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The Edmonton Oilers are headed back to the Stanley Cup Final for the second straight season, having eliminated the Dallas Stars with a 6-3 victory in Game 5 after ousting them in six games last season in the Western Conference finals.

The Oilers chased Stars goalie Jake Oettinger just over seven minutes into the game with goals from Corey Perry and Mattias Janmark — the only two shots Oettinger faced. Edmonton skated back to the locker room after the first period with a 3-1 lead. For the rest of the game, the Oilers’ offense answered every Dallas goal, draining the Stars’ momentum, while the Oilers’ defense once again stifled its opponent in the third period.

Now, it’s time to take on the Florida Panthers again — the team that beat the Oilers in three straight games before they rallied to push the series to seven only to fall short of raising the Cup.

In the expansion era (since 1967-68), there have been four instances of the same two teams meeting in the Stanley Cup Final in consecutive seasons. The last time it happened was in 2008 and 2009, when the Detroit Red Wings defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins and then the Penguins beat Detroit the following season, giving Sidney Crosby his first Stanley Cup.

The last team to beat the same opponent in the Stanley Cup Final in consecutive seasons was the Montreal Canadiens, who beat the Boston Bruins in 1977 and 1978.

It’s going to take a better effort from Florida to beat this version of the Oilers. Edmonton has leveled up considerably since last season in both defensive acumen and playoff confidence.

Kristen Shilton and Greg Wyshynski look back at what happened in Game 5, along with what lies ahead for each franchise.

The Oilers wasted no time getting down to business in Game 5 — as in, scoring with their first shot on goal when Perry tallied a power-play marker less than three minutes into the contest. Then it was Janmark capitalizing on a lazy line change by the Stars to double the Oilers’ total less than halfway through the first period. Then it was Jeff Skinner scoring his first career playoff goal on the newly inserted Casey DeSmith. Wild.

The Oilers didn’t have Zach Hyman in the lineup, and yet they hardly missed a beat thanks to their enviable depth showing up in a hurry.

But the Stars weren’t about to go quietly. Brett Kulak‘s turnover wound up behind Stuart Skinner courtesy of a Jason Robertson goal that cut the Oilers’ lead to 3-1. Edmonton’s penalty kill had to come alive in the second, and while the Oilers killed off Kulak’s sloppy hooking minor, they couldn’t do it again when Mattias Ekholm took another infraction; Roope Hintz‘s tally got Dallas within one.

From there, it was like a call-and-response game for the Oilers. Connor McDavid didn’t miss on a breakaway chance just over two minutes after Hintz’s marker. When Robertson came calling again just 38 seconds into the third period to make it 4-3 Edmonton, Evander Kane restored the Oilers’ two-goal cushion just over two minutes later.

The Oilers might not have played their best game of the series, but the way they recovered from every misstep showed why they have been such a force since they lost Game 1. Dallas’ explosion of power-play goals in that outing seemed to flip a switch, and Edmonton would not be denied. — Shilton

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Connor McDavid scores to give Oilers two-goal lead

Connor McDavid’s goal in the second period brings the Oilers’ lead back up to two goals.

The start earned an “F” for Dallas, which didn’t score first in any game of this series. To do so on Thursday night would have meant the Stars could exhale a little bit and give the Oilers something — anything — to worry about in this series. Instead, rookie Mavrik Bourque, back in the lineup for the first time since Game 4 against Colorado, took a high-sticking penalty just 1:47 into the game and Perry converted on the power play.

Five minutes later, with his entire team sleepwalking in front of him, Oettinger was beaten on a partial break by Janmark. And then the franchise goalie’s night was suddenly over — pulled 7:09 into the game having given up two goals on two shots. It was a Hail Mary desperation move by head coach Pete DeBoer, who watched the Oilers buzz backup Casey DeSmith until Jeff Skinner scored his first playoff goal in his second career playoff game — after 1,078 regular-season games — to put Dallas in a 3-0 hole.

No matter what happened after that, this was the original sin for Dallas in Game 5 and the story of the series: The Stars eventually doing something positive in the process of trying to dig out of their own grave, and frequently ceding momentum right back. Hintz cuts the lead to 3-2 … McDavid scores 2:01 later. Robertson, brilliant again, scores his second of the game to make it 4-3 … Kane bounces a puck off Esa Lindell less than three minutes later to create another two-goal cushion.

The Stars overcame incredible obstacles to reach the Western Conference finals for a third straight season. They eliminated the Avalanche in seven games while missing both Robertson and Miro Heiskanen. They bounced the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Winnipeg Jets in six games.

The kind reading of their demise was that the Stars played well enough to win more than one game, but bad puck luck against a championship-level Edmonton defensive effort in front of Stuart Skinner was their undoing. (And what an incredible third-period team the Oilers have become.) The cynical reading of their elimination is that Dallas’ stars didn’t shine with the same magnitude as Edmonton’s, its supporting cast was outplayed and Oettinger bent the knee to Skinner before pulled from the series.

Either reading leads to the same place: One round short of playing for the Stanley Cup for the third straight year under DeBoer, despite having arguably the best collection of talent in those three postseason runs. How the franchise reacts to this will be fascinating. — Wyshynski


Three Stars of Game 5

1. The “hope killer” Oilers

Edmonton flew out of the gate in Game 5, going up 3-0 in the first period. Then, as Dallas made it a one-goal game, Connor McDavid created a breakaway by outpacing his marker and scored. After Jason Robertson scored to make it 4-3, Evander Kane banked one in off Esa Lindell to stiff-arm the Stars. Whenever Dallas had hope, Edmonton found a way to dash it.

Both had two points in the series-clinching Game 5 win. And both now have three postseasons with 25 or more points, tied for fourth most in NHL history. Only Mark Messier (6), Wayne Gretzky (6) and Jari Kurri (5) have more.

Game 5 was Skinner’s second career playoff game, drawing in with Zach Hyman out. He’s the only NHL player to play 1,000 NHL games before making his postseason debut. He scored his first career postseason goal to make it 3-0 in the first period. What a moment! — Arda Öcal

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Jeff Skinner nets Oilers’ third goal of first period

Jeff Skinner’s goal gives the Oilers a quick 3-0 lead in the first period.


Big questions

How will Zach Hyman’s absence impact Edmonton in a Cup Final against Florida?

The Panthers play a physical game. Hyman was (and still is) the postseason hit leader (with 111 in 15 games). He was also one of Edmonton’s most productive forwards, skating alongside McDavid and contributing to both special teams units.

Make no mistake, just because the Oilers cruised without him in Game 5 against Dallas doesn’t discount the hole Hyman will leave when they are squaring off against the Panthers. Hyman had two goals and four points in the Cup Final last year, and he was even better production-wise in these playoffs than last.

Kris Knoblauch put Skinner in for Game 5, and that worked well enough, but will he remain the best option for Edmonton going into Game 1 versus Florida? Especially knowing the Panthers are a different type of team than the Stars?

The Cup Final is a series where Hyman’s particular set of skills would have been a game-changer. But he won’t be available, and how the Oilers adjust will be critical to whether they come away with a different result than 12 months ago. — Shilton

Is this the end for Pete DeBoer in Dallas?

When DeBoer was hired in 2022 to replace Rick Bowness, he reportedly signed a four-year contract. He coached the Stars to three straight Western Conference finals in his first three seasons in Dallas.

The knock on DeBoer has been an inability to get his teams over the hump. He coached the New Jersey Devils (2012) and San Jose Sharks (2016) to the Stanley Cup Final but failed to win the championship in either trip. Since 2018-19, DeBoer has lost in the Western Conference finals six times in eight years.

Again, it’s hard to argue with the regular-season success (.665 points percentage, his best with any of the five teams he has coached) or the fact his teams have made three straight conference finals. But they’ve bumped their heads against the ceiling three times.

He couldn’t find a way to unlock the Stars in the conference finals this time. His pulling of Oettinger in the first will be a subject of debate.

The ultimate question for GM Jim Nill: Is there another coach who could get more from Dallas, or does the team run it back with DeBoer and several roster tweaks? — Wyshynski

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Remembering Ruffian 50 years after her breakdown at Belmont

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Remembering Ruffian 50 years after her breakdown at Belmont

Thoroughbred racing suffered its most ignominious, industry-deflating moment 50 years ago today with the breakdown of Ruffian, an undefeated filly running against Foolish Pleasure in a highly promoted match race at Belmont Park. Her tragic end on July 6, 1975, was a catastrophe for the sport, and observers say racing has never truly recovered.

Two years earlier, during the rise of second-wave feminism, the nation had been mesmerized by a “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs. King’s win became a rallying cry for women everywhere. The New York Racing Association, eager to boost daily racing crowds in the mid-1970s, proposed a competition similar to that of King and Riggs. They created a match race between Kentucky Derby winner Foolish Pleasure and Ruffian, the undefeated filly who had dominated all 10 of her starts, leading gate to wire.

“In any sport, human or equine, it’s really impossible to say who was the greatest,” said outgoing Jockey Club chairman Stuart Janney III, whose parents, Stuart and Barbara, owned Ruffian. “But I’m always comfortable thinking of Ruffian as being among the four to five greatest horses of all time.”

Ruffian, nearly jet black in color and massive, was the equine version of a Greek goddess. At the age of 2, her girth — the measurement of the strap that secures the saddle — was just over 75 inches. Comparatively, racing legend Secretariat, a male, had a 76-inch girth when he was fully developed at the age of 4.

Her name also added to the aura. “‘Ruffian’ was a little bit of a stretch because it tended to be what you’d name a colt, but it turned out to be an appropriate name,” Janney said.

On May 22, 1974, Ruffian equaled a Belmont Park track record, set by a male, in her debut at age 2, winning by 15 lengths. She set a stakes record later that summer at Saratoga in the Spinaway, the most prestigious race of the year for 2-year-old fillies. The next spring, she blew through races at longer distances, including the three races that made up the so-called Filly Triple Crown.

Some in the media speculated that she had run out of female competition.

Foolish Pleasure had meanwhile ripped through an undefeated 2-year-old season with championship year-end honors. However, after starting his sophomore campaign with a win, he finished third in the Florida Derby. He also had recovered from injuries to his front feet to win the Wood Memorial and then the Kentucky Derby.

Second-place finishes in the Preakness and Belmont Stakes left most observers with the idea that Foolish Pleasure was the best 3-year-old male in the business.

Following the Belmont Stakes, New York officials wanted to test the best filly against the best colt.

The original thought was to include the Preakness winner, Master Derby, in the Great Match Race, but the team of Foolish Pleasure’s owner, trainer and rider didn’t want a three-horse race. Since New York racing had guaranteed $50,000 to the last-place horse, they paid Master Derby’s connections $50,000 not to race. Thus, the stage was set for an equine morality play.

“[Ruffian’s] abilities gave her the advantage in the match race,” Janney said. “If she could do what she did in full fields [by getting the early lead], then it was probably going to be even more effective in a match.”

Several ballyhooed match races in sports history had captured the world’s attention without incident — Seabiscuit vs. Triple Crown winner War Admiral in 1938, Alsab vs. Triple Crown winner Whirlaway in 1942, and Nashua vs. Swaps in 1955. None of those races, though, had the gender divide “it” factor.

The Great Match Race attracted 50,000 live attendees and more than 18 million TV viewers on CBS, comparable to the Grammy Awards and a pair of NFL “Sunday Night Football” games in 2024.

Prominent New York sportswriter Dick Young wrote at the time that, for women, “Ruffian was a way of getting even.”

“I can remember driving up the New Jersey Turnpike, and the lady that took the toll in one of those booths was wearing a button that said, ‘I’m for her,’ meaning Ruffian,” Janney said.

As the day approached, Ruffian’s rider, Jacinto Vasquez, who also was the regular rider of Foolish Pleasure including at the Kentucky Derby, had to choose whom to ride for the match race.

“I had ridden Foolish Pleasure, and I knew what he could do,” Vasquez told ESPN. “But I didn’t think he could beat the filly. He didn’t have the speed or stamina.”

Braulio Baeza, who had ridden Foolish Pleasure to victory in the previous year’s premier 2-year-old race, Hopeful Stakes, was chosen to ride Foolish Pleasure.

“I had ridden Foolish Pleasure and ridden against Ruffian,” Baeza said, with language assistance from his wife, Janice Blake. “I thought Foolish Pleasure was better than Ruffian. She just needed [early race] pressure because no one had ever pressured her.”

The 1⅛ mile race began at the start of the Belmont Park backstretch in the chute. In an ESPN documentary from 2000, Jack Whitaker, who hosted the race telecast for CBS, noted that the atmosphere turned eerie with dark thunderclouds approaching before the race.

Ruffian hit the side of the gate when the doors opened but straightened herself out quickly and assumed the lead. “The whole world, including me, thought that Ruffian was going to run off the screen and add to her legacy,” said longtime New York trainer Gary Contessa, who was a teenager when Ruffian ruled the racing world.

However, about ⅛ of a mile into the race, the force of Ruffian’s mighty strides snapped two bones in her front right leg.

“When she broke her leg, it sounded like a broken stick,” Vasquez said. “She broke her leg between her foot and her ankle. When I pulled up, the bone was shattered above the ankle. She couldn’t use that leg at all.”

It took Ruffian a few moments to realize what had happened to her, so she continued to run. Vasquez eventually hopped off and kept his shoulder leaning against her for support.

“You see it, but you don’t want to believe it,” Janney said.

Baeza had no choice but to have Foolish Pleasure finish the race in what became a macabre paid workout. The TV cameras followed him, but the eyes of everyone at the track were on the filly, who looked frightened as she was taken back to the barn area.

“When Ruffian broke down, time stood still that day,” Contessa said. Yet time was of the essence in an attempt to save her life.

Janney said that Dr. Frank Stinchfield — who was the doctor for the New York Yankees then and was “ahead of his time in fixing people’s bones” — called racing officials to see whether there was anything he could do to help with Ruffian.

New York veterinarian Dr. Manny Gilman managed to sedate Ruffian, performed surgery on her leg and, with Stinchfield’s help, secured her leg in an inflatable cast. When Ruffian woke up in the middle of the night, though, she started fighting and shattered her bones irreparably. Her team had no choice but to euthanize her at approximately 2:20 a.m. on July 7.

“She was going full bore trying to get in front of [Foolish Pleasure] out of the gate,” Baeza said. “She gave everything there. She gave her life.”

Contessa described the time after as a “stilled hush over the world.”

“When we got the word that she had rebroken her leg, the whole world was crying,” Contessa said. “I can’t reproduce the feeling that I had the day after.”

The Janneys soon flew to Maine for the summer, and they received a round of applause when the pilot announced their presence. At the cottage, they were met by thousands of well-wishing letters.

“We all sat there, after dinner every night, and we wrote every one of them back,” Janney said. “It was pretty overwhelming, and that didn’t stop for a long time. I still get letters.”

Equine fatalities have been part of the business since its inception, like the Triple Crown races and Breeders’ Cup. Some have generated headlines by coming in clusters, such as Santa Anita in 2019 and Churchill Downs in 2023. However, breakdowns are not the only factor, and likely not the most influential one, in the gradual decline of horse racing’s popularity in this country.

But the impact from the day of Ruffian’s death, and that moment, has been ongoing for horse racing.

“There are people who witnessed the breakdown and never came back,” Contessa said.

Said Janney: “At about that time, racing started to disappear from the national consciousness. The average person knows about the Kentucky Derby, and that’s about it.”

Equine racing today is a safer sport now than it was 50 years ago. The Equine Injury Database, launched by the Jockey Club in 2008, says the fatality rate nationally in 2024 was just over half of what it was at its launch.

“We finally have protocols that probably should have been in effect far sooner than this,” Contessa said. “But the protocols have made this a safer game.”

Said Vasquez: “There are a lot of nice horses today, but to have a horse like Ruffian, it’s unbelievable. Nobody could compare to Ruffian.”

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Volpe toss hits Judge as sloppy Yanks fall again

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Volpe toss hits Judge as sloppy Yanks fall again

NEW YORK — A blunder that typifies the current state of the New York Yankees, who find themselves in the midst of their second six-game losing streak in three weeks, happened in front of 41,401 fans at Citi Field on Saturday, and almost nobody noticed.

The Yankees were jogging off the field after securing the third out of the fourth inning of their 12-6 loss to the Mets when shortstop Anthony Volpe, as is standard for teams across baseball at the end of innings, threw the ball to right fielder Aaron Judge as he crossed into the infield from right field.

Only Judge wasn’t looking, and the ball nailed him in the head, knocking his sunglasses off and leaving a small cut near his right eye. The wound required a bandage to stop the bleeding, but Judge stayed in the game.

“Confusion,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “I didn’t know what happened initially. [It just] felt like something happened. Of course I was a little concerned.”

Avoiding an injury to the best player in baseball was on the Yankees’ very short list of positives in another sloppy, draining defeat to their crosstown rivals. With the loss, the Yankees, who held a three-game lead over the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League East standings entering June 30, find themselves tied with the Tampa Bay Rays for second place three games behind the Blue Jays heading into Sunday’s Subway Series finale.

The nosedive has been fueled by messy defense and a depleted pitching staff that has encountered a wall.

“It’s been a terrible week,” said Boone, who before the game announced starter Clarke Schmidt will likely undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery.

For the second straight day, the Mets capitalized on mistakes and cracked timely home runs. After slugging three homers in Friday’s series opener, the Mets hit three more Saturday — a grand slam in the first inning from Brandon Nimmo to take a 4-0 lead and two home runs from Pete Alonso to widen the gap.

Nimmo’s blast — his second grand slam in four days — came after Yankees left fielder Jasson Dominguez misplayed a ball hit by the Mets’ leadoff hitter in the first inning. On Friday, he misread Nimmo’s line drive and watched it sail over his head for a double. On Saturday, he was slow to react to Starling Marte’s flyball in the left-center field gap and braked without catching or stopping it, allowing Marte to advance to second for a double. Yankees starter Carlos Rodon then walked two batters to load the bases for Nimmo, who yanked a mistake, a 1-2 slider over the wall.

“That slider probably needs to be down,” said Rodon, who allowed seven runs (six earned) over five innings. “A lot of misses today and they punished them.”

Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s throwing woes at third base — a position the Yankees have asked him to play to accommodate DJ LeMahieu at second base — continued in the second inning when he fielded Tyrone Taylor’s groundball and sailed a toss over first baseman Cody Bellinger’s head. Taylor was given second base and scored moments later on Marte’s RBI single.

The Yankees were charged with their second error in the Mets’ four-run seventh inning when center fielder Trent Grisham charged Francisco Lindor’s single up the middle and had it bounce off the heel of his glove.

The mistake allowed a run to score from second base without a throw, extending the Mets lead back to three runs after the Yankees had chipped their deficit, and allowed a heads-up Lindor to advance to second base. Lindor later scored on Alonso’s second home run, a three-run blast off left-hander Jayvien Sandridge in the pitcher’s major league debut.

“Just got to play better,” Judge said. “That’s what it comes down to. It’s fundamentals. Making a routine play, routine. It’s just the little things. That’s what it kind of comes down to. But every good team goes through a couple bumps in the road.”

This six-game losing skid has looked very different from the Yankees’ first. That rough patch, consisting of losses to the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Angels, was propelled by offensive troubles. The Yankees scored six runs in the six games and gave up just 16. This time, run prevention is the issue; the Yankees have scored 34 runs and surrendered 54 in four games against the Blue Jays in Toronto and two in Queens.

“The offense is starting to swing the bat, put some runs on the board,” Boone said. “The pitching, which has kind of carried us a lot this season, has really, really struggled this week. We haven’t caught the ball as well as I think we should.

“So, look, when you live it and you’re going through it, it sucks, it hurts. But you got to be able to handle it. You got to be able to deal with it. You got to be able to weather it and come out of this and grow.”

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Former White Sox pitcher, world champ Jenks dies

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Former White Sox pitcher, world champ Jenks dies

Bobby Jenks, a two-time All-Star pitcher for the Chicago White Sox who was on the roster when the franchise won the 2005 World Series, died Friday in Sintra, Portugal, the team announced.

Jenks, 44, who had been diagnosed with adenocarcinoma, a form of stomach cancer, this year, spent six seasons with the White Sox from 2005 to 2010 and also played for the Boston Red Sox in 2011. The reliever finished his major league career with a 16-20 record, 3.53 ERA and 173 saves.

“We have lost an iconic member of the White Sox family today,” White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said in a statement. “None of us will ever forget that ninth inning of Game 4 in Houston, all that Bobby did for the 2005 World Series champions and for the entire Sox organization during his time in Chicago. He and his family knew cancer would be his toughest battle, and he will be missed as a husband, father, friend and teammate. He will forever hold a special place in all our hearts.”

After Jenks moved to Portugal last year, he was diagnosed with a deep vein thrombosis in his right calf. That eventually spread into blood clots in his lungs, prompting further testing. He was later diagnosed with adenocarcinoma and began undergoing radiation.

In February, as Jenks was being treated for the illness, the White Sox posted “We stand with you, Bobby” on Instagram, adding in the post that the club was “thinking of Bobby as he is being treated.”

In 2005, as the White Sox ended an 88-year drought en route to the World Series title, Jenks appeared in six postseason games. Chicago went 11-1 in the playoffs, and he earned saves in series-clinching wins in Game 3 of the ALDS at Boston, and Game 4 of the World Series against the Houston Astros.

In 2006, Jenks saved 41 games, and the following year, he posted 40 saves. He also retired 41 consecutive batters in 2007, matching a record for a reliever.

“You play for the love of the game, the joy of it,” Jenks said in his last interview with SoxTV last year. “It’s what I love to do. I [was] playing to be a world champion, and that’s what I wanted to do from the time I picked up a baseball.”

A native of Mission Hills, California, Jenks appeared in 19 games for the Red Sox and was originally drafted by the then-Anaheim Angels in the fifth round of the 2000 draft.

Jenks is survived by his wife, Eleni Tzitzivacos, their two children, Zeno and Kate, and his four children from a prior marriage, Cuma, Nolan, Rylan and Jackson.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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