Ohtani ‘nervous’ in Tokyo but gets 2 hits, runs
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Tim Keown
TOKYO — Shohei Ohtani seems impervious to a variety of conditions that afflict most humans — nerves, anxiety, distraction — but it took playing a regular-season big-league game in his home country to change all of that.
After the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ Opening Day 4-1 win over the Chicago Cubs in the Tokyo Dome, Ohtani made a surprising admission. “It’s been a while since I felt this nervous playing a game,” he said. “It took me four or five innings.”
Ohtani had two hits and scored twice, and one of his outs was a hard liner that left his bat at more than 96 mph, so the nerves weren’t obvious from the outside. But clearly the moment, and its weeklong buildup, altered his usually stoic demeanor.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen Shohei nervous,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “But one thing I did notice was how emotional he got during the Japanese national anthem. I thought that was telling.”
As the Dodgers began the defense of last year’s World Series win, it became a night to showcase the five Japanese players on the two teams. For the first time in league history, two Japanese pitchers — the Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto and the Cubs’ Shota Imanaga — faced each other on Opening Day. Both pitched well, with Imanaga throwing four hitless innings before being removed after 69 pitches.
“Seventy was kind of the number we had for Shota,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “It was the right time to take him out.”
The Dodgers agreed, scoring three in the fifth inning off reliever Ben Brown. Imanaga kept the Dodgers off balance, but his career-high four walks created two stressful innings that ran up his pitch count.
Yamamoto rode the adrenaline of pitching in his home country, routinely hitting 98 with his fastball and vexing the Cubs with a diving splitter over the course of five three-hit innings. He threw with a kind of abandon, finding a freedom that often eluded him last year in his first year in America.
“I think last year to this year, the confidence and conviction he has throwing the fastball in the strike zone is night and day,” Roberts said. “If he can continue to do that, I see no reason he won’t be in the Cy Young conversation this season.”
Cubs right fielder Seiya Suzuki went hitless in four at bats — the Cubs had only three hits, none in the final four innings against four relievers out of the Dodgers’ loaded bullpen — and rookie Roki Sasaki will make his first start of his Dodger career in the second and final game of the series Wednesday.
“I don’t think there was a Japanese baseball player in this country who wasn’t watching tonight,” Roberts said.
The Dodgers were without Mookie Betts, who left Japan on Monday after it was decided his illness would not allow him to play in this series. And less than an hour before game time, first baseman Freddie Freeman was scratched with what the team termed “left rib discomfort,” a recurrence of an injury he first sustained during last year’s playoffs.
The night started with a pregame celebration that felt like an Olympic opening ceremony in a lesser key. There were Pikachus on the field and a vaguely threatening video depicting the Dodgers and Cubs as Monster vs. Monster. World home-run king Saduharu Oh was on the field before the game, and Roberts called meeting Oh “a dream come true.”
For the most part, the crowd was subdued, as if it couldn’t decide who or what to root for, other than Ohtani. It was admittedly confounding: throughout the first five innings, if fans rooted for the Dodgers they were rooting against Imanaga, but rooting for the Cubs meant rooting against Yamamoto. Ohtani, whose every movement is treated with a rare sense of wonder, presented no such conflict.
HERNING, Denmark — The United States blew a three-goal first-period lead before beating Germany 6-3 at the ice hockey world championship on Saturday.
Conor Garland‘s power-play goal 4:50 into the third period proved to be the winner as the Americans moved level on points (11) with the Czech Republic, trailing Group B leader Switzerland by two points.
Tage Thompson struck 1:42 into the game on a power play for his fourth goal of the tournament. Frank Nazar doubled the advantage before Drew O’Connor made it 3-0 on a rebound with 5:43 left in the first.
But the U.S. is making a habit of squandering leads. The Americans lost a four-goal advantage before prevailing 6-5 over Norway in overtime Wednesday.
Germany scored three times in the second. Defenseman Erik Mic’s goal 8:43 into the period sparked the rally. Jonas Muller scored from the slot with 5:17 remaining and Wojciech Stachowiak tied it at 3-3 less than a minute later on a power play.
After Garland’s go-ahead goal, Logan Cooley made it 5-3 with 3:29 to go and Clayton Keller scored into an empty net with 1:53 left. Garland had three assists.
Germany has nine points.
In Stockholm, Finland defeated Latvia 2-1 to stay third in Group A with 11 points. Latvia has six points in fifth.
Later Saturday, Canada plays Slovakia and Sweden meets France in Stockholm, while the Czech Republic faces Kazakhstan in Herning, where Denmark takes on Norway.
The Dallas Stars were in position to win their series against the Winnipeg Jets in Game 5 on Thursday; instead, the Jets blanked them 4-0, extending their postseason by at least one more game.
That game is Saturday in Dallas (8 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN+). Will the Stars punch their ticket to the Western Conference finals — and a rematch against the Edmonton Oilers? Or will the Jets force a Game 7 back on home ice Monday?
Read on for a game preview with statistical insights from ESPN Research, a recap of what went down in Friday’s game and the three stars of Friday from Arda Öcal.
Matchup notes
Dallas Stars at Winnipeg Jets
Game 6 | 8 p.m. ET | ABC/ESPN+
With a 3-2 lead in the series, the Stars are -380 to win, per ESPN BET; the Jets are +290 to take the series. Dallas is +325 to win the Stanley Cup, while Winnipeg is +2200.
Including the series that have been completed this year, teams that have led 3-1 in a playoff series are 23-1 since 2023 (the only loser was the Bruins against the Panthers in the 2023 first round).
Can Connor Hellebuyck buck his nightmarish road/home split this postseason? He has gone 6-1 at home in the playoffs, with a 1.73 goals-against average and .916 save percentage; he’s 0-5 on the road, with a 5.84 GAA and .793 SV%.
Kyle Connor has been a reliable source of scoring for Winnipeg, with 16 points in 12 games. His 1.33 points-per-game rate is the third highest in a single postseason by an American-born player (minimum 10 games played), behind Jake Guentzel in 2018 (1.75) and Brian Leetch in 1995 (1.40).
Mikko Rantanen leads the goal- and point-scoring races this postseason, with nine goals and 19 points. His newly formed line with Mikael Granlund and Roope Hintz has outscored opponents 7-2 in 108:34 of ice time together.
Stars goalie Jake Oettinger has gone 17-6 with a 2.03 GAA and .924 SV% (with one shutout) in 23 career postseason games following a loss.
Öcal’s three stars from Friday
No. 34 scored the first goal of the game in the third period, which counts as the game winner. It was his first goal against the Panthers — and first against any team beyond the first round — in his postseason career.
2. Maple Leafs shot blockers
The Leafs blocked 31 shots in this game, including some key moments late in the third period, preserving a shutout for Joseph Woll and forcing a Game 7. This was Woll’s first career postseason shutout, and he got lots of help from his friends.
Pacioretty was responsible for the insurance goal in the third period, his third of the postseason as the veteran continues his quest for his first Stanley Cup.
Friday’s recap
Toronto Maple Leafs 2, Florida Panthers 0
Series tied 3-3 | Game 7 Sunday
With a trip to the Eastern Conference finals at stake for the Panthers — and a continuation of the playoff run on the line for the Leafs — the two teams remained scoreless through two periods, with memorable saves by both goaltenders. At 6:20 of the third period, Toronto captain Auston Matthews scored his first goal of the series, and that would prove to be all the team needed for the W; Max Pacioretty‘s goal at 14:17 added some reassurance. After a Game 5 he’d like to forget, Joseph Woll stopped all 22 shots he faced. The two teams head back to Toronto for Game 7 Sunday. Full recap.
0:48
Max Pacioretty backhands a clutch goal for Leafs
Max Pacioretty scores Toronto’s second goal of the third period to give them a 2-0 lead in a must-win Game 6 vs. Florida.
SUNRISE, Fla. — Auston Matthews hadn’t scored against Florida in more than a year. He ended the drought — and might have also saved Toronto’s season.
Matthews got his first goal of the series to break a scoreless tie in the third period, Joseph Woll stopped 22 shots and the Toronto Maple Leafs kept their season alive by beating the Florida Panthers 2-0 in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinal series Friday night.
“Just a gutsy, gutsy win,” Matthews said.
Game 7 is Sunday night in Toronto. The winner will face Carolina in the East final.
“We played a simple game tonight,” Leafs coach Craig Berube said.
Simple, but effective. Toronto blocked 31 shots, plus killed off all four Florida power plays.
Max Pacioretty added an insurance goal for the Maple Leafs, who improved to 4-2 when facing elimination since the start of the 2023 playoffs.
Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 15 shots for the Panthers, the defending Stanley Cup champions who oddly are only 8-7 in potential closeout games over the past three postseasons.
“You win or you learn,” Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said. “Tonight, we learned.”
Florida coach Paul Maurice is 5-0 in Game 7s, including the final game of last season’s Stanley Cup Final. The Panthers are 3-1 all time in the ultimate game of a series — 2-0 on the road — while the Maple Leafs have lost each of their past six Game 7s. Of those, four were against Boston and now-Panthers forward Brad Marchand.
“We’re not going to show any video of those Game 7s,” Maurice said. “We’ll look at our game tonight and see where we can get better.”
It was the 68th game of this season’s playoffs — and only the second that was 0-0 after 40 minutes. The other was Wednesday night, when Edmonton eliminated Vegas with a 1-0 victory in overtime in Game 5 of that Western Conference semifinal series.
Toronto had five goals in Game 1, four more in Game 2 and had three by the early goings of the second period of Game 3. Add it up, and that was 12 in basically the first seven periods of the series.
From there, Toronto got basically nothing — until Matthews broke through.
The Toronto captain was 0-for-31 on shots against Florida this season, including the regular season. Bobrovsky had stopped 85 of the last 86 shot attempts he had seen in the series. And the Maple Leafs hadn’t had the lead in basically the equivalent of 3½ games — 216 minutes, 30 seconds, to be precise.
But when a pass got away from Florida’s Aaron Ekblad, Matthews had a slight opening — and that was all he needed. A low shot skittered along the ice and beat Bobrovsky for a 1-0 lead with 13:40 left.
“It’s a big win, from top to bottom,” Matthews said. “We earned that.”
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