A6 BAKER CITY HERALD • TUESDAY, JUNE 28, 2022
SPORTS
HOCKEY
COLLEGE BASEBALL
Avalanche unseat Lightning, Mississippi sweeps Oklahoma to
nab 3rd Stanley Cup victory claim first College World Series title
BY ERIC OLSON
Associated Press
BY STEPHEN WHYNO
AP Hockey Writer
TAMPA, Fla. — Nathan
MacKinnon could not find
the words. Gabriel Landeskog
cracked a smile and a joke.
After years of playoff disap-
pointments, the Colorado Av-
alanche are back atop hockey’s
mountain after dethroning the
two-time defending champi-
ons.
Behind a goal and an assist
from MacKinnon, the Ava-
lanche won the Stanley Cup
for the third time in franchise
history and first in more than
two decades by beating the
Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 in
Game 6 of the final Sunday
night, June 26.
“It’s just been building over
time,” playoff MVP-winning
defenseman Cale Makar said
about the Avalanche’s jour-
ney. “I’ve been here only three
years. A couple of tough exits
in the playoffs. It was just all
leading up to this.”
It’s the first title for the Avs’
core group led by MacKinnon,
captain Gabriel Landeskog,
Mikko Rantanen and Makar,
and it follows several early
postseason exits — in the sec-
ond round each of the past
three seasons and the first
round in 2018. The 2016-17
team was the worst in hockey,
finishing with just 48 points.
“It’s hard to describe,” said
MacKinnon, who led the way
in the clincher by blocking
shots and taking big hits in ad-
dition to his offensive produc-
tion. “Some tough years mixed
in there, but it’s all over now.
We never stopped believing.”
With a mix of speed, high-
end talent and the experience
gained from those defeats,
Colorado broke through this
time — earning every bit of
the championship by knock-
ing off a deep and gritty team
that hoisted the Cup the past
two years.
“To beat them is proba-
bly a little more satisfying, to
be honest, because they are
champions,” said veteran for-
ward Andrew Cogliano, who
hoisted the Cup for the first
time at age 35. “They know
how to win. And, ultimately,
when you can beat the cham-
pions, you know you really
earned it.”
Like the Avalanche fully ex-
pected, it wasn’t easy.
An early turnover by Makar
led to an easy goal by Steven
Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times-TNS
Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Erik Cernak (81) defends the net
and Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy (88) from
Colorado Avalanche center Darren Helm (43) during the first period
of the game between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Colorado
Avalanche for Game 6 of the Stanley Cup final on Sunday,in Amalie
Arena in Tampa.
Stamkos, putting Colorado
in a hole and several more
bumps and bruises followed.
The Avalanche tied it when
MacKinnon beat 2021 play-
off MVP Andrei Vasilevskiy
with a near-perfect shot and
went ahead on another big
goal by trade deadline acqui-
sition Artturi Lehkonen. They
locked things down by hold-
ing on to the puck and held
Tampa Bay without a shot on
Darcy Kuemper until midway
through the third period.
When the Lightning finally
did, he was there. Brought
in from Arizona in a trade
last summer to shore up the
sport’s most important posi-
tion, Kuemper was solid again
and made his most important
save with under seven minutes
left when he slid over to deny
star Nikita Kucherov.
His teammates finished the
job and Colorado improved
to 9-1 on the road this post-
season.
Much like the Lightning
went all in multiple times by
trading high draft picks and
prospects to load up for the
best chance to win the Cup,
Avalanche general manager
Joe Sakic was not afraid to
ante up in March to acquire
Lehkonen, defenseman Josh
Manson and Cogliano. They
became the perfect comple-
ment to Colorado’s core that
had showed plenty of playoff
promise but until now hadn’t
produced a championship.
Sakic, who captained Col-
orado’s first two title-winning
teams in 1996 and 2001, used
a familiar recipe to get his
team over the hump. Much
like Pierre Lacroix, the archi-
tect of those Avalanche teams
that had so much success af-
ter the organization moved to
Denver, Sakic prioritized skill,
speed and versatility.
That speed overwhelmed ev-
ery opponent on the way to the
final, from an opening sweep
of Nashville through a hard-
fought, six-game series against
St. Louis and another sweep of
Edmonton. It was a different
challenge against Tampa Bay,
when the Avalanche needed to
absorb counter-punches from
the back-to-back champs to
close it out.
Tampa Bay ended up two
victories short of becoming
the NHL’s first three-peat
champion since the early
1980s New York Islanders dy-
nasty.
“It stings just as much as the
first time,” Stamkos said, refer-
ring to the Lightning’s loss to
Chicago in the 2015 final.
Before the series, Makar
said he and his teammates
were trying to end a dynasty
and begin a legacy. That leg-
acy finally involves a cham-
pionship, thanks in large part
to steady coach Jared Bednar,
who in his sixth season found
a way to focus his team on the
mission at hand from the start
of training camp.
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OMAHA, Neb. — The last
team to get into the NCAA
baseball tournament was the
last team standing.
Mississippi scored twice on
wild pitches in a three-run
eighth inning and the Rebels
won their first national base-
ball title, sweeping Oklahoma
in the College World Series
finals with a 4-2 victory Sun-
day, June 26.
The Rebels (42-23) be-
came the eighth national
champion since 2009 to
come out of the Southeast-
ern Conference and third
straight, and the trophy will
stay in the Magnolia State
for another year. Mississippi
State won last year.
“There is so much to be
said for how much we over-
came this year, how much
we had to fight through,
how much we had to pick
each other up and never let
ourselves get down,” team
captain Tim Elko said. “The
story of our season is going
to be told for year and years
to come.”
Ole Miss benefited from a
runner-interference call that
took a run away from Okla-
homa (45-24) in the sixth
inning. The Rebels also over-
came a spectacular pitching
performance by Cade Hor-
ton, who set a CWS finals re-
cord with 13 strikeouts.
Brandon Johnson struck
out the side in a 1-2-3 ninth
inning to set off a celebra-
tion on the field and in the
stands where the majority of
the 25,972 were Rebels fans
dressed in Ole Miss pow-
der blue. Catcher Hayden
Dunhurst ran to the mound
to embrace and then tackle
Johnson after Sebastian Or-
duno swung and missed on
the final pitch.
It was an improbable jour-
ney for the Rebels and 22nd-
year coach Mike Bianco, who
was under fire when his team
sat at 22-17 overall and 7-14
in SEC play on May 1.
“I think they’ve showed a
lot of people that you can fall
down, you can stumble and
you can fail, but that doesn’t
mean you’re a failure,” Bi-
anco said. “If you continue
to work hard, you continue
to push and you continue to
believe, you can accomplish
anything. That’s not some
poster or some tweet to moti-
vate you. We’ve all heard that.
These guys have lived that
this season.”
Ole Miss beat out North
Carolina State for the final
at-large bid and had to go on
the road for regionals and
super regionals. The Rebels
finished the season on a 20-6
run, including 10-1 in the na-
tional tournament.
Their only loss at the
CWS was 3-2 to Arkansas
on Wednesday, June 22. The
next day, Dylan DeLucia
pitched a four-hit shutout
to beat the Razorbacks and
send the Rebels to the finals.
DeLucia was named CWS
Most Outstanding Player af-
ter allowing one earned run,
striking out 17 and walking
none in 16 2/3 innings.
Ole Miss, which won the
CWS finals opener 10-3,
was down 2-1 going into the
eighth inning Sunday. Tre-
vin Michael relieved Hor-
ton with one out, and Jacob
Gonzalez singled through
the right side to drive in the
tying run.
“Kind of knew we were go-
ing to start the scoring in the
eighth or ninth,” said Gonza-
lez, 3 for 23 in the CWS be-
fore singling twice and hom-
ering Sunday. “That’s how we
are. We’re going to put the
pressure on. We’re not going
to strike out and sit down.
Luckily, I got a hit and I fi-
nally got to help the team out
this week.”
MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER
Penalty kick helps Timbers to win
PORTLAND (AP) — Se-
bastián Blanco converted
a tiebreaking penalty kick
in first-half stoppage time
just after 19-year-old goal-
keeper Abraham Rodriguez
made his Major League Soc-
cer debut in place of injured
William Yarbrough, and the
Portland Timbers beat the
Colorado Rapids 3-0 on Sat-
urday night, June 25.
Yarbrough, a 33-year-old
who has made three inter-
national appearances for the
U.S., sustained a concussion
in a collision with Santiago
Moreno at the top of the pen-
alty area in the first minute of
stoppage time.
Referee Rosendo Mendoza
awarded the penalty kick,
and after a lengthy delay, Ro-
driguez entered in the eighth
minute of stoppage time. The
goalkeeper dived left while
Blanco put the penalty kick
the other way for his third
goal of the MLS season.
“I was a little nervous, but
ready for that situation,” said
Rodriguez, signed by the Rapids
in 2020 as a homegrown player
from Thornton, Colorado.
Jaroslaw Niezgoda scored
a pair of second-half goals
for Portland (4-6-7), which
ended a six-game regu-
lar-season winless steak
against Colorado.
Niezgoda, who has five
goals this season, scored off
passes from Bill Tuiloma in
the 54th minute and Eryk
Williamson in the 62nd.
Colorado (5-7-4) and Port-
land both took 19 shots, but
the Timbers had a 7-5 edge
in shots on goal.
Aljaz Ivacic had four saves
for Portland.
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