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Monday, 7 April 2025
‘An honour to compete against you’: NHL teams celebrate Alex Ovechkin’s historic goal
Sunday was a day to celebrate in the NHL.
With Alex Ovechkin‘s record-breaking goal against the New York Islanders, former teammates, longtime rivals and legends of the game took the chance to honour hockey’s new goal king.
The tributes were spread through social media posts from teams across the NHL.
Some of the highlights included a message from Sidney Crosby, the Sedin twins sharing their congrats and a trip down memory lane with Martin Brodeur.
While fans across hockey continue to pay their respects to Ovechkin’s feat, here is a roundup of the posts NHL teams are sending to the Washington Capitals great.
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Pirates to restore Roberto Clemente sign at PNC Park after Hall of Famer’s family expresses anger
PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Pirates have reversed course after angering the family of the late Roberto Clemente by removing a sign honoring the franchise icon on the right-field wall at PNC Park.
The sign featured Clemente’s name and his No. 21. Replacing it was an advertisement for Surfside, an alcoholic drink.
However, the Clemente sign will be restored before Monday night’s game against the St. Louis Cardinals, according to Pirates president Travis Williams.
Williams took responsibility for the controversy on Sunday.
“We did not intend to disrespect the legacy of Roberto Clemente by adding the advertisement to the pad in right field,” Williams said in a statement. “When we added the advertisement to the pad, it was an oversight not to keep the No. 21 logo. This is ultimately on me, not anyone else in the organization. It was an honest mistake.
“We want to make sure that the Clemente family understands that we intended no disrespect to their father. We look forward to continuing our relationship with the Clemente family and apologize to them and our fans for our honest mistake.”
The right-field wall at PNC Park stands 21 feet high in honor of Clemente.
The Pirates said in a statement that the sign, which had been on the wall since 2022, was meant to be a temporary adornment. However, Roberto Clemente Jr. expressed his unhappiness on Sunday in a statement.
“This change was made without any communication or consultation with our family,” the statement said. “While we appreciate that the Pirates acknowledged their failure to inform us, it reveals a broader issue: a lack of meaningful collaboration between the organization and on matters that are deeply personal and historically significant to us and the fans.
“The outpouring of support from fans in Pittsburgh and across the country has been overwhelming and deeply appreciated. It is clear that our father’s legacy continues to inspire and unite people, not only for his achievements on the field, but for the integrity and compassion he demonstrated off of it.”
Clemente spent his entire career with the Pirates from 1955-72. He played in 15 All-Star Games while winning 12 Gold Glove awards, four batting titles and the 1966 National League MVP.
Clemente died in a plane crash off the coast of San Juan in his native Puerto Rico on New Year’s Eve in 1972 while attempting to deliver supplies to earthquake-ravaged Nicaragua. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame the following summer.
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Sagstrom beats Coughlin 1-up in T-Mobile Match Play to end 5-year drought
NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Madelene Sagstrom ended more than a five-year LPGA Tour victory drought, overcoming the loss of a four-hole lead at difficult Shadow Creek in a 1-up victory over Lauren Coughlin on Sunday in the T-Mobile Match Play final.
Sagstrom took the lead for good with a par at the par-5 16th hole. Coughlin made a double bogey on the hole.
Perhaps it was a fitting when the world’s top-ranked players fell one after another at the picturesque but demanding course that a ranked 67th claimed the US$300,000 winner’s share. The Swede’s other win came in 2020 at the Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio.
The final match reached the 18th green for the first time in the five-year-old event.
In a battle of 32-year-olds, Sagstrom had a four-hole lead after just six holes when Coughlin bogeyed No. 2 and the Swede rolled off three consecutive birdies beginning at No. 4. But then the match changed, with a suddenly shaky Sagstrom missing off the tee and failing to navigate the lightning-quick greens that took even well-struck approach shots into the rough.
Couglin claimed five of the next six holes to take the lead. Though she did her part with a pair of birdies, Coughlin also didn’t have to do anything spectacular as Sagstrom carded three bogeys and two doubles over that stretch.
Then Coughlin bogeyed the par-3 13th, and Sagstrom made par to pull back even, which is where the match stood until the 16th.
Both players failed to stay out of the rough, with Coughlin even twice chipping from about the same spot after the ball rolled back on her. Coughlin finally conceded the hole after her 30-foot putt went well past and the double bogey put Sagstrom back in the lead.
Coughlin, ranked 17th, has been a tough out all tournament. She played in at least 18 holes in every match, a total of 127 compared to 72 for a traditional stroke-play tournament. Coughlin was 3-down in her previous two matches before rallying to win, including a 1-up victory over Ariya Jutanugarn in the semifinals Sunday morning.
Sagstrom has been pushed to the limits as well.
She survived a 19-hole round-of-16 match against Carlota Ciganda on Saturday and then had to wait more than two hours as Celine Boutier and Ashleigh Buhai went at it over 28 holes. Then it became another marathon of a match as Sagstrom and Boutier were tied through 17 as darkness set in. The match was suspended, and Sagstrom finished up early Sunday morning with a 19th-hole quarterfinals victory.
Sagstrom then took out 12th-ranked Angel Yin 4 and 2 in the semifinals.
Coughlin was seeking her first victory since the Scottish Open in August. The Charlottesville, Va., resident has two career victories, both last year.
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Sunday, 6 April 2025
Blue Jays on Sportsnet: Toronto vs. New York Mets
Bowden Francis takes the hill as the Toronto Blue Jays look to win the finale of a three-game series in New York against the Mets.
Live coverage on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ begins at 1:40 p.m. ET / 10:40 p.m. PT, or follow every play with our live tracker.
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Canada’s Eliot Grondin closes snowboard cross season with gold
Canada’s Eliot Grondin struck World Cup gold in men’s snowboard cross to wrap up the season at Mont-Sainte-Anne on Sunday.
France’s Aidan Chollet and Loan Bozzolo grabbed silver and bronze, respectively.
Grondin, from Sainte-Marie, Que., won silver in Saturday’s final to clinch his second consecutive Crystal Globe, the overall season title.
He needed a top-three finish in Saturday’s final to secure the Crystal Globe.
Grondin won three gold, three silver and a bronze in World Cup events this season.
The 23-year-old also won world championship gold on March 28 in Switzerland.
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Saturday, 5 April 2025
Canadian surfer finishes ninth in El Salvador after close round-of-16 battle
Canadian Erin Brooks finished ninth at the Surf City El Salvador Pro on Saturday after being edged out by American Bella Kenworthy in a tight round-of-16 battle.
It was a battle of teenage rookies on the World Surf League’s elite Championship Tour.
Brooks is 17 while Kenworthy, a former elite skateboarder whose father is well-known surf photographer Jason Kenworthy, is 18.
It was a back-and-forth heat, with both surfers looking to put together the highest-scoring pair of waves. A 7.00 moved Brooks ahead with a combined 11.77 score but Kenworthy answered with a 5.83 that, combined with an earlier score of 6.33, put her in the lead at 12.16.
Brooks then ran out of time to catch her. Kenworthy moved on to face American Gabriela Bryan in quarterfinal action.
The event is the fourth stop of the season on the Championship Tour.
Brooks came to El Salvador sixth in the standings after finishing third last time out at the MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal in March, fifth at the Surf Abu Dhabi Pro and ninth in the season-opening Lexus Pipe Pro in Hawaii.
Brooks became the first Canadian to earn full-time status on the Championship Tour by finishing in the top five of the second-tier Challenger Series last year. She won in her only previous appearance on the Championship Tour as a wild card, defeating Olympic silver medallist Tatiana Weston-Webb of Brazil last August in the final of the Fiji Pro.
After El Salvador, the tour shifts to Australia (for three straight events), the United States, Brazil, South Africa and Tahiti before closing with the WSL Finals in Fiji from Aug. 27 to Sept. 4.
The season opened with 18 competitors on the women’s side — the top 10 finishers from the 2024 Championship Tour, the top five from the 2024 Challenger Series, two WSL season wild cards and one event wild card. The field will be cut to 12 after seven events and then five for the season-ending WSL Finals.
The 36-competitor men’s field will be reduced to 24 at the midseason cut and then five ahead of Fiji.
The winning prize money ranges from $80,000 (all figures in U.S dollars) in the season opener to $100,000 after the midseason cut and $200,000 for the WSL Finals.
Brooks started surfing at nine when her family moved to Hawaii from Texas. She has Canadian ties through her American-born father Jeff, who is a dual American-Canadian citizen, and her grandfather who was born and raised in Montreal
Brooks gained her Canadian citizenship last year after a lengthy legal battle that limited her Olympic qualifying opportunities to the ISA World Surfing Games last March in Puerto Rico. Brooks, whose family also has a home in Tofino, B.C., fell short and had to watch the Olympic surfing competition in Tahiti from afar.
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The Detroit Lions are signing veteran tight end Zach Ertz ahead of Sunday’s NFC Championship game against the San Francisco 49ers, accordin...
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