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SUNRISE, Fla. — Florida Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov left Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final on Monday night with an upper body injury after an illegal check from Edmonton Oilers star Leon Draisaitl.

It was one of two controversial hits in the game by the Oilers, with forward Warren Foegele earning a major penalty and a game misconduct for his knee-on-knee hit on Eetu Luostarinen in the first period.

Panthers coach Paul Maurice offered no update on Barkov, only to say that his star center was unavailable for the last 9:28 of Game 2, which the Panthers won 4-1 to take a 2-0 series lead.

With the Panthers leading 2-1, Barkov played the puck in his defensive zone. Draisaitl came in on the forecheck, left his skates and his elbow contacted Barkov’s jaw. The Florida captain fell to the ice, was tended to by medical staff and then left for the trainers room.

“I think he went in there to hit. His hands got up a little bit high. He was trying to knock him off the puck and that led to the penalty,” said Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch.

Draisaitl was given a 2-minute penalty for roughing. When asked about his feelings on the hit, Maurice said: “This isn’t ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show.’ My feelings don’t matter.”

Panthers forward Evan Rodrigues scored his second goal of the game on the ensuing power play to make it 3-1. The goal ended a streak of 34 straight successful penalty kills for the Oilers, tied with the 2001 Blues for the third-longest streak in Stanley Cup Playoffs history.

The Panthers were concerned for their captain but kept their composure.

“I think we rallied. We did what we had to do to win the game,” Rodrigues said. “You never want to see your captain go down, but I thought everyone did a great job focusing and got the job done.”

Forward Kyle Okposo echoed that.

“Obviously you don’t want to see anybody get hurt, but I thought we did a good job sticking with it and we found a way. It was a huge goal by Roddy there to break the dam on the power play there and I just thought we did a great job in the third period after that.”

At 9:21 of the first period, Foegele was given a five-minute major penalty for kneeing Luostarinen, who remained flat on the ice and got medical attention while the referees discussed the call. A short video review confirmed it. According to NHL rule No. 50.5: “When a player has been assessed a major penalty for kneeing, he shall also be assessed a game misconduct,” so Foegele was ejected.

Luostarinen skated off with athletic trainers and went down the tunnel, but returned to the ice in the first period and ended up playing 14:19 for the game.

Knoblauch declined to discuss whether he was concerned that Foegele, Draisail or both could end up receiving supplemental discipline from the Dept. of Player Safety, which reviews every controversial hit.

But the Edmonton coach did feel that Foegele’s hit on Luostarinen was similar to a hit by Sam Bennett on Edmonton defenseman Evan Bouchard earlier in the game, one that earned only a minor penalty for tripping.

“It’s tough. I don’t see any difference on the Sam Bennett penalty. You’re going to hit a guy and then the guy moves out of the way. It’s pretty tough to change where your feet are. My opinion, and their opinion would be a lot different, but I don’t see very much difference in those two plays,” Knoblauch said. “I see Bouchard got up right away. Their guy didn’t get up right away, which I think … yeah, so that’s what I think.”

Game 3 is Thursday in Edmonton. Since the Stanley Cup Final went to a seven-game format in 1939, only five teams have come back to win the Cup after losing the first two games.

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Ohtani blasts two HRs to halt 10-game drought

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Ohtani blasts two HRs to halt 10-game drought

LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani hit two homers in an 11-5 win over the San Francisco Giants on Saturday night, emphatically ending the three-time MVP’s longest homer drought since joining the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Ohtani led off the bottom of the first with his 24th homer, hammering Landen Roupp‘s fourth pitch 419 feet deep into the right-field bleachers with an exit velocity of 110.3 mph.

The slugger had been in a 10-game homer drought since June 2, going 10-for-40 in that stretch with no RBIs, although he still had an eight-game hitting streak during his power outage.

Ohtani led off the sixth with his 25th homer, sending Tristan Beck‘s breaking ball outside the strike zone into the bleachers in right. He also moved one homer behind the Yankees’ Aaron Judge and Seattle’s Cal Raleigh for the overall major league lead.

Dodgers fans brought him home with a standing ovation as Ohtani produced his third multihomer game of the season and the 22nd of his career.

Ohtani reached base four times and scored three runs in his first four at-bats, drawing two walks to go with his two homers.

Ohtani hadn’t played in 10 straight games without hitting a homer since 2023 in the final 10 games of his six-year tenure with the Los Angeles Angels.

Ohtani had slowed down a bit over the past two weeks after he was named the NL Player of the Month for May with a formidable performance, racking up 15 homers and 28 RBIs.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Dobbins’ second win over Yanks caps ‘fun’ week

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Dobbins' second win over Yanks caps 'fun' week

BOSTON — Hunter Dobbins had quite the week.

First, he said last weekend that he would rather retire than pitch for the Yankees because his father was drafted by New York twice before being traded.

Then, he went out and beat the Yankees.

A few days after his comments about never wanting to pitch for New York, he had to defend his dad’s story about being drafted by the Yankees in response to a New York Post article that cited multiple official databases and the Yankees’ own records that couldn’t confirm Lance Dobbins ever played with the organization.

On Saturday night, Dobbins (4-1) followed up by going six shutout innings in Boston’s 4-3 victory over New York, his second win over the Yankees in less than a week.

“It’s a lot of fun,” he said. “I’m more worried about just the win column, whether it’s against them or anybody. My job is to try and help this team win as many ballgames as we can, and pitch in meaningful playoff baseball games. That’s what I’m more focused on.”

But he realizes what it means to the fan base in this longtime rivalry, with the Red Sox fans heard chanting about the Yankees outside the park before he spoke in an interview room.

“Yeah, I love being able to perform and get those wins for the fans here,” he said. “They deserve it. It’s a great city, passionate fan base, so being able to get those wins — especially twice in one week — means a lot and looking forward to trying to build on that going forward.”

In his victory over New York last Sunday, Dobbins held the Yankees to three runs over five innings, two on a first-inning homer by Aaron Judge.

On Saturday night, Judge went 0-for-3 against him, striking out twice on curveballs.

“It was just kind of scouting,” Dobbins said of his game plan against New York’s slugger after Garrett Crochet struck him out three times in the series opener Friday.

“Crochet has an electric fastball. I can throw it hard, but the shape isn’t quite as elite,” he said. “So we knew we had better weapons to go at him with, so I felt like we did a good job of kind of keeping a balanced attack throughout the order.”

Dobbins struck out five and gave up only two singles Saturday.

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Rockies have worst 70-game mark since 1899

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Rockies have worst 70-game mark since 1899

ATLANTA — Kyle Farmer just shrugged when asked about being part of a Colorado Rockies team that has the fewest wins through 70 games since the 1899 Cleveland Spiders.

“We don’t care,” Farmer said after Saturday’s 4-1 loss to the Atlanta Braves left Colorado with a 13-57 record.

The Rockies have the fourth-fewest wins by any team through their first 70 decisions in a season in MLB history, and the fewest since the 1899 Spiders won 12 of their first 70 decisions. Colorado (.186 win percentage) is currently on pace to go 30-132 this season.

“I mean, there’s nothing we can do about it,” Farmer said. “It is what it is. We’ve just got to show up tomorrow and play. There’s nothing you can really say about it except that if it happens, it happens.”

The Rockies made more inglorious history by setting a franchise nine-inning record with 19 strikeouts. That’s a lot of futility for one team to absorb in one day.

The 19 strikeouts by Braves pitchers also set an Atlanta record for a nine-inning game. Spencer Strider recorded 13 strikeouts in six innings, followed by relievers Rafael Montero and Dylan Lee, who combined for six more whiffs.

The only bright spot for the Rockies was the encouraging start by rookie right-hander Chase Dollander, a native of Evans, Georgia, who allowed four runs, three earned, in six innings.

The Rockies have 10 fewer wins than the Chicago White Sox, who have the second-worst record in the majors at 23-48.

Dollander said “just having a neutral mindset” is the key to remaining positive through a season already filled with low points for the team.

“Don’t ride the roller coaster,” Dollander said. “You know, there’s going to be lots of ups and downs in this game. This game is really hard. So it’s just, you know, staying neutral and we just keep going.”

Dollander was the No. 9 overall pick in the 2023 summer draft. Among other top young players on the team are catcher Hunter Goodman, who might return to Atlanta for the All-Star Game on July 15, and outfielders Jordan Beck and Brenton Doyle.

“You know we’re going to have our time,” Dollander said. “I mean, it’s just one of those things that you kind of learn as you go. I’ve been very fortunate to be here for a little bit now, and I can help us going forward.”

The 34-year-old Farmer said one of his jobs is to help the younger players endure the losses.

“For sure, keeping guys accountable and teaching them the right way to do stuff,” said Farmer, the first baseman whose double off Strider was one of only four hits for the Rockies.

“Keeping their heads up and they’ve got to show up each day and play, no matter our record. It’s your job and you worked your whole life to get here. Enjoy it. This is a great opportunity for a young guy to show what they can do.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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