Mackenzie Blackwood, Avalanche post shutout of Kings
Necas finished with two goals and an assist and Jonathan Drouin had a goal and an assist as Blackwood notched his fourth shutout of the season and third with Colorado. Cale Makar had two assists for the Avalanche (45-25-3, 93 points), who have won four in a row and are 12-1-1 in their last 14 games.
Nathan MacKinnon picked up an assist to extend his home point streak to 23 games. He has an NHL-best 108 points, three ahead of Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov.
David Rittich made 22 saves for Los Angeles (40-22-9, 89 points), which had its four-game winning streak snapped.
Both teams had great opportunities when the game was still scoreless. With 7:50 left in the first period, Jeff Malott intercepted a clearing attempt by Colorado in the right circle and was alone on Blackwood, but the goaltender made the save.
Early in the second period, the Avalanche nearly got the first goal when a deflection went to the front of the net, but Rittich stopped Valerie Nichushkin's wrister to keep it scoreless.
Colorado then scored two quick goals to break the tie. O'Connor got the first one when Makar stickhandled down the left side, slid a pass into the slot to O'Connor, who tipped a floater over Rittich's left shoulder and in at 5:25.
Just 1:32 later, Samuel Girard took a shot from the point that went behind the net. Necas picked it up and jammed it inside the post at 6:57 to give the Avalanche a 2-0 lead.
Later in the period, Warren Foegele went off for goaltender interference, giving Colorado its second power play. The Avalanche took advantage when Necas' one-timer from the left circle beat Rittich at 15:29.
Mikey Anderson took a tripping minor early in the third period and Drouin buried a pass from MacKinnon at 4:56.
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The Guardian
13 hours ago
- The Guardian
‘Eat, sleep or look at the roof': how top tennis players cope with match delays
The greatest challenge for Carlos Alcaraz in his third-round match at the Cincinnati Open was simply remaining sane. Before Alcaraz and Hamad Medjedovic, his opponent, took to the court, they had no choice but to wait as Francisco Comesaña and the big-serving Reilly Opelka worked through a tumultuous three-hour, three-set contest full of manic momentum shifts, medical time-outs and a last-minute rain delay for good measure. Alcaraz and Medjedovic had no idea when their match would begin, yet a large part of their job is making sure they are always ready. A few hours later, after closing out a straightforward victory, Alcaraz chuckled bitterly from a quiet hallway inside Center Court as he reflected on his hours of preparation, which turned out to be more stressful than the match itself. 'Well, it sucks,' he said, smiling. 'Having to warm up three, four times, it's horrible. A horrible thing. I thought having Opelka in front of me was going to be a little bit faster. I didn't expect a three‑hour match.' His experience was a reflection of one of the unique challenges of tennis. Aside from at the beginning of a day or session, matches usually have no fixed start time. In order to be successful, players must remain focused through this uncertainty. Karen Khachanov, the men's world No 12, says: 'We can go in all sports: NHL, American football or soccer. They know the whole season when they start – which game, against who and where. In tennis, this is the toughest part. You need to adapt to the circumstances.' The unique nature of the scoring system makes things even more challenging. A match can completely flip at any time and a player can come within a point of winning a match yet still be on court hours later. Almost every player can instantly think of an occasion when the match directly before theirs significantly frustrated them. For Iga Swiatek, her 2023 French Open semi-final against Beatriz Haddad Maia is seared in her mind by the psychodrama between Karolina Muchova and Aryna Sabalenka immediately before them. 'Aryna had 5-2 and then lost in the third set, so I was warming up like seven times, literally,' Swiatek says. 'It was a rollercoaster of emotions, from being stressed, to really not giving a damn what's going to happen in the match before, and then warming up again, being hyped up, and then being sleepy.' Being stuck behind a dramatic and seemingly endless five-set match at a grand slam tournament is even more aggravating. Madison Keys remembers a difficult situation one year at the US Open. 'I was third on, but I followed two men's matches, they both went five sets and I went on after the night session [had begun]. And it was in that moment that I decided that we should ban five sets,' she says, laughing. Jessica Pegula, the women's world No 4, concurs: 'If you're in a grand slam and you follow a three-out-of-five-set match, and they go five, you're screwed.' Every player aims to start their match with their energy high and adrenaline pumping, but that is not always possible after so many false starts. 'It's tough to wake yourself up again,' Khachanov says. 'Let's say you warmed up, you are full of adrenaline, you are ready to go on court, and then all of a sudden, there's another set. So you are thinking: 'OK, should I eat now? Should I just sleep? Should I watch the phone or I just, I don't know, look at the roof? What do I do? Play cards with my team?' Sometimes you just don't really know what to do.' Sign up to The Recap The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend's action after newsletter promotion The first truly significant match of Emma Raducanu's career, during her breakout debut run at Wimbledon in 2021, showed exactly what this situation can do to a player. As an 18-year-old Raducanu and Ajla Tomljanovic waited for Alexander Zverev's five-set match against Félix Auger‑Aliassime to finish on No 1 Court, the Briton became increasingly anxious. Overwhelmed by her nerves, she took an off-court medical time‑out in the second set of her fourth‑round match because of breathing difficulties and had an apparent panic attack. She never came back. 'I had a little episode on the court,' she says. 'It was new to me as well. I had no idea what was going on. I think I had way too much coffee before that match as well. That was just an experience. I was so wired from the start of my day.' Raducanu finds it far easier to be scheduled as the first match of the day, so she does not have to worry about the start time. Not everyone agrees, Daniil Medvedev for one. The Russian says: 'I was talking to my team today. I was like: 'When I'm 35, I might just boycott the 11am matches.' I'll be like: 'I'm not coming. Walkover.' Like: 'Yeah, I didn't wake up. Sorry, guys.' In my opinion, 11 is so early. You have to wake up at 6.30 in the morning, where, if you play at night, you wake up at 9am. So it changes the perspective of the match. It's crazy mentally.' In player lounges, locker rooms and warmup areas around the world, each player copes with delayed starts in different ways. Depending on how he is feeling, Alcaraz can be found playing football, cards or napping. Andrey Rublev is always sleeping, so he relies on his coach to provide him updates on the match before. And then there is Coco Gauff, who says with a laugh: 'I'm usually just on TikTok.' Others, such as Naomi Osaka and Keys, quickly find themselves immersed in the match before them. The latter says: 'I think we're kind of all just watching the score and just being like: 'Oh, come on!' Because a lot of times, especially if you're not on a main court, you can't actually see the match, so you're just waiting and staring at the score to flip. And you're living and dying [by the live scores]. All of a sudden you're cheering for one person that you've never met … and then cheering for the other person.' There are even times when players find themselves watching a match with their next opponent. One memorable example came at the Australian Open in 2016 when Roger Federer and Grigor Dimitrov sat side by side in the warmup gym and watched Lauren Davis prolong their day by dragging Maria Sharapova into a final set. Amusingly, Federer spent much of the second set tie-break screaming at the top of his lungs due both to his anguish at his match being delayed and his enjoyment of the contest. According to Dimitrov, who laughs fondly at the memory, taking in the preceding match with his opponent used to be common on the tour. 'I think it happened often,' he says. 'Not so much any more, to be honest. Early on, the guys around my age were doing that. We're OK with it. Now it's a little bit different.' The uncertainty of the schedule can cause more serious problems, such as the ludicrous, unhealthy late finishes that have become commonplace in the sport. Andy Murray's 4.05am five-set win against Thanasi Kokkinakis at the 2023 Australian Open, for example, was simultaneously an incredible sporting achievement and a complete farce. The men's Association of Tennis Professionals and the Women's Tennis Association have since initiated a new policy regarding late matches that, among many things, rules no match should begin after 11pm unless it receives special approval. For the most part, however, this is just a unique, but annoying challenge for players to overcome, another reason why this is such a complex and interesting sport. Alcaraz says, shrugging: 'It is what it is. We have to get used to it. If I have to warm up two, three times, I'll do it just to start the match in the best possible shape.' After so many years on the tour, Keys has come to a similar conclusion: 'It's really just about trying to stay focused. It's really hard, but you just have to try to manage your energy, eat as much as you can, warm up 37 times and just [remember] it's happening to the other person, too. That's all that you can do.'
Reuters
17 hours ago
- Reuters
Four-run seventh propels Rockies past Diamondbacks
August 17 - Mickey Moniak capped a four-run seventh inning with a two-run single, Ezequiel Tovar and Ryan Ritter had two hits each, and the Colorado Rockies rallied to beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 6-5 in Denver on Sunday. Warming Bernabel also had two hits, Anthony Molina (1-1) tossed an inning of relief and Juan Mejia picked up his first career save after making a leaping catch of Ketel Marte's popup to end the game. The Rockies rallied in the seventh inning against reliever Jake Woodford (0-3). Bernabel singled, Woodford hit Braxton Fulford and Hunter Goodman to load the bases with one out. Ritter singled home the first two and after a groundout advanced Goodman and Ritter, Moniak gave Colorado a 5-4 lead with a two-run single. Fulford added an RBI double in the eighth. Corbin Carroll homered among his two hits, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. also went deep and Jake McCarthy had and Alek Thomas had three hits each for Arizona, which didn't reward journeyman Nabil Crismatt's spot start. The D-backs loaded the bases with one out in the ninth and got a run on James McCann's sacrifice fly. With runners on second and third, Ketel Marte hit a popup in the infield that Mejia held onto despite colliding with first baseman Bernabel. Crismatt didn't allow a baserunner until Tovar's two-out single in the fourth and Colorado got to him in the fifth inning on Orlando Arcia's two-out RBI single to right. He allowed one run on three hits and struck out five in five innings. Rockies starter Antonio Senzatela, who was activated from the 15-day injured list, left after five shutout innings but was denied the win when Carroll led off the sixth with a 474-foot homer off of Luis Peralta, his 27th of the season. Gurriel followed with his 16th home run of the season and McCarthy singled to end Peralta's day after three batters. Dugan Darnell gave up a single to Tyler Locklear, McCarthy stole third and scored when Arcia misplayed the throw from Fulford. Locklear scored on a single by Thomas to cap the rally and give Arizona a 4-1 lead. --Field Level Media
Reuters
a day ago
- Reuters
Antonio Senzatela likely returning to mound for Rockies vs. D-backs
August 17 - The last time Colorado right-hander Antonio Senzatela pitched, Aug. 1, his start lasted less than an inning. The next day he was placed on the 15-day injured list with a blister on his right middle finger, but plans call for him to be back when the Rockies wrap up a four-game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday afternoon in Denver. Senzatela (4-14, 7.34 ERA) is expected to be activated from the IL to make his 22nd season start of the season. Nabil Crismatt will make his first appearance of 2025 -- and first as a member of the Diamondbacks -- and just the second start of his career to go with 113 relief appearances. The Rockies have won the past two games after dropping the series opener on Thursday night. Saturday night they scored six times in the eighth to rally for a 10-7 win. Senzatela has struggled most of the season, but things seemed to turn around when he beat the Minnesota Twins with seven solid innings on July 19. But in his next two starts, he gave up a total of 14 runs over 4 2/3 innings. Sunday will mark Senzatela's 24th appearance and 20th start against Arizona, a team he has faced more than any other in his career. He is 4-9 with a 5.61 ERA against the Diamondbacks. Colorado has won four of its past five games after an eight-game losing streak, and Hunter Goodman has been a big reason why. The 25-year-old All-Star catcher has hit safely in 11 of 13 games this month, and six hits were home runs. He blasted a 449-foot homer in Friday night's 4-3 win, and he leads the Rockies with 25 home runs. "He hits the ball a long way," Colorado interim manager Warren Schaeffer said. "He's just a strong guy that is having a really good year. His timing is very good. He doesn't seem like he's slowing down late in the year, which is a very good thing for him, catching as much as he has for the first time in his career." Crismatt, like Senzatela, has faced Sunday's opponent more than any other in his career. The right-hander is 0-1 with a 5.14 ERA in 15 relief appearances against the Rockies. Crismatt's only major league start came while pitching for San Diego on April 10, 2022. The Diamondbacks signed him to a minor league deal a week ago after his release from the Philadelphia Phillies. He appeared in 19 games for Philadelphia's Triple-A affiliate, Lehigh Valley. Crismatt pitched two scoreless innings for Arizona's Triple-A affiliate, Reno, before getting the nod to start Sunday in place of Anthony DeSclafani, who was put on the 15-day injured list with inflammation in his right thumb. The Diamondbacks came to Denver with a chance to strengthen their chances for an NL wild-card berth but have lost two games after winning 8-2 on Thursday night. They are 5 1/2 games out of the NL's third and final wild-card spot. "It's a hard league, and there are no gimmes here," Arizona outfielder Jake McCarthy said. "Obviously, we want to keep climbing [in the standings]." --Field Level Media
