Connect with us

Published

on

LOWELL, Mass. — Kendall Coyne Schofield once showed off her speed racing against the men in an NHL skills competition at All-Star Weekend.

On Wednesday night, she made a mad dash into women’s hockey history.

The three-time Olympian chased down a rolling puck and knocked it into an empty net to seal Minnesota’s 3-0 victory over Boston in the winner-take-all Game 5 to claim the inaugural championship of the Professional Women’s Hockey League.

Liz Schepers scored to break a scoreless, second-period tie, Michela Cava made it 2-0 midway through the third period and Nicole Hensley stopped 17 shots for Minnesota. Coyne Schofield added the empty netter with two minutes left, and then the captain and oldest member of the roster took the first lap on the ice with the Walter Cup.

“It makes me want to tear up thinking about it. She’s done so much for this sport,” forward Taylor Heise said. “She’s definitely one of the people that’s helped this sport grow and one of the reasons why this arena is sold out here tonight.”

Coyne Schofield, 32, was fresh off of winning the 2018 Olympic gold medal when she was invited to take part in a timed lap around the ice at the 2019 NHL All-Star Game. She finished seventh out of eight, but was a crowd favorite in an arena filled with chants of “U-S-A!”

“What was so important about that moment wasn’t the skate itself. It’s what happened after,” she said on the ice while her teammates posed for pictures with the trophy and and her husband stood nearby holding the son she gave birth to less than a year ago.

“It was the attention that that skate drew to so many people. That moment brought a lot of eyes and helped catapult the reality we’re living today.”

Three nights after Minnesota prematurely celebrated a would-be game-winner in double overtime that was waved off for goaltender interference, Hensley earned her second shutout of the playoffs. Minnesota limped into the playoffs on a five-game losing streak and then got shut out in the first two games of best-of-five semifinal against Toronto.

Heise, whose eight points in the postseason was tied for the most in the league, was named the inaugural Ilana Kloss Playoff MVP. The former Minnesota Gopher was the league’s first No. 1 draft pick.

“We’re ‘the State of Hockey,'” she said. “And I think this proves it.”

Boston goalie Aerin Frankel, dubbed the “Green Monster” in her forest green home sweater, made 41 saves for the runners-up. The sold-out crowd at the Tsongas Center, about an hour north of Boston, chanted her name and “Thank you, Boston!” after the final buzzer, even as the Minnesota players celebrated on the ice and league officials set up the podium for the trophy presentation.

Boston forced a decisive fifth game only after Sophie Jaques’ apparent goal in double overtime in Game 4 was taken off the board because of goaltender interference. The Minnesota players, who had already streamed onto the ice to celebrate, throwing their equipment in the air, gathered up their gloves and sticks to resume the game.

One minute later, Alina Muller scored to send the series back to Boston.

The crowd was eager to see the home team claim the new trophy, named for league benefactor and Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter, chanting “We want the Cup!” just like Bruins fans do down in Boston. A Fenway-style “Sweet Caroline” singalong kept them busy during the second break.

But with the game scoreless early in the second, Minnesota forward Sydney Brodt skated through the slot toward the goal. She whiffed on a wrist shot, drawing Frankel out of position, then slid around to the right side and centered the puck behind her, where Schepers tipped it in.

It was still 1-0 when Cava circled behind the net and stuffed the puck between Frankel’s pads; it trickled toward the net before the goalie knocked it over the line when she reached back to save it with her stick hand.

The game was a crowd-pleasing conclusion to the six-team league’s first season, when it blew through some benchmarks but left others unmet.

A game in Montreal against Toronto drew more than 21,000 fans to the Bell Centre. Average attendance in the regular season was 5,448, giving the league confidence to expand the schedule from 24 games to 30 next year. Toronto is looking for a bigger home than the 2,500-seat arena where it played most of its games.

One negative was below-average attendance for the New York team, which split its home between Connecticut, Long Island and New Jersey. Games were broadcast nationally in English and French in Canada, but U.S. fans were left with regional networks and YouTube.

And the teams don’t have nicknames yet — a result of the rush to get on the ice in six months after the two competing pro women’s hockey leagues in North America declared a truce, with help from Walter and tennis great Billie Jean King, last summer. The league said Wednesday that names and logos will be announced in August.

“This year was a historic year,” Boston captain Hilary Knight said. “We built it. We’re extremely ecstatic about where it is Year 1. If anything, that reflection point is something we can take away from tonight and celebrate.”

Continue Reading

Sports

Sources: World Series hero Rojas back to Dodgers

Published

on

By

Sources: World Series hero Rojas back to Dodgers

World Series hero Miguel Rojas will return to the Los Angeles Dodgers for what will constitute his final season in the major leagues, sources confirmed to ESPN on Wednesday.

Rojas, 36, agreed to terms on a one-year, $5.5 million contract for 2026 and will help in player development while also assisting the Dodgers front office in 2027, according to a source familiar with the agreement.

Relegated to the bench for most of the playoffs, Rojas was reinserted into the lineup for Game 6 of the World Series against the Toronto Blue Jays and came up with a nifty scoop to complete a miraculous, game-ending 7-4 double play that saved the Dodgers’ season.

Roughly 24 hours later, Rojas hit the tying home run off Blue Jays closer Jeff Hoffman in the top of the ninth of Game 7, then made a tough play to get a force out at home in the bottom half, paving the way for Will Smith‘s game-winning home run in the 11th.

Rojas debuted with the Dodgers in 2014, returned to them in a trade with the Miami Marlins leading up to the 2023 season and went on to establish himself as a vocal leader on a star-laden team, while also becoming a pivotal resource for Mookie Betts in his transition to shortstop. A gifted fielder throughout his career, Rojas also enjoyed a bounce-back offensive season in 2025, slashing .262/.318/.397 while accumulating 2.1 Baseball Reference wins above replacement in 114 regular-season games.

As the season went on, Rojas spoke openly about his desire to play one more year before transitioning into a coaching role.

The Dodgers will provide him that opportunity.

El Extrabase first reported Rojas’ agreement with the Dodgers.

Continue Reading

Sports

Gray: With BoSox, ‘It’s easy to hate the Yankees’

Published

on

By

Gray: With BoSox, 'It's easy to hate the Yankees'

Red Sox pitcher Sonny Gray apparently is looking forward to taking on his new team’s biggest rival, saying he’s happy to be in “a place where it’s easy to hate the Yankees.”

The Red Sox acquired the well-traveled Gray in a trade with the Cardinals last week, adding the durable pitcher to a starting rotation that was thin on options during Boston’s postseason ouster in New York.

Gray already is familiar with the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry after spending parts of two seasons in the Bronx earlier in his career, and the three-time All-Star didn’t mince words when discussing his experience in New York.

“It just wasn’t a good situation for me,” Gray told reporters Tuesday. “It wasn’t a great setup for me and my family. I never wanted to go there in the first place.”

That clearly wasn’t the case for Gray with the Red Sox, who needed the right-hander to waive his no-trade clause in order to complete their deal with the Cardinals.

“What did factor into my decision to come to Boston — it feels good to me to go to a place now where, you know what, it’s easy to hate the Yankees,” he said. “It’s easy to go out and have that rivalry and go into it with full force, full steam ahead. I like the challenge.”

Gray struggled to a 4.51 ERA — nearly a full run higher than his career numbers — during his 41-game run with the Yankees in 2017 and 2018. New York acquired Gray in a blockbuster deal with the Athletics only to trade him less than 18 months later to Cincinnati, where he began reviving his career with the Reds.

“When that was happening, and we were in Oakland and getting traded — that was a long time ago — I never wanted to go (to New York),” Gray said. “So then I was there, and it just didn’t really work for who I am. … I just wasn’t myself. I just didn’t feel like I was allowed to go out there and be Sonny.”

Gray, 36, has a 3.58 ERA over a 13-year career with the Athletics, Yankees, Reds, Twins and Cardinals. He joins a Red Sox rotation that is led by ace Garrett Crochet but also features a handful of unproven candidates after right-hander Brayan Bello.

Gray is the latest Red Sox pitcher to publicly say that he didn’t enjoy playing for the Yankees.

Star closer Aroldis Chapman said earlier this offseason that he would “retire on the spot” before playing for New York again, adding that he “dealt with a lot of disrespect” from Yankees management.

Gray, who is 66-50 with a 3.51 ERA in seven seasons since leaving the Yankees, acknowledged that he learned a great deal from his time in New York.

“I’ve been a better baseball player, husband, everything from having that experience and going through that,” he said.

Boston’s first series with the Yankees next season will be April 21-23 at Fenway Park. The Red Sox play their first series in Yankee Stadium from June 5-7.

If he ends up pitching for the Red Sox in the Bronx, Gray hinted that things will be different.

“This time around, it’s just go out and be yourself,” he said. “Don’t try to be anything other than yourself. If people don’t like it, it is what it is. I am who I am, and I’m OK with that.”

Continue Reading

Sports

St. Pete expects Trop to be ready for Rays’ opener

Published

on

By

St. Pete expects Trop to be ready for Rays' opener

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — City officials in St. Petersburg showed off the newly enclosed dome at Tropicana Field on Wednesday and said they are confident the ballpark will be ready for the Tampa Bay Rays‘ home opener April 6 against the Chicago Cubs following work to repair the damage caused by Hurricane Milton last year.

“We have no concern about being open or ready for Opening Day,” said Beth Herendeen, managing director of City Development Administration. “We hope we keep it that way.”

Some seam work remains on the final panels to close small gaps at the top, and interior repairs are well underway.

Tropicana Field sustained extensive damage on Oct. 9, 2024. High winds ripped sections of the original roof, allowing rain to fall into the stadium bowl for months. Water caused mold and damage to electrical, sound and broadcast systems.

The city contracted ETS, AECOM Hunt and Hennessy Construction to lead the repairs and brought back Geiger Engineering, the dome’s original designer, to help reengineer the roof. The synthetic membranes of Polytetrafluoroethylene are thicker and built to current wind-load codes.

“The roof that was replaced had to be designed to today’s codes,” city architect Raul Quintana said. “It’s a much stronger material than it was 35 years ago, and it’s going to last.”

The Rays played 2025 home games across the bay in Tampa at Steinbrenner Field, the spring training home of the New York Yankees.

Installation of the new roof began in August, and the final panel was put in place Nov. 21. Some triangular panels still show color variation, with newer pieces beige and earlier ones already bleached white, but Quintana said they will eventually match.

“It took about three months to bleach out the ones that were first installed,” he said.

The air-conditioning system has been reactivated, and contractors are focused on electrical work, seating and sound equipment. The team is upgrading the luxury suites and stadium videoboard.

“Drywall is being hung, seats are being painted, and the catwalk electric is being installed,” Herendeen said. “The new stadium sound system will be installed this month and tested in January.”

New artificial turf is scheduled to arrive in mid-January. Other final updates include new home plate club seats, clubhouse carpet and lockers, and flooring on the outfield deck.

Tampa Bay starts the season with a nine-game trip to St. Louis, Milwaukee and Minnesota.

Continue Reading

Trending