PWHL Ottawa-Montreal Game 2 goes to 4 OTs, breaks league record for longest game
A playoff game between the Montreal Victoire and Ottawa Charge set a record for the longest game in Professional Women's Hockey League history on Sunday night, spanning over 135 minutes and four overtime periods.
The puck dropped at 2:08 p.m. ET, and the game went on for more than five hours, finally coming to an end at 7:42, with Montreal winning 3-2.
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Catherine Dubois scored the game-winning goal with just under five minutes remaining in the fourth overtime period to give Montreal its first playoff win in franchise history.
'I'm just happy we got a win and it's over now,' Dubois said after the game.
Montreal goalie Ann-Renée Desbiens set a record with 63 saves on 65 shots. Gwyneth Philips made 53 saves for the Charge, good for a franchise record.
Montreal defender Erin Ambrose logged a game-high 58:09 in ice time while Laura Stacey led all forwards with 46:47.
It was the second-longest game in Montreal's rich professional hockey history, just shy of Game 1 of the 1936 semifinals between the Detroit Red Wings and Montreal Maroons (176:30). It was also the second consecutive year that Montreal's second game of the postseason turned into a hockey marathon. Last season, Boston beat Montreal 2-1 in triple overtime en route to a 3-0 series win.
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With the win on Sunday, the best-of-five semifinal series is now tied 1-1 and will turn to Ottawa on Tuesday for Game 3.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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CNET
an hour ago
- CNET
F1: How to Watch and Stream the 2025 Canadian Grand Prix
After the European triple-header, the F1 circus sails back across the Atlantic this weekend for the Canadian Grand Prix, with Max Verstappen desperate to replicate his 2024 triumph on this track. Below, we'll outline the best live TV streaming services to use to watch the race as it happens, wherever you are in the world, and how to use a VPN if it's not available where you are. Oscar Piastri led Lando Norris to a McLaren one-two last time out in Barcelona, with Verstappen controversially placed in 10th after being handed a 10-second penalty for a collision with George Russell. That result means the Red Bull star and reigning Drivers' Champion now trails leader Norris by 12 points in the standings, adding extra pressure as the season approaches its halfway mark. The Canadian GP takes place on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal on Sunday, June 15, at 2 p.m. ET (11 a.m. PT) in Canada and the US. Lights-out in the UK is at 7 p.m. BST, while Australian viewers will be looking at an 4 a.m. AEST start on Monday night. The race will air in the US on ESPN and ESPN Plus. The entire race weekend, including practice sessions and qualifying, will be shown in the US on ESPN's family of TV and streaming networks. Folks who want to follow the whole race weekend will need access to the ABC and ESPN news channels on cable or live TV streaming services, or the ESPN Plus streaming service. We've broken down everything you need to know, including how to use a VPN to stream the race, and all the other F1 races this season. Known for its long straights and Turn 10 hairpin, the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal is a semipermanent street circuit that held its first F1 race back in 1978. Minas Panagiotakis/Ferrari/Getty Images Livestream the Canadian GP in the US Every Formula One race during the 2025 season will be televised on ESPN, ESPN2 or ABC. All practice and qualifying sessions and all F1 Sprint events will also be broadcast. This race will be broadcast on ESPN. Selected races will stream on ESPN Plus, featuring two alternate streams for all races (Driver Tracker and mixed onboard cameras). James Martin/CNET ESPN Plus Carries F1 races in the US ESPN's standalone streaming service is great for casual fans of F1 and is a must-have accessory for fanatics. It costs $12 a month or $120 a year. If you're an F1 fan who's also looking to get your Disney fix, the Disney trio bundle (Hulu, Disney Plus and ESPN Plus) might end up being an even better buy. It's great for fans who love catching the parts of the race weekend that typically air on EPSN2 or ESPNews, and also want the latest Marvel movies or Star Wars shows. If you're a diehard fan of motorsports and Formula Series racing, ESPN Plus might not be for you, given that it rarely covers F2, F3 or Porsche Supercar racing. That's why ESPN Plus is ideal for casual fans who enjoy catching a race every once in a while or fans who don't want or need all of the extra bells and whistles of F1 TV but want to beef up their coverage options. Read our full review of ESPN Plus. See at ESPN Plus How to watch the Canadian GP online from anywhere with a VPN If you're traveling abroad and want to keep up with the Formula One season while away from home, a VPN can help enhance your privacy and security when streaming. It encrypts your traffic and prevents your internet service provider from throttling your speeds, and can also be helpful when connecting to public Wi-Fi networks while traveling, adding an extra layer of protection for your devices and logins. VPNs are legal in many countries, including the US and Canada, and can be used for legitimate purposes such as improving online privacy and security. However, some streaming services may have policies restricting VPN usage to access region-specific content. If you're considering a VPN for streaming, check the platform's terms of service to ensure compliance. If you choose to use a VPN, follow the provider's installation instructions, ensuring you're connected securely and in compliance with applicable laws and service agreements. Some streaming platforms may block access when a VPN is detected, so verifying if your streaming subscription allows VPN usage is crucial. James Martin/CNET ExpressVPN Best VPN for streaming Price $13 per month, $100 for the first 15 months (then $117 per year) or $140 for the first 28 months (then $150 per year) Latest Tests No DNS leaks detected, 18% speed loss in 2025 tests Network 3,000 plus servers in 105 countries Jurisdiction British Virgin Islands ExpressVPN is our current best VPN pick for people who want a reliable and safe VPN, and it works on a variety of devices. It's normally $13 a month, but if you sign up for an annual subscription for $100, you'll get three months free and save 49%. That's the equivalent of $6.67 a month. Note that ExpressVPN offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. 61% off with 2yr plan (+4 free months) See at ExpressVPN How to livestream the Canadian GP in the UK F1 is shown in the UK on Sky Sports and Channel 4. Sky Sports airs the races, practice rounds and qualifying, while free-to-air Channel 4 offers highlights that broadcast after the day's action. If you already have Sky Sports as part of your TV package, you can stream the race via its app, but cord-cutters can watch Sky TV with unlimited Sky Sports on a Now TV membership. Sky Sports Sky Sports and Now TV F1 streaming in the UK Sky subsidiary Now offers streaming access to Sky Sports channels with a Now Sports membership. You can get a day of access for £15, or sign up to a monthly plan from £35 per month right now. See at Sky Livestream the Canadian GP in Canada F1 fans can watch every GP this season, including the Canadian GP, on TSN and its streaming service, TSN Plus. 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See at Kayo Sports When, where and what time are the races? Races are usually held on Sundays and are typically spaced two weeks apart. 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New York Times
2 hours ago
- New York Times
The Leafs have someone new at the draft table. What his past reveals about the future
After a combined 28 seasons working for two well-renowned teams in the scouting world, Mark Leach arrived in Toronto with a plan. Through nearly three decades of work as an amateur scout with the Detroit Red Wings and the Dallas Stars, Leach has been part of organizations that have found Hall of Famers or NHL stars outside the first round, such as Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, Tomas Tatar and Jason Robertson. Last summer, he was hired to run the Leafs' amateur scouting department. Advertisement 'I brought in a philosophy and a style that I've worked with through my past two organizations. A different perspective, and maybe a different way of doing things than they might have done in the past,' the Maple Leafs director of amateur scouting said in an exclusive interview. 'But with the people in Toronto, the transition has been smooth and easy.' Previous director of amateur scouting Wes Clark had been promoted to the position after the 2021 draft. Clark helped guide the Leafs scouting staff to often go off board, find players with high-powered motors and unearth gems. In the last three drafts, Clark and the Leafs drafted current or likely future NHL players including Fraser Minten, Nikita Grebenkin and Easton Cowan. Yet when Clark was hired as vice-president of player personnel by the Pittsburgh Penguins, Leafs GM Brad Treliving went off board himself. In Leach, he hired someone without any experience as a director of scouting. 'If you look back, he has a hell of a draft record,' Treliving said. Treliving is hoping Leach's experience will transfer to Toronto. It will have to if Toronto has any hope of unearthing its next star contributor through the draft. The Leafs do not have a first-round pick in the draft later this month — or in the next two drafts afterward. What could Leach's experience and philosophy mean for the Leafs? Ask around on Leach and you'll hear variations of the same term to describe him: 'Hockey lifer.' No diversions into different fields for this 63-year-old. The man lives and breathes the sport, and talks about it in a thick, Northeastern U.S. accent. Leach is sandwiched in the middle of a hockey family. Three of his brothers either coached or played professionally, including Stephen Leach, who played for parts of 15 NHL seasons and Jay Leach, with several years as an NHL assistant coach on his resume. His family ties in the game remain: Leach's nephew Jay was a longtime pro and assistant coach and was a recent finalist for the Boston Bruins head coach job. Advertisement Leach's own playing career might have been short: four years as a sturdy defender for St. Lawrence University in the early 1980s. But his transition into the next stage of his hockey career was relatively quick: he was an assistant coach for two years at Michigan Tech before catching on with the Red Wings as an amateur scout in 1996. He formed a connection with Jim Nill. When the well-respected executive left his position as Red Wings assistant general manager to take over the top job in Dallas, Leach also went south. Leach began scouting the northeast United States and Quebec. Later in Leach's time with the Stars, he was one of three crossover scouts. Besides his area of expertise, he would frequently travel through rinks across the hockey world with fellow Stars scouts. His input became highly valued by Stars executives. And over the past decade, the Stars themselves became known as one of the better-drafting teams in the NHL. 'We looked at players who had a heavy compete, heavy work ethic and had skill,' Leach said of the Stars' secret draft sauce. Leach has been described as an 'old-school' scout: he likes to spend as much time as possible in rinks watching players up close, and encourages his scouts to do the same. In-person viewings are preferred to video scouting, which the Leafs often utilized under Clark. '(Leach) really includes and pushes the area scouts for their involvement, and gives them a lot of responsibility,' Treliving said. Being in arenas as much as possible allows Leach and his scouts to trust their own instincts when assessing players. Like Treliving, Leach is all about trusting his gut and relying on his experience when making decisions. And watching players live whenever possible allowed scouts like Leach to better understand player intangibles. Advertisement Asked about the recent NHL Scouting Combine in Buffalo, Leach noted the event was a chance to learn about players' family histories and 'figuring out the people' the Leafs had on their draft list. 'We were an organization that went out and saw players live a lot,' Leach said of working with the Stars, before applying that to his time in Toronto. 'It's a matter of going out, seeing players and having a feel for them.' When he sees players, Leach has a list of what he looks for. The qualities on the list should not come as a surprise, given that Leach was hired by Treliving. Size, especially in defencemen, is relatively high on Leach's list of priorities. There are four defencemen all over 6-foot-5 listed in a row from 39 to 42 on NHL Central Scouting's final list of North American skaters. Those players could hypothetically be available when the Leafs are scheduled to make their first pick at the end of the second round. 'I would be shocked if it's not a player like that,' said one NHL scout who knows Leach. Leach enjoyed working with the Stars and the Red Wings because each organization valued late-round picks and appreciated that NHL players could be found outside the first round. 'He felt that's where we made our money,' said a Stars employee who asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. 'And he had a really good eye for those late-developing types.' That's another common thread heard about Leach: He's not afraid to bet big on players he believes might have a long development runway. Leach's experience suggests he believes in the payoff of players who might develop at a slower pace compared to their peers. 'There's a little bit of luck involved, things hitting at the right time and patience with their development,' Leach said of what makes a successful draft pick. 'You have to let them evolve and let them develop and take their steps along the way. There's not an exact straight line for these kids' development.' One recent Stars draft pick for whom, multiple sources indicated, Leach pushed hard at the 2020 NHL Draft was Mavrik Bourque. Before the draft, the crafty forward was considered highly skilled but undersized and defensively suspect, making him something of a divisive prospect. Bourque fell to the Stars at No. 30. He would play two more QMJHL seasons and then another two years in the AHL. Bourque led the AHL in points in his final season but still entered this season with fewer NHL games played than almost every 2020 first-round pick. Advertisement 'Some guys love the already-made guy,' the Stars employee said. 'Mark is one of those guys who loves the long-term development.' Whispers about whether Bourque would ever fulfill his promise could be heard coming into this season. 'You have to be patient, let them (players) go through some hurdles and adversity,' Leach said. Sure enough, Bourque has developed into more of an all-around forward whose on-ice vision has only improved. He looks like a key part of the Stars' future. 'I'm a big believer in skill,' Leach said. 'But there's some intangibles that come along the way. And so we have to take time and be patient with their development.' His voice still rises with evident joy when discussing Bourque. '(Bourque) was almost a step ahead of everybody else he was playing with. So maybe he wasn't the biggest guy, or the fastest player but his skill set and IQ set him apart for us,' Leach said. 'I think you need to have a couple elements to your game that will hopefully transcend into the NHL level. Usually at the top of the list is skill and hockey IQ. Those are the things I really look for.' Leach's defence of Bourque provides clues into how the Leafs could draft in 2025 and beyond. The Leafs own the Florida Panthers' second-round pick, meaning it will be one of the last two picks of the round, depending on the Stanley Cup Final result. 'We have to be prepared, because you never know what Brad might do. He might trade somebody to get a pick, or things might happen. So we have prepared as if we have a first-round pick all the time,' Leach said. But even if the Leafs stick at No. 63 or 64, you don't need to be an ardent Leafs fan to know there is value to be found late in the second round: Matthew Knies, now a key part of the franchise's future, was drafted at No. 57 in 2021. Leach was part of the Stars draft that snagged Roope Hintz late in the second round in 2015 as well. Advertisement '(Leach's) feeling is that there are players to be found in every round,' Treliving said. 'His history has shown that.' How does that happen? Leach argues that every organization thinks differently. The Leafs must stick to their organizational philosophy and have their draft list in order after careful review. Leach believes they could get lucky by seeing a player they have highly rated fall to them. 'It's happened before,' Leach said quickly, but knowingly. Throughout this year, Leach has made his philosophy clear. People who have worked with Leach agree he favours players who he believes will show up when games become more tight-checking in the playoffs. If he sees players being outworked, it's likely they will fall lower, or off, his draft board. 'If he had a type, it's your classic, tough to play against player,' another Stars source said. Leach also pushed hard for 2017 Stars draft pick and now one of the best goalies in the world, Jake Oettinger. Consider how Leach assessed him five years after the draft: 'Really competed in tough situations when the puck was right in front of him or in the slot area. He never gave up on plays. Just something special about his competitiveness and his will.' Competitiveness is an area in which the Leafs might be lacking in the playoffs. And so if Treliving is serious about changing the DNA of the Leafs and making them more difficult to play against in the future, the seeds of that change could take hold at the 2025 draft under Leach. 'When you put in compete and the work ethic into the mix, it makes for a kid, a young man to have a chance and have an opportunity to play at the highest level,' Leach said. 'Those are the elements that I look for in players. If there's good work ethic and good compete, it helps the ability.' (Top photo of Mark Leach (left) and Jim Nill (right) posing for a photo with Jake Oettinger (centre) at the 2017 NHL Draft: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
New York Times
2 hours ago
- New York Times
Canucks notebook: Abbotsford coach Manny Malhotra's success, winger Jonathan Lekkerimäki's playoff struggles
It's a notable silver lining in what's been a trying, difficult year for the Vancouver Canucks franchise. On Friday night, the Abbotsford Canucks, Vancouver's American League affiliate and top minor league club, will face a buzzsaw Charlotte Checkers in the franchise's first-ever appearance in the Calder Cup Finals. Advertisement The Checkers, who advanced to the finals in just 10 total games, have home ice advantage in the series and are narrowly favoured to win in the outright markets. To do it, though, they'll have to defeat an overachieving, hard-working, deep and well-coached Abbotsford that's been building toward this moment patiently and with discipline since relocating from Utica, N.Y., to the Fraser Valley in the spring of 2021. How did Abbotsford get here? How did Manny Malhotra pull this off in his first season as a professional head coach? And what comes next for some of the best young players on this team? Let's open the notebook and set up the Calder Cup Finals. Given the Vancouver market's obsession with NHL-level hockey, the on-ice success the club has manufactured, and a significant change in the organization's approach to its top farm team, Abbotsford, has largely flown under the radar. In truth, it's been somewhat fascinating to watch. When the club operated in Utica, in partnership with president Robert Esche, the Utica Comets developed a reputation for being a scrappy but underfunded outfit with diehard fan support in the Mohawk Valley. Utica enjoyed some intermittent on-ice success, like when Travis Green and Jacob Markstrom led the club to the Calder Cup Finals in 2015, but the roster was often pieced together with tryout players and the like. The American League, in contrast with the NHL, isn't capped. Come playoff time, Utica could bump into a Toronto Marlies squad, where the Comets' combined roster salaries totalled a sum less than what the Marlies were icing on their first power-play unit. When Utica first relocated to the Fraser Valley at the tail end of the COVID-19 pandemic-shortened 2021 season, things suddenly changed. Challenged with effectively building an American League team from scratch, with little in the way of in-house prospect depth to speak of, general manager Ryan Johnson and the organization signed nearly a dozen American League veterans. Advertisement The goal was to make a splash in a new marketplace, one that had a difficult history with American League hockey. The approach of building an expensive, veteran-laden roster, however, was also driven by necessity. The club didn't have enough developmental prospects to properly staff a competitive roster. Over the past few years, as Abbotsford has churned through coaches and knocked on the door as a consistent American League playoff team, that's begun to change. And it's in part because of the team's deliberate approach to sign high-scoring, undrafted Western Hockey League players, including Abbotsford captain Chase Wouters, and pest forward Tristen Nielsen (who has since signed an NHL-level standard player contract). With a push to acquire free agents out of Europe, the collegiate ranks and the CHL, Abbotsford has slowly but surely developed a nucleus of younger, cost-controlled players who have formed this team and pushed its way to the finals. More than any other factor driving this run, a group of mid-20s NHL prospects highlighted by Arshdeep Bains, Linus Karlsson, Max Sasson and Artūrs Šilovs, all of whom have played more than 100 games with Abbotsford over the past few years, have bound together and, in the organization's view, decided to pursue this long run in business-like fashion. Culturally, there's a real sense of honesty and self-awareness at the core of how this team has forged its identity. An understanding that everyone in the American League's goal is to work their way to the bigger stage. To get out. Explicitly, that's the big-picture goal. The point of all this is to learn and improve. To get better, to graduate and ultimately to leave. There's a notion that if you're still here in four or five years, and this standard applies to everybody in the organization, from coaches to equipment staff to the players themselves, then the organization hasn't succeeded. Advertisement Somewhere throughout this season, the honest, business-like mentality has congealed into something resilient. A deep team focused on the day-to-day routine and the workmanlike rhythms of trying to graduate from the American Hockey League, the pressure of playing an elimination game or facing a third-period deficit has appeared to melt away. 'Forget the result (of this finals),' Johnson told The Athletic this week, when asked if he has any expectations for his group as they prepare to play the biggest games in Abbotsford's history. 'I expect this team to leave it all out there. And they have throughout this entire run. … 'Honestly, I wouldn't say I have a ton of expectations, though. It's just about staying the course and doing what we've talked about from day one of the regular season. … If it's not enough, it's not enough, but at the end of the day, what this group has decided to do is to go for it. And I know they will.' Playoff Diaries: Western Conference Finals Game 6 🎥 Abbotsford advances to the Calder Cup Finals for the first time in franchise history! — X – Abbotsford Canucks (@abbycanucks) June 10, 2025 When an American League team succeeds at this level, it tends to garner some attention from the industry at large. Calder Cup playoff success results in players being more marketable as free agents and in the departure of coaches. That's especially true when the coaches in question are highly regarded, thoughtful and charismatic, the way first-year bench boss Malhotra has proven to be during stints as an assistant coach in Vancouver and Toronto, and over his first full year as a head coach in the Fraser Valley. It hasn't always been a smooth process. A coach serves as something of a metronome for a hockey team, setting schedules, dealing with travel planning and doing an awful lot of work beyond the day-to-day grind of preparing a team. Until you've been through a full cycle, there are a million little things that you can't possibly know until you've experienced them. It's little details like not scheduling special teams meetings and practices for early in the week, because in the American League, an injury at the NHL level in a Thursday night game might, and probably will, alter your gameplan that weekend when your best player is called up to dress for the big club as an injury replacement. Advertisement Even beyond finding his voice and vision as a head coach, Malhotra had to undergo a crash course in all of that this season. And the results have been tremendous. In addition to the success of his approach on the ice, Malhotra's first season in Abbotsford has been accompanied by a significant appreciation for the flow and energy level of his practices. It's a factor that the club has come to prize internally, but has also been noted by various agents representing players at the AHL level. 'Manny's commitment to the process and consistency, his practice delivery and attention to detail day to day, it isn't just about winning hockey games,' said Johnson. 'It's about getting down to our process. It's about professionalism and the quality of our players as teammates. 'Manny felt if he got that down, then the rest would follow. And this run is a result of those things.' In the process, Malhotra, who was a finalist to succeed Rick Tocchet before the Canucks opted to hire Adam Foote, has put himself squarely on the map as a top candidate in the next NHL head-coaching hiring cycle. And maybe even sooner. There are only nine left-handed defenseman under six feet who appeared in over 50 NHL games this past season. And many of the shorter, left-handed defenders in the NHL, like Quinn Hughes, Lane Hutson and Shayne Gostisbehere, are high-scoring offensive defenders. Mainstays on the power play. They're one-man breakout machines and attacking engines from the back end, generally speaking. There are a few exceptions; players like Dmitry Orlov, Matt Grzelcyk and Samuel Girard are the rare breed of defensive-minded, shorter left-handed defenders. They're the exceptions that prove the rule, however. A 2022 seventh-round draft pick, first-year professional defender Kirill Kudryavtsev has already overcome long odds to make it this far. He's enjoyed a strong first professional season, even earning a call-up to the NHL down the stretch. Advertisement What Kudryavtsev has done for Abbotsford in the playoffs, however, is altogether different. He's been Abbotsford's best two-way defender, helping the Canucks outscore their opponents by a lopsided margin in his five-on-five minutes on their run through the Western Conference. It's the sort of breakout performance that can change how a player is perceived by their organization and by the wider industry. Rare profile or not, there's something real there in Kudryavtsev. Throughout the playoffs, Abbotsford's best players have been fringe NHL-level players in their mid-20s, like Sasson, Bains and Victor Mancini. Vancouver's younger, higher pedigree prospects, aside from Kudryavtsev, have mostly been peripheral to Abbotsford's playoff success. In the case of top blue-line prospect Tom Willander, his absence has been business-related. He's missed out on this playoff run due to a protracted contractual standoff following his graduation from Boston University. Aatu Räty has been limited by injury, appearing in just six of Abbotsford's 18 playoff games. Meanwhile, promising young forward Jonathan Lekkerimäki, who captured the imagination of Canucks fans with his 24-game run at the NHL-level this season, has been a regular healthy scratch as the club approaches the finals. He's struggled to manufacture offence or shots at the same auspicious rate he managed during the regular season. A rocket from Lekker! 🚀 Jonathan Lekkerimäki's first NHL goal is the first RE/MAX Canada Move of the Week! — Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) November 18, 2024 Despite Lekkerimäki's playoff struggles, his first professional season in North America should be regarded as a mostly unqualified success. As a 20-year-old player, he scored at the rate you'd hope to see from a future top-six forward at the NHL level and didn't look out of place in the NHL when he got a look there. Advertisement That he hasn't been at his best in the Calder Cup playoffs, truthfully, hints at the ground that Lekkerimäki still has to develop physically enough to be an impactful NHL-level goal scorer. While he is a strong skater, he's not NHL-level fast at this stage of his career. There's no technical reason that he can't be, in time, but he'll need to build considerable, functional core strength to improve his power and top speed as a skater. Lekkerimäki is an undersized player and doesn't yet have the strength to cut back or protect the puck along the wall the way most undersized forwards — the Canucks' Conor Garland and Nils Höglander are potent examples of this — need to to succeed in the NHL. For whatever reason, Lekkerimäki has hit a wall in the Calder Cup playoffs. There are lessons for him and the Canucks in that, but it shouldn't be viewed as a concern that would adjust how we rate Lekkerimäki and his progress. This is a gifted player with a couple of NHL-ready traits, including his perimeter shooting skill, and his nuance and skill on the flank with the man advantage, and a lot of work is needed to enhance his physical development if he hopes to succeed during the toughest time of year in the American League. And eventually as a full-time top-six contributor at the NHL level.
