The Vancouver Canucks brought a bright, young team to the Western Conference bubble, lacking in post-season experience, but boasting several budding stars. They are playing like they are planning to stay a while.
The Canucks sent St Louis Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington to the bench early with three scores in a span of 6 minutes, 3 seconds in the second period, eliminating the defending champions with a 6-2 victory in game 6 of their first-round series on Friday.
“It always feels good when you play like that and it pays off,” said Jay Beagle, who scored just 3:45 into the game to get the Canucks going.
Photo: AP
Blues coach Craig Berube put Binnington, the rookie star of last season’s out-of-nowhere run to the franchise’s first Stanley Cup, back in the net after winning two of the past three with Jake Allen.
“He had some practice there and worked on his game and it’s a gut feeling,” Berube said.
Binnington gave up four goals on 18 shots and was pulled for Allen at the 8:06 mark of the second period after Brock Boeser’s power-play goal gave the Canucks a commanding 4-0 lead.
Photo: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY
“After the whole pandemic, everyone came back to camp in shape and worked extremely hard,” Boeser said. “We’re all super committed, and I think you can see that on the ice.”
Antoine Roussel and Troy Stecher also scored on Binnington, who went 0-5 in the Edmonton bubble including three losses in this series. After Berube emptied the net with about eight minutes left, Tyler Motte tacked on two more goals after a two-goal effort in game 5.
Brandon Sutter had three assists, Elias Pettersson had two assists and Jacob Markstrom made 34 saves for the Canucks, who are the only one of the seven Canadian clubs among the final eight teams still alive in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Vancouver advanced to play the Vegas Golden Knights in the second round.
Pettersson, an integral part of the talented young core, matched Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon with a league-high 13 points in this most unusual post-season.
“His overall game has been unreal. What makes him special is just his compete,” Beagle said.
Jaden Schwartz had two goals in the third period for the Blues, who went 2-6-1 in the Western Conference bubble while missing several key players to injuries. They were 0-2-1 in seeding games.
The Canucks took an aggressive tack from the opening faceoff. The Blues were about to escape their zone after a heavy forecheck by Vancouver, but left wing Jacob de la Rose accidentally stepped on the puck as he tried to start a rush the other way.
Beagle snagged it, pivoted toward the slot and snapped a shot that clipped Binnington’s left shoulder on the way into the upper corner of the net.
The Canucks scored first in all but one game in the series.
“We did terrible stuff helping him out. We have to defend better,” Blues center Ryan O’Reilly said. “It’s on us, the guys in front of him. It wasn’t good enough for him. It’s embarrassing by us.”
For much of the night, the Canucks had the Blues on their heels. The third goal, by Stecher, was set up by a tic-tac-toe sequence including Sutter and Pettersson that was so slick NBC Sports Network announcer Kenny Albert exclaimed on the broadcast: “They look like [basketball team] the [Harlem] Globetrotters out there!”
“I’m seeing a lot of sacrifices and a lot of unselfish players who are willing to take the extra stride,” Markstrom said. “I just see a tight group in front of me.”
In Toronto, Ivan Provorov, Kevin Hayes and Michael Raffl scored to lead the Philadelphia Flyers into the second round for the first time in eight years with a 3-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens in game 6.
The Flyers won the series 4-2 and are on to the second round in the Eastern Conference for the first time since 2012. The Flyers have not played in the Stanley Cup Final since 2010 or won the championship since 1975.
The Flyers move on to play the New York Islanders.
Carter Hart again was stout for the Flyers and stopped 31 shots for the top-seeded team.
Nick Suzuki scored two goals for the Canadiens.
The Dallas Stars and the Colorado Avalanche were open the second round with game 1 of their best-of-seven series yesterday, while the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Boston Bruins are to play the opening game of their second-round series today.
Meanwhile, former coach and NBC Sports analyst Mike Milbury apologized for saying during a playoff game broadcast that there were not women in the NHL bubble to disrupt anyone’s concentration.
The comments were made during Thursday’s game between the Islanders and the Washington Capitals.
During a discussion among the broadcasters about the environment in the bubble, Milbury said there are “not even any women here to disrupt your concentration.”
“It was not my intention to disrespect anyone,” Milbury said in a statement released by NBC. “I was trying to be irreverent and took it a step too far. It was a regrettable mistake that I take seriously.”
NBC Sports said in a statement that they were disappointed in Milbury’s comment and have addressed it with him.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but