Canada will play for gold in the World Cup of Hockey.
Three goals in the third period capped an overall solid performance by Team Canada in a 5-3 semifinal victory over Team Russia at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto on Saturday.
Outshooting the Russians 47-34, Canada held a 1-0 lead after the first period and were tied 2-2 going into the third where Brad Marchand, Corey Perry and John Tavares gave their team a 5-1 lead in the first 10 minutes .
Sidney Crosby, who would go on to set up a pair of goals, opened the scoring for Canada at 7:40 of the first period with a steal of the puck inside the Russian end and beat losing goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky with a nifty move at the goalcrease. Nikita Kucherov and Evgeny Kuznetsov replied with back-to-back goals to give the Russians a 2-1 lead by the 16:24 mark of the second period, but Marchand scored his first of two just over a minute later to tie the game at 2-2.
Carey Price was the winning goaltender, stopping 31 of 34 shots.
Canada will now meet either Team Europe or Team Sweden in the World Cup of Hockey best-of-three final series beginning on Tuesday (5 p.m. PT). The second game is set for Thursday while a third game, if necessary, would be played on Oct. 1.
Team Europe and Team Sweden play their semifinal game on Sunday (10 a.m. PT) for the right to play Canada for the tournament championship.
Jose Bautista’s three-run homer lifted the Toronto Blue Jays to a 3-0 victory over the New York Yankees on Saturday and was the key reason for the Jays widening their lead in the race for the MLB’s American League wild card.
The eighth-inning home run, Bautista’s 20th of the season, broke a scoreless tie in the bottom of the eighth inning and was his second in the past three games, having hit a tying ninth-inning homer against Seattle on Wednesday.
The Blue Jays are 1 1/2-games ahead of the Baltimore Orioles and two games up on Detroit — which lost to the Royals earlier in the day — for the top wild card spot with just over one week to play in the regular season.
Starter Marcus Stroman came through with a stellar effort, going seven full innings and allowing just one Yankee hit while striking out five and giving up three walks. However it was reliever Jason Grilli who picked up the win with one inning of work in which he gave up one hit and struck out two New York batters.
The Jays managed just six hits — four off starter CC Sabathia over seven innings and two against reliever Tyler Clippard.
Up next for the Jays is another meeting with the Yankees on Sunday in which righhander Marco Estrada (9-9, 3.62) is scheduled to pitch beginning at 10:07 PT.
Related story and video: Bautista gives credit to Blue Jays’ deep lineup
The Calgary Stampeders kicked a field goal with no time left to edge the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 36-34 and snap their seven-game Canadian Football League winning streak on Saturday in Calgary.
Stamps quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell completed 29 of 43 passes for 361 yards and threw for two touchdowns, while Kamar Jordan, his favourite receiver on the day, caught nine passes for 126 yards and a TD in Calgary’s 10th straight victory.
Matt Nichols also had a solid day, passing for 287 yards and two touchdowns as the Blue Bombers (8-5) outscored Calgary 20-6 in the fourth quarter to make a game of it.
Meanwhile, Kelowna’s Taylor Loffler, was fourth among Bombers tacklers on Saturday with four from his defensive back position. Maurice Leggett led Winnipeg with six tackles.
Related story/video: Stamps hold off furious Bombers comeback
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