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Game 5s can serve one of two purposes: as a definitive edge one team gains from closing out a series 4-1 or as a reminder that one team is now a single win from reaching its desired destination. For the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, their 5-2 win Saturday in Game 5 over the Edmonton Oilers means they’re a win away from winning back-to-back Cups.

Of course, it wouldn’t be out of character for the Oilers to strike back to win Game 6, forcing a Game 7 back in Edmonton. Because, you know, the Oilers have never once faced elimination only to prompt a resurrection of any kind. Either way, Game 5 provided both teams a chance to take an advantage in the last series of the season. In the end, the Panthers won their 10th road game this postseason, tying an NHL playoff record.

A game and series with so much at stake requires examination. Let’s take a look at what made the difference for the Oilers and Panthers in Game 5, what players could make a potential impact in Game 6 on Tuesday and what questions lie ahead.

As for what those questions could be? Let’s just say they may have to do with one team (the Panthers) closing out a series and another (the Oilers) forcing a Game 7 for a second straight Stanley Cup Final.

This game appeared to go to plan for the Panthers:

  • They controlled the puck.

  • They appeared to remain in control when they didn’t have possession.

  • They took advantage of the power play while restricting the Oilers when they were shorthanded.

  • They limited the Oilers to three high-danger chances, a detail that becomes even more amplified considering they came into Game 5 ranked second in high-danger chances per 60 this postseason.

Staking Sergei Bobrovsky to a two-goal lead in the first period set the stage for one of the best goalies of his generation to make the necessary saves without feeling bombarded, as the Panthers prevented those high-danger chances, a high concentration of shots or both.

Even when Edmonton’s Connor McDavid found an opening and Corey Perry scored to trim the lead to two goals for what was a second time in Game 5, the Panthers still made it difficult for the Oilers to generate those desired scoring chances in prime areas. All told, they fended off the late third-period barrage that saw them have 10 shots on goal.

Winning 10 games away from their home in Sunrise is one of the major reasons why the Panthers are one win away from another Stanley Cup. And while they’ve done everything from score five goals to shut out opponents on the road, there’s a discussion to be had about whether this was the Panthers’ strongest win away from home or their most crucial victory outside the 954 area code this postseason.

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Corey Perry’s late goal gives Oilers hope

Corey Perry notches a big-time goal to pull the Oilers within two goals of the Panthers.

Repetitive as it sounds, the Oilers began Game 5 giving up another multigoal period while scoring zero. This has become the persistent mark against a defensive structure that went through the Western Conference shutting down two teams that finished in the top 5 in goals per game. But against the Panthers? This is now the seventh time in the 13 periods of this series in which the Oilers have allowed more than two goals.

Frequent as those multigoal periods have been for the Oilers, so have comebacks. The issue the Oilers kept running into in this game, however, was finding any cohesion. They had chances, such as the three power-play opportunities in the first two periods, but failed to score while getting off only four shots. Altogether, it amounted to the Oilers having two high-danger chances and a 37.8% shot share while posting just 11 total shots entering the third period.

McDavid scoring his first goal of the Stanley Cup Final — with Perry grabbing another — got the Oilers to within two goals on separate occasions. To be that close, and given their penchant for comebacks, it made another rally possible. That is, until Eetu Luostarinen‘s empty-net goal sealed the deal.

But to be in that position at the end of the game brings the discussion back to the opening point for the Oilers: How much different would Game 5 have been if they hadn’t allowed another multigoal period to start the game?


Arda Öcal’s Three Stars of Game 5

Another sublime performance for The Rat King, who potted two goals, including another great effort for the goal that put the Cats up 3-0. It was his sixth goal of this Stanley Cup Final, which is the most by any player in a single year since Esa Tikkanen in 1988, when the Oilers played the Boston Bruins. It was the 13th goal at 5-on-5 for the line of Marchand-Anton LundellEetu Luostarinen. The next closest trio this postseason is Carter VerhaegheMatthew TkachukSam Bennett, with 10.

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Brad Marchand’s 2nd goal of game is a thing of beauty

Brad Marchand lights the lamp to give the Panthers a 3-0 lead in the third period.

Speaking of Bennett, he continued his road-scoring ways with his 15th of the postseason and 13th away from home. Bennett became the fifth player in NHL history to register a six-game road goal streak in the Stanley Cup playoffs. He joins Brian Propp (seven-game road goal streak in 1989), Mark Scheifele (six in 2018), Kevin Stevens (six in 1991) and Maurice Richard (six in 1951).

His third-period tally was his seventh of the postseason. That goal made it 4-1, and was the Panthers’ 60th on the road this postseason, 11 more than any other team in a single year in Stanley Cup playoffs history. Luostarinen’s empty-netter made it 61, putting the Cats 12 ahead of the team in second on the list (1993 Los Angeles Kings, 49).

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Sam Reinhart fires it home for a Panthers goal

Sam Reinhart gets the puck past the goalie to give the Panthers a three-goal lead.


Players to watch in Game 6

Performances like Game 5 add to why the Panthers were among the many teams who wanted Marchand at the trade deadline. After not scoring in Game 4, his two goals in Game 5 give him 10 goals and 20 points this postseason — and also present a rather serious argument for him winning the Conn Smythe Trophy, which honors the Stanley Cup playoffs MVP.

Marchand’s production could help the Panthers win another title. It also could lead to Marchand further enhancing his status as one of the most attractive names in free agency. Championship teams, and those who want that title, are often navigating what it means to win while staying salary cap-compliant.

What made Marchand so appealing at the trade deadline was the fact that he was a proven winner who was on an expiring contract. The idea that he’s a win away from being a two-time Stanley Cup winner who played a crucial role in the Panthers winning again? That’s going to leave the Panthers’ front office with a tough decision to make, in an offseason in which Marchand is part of an eight-player unrestricted free agent class that includes Bennett and Aaron Ekblad.

Now that McDavid has scored his first goal of the Cup Final, was Game 5 the starting point for the best player on the planet to score more in what could be his team’s final game of the season?

Think back to what McDavid did in last year’s Cup Final in Games 4 and 5. McDavid might have played some of his most dominant hockey when he helped the Oilers climb back in the series, starting with the goal and three assists he had in Game 4 followed by another four-point effort with two goals and two assists in Game 5.

There are many reasons why the Oilers are in a second consecutive Cup Final. One of them is relying on a level of depth scoring that has made them more than their pair of generational superstars, while knowing that Leon Draisaitl and McDavid can go off at any moment. Can the Oilers find a way to get that scoring depth to work for them again in addition to Draisaitl and McDavid? Or will it take another hallmark performance from their dynamic duo to force a Game 7?

These are just a few of the questions whose answers could determine whether the Oilers can mount another comeback, force a Game 7 and win their first Cup since 1990 … or be left to think about another campaign in which they were close but came up short.

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Connor McDavid responds with a goal to pull Oilers closer

Connor McDavid notches a much needed goal to pull the Oilers within two.


Big questions for Game 6

Can the Oilers repeat what they did last year and force a Game 7?

So much has been said — and will continue to be said — about how the Oilers aren’t really out of the series, because last year they nearly pulled off the improbable after falling into a 3-0 hole.

But what must happen for them to force one more game?

Game 5 started like a repeat of Game 4, in that after giving up a multigoal first period, the Oilers only gave up one goal and appeared to find defensive consistency. So how can they find a way to piece together the type of defensive effort that prevents the Panthers from having another multigoal period, while generating more offensive production than they did in Game 5? That’s the big question facing the Oilers in what could be their last game of the season or their second-to-last game of the season.

Will the Panthers be able to close out the Cup Final on the first try?

If there’s any team that knows just how dangerous the Oilers are when facing elimination, it’s the Panthers.

Something we’ve seen from the Oilers this postseason is not only their ability to come back in a series, but their ability to close out a team because they know all the signs of a potential comeback.

Something we’ve seen from the Panthers this postseason is that opponents have found ways to stay alive. Go back to the second round, when the Panthers appeared to attain all the momentum against the Toronto Maple Leafs before the Leafs used a 2-0 win in Game 6 to force a Game 7. In the Eastern Conference finals, the Carolina Hurricanes had also lost three in a row but rallied to win Game 4.

Granted, the Panthers would win both series. But it does create some intrigue as to whether or not the Panthers will win on home ice or be forced to return to Edmonton.

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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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