SPORTS
FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2018
1B
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @EOSPORTS
STANLEY CUP FINALS
CAPS ON TOP!
Mariners
beat Rays
as Leake
pitches
into 9th
By MARK DIDTLER
Associated Press
Bowl in early 1992.
“We did it,” said Ovechkin, whose 15
playoff goals set a franchise record. “That’s
all that matters. Look at the smiles on
my teammates. This is something you’ll
never forget. This moment, I’ll remember
for the rest of my life. I’m so happy. It’s
unbelievable.”
After Ovechkin accepted the Conn
Smythe Trophy, he received the Cup from
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. Ovech-
kin shouted “Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!” through
his gap-toothed grin before skating away
and hoisting the prize over his head for a
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. —
Mike Leake had Seattle cruis-
ing toward a comfortable victory.
A late Tampa Bay surge merely
helped the Mariners pad their
record in one-run games.
Leake pitched into the ninth
inning, Mitch Haniger homered
and drove in three, and the AL
West-leading Mariners beat the
Rays 5-4 on Thursday night.
Leake (6-3) was lifted with a
5-1 lead after allowing his eighth
hit, a leadoff double in the ninth to
Wilson Ramos. Johnny Field hit a
three-run double off Alex Colome
before the former Rays’ closer
got a game-ending grounder from
Daniel Robertson.
“We got enough offense early in
the game, and pitching and defense
was the story again,” Mariners
manager Scott Servais said.
Seattle leads the majors in one-
run wins (19) and decisions (28).
Haniger has 46 RBIs, one off
his career high set last season. The
Mariners won for the 10th time in
13 games.
Robertson homered for the
Rays, who have scored 16 runs
during a seven-game losing streak.
The slide includes a three-game
sweep last weekend in Seattle.
“Somehow we’ve got to fig-
ure out a way to win a ballgame,”
Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash
said.
The Rays are 9-15 in one-run
games.
Seattle took a 3-0 lead in the
second off Austin Pruitt (1-3). Dee
Gordon hit a sacrifice fly, and then
Jean Segura scored from first base
on Haniger’s two-run single —
a ball that second baseman Joey
Wendle dived for and knocked
down in shallow right field.
Denard Span, playing at Tropi-
cana Field for the first time since
being traded with Colome by
Tampa Bay to Seattle on May 25th,
made it 4-0 with a solo homer in
the third.
“A little odd walking in the sta-
dium and by the home clubhouse
definitely felt a little weird, espe-
cially when the trade just hap-
pened a week ago,” said Span, who
See CAPS/2B
See MARINERS/2B
AP Photo/John Locher
Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin, of Russia, hoists the Stanley Cup after the Capitals defeated the Golden Knights in
Game 5 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Finals on Thursday in Las Vegas.
Capitals win Stanley Cup for first time in team history
By GREG BEACHAM
Associated Press
L
AS VEGAS — After 43 seasons, the
Washington Capitals are finally sit-
ting on top of hockey.
Lars Eller scored the tiebreaking goal
with 7:37 to play, and the Capitals raised
the Stanley Cup for the first time in fran-
chise history after a 4-3 victory over the
Vegas Golden Knights in Game 5 on Thurs-
day night.
Captain Alex Ovechkin capped his play-
off MVP campaign with a power-play goal,
and Devante Smith-Pelly tied it with a
full-stretch goal midway through the final
period of the Capitals’ fourth consecutive
victory over the Golden Knights, whose
incredible expansion season finally ended
in the desert.
So did the Capitals’ agonizing wait for
their first championship since the fran-
chise’s debut in 1974. After so many years
of crushing disappointment for a team with
a lengthy history of postseason failure,
these Capitals confidently won their fourth
consecutive closeout game with a tenacious
third-period comeback in Vegas.
Ovechkin and his teammates are Wash-
ington’s first championship hockey team —
and their city’s first champion in a major
pro sport since the Redskins won the Super
PENDLETON
PHS Linebacker’s Club to induct 17 into Hall of Fame
Coaches Lyle Phelps,
Dale Warberg headline
Class of 2018
By ERIC SINGER
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — Lyle Phelps
and Dale Warberg are two of the
greatest coaches Pendleton High
School has ever seen, and they’ll
be recognized yet again this sum-
mer for the winning traditions both
started.
Phelps and Warberg are two of
16 individuals as well as the 1980
Pendleton football team that will
be inducted into the Pendleton
Linebacker’s Club Hall of Fame
on June 29.
A legend on the baseball field,
Phelps, a Pendleton native, man-
aged the Buckaroos from 1976-
1994 and compiled a career record
of 376-136 with state Coach of the
Year awards in 1992 and 1994 and
groomed many Buckaroo greats.
The Buckaroos made the state tour-
nament 13 total times in Phelps’
tenure, including 12 straight
appearances from 1983-1994.
Warberg, the namesake of the
Pendleton High gymnasium, War-
berg Court, coached the Bucka-
roos boys basketball program for
24 seasons. In those two dozen
seasons, the Buckaroos compiled
a 376-186 record (.670), 11 Inter-
mountain Conference champi-
onships and appeared in the state
tournament 14 times.
Here is a brief look at the rest
of the Linebacker’s Club Hall of
Fame Class of 2018 inductees that
will be enshrined on June 29 at the
Linebacker Club’s annual Hall of
Fame Reception at the Pendleton
Convention Center.
● David Stuvland (1975-1979)
left his mark on the football field as
a standout fullback for the Bucka-
roos, rushing for more than 2,000
yards in his career and earned
all-conference and all-state honors
as a senior.
● Sam Haynes (1952-1956)
quarterbacked Pendleton’s first two
See HOF/2B
Sports shorts
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
Owens says he won’t
attend his Pro Football
Hall of Fame induction
(AP) — Terrell Owens says he
will not attend the induction cere-
mony for the Pro Football Hall of
Fame in August, an unprecedented
decision by an enshrinee.
The hall confirmed that Owens
informed them he would not be on
hand for the enshrinements. Owens
said in a statement, “After visiting
Canton earlier this year, I came to
the realization that I wish to celebrate
what will be one of the most memo-
rable days of my life, elsewhere.”
Stephens eyes second Slam title
AP Photo/Michel Euler
PARIS (AP) — Sloane
Stephens closed in on her
second Grand Slam title by
beating pal Madison Keys
6-4, 6-4 on Thursday in the
first all-American semifi-
nal at the French Open since
2002. It also was a rematch
of the U.S. Open final won
by Stephens last September.
The 10th-seeded Ste-
phens’ opponent in Satur-
day’s final will be Simona
Halep, who emphatically
ended the impressive French
Open run of 2016 cham-
pion Garbine Muguruza by
defeating her 6-1, 6-4.
Halep, who assured her-
self of retaining the No. 1
ranking with the victory,
earned a fourth chance to
win her first major title.
She twice has lost in the
final at Roland Garros — in
‘14 and in 2017.— and was
1935 — Omaha, ridden by Wil-
lis Saunders, becomes the third
horse to win the Triple Crown by
capturing the Belmont Stakes.
1986 — Larry Bird scores 29
points to lead the Boston Celtics to
a 114-97 victory over the Houston
Rockets and their 16th NBA title.
1990 — The “Indomitable
Lions” of Cameroon pull off one
of the greatest upsets in soccer his-
tory, 1-0 over defending champion
Argentina in the first game of the
World Cup.
Contact us at 541-966-0838 or
sports@eastoregonian.com