in Game 7s. DeBoer was also the opposing coach in their other loss, to San Jose in 2019.

It was only the second time of 16 that the Stars won a best-of-seven series after losing the first two games. The only other was the very first playoff series in franchise history, when the Minnesota North Stars were down 0-2 before beating the Los Angeles Kings in seven games to open the 1968 playoffs.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Reds get Joe from Padres for minor leaguer, cash

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May 10, 2025

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  • Associated Press

May 9, 2025, 10:37 PM ET

HOUSTON — The Cincinnati Reds acquired outfielder/first baseman Connor Joe from the San Diego Padres on Friday for minor league right-hander Andrew Moore and cash.

The 32-year-old Joe was hitless in nine at-bats over seven games for the Padres this season while spending most of the year with Triple-A El Paso. He signed a one-year, $1 million contract with San Diego in February.

Joe is a career .241 hitter over six seasons with San Francisco, Colorado, Pittsburgh and San Diego.

Moore has a 4.15 ERA in 8⅔ innings with Double-A Chattanooga this season. The Reds acquired him from Seattle as part of the package for Luis Castillo in 2022.

To make room on the 40-man roster, the Reds transferred outfielder Tyler Callihan to the 60-day injured list. He’s expected to miss at least two months after having surgery to repair a broken left forearm Tuesday.

Cincinnati announced the moves during Friday night’s game at Houston.

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Cubs? White Sox? Villanova? Different claims made to Pope Leo XIV’s fandom after election

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May 10, 2025

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May 8, 2025, 07:46 PM ET

History was made in Vatican City on Thursday, when Pope Leo XIV was introduced as the first American to be elected pontiff.

Leo XIV (birth name Robert Francis Prevost) was born and raised in southern Chicagoland, where he served as an altar boy in the St. Mary of the Assumption parish. Now, as he ascends to the papacy, an unlikely Second City staple is celebrating the moment: the Chicago Cubs.

After his election, ABC reported that Leo XIV was a fan of the Cubs.

But John Prevost — Leo XIV’s brother — had a different view. Prevost spoke to WGN News in Chicago after Leo XIV’s election and rebuked the idea that the Pope was a Cubs fan.

“He was never, ever a Cubs fan,” Prevost said. “So I don’t know where that came from. He was always a [Chicago White] Sox fan.”

Later on Thursday, Chicago’s ABC7 affiliate also reported on Leo XIV’s White Sox fandom. The White Sox themselves got in on the action, posting their own video board celebration and a clip of Prevost’s interview with WGN.

Prevost’s theory for the possible confusion? Their mother, whose family was from the north side of the city, was a Cubs fan.

The lone team that can conclusively claim to hold the rights to the new Pope’s fandom until further clarification is the Villanova Wildcats. Leo XIV graduated from the university as part of the Class of 1977.

“Roommates Show,” a podcast hosted by Wildcats-turned-New York Knicks teammates Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart, joked that they’d be having their fellow Villanova alumnus on the show in the near future.

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U.S. opens worlds slate with shutout of Denmark

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4 hours ago

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May 9, 2025

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U.S. opens worlds slate with shutout of Denmark

  • Associated Press

May 9, 2025, 06:24 PM ET

HERNING, Denmark — The United States blanked Denmark 5-0 on the opening day of the ice hockey world championship on Friday.

Matty Beniers led the Americans with two goals, Cutter Gauthier and Mason Lohrei had a goal and an assist each, and Logan Cooley also scored in a Group B game.

Michael Kesselring had two assists and goaltender Joey Daccord recorded 26 saves in the shutout.

“Any time a goalie gets a shutout is a team result,” Daccord said after his debut at the worlds.

Gauthier opened the scoring from the slot with 2:08 left in the opening period. Cooley doubled the advantage on a power play, Beniers added on a rebound in the middle period and Lohrei made it 4-0 from the point midway through the final period. Beniers one-timed a slap shot for his second with 3:44 remaining.

Sweden delights home crowd

Sweden shut out Slovakia 5-0 to delight the home crowd in Stockholm in Group A.

Mikael Backlund, Leo Carlsson and Jonas Brodin scored 8:37 apart in the second part of the opening period to give Sweden a commanding 3-0 lead.

Elias Lindholm stretched it to 4-0 in the second and Mika Zibanejad finished it off in the final period.

Backlund and Lindholm added an assist each.

Sweden won the championship when it took place in Stockholm last time in 2013.

Czechs prevail in OT

Defending champion Czech Republic earlier prevailed in overtime to beat Switzerland 5-4 in a rematch of last year’s final.

Roman Cervenka scored the winner 2:30 into overtime from the left circle after David Pastrnak fed him with his second assist in Herning.

Czech Lukas Sedlak tied the game at 4 on a rebound on a power play with 3:47 left to force overtime.

Matej Stransky, Filip Zadina and Filip Pyrochta also scored for the Czechs, who beat the Swiss 2-0 in the final last year in Prague.

Christian Marti, Damien Riat, Sandro Schmid and Sven Andrighetto scored for Switzerland.

In Stockholm, Finland topped Austria 2-1.

The tournament is the final men’s international test before the 2026 Winter Games in Italy, where NHL players will return to the Olympics after 12 years.

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