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Raptors Reaction: Raps cling to life in win over Charlotte
Raptors Over Everything host William Lou breaks down Toronto's second consecutive win over the Charlotte Hornets.
Raptors Over Everything host William Lou breaks down Toronto's second consecutive win over the Charlotte Hornets.
After 14 years in the NBA, Mike Conley is an All-Star.
It is the longest suspension handed down to a player under the domestic violence policy.
Pavelich had been committed to a mental health treatment center after assaulting a friend in 2019.
Josh Palacios had a home run, triple and double and ace Hyun Jin Ryu allowed one run in two innings in his spring-training debut as the Jays beat the Orioles 13-4.
New sexual harassment allegations against Les Miles surfaced this week from his time at LSU.
Calgary Flames general manager Brad Treliving explains why he felt a change was needed and what new coach Darryl Sutter brings to the team.
Brent Seabrook is hanging up his skates due to injury, leaving behind a legacy as one of Chicago's all-time great defensemen.
Walter Gretzky, a blue-collar symbol of a devoted hockey parent in a country filled with them, has died.
Former Toronto Argonauts and Dallas Cowboys offensive lineman Chris Schultz has died at the age of 61, the CFL team announced on Friday.
The Group Chat gets together to admit NBA takes they were wrong about and offer thoughts on NBA All-Star Weekend....during a pandemic.
All the focus will be on new coach Darryl Sutter, but it will be on the players to turn the tide in Calgary.
An Arlington High School fan said he punched the opposing team's coach several times after a semifinals game this week, landing the coach in the hospital.
Mo Williams played for the Eastern Conference in the 2009 NBA All-Star Game, and he fully understands the enormity of the event’s platform. His team lost that game. His current team — and a lot of others — should be big winners this time around. Sunday’s All-Star Game in Atlanta is generating $3 million for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, through donations to scholarship funds. But the actual value to those schools will far exceed that influx of cash, with almost every All-Star element set to showcase and celebrate HBCU traditions and culture. “Everything’s about exposure,” said Williams, who played 13 NBA seasons and now is a first-year coach at Alabama State of the Southwestern Athletic Conference. “Being that the All-Star Game is putting an emphasis on HBCUs, it gives us exposure, and it helps in a lot of different areas, a lot of different ways, a lot of different schools. “It’s no different from Super Bowl commercials. People spend millions of dollars to put their commercial on the Super Bowl for the exposure. And, you know, the exposure we’re getting this weekend from the NBA All-Star Game, it only can help.” Those Super Bowl ads can be as short as 30 seconds. This exposure is going to last several hours — and cover almost every aspect of the NBA's midseason showcase. The court was designed in collaboration from artists who attended HBCU schools. The famed bands from Grambling State and Florida A&M will perform during the player introductions. Clark Atlanta University’s Philharmonic Society Choir will perform “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” commonly called the Black national anthem. Gladys Knight, a graduate of one of the nation’s oldest HBCUs in Shaw University, will sing “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The refereeing crew of Tom Washington, Tony Brown and Courtney Kirkland all are HBCU graduates. “We are here representing HBCUs and trying to shed light on their ability to dream and one day have the opportunity to follow in our footsteps,” Brown said. “So, this game is mainly about giving people hope and allowing them an opportunity to dream.” The timing and location — Atlanta, birthplace of Dr. Martin Luther King — to pay tribute to HBCUs seems right. During the past year, racial injustice has become perhaps more of a national discussion point than at any time in a generation. It also saw history, with Kamala Harris — a graduate of Howard — becoming not only the first woman to be elected vice-president but the first HBCU graduate in the White House. Harris is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, one of the Divine Nine fraternities and sororities, groups that the NBA is also paying tribute to Sunday. NBA players used their platform in the league’s bubble restart last summer to speak out against inequality. They were often at the centre of the Black Lives Matter movement in response to the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and many more. “You can’t talk about Black Lives Matter and not talk about the Historically Black Colleges and Universities,” said Charles McClelland, the commissioner of the SWAC and a member of the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Committee. “A lot of these student-athletes have been talking. A lot of these professional athletes have been talking. But the platform really wasn’t that great for them to be able to extend that message. This is just in a unique time, and I think we’re at the right time, and I’m ecstatic that it’s happening at this point in time — because it’s so long overdue.” The NBA has just one active player who attended an HBCU: Portland’s Robert Covington, who went to Tennessee State. He was invited to be part of the skills challenge, which will precede Sunday’s game and typically is part of All-Star Saturday night; the events were condensed to one night this year because of the pandemic. Covington realized the significance of this moment. He could have been on vacation. He went to Atlanta instead. “I just want to leave a legacy,” Covington said. “I want to leave my mark and I want to let kids know that anything is possible.” That message has resonated in recent months. Some top basketball recruits have said they were considering bucking offers from traditional powers to attend HBCUs. Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders has taken over as football coach at Jackson State, giving that school instant notoriety. And as the first half of the NBA season wound down, LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers played in a pair of sneakers that paid tribute to Florida A&M — a school that just finalized a six-year deal with Nike to play in James’ line of uniforms, apparel and footwear. This game will provide more boosts. The Thurgood Marshall College Fund and United Negro College Fund will collect a total of $3 million, if not more. And HBCUs everywhere will share in the investment of time on a huge platform if nothing else. “To highlight the significance of HBCUs, it is a tremendous windfall,” McClelland said. “It’s not just about the money. The exposure is going to allow students to go to our member institutions, to learn about our history, to learn about our culture. What they’re doing for the All-Star Game, we could not pay for and we could not duplicate.” ___ More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports Tim Reynolds, The Associated Press
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Max Pacioretty scored his second goal of the game in overtime and the Vegas Golden Knights recovered after allowing a bizarre tying goal late in the third period to beat the San Jose Sharks 5-4 on Friday night. Pacioretty converted off a pass from Alex Pietrangelo to beat Devan Dubnyk 1:25 into overtime to end a wild game that gave Vegas a five-game winning streak. The Sharks had tied the game with 1:07 left in regulation came after Brent Burns’ clear attempt bounced toward goalie Oscar Dansk as Kevin Labanc came rushing toward him. Dansk tried to knock the puck away, but didn’t make clean contact and it hit off Labanc’s stick and went into the open net to tie the game. The Golden Knights had led 3-0 after knocking out Martin Jones early in the second and went back up 4-2 early in the third when Alex Tuch scored 24 seconds after the bad blood between Vegas and San Jose led to a spirited fight between Vegas’ Ryan Reaves and San Jose’s Kurtis Gabriel. The Sharks carried a grudge coming into the game after Jonathan Marchessault injured defenceman Radim Simek with a couple of hard hits in the first meeting of the season last month. There was some expected chippiness that eventually led to the fight at the opening faceoff of the third period with Reaves getting the best shot in late in the tussle. Reaves left the game later in the third with an apparent leg injury. The Golden Knights delivered another blow on the shift following the fight when Tuch scored on a one-timer to make it 4-2 with his sixth goal in the past six games. Reilly Smith and Chandler Stephenson also scored for Vegas. Dansk made 25 saves in his first start since 2019 and earned his first win since Oct. 27, 2017. Brent Burns, Matt Nieto and Logan Couture also scored for the Sharks, who have dropped four of five to start their seven-game homestand. Martin Jones allowed three goals on eight shots before getting pulled early in the second. Dubnyk stopped 17 of 19 shots in relief but took the loss. DELAYED REACTION The Sharks got on the board in the second period thanks to a replay review on a power play. Burns’ point shot hit the post and then went into the net before bouncing directly out. The official on the ice didn’t notice and play continued for 24 seconds until the horn blew with the replay centre in Toronto calling for a replay. The officials took a look and ruled it a good goal to cut Vegas’ lead to 3-1 and they put the 24 seconds back onto the clock. FAST START The Golden Knights scored twice in a 75-second span of the first period to take the lead. The Sharks left Smith alone at the side of the net on the first goal and William Karlsson slid a pass to him through the crease to make it 1-0. Stephenson added to that lead a little over a minute later off a nice setup from Mark Stone, who has 20 assists in 20 games this season. COVID-19 UPDATE Sharks forward Marcus Sorensen was placed on the COVID-19 list before the game. Sorensen had taken part in practice on Thursday but was added to the list shortly before faceoff. He’s the second San Jose player currently on the list with forward Tomas Hertl going on it Feb. 24. UP NEXT The teams wrap up the back-to-back set on Saturday night in San Jose. ___ More AP NHL coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports Josh Dubow, The Associated Press
CALGARY — Brad Gushue picked up where he left off at the Canadian men's curling championship on Friday night. In his first game with the full foursome of Mark Nichols, Brett Gallant and Geoff Walker since winning the Tim Hortons Brier a year ago, the defending champs showed few signs of rust in a clinical 6-2 win over Ontario's John Epping. Canada shot 91 per cent as a team while Gushue threw a perfect 100 per cent, numbers he felt may have been a little too kind. "To use a golf expression, there's no pictures on the scorecard," Gushue said with a smile. "There were some throws out there that were pretty gross. But we got a lot out of every shot. "I think we only had one shot (that) we didn't get anything out of. That was a goal that we had coming into this game and I thought we executed that very well." It was the long-awaited return of top-flight domestic men's curling after a season limited to just a few bonspiels due to the pandemic. The opening draw at the Markin MacPhail Centre came on the heels of a successful Canadian women's curling championship, the first of seven events to be played in a so-called bubble setting at Canada Olympic Park. In other Draw 1 games, Saskatchewan's Matt Dunstone dumped Nunavut's Peter Mackey 10-2, Wild Card Two's Kevin Koe beat Nova Scotia's Scott McDonald 7-4 and Quebec's Michael Fournier edged Greg Smith of Newfoundland and Labrador 7-6. Gushue's team played in a couple events last fall in Halifax with substitute players as the Alberta-based Walker remained out west. The teams blanked the first three ends as they got a feel for playing on arena ice again. Gallant made a brilliant triple takeout early on and jokingly waved to the cardboard cutouts stationed throughout the spectator-free arena. Epping was heavy on a hit-and-roll attempt in the fourth end that set up a Gushue draw for two. Ontario settled for a single in the fifth before a Gushue hit and roll set up another deuce in the sixth end. The teams shook hands after a Canada single in the ninth end. "That was fun," Nichols said. "The leadup to this has been tough in terms of the isolation and stuff like that. So to get out there and play a competitive game -- it felt exactly how I thought it would. "There was no easing into it or anything. We were just right back to it so it felt really good." Ontario finished at 82 per cent overall and Epping was at 72 per cent. For most teams, it was their first competitive game action in several months. Some provincial and territorial teams were able to play down in recent weeks, but most rinks were invited by their respective associations when championships were cancelled due to the pandemic. Two more wild-card entries were added this year, boosting the field to 18 teams. Gushue's team had an automatic entry as returning champions. "The first game -- we were trying not to fall down and hurt ourselves," Gushue said with a smile. "The nervous legs and everything that we had. I felt pretty shaky from the combination of nerves and not practising as much as we normally do coming in. So my focus was just on that." Players are staying in a hotel across the road from the WinSport Arena and are being tested for COVID-19 on a regular basis. Coaches and team alternates wore masks on the end benches. Electronic hog-line sensors on the stone handles were not used for the second straight event due to equipment delays as a result of the pandemic. The honour system was in effect. Three draws were scheduled for Saturday. Preliminary-round play continues through Thursday night. The top four teams in each pool will advance to the two-day championship pool starting March 12. The top three teams will move on to the playoffs on March 14. The second- and third-place teams will meet in an afternoon semifinal with the winner to play the first-place team for the championship. The Brier winner will earn $100,000 of the $300,000 total purse, return as Team Canada at the 2022 Brier in Lethbridge, Alta., and earn a berth in the Olympic Trials in November at Saskatoon. The champions will also represent Canada at the April 2-11 world men's curling championship in the Calgary bubble. Kerri Einarson won the Scotties Tournament of Hearts last weekend. She'll represent Canada at the April 30-May 9 women's world curling championship, which was added to the bubble calendar Friday. This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 5, 2021. Follow @GregoryStrongCP on Twitter. The Canadian Press
LOS ANGELES — Mike Hoffman scored 90 seconds into overtime and the St. Louis Blues rallied for a 3-2 victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Friday night. Hoffman ripped a slap shot from the right faceoff circle past Cal Petersen for his seventh goal of the season to give the Blues their third straight win. David Perron scored twice for St. Louis, including with 44 seconds remaining to send it to overtime. Perron has nine goals this year and extended his point streak to five games (three goals, three assists). Ville Husso stopped 28 shots. Jeff Carter and Dustin Brown scored for Los Angeles, which has lost four in a row following a six-game winning streak. Petersen made 19 saves. Perron opened the scoring 2:08 into the first period with a snap shot from the middle of the offensive zone. Carter got behind the Blues defence, took a pass from Andreas Athanasiou and put in a backhand in front with 3:19 remaining in the second. It was Carter’s fifth goal of the season and second in four games. Brown scored 37 seconds into the third for his team-leading 12th of the season and sixth on the power play. Anze Kopitar threaded a cross-ice pass to Brown, who put in a rebound after Husso made a pad save on his initial shot. St. Louis coach Craig Berube pulled Husso with 2:20 remaining in regulation. The Blues couldn't get much on net, until the final minute when Perron cashed in. POWERING UP The Blues have momentum on their power play after it struggled for most of the season. Perron's first-period goal was St. Louis' fourth straight with the man advantage after it converted on all three chances in a 3-2 win at Anaheim on Wednesday. St. Louis had only eight power-play goals and was 28th in the NHL in its first 21 games, but has scored five goals over the past three games. ICE CHIPS Blues: C Brayden Schenn had the second assist on Perron's goal to extend his point streak to four games (two goals, two assists). Kings: C Rasmus Kupari made his NHL debut. The 21-year old Finnish forward, who was the team's first-round pick (20th overall) in the NHL draft, centred the third line. He was promoted from the Kings' AHL affiliate after scoring two goals and nine points in eight games. UP NEXT The teams meet again on Saturday. The Blues are 2-1 this season in the second game of back-to-backs, while the Kings are 1-0-1. ___ More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports Joe Reedy, The Associated Press
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Mats Zuccarello had a goal and an assist, Kaapo Kahkonen stopped 24 shots and the Minnesota Wild jumped on the Arizona Coyotes early in a 5-1 victory Friday night. The Wild had a lacklustre performance two nights earlier in a loss to Vegas, but were all over the Coyotes from the start in the opener of the two-game series. Zuccarello scored on Minnesota's second shot of the game, and Brad Hunt and Nick Bjugstad also had goals in the first period. Jordan Greenway scored early in the second period and had an assist for the Wild. Kevin Fiala also scored, and rookie Kirill Kaprizov and Marcus Foligno had two assists each. The Coyotes followed up a 3-2 win at Los Angeles on Wednesday night with a clunker. Arizona had numerous defensive breakdowns to dig a big hole early and came to life offensively too late. Clayton Keller scored for Arizona and Antti Raanta had 22 saves. The Wild lost 5-1 to Vegas on Wednesday night despite having nine more shots, but took advantage of their opportunities in a dominating first period against Arizona. Zuccarello scored 4 1/2 minutes in, one-timing a pass from Kaprizov right off a faceoff win the Coyotes' end. Hunt scored his first goal of the season late in the period on a shot from near the blue that squeezed under Raanta's stick arm. Bjugstad scored 1:09 later to make it 3-0, one-timing into an open net after Kaprizov pulled Raanta out of position and backhanded a pass from behind the goal. Greenway took advantage of an Arizona defensive breakdown five minutes into the second period and beat Raanta between the pads on a breakaway. Keller finally got the Coyotes on the board early in the third period, one-timing a cross-ice pass from Jordan Oesterle over Kahkonen's glove. Fiala sealed it with his seventh goal after the Coyotes turned it over in their own end. UP NEXT Arizona goalie Darcy Kuemper is expected to start Saturday against Minnesota after missing three games with a lower-body injury. ___ More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports John Marshall, The Associated Press
Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said Brandon Carlo was taken to hospital in an ambulance after Tom Wilson nearly decapitated him.
The opening day at the Matteo Pellicone Ranking Series wrestling event in Rome saw Canada's competitors claim three medals, including a pair of gold. Reigning Olympic champion Erica Wiebe dominated opponent Samar Amer Ibrahim Hamza of Egypt 10-0 in the 76-kilogram gold medal match, while fellow Canadian Michelle Fazzari also took home gold in the women's 62-kg division with a 2-1 win over Marianna Sastin of Hungary. Wiebe, who won gold at the 2016 Olympics, scored in the final moments of the match to secure the medal. The Stittsville, Ont., native previously won bronze at the Outstanding Ukrainian Wrestlers and Coaches Memorial in Ukraine last month. The 31-year-old booked her ticket to the Tokyo Games at last year's Pan Am Olympic Qualifying Tournament. "This tournament has some of the best wrestlers in the world," Wiebe said. "It's a good check in on where I'm at in my preparations. I'm still getting the kinks out, but overall, I'm happy with how I wrestled." WATCH | Olympic-bound Wiebe claims gold medal in Rome: Fazzari had already beaten Sastin earlier in the day with a 5-3 round-robin win. The Hamilton, Ont., native is aiming to secure her second Olympic berth. "I think I wrestled pretty well," Fazzari said. "This tournament acted as a good opportunity to find out where we are, what we need to work on, and filling in those gaps. Getting used to the whole process, the warmup, the nerves, and how I feel mentally and physically on the mat." WATCH | Fazzari takes home gold in 62-kg division: Olivia Di Bacco of Orillia, Ont., secured a comeback victory against American Alexandria Glaude in their 68-kg bronze medal match, scoring pivotal takedowns in the second half. Action continues on Saturday with Canadian wrestlers Amar Dhesi, Diana Weicker and Samantha Stewart set to compete. The event contributes towards seeding points at the upcoming Tokyo Olympics. WATCH | Di Bacco earns bronze with victory over Glaude:
Shohei Ohtani K’s 5 in his first spring pitching appearance, plus Bryce Harper homers in his first spring at-bat on this edition of FastCast