McDavid bailed out after penalty, nets 2OT winner
-
Ryan S. Clark, NHL reporter
DALLAS — Even though Connor McDavid scored another winning goal, the Edmonton Oilers provided another reminder that they have more than just their superstar captain.
Trusting every facet of their lineup, the Oilers overcame a four-minute penalty by McDavid in the first overtime and pulled out another one-goal victory Thursday night, beating the Dallas Stars 3-2 in double overtime in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals at American Airlines Center.
It was the Oilers’ sixth one-goal win this postseason, and it came with plenty of drama.
After the Oilers blew a two-goal lead to allow the Stars to force overtime, McDavid took a four-minute penalty just seconds into the first overtime. But Edmonton again held firm, killing its 20th consecutive penalty to keep the game alive.
McDavid, who had a chance to end the contest in the first overtime but was stopped by Jake Oettinger‘s stick, gave the Oilers the win in the second extra period, handing the Stars their seventh consecutive Game 1 loss.
McDavid’s goal was just his third of this postseason, though he has 23 points in 13 games.
“It was long. Really long. Really, really long,” McDavid said of his four-minute penalty. “Miserable. I hated every second of it. But the guys did an amazing job. The penalty kill has just been amazing.”
A pair of second-period goals from Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman gave the Oilers a 2-0 lead less than five minutes into the frame before Tyler Seguin cut the deficit to 2-1 more than a minute later. Seguin tied the score with 3:23 left in regulation.
Just 17 seconds into the first overtime, McDavid was assessed a four-minute double minor for high-sticking Matt Duchene. Replays showed that Duchene was struck in the face, causing his mouth to be bloodied.
McDavid disputed the penalty with the officials before going to the penalty box.
“My thing was, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do,” McDavid said. “I am going for it, trying to play the puck. It feels like he’s holding my stick, and I didn’t really feel the high stick at all.”
Enter the Oilers’ penalty kill.
It’s a unit that entered Game 1 having successfully defended its past 15 short-handed sequences, and it was already 3-for-3 before McDavid’s double minor.
What allowed the Oilers to blank the Stars during those four minutes was their ability to follow the puck without ceding any open space.
“He mentioned to me that it was the longest four minutes of his life,” Oilers forward Derek Ryan said of McDavid. “It’s definitely nice to see him get out of there. He’s a rock for our team, obviously. Everyone knows it. He does it all. Before I came here, I don’t think I realized how great of a leader he is and great of a person he is to everyone in that room.”
McDavid almost ended the game in the first overtime, when he was alone at the crease and tried angling the puck around a sprawling Oettinger. But Oettinger used every bit of his 6-foot-6 frame plus his stick to make a save.
Then, just 32 seconds into double overtime, Oilers defenseman Evan Bouchard played a quick cross-ice pass that found McDavid’s stick and got past Oettinger for the winning goal.
It was the ninth one-goal game the Oilers have played this postseason.
“We’ve talked about this through the season with how mature and responsible they are with how they handle adversity no matter what happens,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “Whether it’s a bad call by the official, a bad break, a bad play, whatever it is, we just move on and get ready for the next shift.”
While the Oilers won their second series opener of these playoffs, the Stars continued their Game 1 futility, something they have experienced in the postseason for the past few years. The last time the Stars won Game 1 of a playoff series came when they took the opening game of the Stanley Cup final in 2020 against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
“In a perfect world we’d like to win Game 1,” Stars coach Peter DeBoer said. “We’d like to win every series in four straight too, but it doesn’t happen. The main thing is you’ve got to find a way to survive and move on. We’ve got to park this game. We’ve been in this situation before. We’re the best road team in the league. I’m not concerned about that. We need to find another level in home games and the wins take care of themselves.”
Even with their Game 1 challenges, however, the Stars have won four of their past five series. That includes the first round, when they lost the first two games to the defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights before winning the series in seven.
“The great thing about playoffs is that we were coming to Game 2 no matter what happened tonight,” Ryan said. “You have to have a short memory, and you have to turn the page, learn, adapt and grow and make the changes you need to make to be successful.”
-
Adam Rittenberg
BOULDER, Colo. — Colorado coach Deion Sanders said he feels “healthy and vibrant” after returning to the field for preseason practices after undergoing surgery to remove his bladder after a cancerous tumor was found.
Sanders, 57, said he has been walking at least a mile around campus following Colorado’s practices, which began last week. He was away from the team for the late spring and early summer following the surgery in May. Dr. Janet Kukreja, director of urological oncology at University of Colorado Cancer Center, said July 30 that Sanders, who lost about 25 pounds during his recovery, is “cured of cancer.”
“I’m healthy, I’m vibrant, I’m my old self,” Sanders said. “I’m loving life right now. I’m trying my best to live to the fullest, considering what transpired.”
Sanders credited Colorado’s assistant coaches and support staff for overseeing the program during his absence. The Pro Football Hall of Famer enters his third season as Buffaloes coach this fall.
“They’ve given me tremendous comfort,” Sanders said. “I never had to call 100 times and check on the house, because I felt like the house is going to be OK. That’s why you try your best to hire correct, so you don’t have to check on the house night and day. They did a good job, especially strength and conditioning.”
Colorado improved from four to nine wins in Sanders’ second season, but the team loses Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter, the No. 2 pick in April’s NFL draft, as well as record-setting quarterback Shedeur Sanders, the son of Deion Sanders. The Buffaloes have an influx of new players, including quarterbacks Kaidon Salter and Julian “Ju Ju” Lewis, who are competing for the starting job, as well as new staff members such as Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk, who is coaching the Buffaloes’ running backs.
Despite the changes and his own health challenges, Deion Sanders expects Colorado to continue ascending. The Buffaloes open the season Aug. 29 when they host Georgia Tech.
“The next phase is we’re going to win differently, but we’re going to win,” Sanders said. “I don’t know if it’s going to be the Hail Mary’s at the end of the game, but it’s going to be hell during the game, because we want to be physical and we want to run the heck out of the football.”
Sanders said it will feel “a little weird, a little strange” to not be coaching Shedeur when the quarterback starts his first NFL preseason game for the Cleveland Browns on Friday night at Carolina. Deion Sanders said he and Shedeur had spoken several times Friday morning. Despite being projected as a top quarterback in the draft, Shedeur Sanders fell to the fifth round.
“A lot of people are approaching it like a preseason game, he’s approaching like a game, and that’s how he’s always approached everything, to prepare and approach it like this is it,” Deion Sanders said. “He’s thankful and appreciative of the opportunity. He don’t get covered in, you know, all the rhetoric in the media.
“Some of the stuff is just ignorant. Some of it is really adolescent, he far surpasses that, and I can’t wait to see him play.”
-
Adam Rittenberg
LSU starting quarterback Garrett Nussmeier aggravated the patellar tendinitis he has been dealing with in his knee but will not miss any significant time, coach Brian Kelly said Friday.
Kelly dropped in ahead of a news conference Friday with offensive coordinator Joe Sloan to tell reporters that Nussmeier did not suffer a severe knee injury or even a new one. According to Kelly, Nussmeier has chronic tendinitis in his knee and “probably just planted the wrong way” during Wednesday’s practice.
Nussmeier ranked fifth nationally in passing yards (4,052) last season, his first as LSU’s starter, and projects as an NFL first-round draft pick in 2026.
“It’s not torn, there’s no fraying, there’s none of that,” Kelly said. “This is preexisting. … There’s nothing to really see on film with it, but it pissed it off. He aggravated it a little bit, but he’s good to go.”
Kelly said Nussmeier’s injury ranks 1.5 out of 10 in terms of severity. Asked whether it’s the right or left knee, Kelly said he didn’t know, adding, “It’s not a serious injury. Guys are dealing with tendinitis virtually every day in life.”
LSU opens the season Aug. 30 at Clemson.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike