E AST O REGONIAN Thursday, May 30, 2019 FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @EOSPORTS | FACEBOOK.COM/EOSPORTS STANLEY CUP FINALS: GAME 2 Blues win in OT to tie series series heads to st. Louis for Games 3 and 4 Dawgs’ Leal headed to WWCC to play soccer all-Conference midfielder led hermiston with 6 goals By JIMMY GOLEN Associated Press BOSTON — Blues defense- man Carl Gunnarsson bumped into coach Craig Berube in the bathroom before the start of over- time and told him: “I just need one more.” “he hit the post in the third there, and he just felt good about himself, obviously. Which he should have,” Berube said. “I liked hearing it.” after clanging the potential winner off the post in the final two-minutes of regulation, Gun- narsson scored on a delayed pen- alty 3:51 into overtime to give St. Louis a 3-2 victory over the Bos- ton Bruins and tie the stanley Cup Final at a game apiece. Jordan Binnington made 21 saves for the Blues, who won a game in the Cup final for the first time in 14 tries. Robert Bor- tuzzo and Vladimir Tarasenko also scored to help st. Louis win the first overtime in a NHL final since 2016. Charlie Coyle and Joakim Nordstrom scored and Tuukka rask made 33 saves for Bos- ton, which won 4-2 in Game 1 on Monday night for their eighth straight postseason victory. Game 3 is saturday night in st. Louis. Gunnarsson also assisted on Bortuzzo’s first-period goal, and then hit the post behind rask with about 2 minutes left in regula- tion. In the final minute, Boston’s david Pastrnak had a chance off a faceoff, but Binnington turned it away. “Would have loved to have it in the third, but who cares?” Gun- narsson said on the ice moments after the victory. “It’s great, tak- ing this home.” After a furious first period that ended in a 2-all tie, the teams went on defense in the second. despite four penalties, including a high-sticking, blood-drawing double-minor against Boston’s Connor Clifton, neither team was able to score. It stayed tied through a hard-hitting third period, with both teams failing to convert good scoring chances and avoid overtime. B1 By ANNIE FOWLER East Oregonian AP Photo/Bruce Bennett St. Louis Blues’ Carl Gunnarsson (4), of Sweden, is congratulated by Pat Maroon, rear, after he scored the winning goal against the Boston Bruins during the first overtime period in Game 2 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Final on Wednesday in Boston. AP Photo/Michael Dwyer St. Louis Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington (50) smothers the puck in front of Boston Bruins’ Danton Heinen (43) during the second period in Game 2 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Final. But after the break, it was all Blues. Boston did not get off a shot in the overtime, and the Eastern Conference champs struggled to clear it out of their own zone. alexander steen drew a hook- ing penalty in front of the net, and the Blues pulled Binnington for an extra skater. Gunnarsson worked it around to the blue line, passed it to Oskar sundqvist and then got it back for a rifle shot over Rask’s stick side into the corner of the net. Gunnarsson also fed Bortuzzo midway through the first period for a shot that deflected off Matt Grzelcyk’s stick past Rask to make it 1-1. Nordstrom scored just 40 sec- onds later to give Boston a 2-1 lead, but that lasted less than five minutes before Tarasenko took advantage of a mistake by Brad Marchand and lifted the puck over rask with a second effort to tie the score again at 2. Grzelcyk left with about two minutes left in the first period after taking an elbow to the head from sundqvist. he left the arena for a hospital; Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said he had no other update. The Bruins did not score on the ensuing power play. Notes: New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick was the pre- game banner waver. ... The Bru- ins scored a power-play goal for the sixth straight game, the sec- ond-longest postseason streak in franchise history. They have had seven-game streaks three times, most recently in 1999. The 19 power play goals is also the No. 2 in Bruins playoff history, second to the 24 in 1991. ... The Blues were without forward robert Thomas, who hasn’t played since a hit from Torey Krug in Game 1. Defenseman Vince Dunn missed his fifth consecutive game. ... Cassidy pulled rask for an offen- sive zone faceoff with 1.2 seconds left in the second period. Neither team managed a shot. Up next The best-of-seven series moves to st. Louis for Games 3 and 4. The Blues hold the home- ice advantage and can win their first NHL title without needing another victory in Boston. The hardest worker on the field. a versatile player. hermiston soccer coach rich harshberger was quick to point out Emilio Leal’s best qualities after the talented midfielder signed his letter of intent on Wednesday to play for Walla Walla Commu- nity College. “It’s a double bonus of talent and hard work,” herberger said. “he’s willing to put in the hard work in the offseason, which helps.” Leal, 18, follows in the foot- steps of former hermiston players, like Freddy Rodriguez and Anto- nio Campos, in suiting up for the Warriors. “Freddy said I should go there,” Leal said. “he said it’s a really good program and I can work on my soccer IQ.” harshberger said at last count he will have two players at WWCC and five at Blue Mountain when the college soccer season rolls around this fall. “That is part of our family plans, to go watch as many of our players play,” he said. “When Walla Walla and Blue Mountain play, we can see six or so all at once.” Leal, a Mid-Columbia Confer- ence first-team selection, led the Bulldogs with six goals and seven assists this season. When hermiston joined the MCC, the soccer players had to wait 18 months between seasons, but in the end, Leal said it played in his favor. “august 1, it’s back to the grind,” he said. “There isn’t much of a break.” another bonus of joining the MCC, according to Leal, is the level of competition, which will translate to the college game. “It’s a lot more aggressive and there is more speed,” Leal said. “There was not a slow game. It was fast-paced every game. The goalkeepers are at a higher level in Washington. We didn’t know what we were getting into. I just had to See Leal, Page B2 Rangers take advantage of M’s miscues, rally to win team’s most reliable reliever, roe- nis Elias, earned blown saves. anthony Bass (0-1) took the loss. “We felt really good about our shot there,” servais said. “We had a two-run lead with six outs to go. We should’ve locked that down.” Texas’ Jesse Chavez (1-1) earned the win with two innings of scoreless relief one day after serving as an opener. he helped propel the rangers to two rare road wins, pushing their total to 10 this season. They’ve now won 7 of 8 against the Mariners after losing two straight to start the season. “We feel like we should win,” rangers manager Chris Wood- ward said. “We just keep fighting. That’s a great thing, that your ball- club resembles that kind of fight, no quit, day game after a night game. It’s easy with two outs, nobody on right there, to just kind of pack it in, but these guys don’t. They’re prepared, they’re ready.” By CHRIS TALBOTT Associated Press sEaTTLE — The Texas rang- ers had a reliable scouting report on the division-rival Mariners. “I think that their bullpen has a lot of talent, but they’re having a little bit of trouble putting match- ups together,” shortstop Elvis andrus said. When seattle took the ball away from starter Wade LeBlanc on Wednesday, the rangers knew things could soon get interesting — and they were right. Texas rallied twice late during an 8-7 win that featured four lead changes, two blown saves and yet another brutal day defensively for the Mariners, who committed three errors and a wild pitch in one inning. LeBlanc handed over a 4-3 lead after five innings with the help of Tim Beckham’s two-run home run in the fourth. his replacement, Jesse Biddle, struck out the first batter he faced, but then flubbed Nomar Mazara’s comebacker for one error and threw the ball away for another, allowing Mazara to reach second. Mazara got to third on a wild pitch while Biddle walked Cabrera, set- ting up rougned Odor’s rBI sin- gle and Ronald Guzmán’s sacrifice fly for a 5-4 Rangers lead. austin adams relieved Biddle, AP Photo/Ted S. Warren Seattle Mariners’ Kyle Seager grounds into a double play in the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Tex- as Rangers on Wednesday in Seattle. threw wildly to first on a pickoff attempt but evaded further dam- age by striking out Jeff Mathis. The trio of errors brought the Mariners’ season total to 63. No other team in the major leagues has reached 50. yet the Mariners still had a chance to win, even after shin- soo Choo’s pinch-hit, two-run sin- gle tied it at 7 in the eighth inning. Instead, with two outs in the ninth, left fielder Domingo San- tana got turned around on Mazara’s third hit, letting it bounce off the wall for a double. Cabrera fol- lowed that with another two-base hit to push the winning run across. The Mariners wasted a home run by Mitch haniger that put them up 7-5 and sent four reliev- ers to the mound. They gave up seven hits and both walks the Mar- iners issued, while Biddle and the Up next Rangers: LhP Mike Minor (5-3, 2.55 ERA), 3-1 in his last four starts, opens a homestand against Kansas City. Mariners: LhP yusei Kiku- chi (3-2, 3.82 Era) makes the home start in a much anticipated matchup against the Los angeles angels and his fellow Japanese countryman shohei Ohtani.