Knights need to find way to slow down high-flying Ducks

LAS VEGAS — For the Vegas Golden Knights, goaltending is not a problem as they try to navigate their way through the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

You know what is a problem? The overall speed of the Anaheim Ducks.

And if the Knights don’t figure a way to slow down the Ducks, this series won’t last very long.

The Ducks got right back in this series, winning 3-1 Wednesday at T-Mobile Arena and evening the best-of-seven series at a game apiece. And they did it with quickness exiting their own end and getting the puck moving to where the Vegas defense found itself out of position and leaving Carter Hart defenseless.

Game 3 will be Friday night at the Honda Center where Anaheim now enjoys the home-ice advantage. It’s up to John Tortorella to figure this out and come up with a solution.

“It’s a long series,” he said. “We’re always concerned as coaches no matter what. Win or lose. We still have some things to work on.”

Things like not letting Anaheim exit their end of the ice as easily as it has done the first two games of the series. Like getting the offense to forecheck harder and finish plays when they have possession. slot-chickenroad.org

And there’s staying out of the penalty box. There were the myriad penalties taken by the Golden Knights, including three in the offensive zone — a no-no under any circumstances but especially in the playoffs. And while the Ducks once again failed to cash in, including a 5-on-3 situation that was an extended power play while Jack Eichel served a double-minor for high sticking, penalties disrupt the normal flow of things when it comes to rolling out your lines.

“Outstanding,” Tortorella said of the job his penalty killers performed as the Ducks went 0-for-5 with the man advantage. “It screws us up when we wanted to get a good start and when you have guys in the box, it affects things as you try to start the first period. But the penalty kill was fantastic.”

Mark Stone, who scored the Knights’ goal with 5.6 seconds remaining on a late power play, said having a constant parade to the box is not good hockey.

“It doesn’t help when you kill the first eight to 10 minutes of the game,” he said. “You lose some guys in the first period. We got the kills when we needed them. We got it done but we couldn’t get back in the saddle. We couldn’t get the sustained pressure on them.”

Hart was at his sharpest when his team needed him. He is in a rhythm right now which comes with having start eight straight playoff games. You figure things out and you find a groove.

But his defensemen were caught out of position more than once though the Ducks did cash in after Beckett Sennecke was left unattended in front while Kaedan Korczak and Ben Hutton were doing who-knows-what in their end of the ice and the talented young right wing gave Anaheim a 1-0 lead 11:23 into the second period.

And it was more of the same 6:36 into the third when Noah Hanifin was out of position and no one bothered to pick up Leo Carlsson, who was by his lonesome in front of Hart. A flick of the stick and it was 2-0 Anaheim.

And while we’ve grown accustomed to Vegas mounting third-period rallies all season, such was not going to be the case in Game 2. The Ducks were the faster, smarter, more aggressive team. An empty net goal from Jansen Harkins, a last-minute addition to the lineup made it 3-0 with 3:30 to play and sealed Game 2 for Anaheim.

The Ducks carried the play for a good portion of the night and perhaps Tortorella needs to rethink his decision to have Reilly Smith sit in favor of William Karlsson or Tomas Hertl or Keegan Kolesar, the latter two who have struggled mightily in the postseason.

“I felt better today,“ Karlsson said as he returns from the lower body injury that sidelined him from Nov. 8 until he was in the lineup Monday for the Knights’ Game 1 win. “So it’s a step forward. I’m not cramping, so it’s good.”

Tortorella did mix things up as his team trailed, moving Stone back up to the top line with Jack Eichel and Ivan Barbashev while dropping Pavel Dorofeyev down to Hertl’s line, a move that didn’t quite pay off.

“I think we need to have the puck more in their end,” Tortorella said. “A lot of times we were one-and-done. We need to create more pressure there and it will slow down their attack.”

Karlsson said: “We probably need to pressure them more in their end. We have to forecheck more.”

In some ways, we’re seeing almost a carbon copy of the first round vs. Utah. The Mammoth showed up in Game 2, evened the series and were very much in it. Except Hart is sharper in round 2 and Lukas Dostal, Anaheim’s goalie, is better than Karel Vejmelka was for Utah.

But each series crafts its own identity. For Tortorella, Utah is in his rear-view mirror. His focus is where it needs to be: on Anaheim

“I need to look at the tape,” he said as he pondered what happened in Game 2 Wednesday. “I thought there were some really good minutes with the puck for us, some minutes where we’re just not there.

“But that’s why you play a series. I have full trust we’re going to find our way and play our best game. We’ll find our way and get there.”

The Utah Royals are in the midst of their best ever start in club history and have just won their fifth straight match, 2-0 over Houston Dash.

In the 88th minute, midfielder and Utah native Courtney Brown clinched the result with a goal.

“It was super special. Obviously, I’m from Utah. It’s super awesome to come and score for my hometown club, it was a really special moment for me.”

With the win, the Utah Royals have moved to second in the NWSL table, only three points behind leaders, Portland Thorns.

Arizona’s cursed season has added one more injury-caused expletive.

Coach Chip Hale announced Tuesday night that sophomore pitcher Smith Bailey is done for the remainder of the season The right-hander is dealing with “soft tissue stuff” in his throwing shoulder that caused him to leave his last start Saturday at Kansas after two innings, making him the 10^th player lost to an injury before or during the 2026 season.

“Everything’s checked out so far, all the images they’ve done looked good,” Hale said after Arizona’s 8-6 win over New Mexico State at Hi Corbett Field, which snapped a 6-game losing streak. “There’s no damage in any of the joints or any of the all the muscles. So it’s just a matter of rehabbing it. But the problem is, once you shut a guy down to get him back going again … now you’re talking about every day is probably two days to get to get back, so it’s going to be at least a week before he picked up a ball.”

Arizona (17-30, 7-17 Big 12) has six games remaining in the regular season, and if it finishes in the top 12 in the Big 12 Conference—it’s currently tied for that last spot—it would play in the conference tournament May 19-23 in Surprise. Bailey likely wouldn’t have been able to return until June at the earliest, and the only way the Wildcats would be playing then is if they won the Big 12 tourney to earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Bailey went 3-4 with a 4.67 ERA in 12 starts this season, striking out 65 batters in 61.2 innings including a career-high 15 against Kansas State on April 18. That earned him conference and NCBWA Pitcher of the Week honors, but in his next start Bailey allowed five runs in 4.1 innings and then gave up one run over two at Kansas before coming out.

At the time Hale said Bailey “wasn’t feeling great,” language he had used previously when freshman righty Jack Lafflam exited a start on March 31 after two innings and missed four weeks of action. Lafflam started Tuesday and threw four scoreless frames, the longest outing of his career, and had a career-best five strikeouts.

In 2025, Bailey was a Freshman All-American who started 18 games including clinching wins in the Big 12 tourney, Eugene Regional and Chapel Hill Super Regional to send the UA to the College World Series.

Bailey is the fifth pitcher the UA has lost for the season this spring, a list that began for games started when senior closer Tony Pluta underwent elbow surgery. Relievers JT Drake, Mason Russell and Nolan Straneiro are also shut down.

On the position side the Wildcats have had three players suffer season-ending shoulder injuries including left fielder Easton Breyfogle and second baseman Tyler Bickers, while two junior college transfer outfielders (Sean Barta and Chaz McNellis) have yet to play after getting hurt in the preseason.

Another pitcher, Benton Hickman, had to leave his outing Tuesday after two batters with what Hale described as pain in his bicep. The freshman righty could be seen shaking his arm out after a few pitches before getting pulled.

With Bailey done, Hale said the likely plan for this weekend is to keep righty Owen Kramkowski on Friday but move lefty Luc Fladda up to Saturday. The Sunday slot would likely go to righty Collin McKinney, who began the season in that role but has since become a bulk reliever that has a 1.93 ERA in Big 12 games and picked up his first career save against NMSU.

Recapping Tuesday’s win

Arizona began its final homestand of the regular season by jumping out to an 8-1 lead against NMSU and then holding on for dear life. The Aggies scored five times in the top of the 9^th before McKinney closed it out with a strikeout and foul pop fly.

Catcher Beau Sylvester had the UA’s first multi-home run game of the season, hitting a 2-run blast in the 3^rd inning and a solo shot in the 7^th. Cash Brennan had a pair of RBI singles and Nate Novitske was 3 for 5.

Through storms, snow, rain and sunshine, thousands of teenagers have been training over several months in the lead up to the Ten Tors Challenge 2026.

Ten Tors director Col Jim Bird said many people hold the event "close to their heart" and stressed the importance of training months in advance.

Running from 8 May to 10 May, the Dartmoor event in Devon tests thousands of 14 to 19-year-old's navigational skills, life skills and most importantly, their resilience.

Col Bird, who has only been in the role for a couple of months, said the weather on the moor was one of the biggest challenges making it an "arduous event".

Plymouth College student Max, 14, is preparing for the 45-mile route and said the biggest challenge was building up to the distance.

He completed the 35-mile route last year for a "bit of fun" with his friends and said he learnt key skills he had not forgotten.

He said this year's training was "a lot more difficult".

"The weather has been cold and wet and damp which is not fun when you're camping," he said.

To keep morale up during training, he said his team made jokes.

"They're my best friends from school so it's easy to talk to them and mess about while walking at the same time."

The Plymouth College teams use a bunkhouse in Princetown for their Dartmoor training.

Thousands of teenagers in teams of six will navigate routes of either 35, 45 or 55 miles, depending on their age, over the Northern half of Dartmoor visiting 10 nominated tors, also known as checkpoints, in less than two days.

Organisers said its Jubilee Challenge, first introduced in 1996, was closer to Okehampton camp and designed for young people aged between 14 and 21with a range of challenging conditions who complete one of the several routes suited to their ability.

The Granite Challenge, formerly known as the Jubilee Challenge Plus, is aimed at young adults with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) who are capable of an overnight stay but may find the Ten Tors Challenge too inaccessible due to their respective SEND.

Organisers said it provided an "appropriately arduous challenge across difficult terrain and in very changeable weather over at least 18km (11.1m), including an overnight camp".

440 teams will arrive at Okehampton camp on the Friday to pitch tents, make their final checks and prepare themselves for the adventure.

First-timer Britta is training for the 35-mile challenge and said she felt nervous and excited because she had "never done anything like this before".

She said: "At first it was really difficult and now I've got used to it so I've got a bit faster."

Talking about one of the training sessions, she added: "When it was really rainy and I didn't have a bag cover and my bag got really wet and our tents got really wet.

"Walking up all the big tors with the really wet and heavy stuff is really tiring.

"It's really difficult but it's really fun."

Ten Tors organiser Lieutenant Tim Gilbert, who has been involved in the event for about seven years, said the challenge was all about teamwork and rising to the challenge.

He said it also offered a "really good lesson and experience" for the young participants as they do it on their own, on the moor and push themselves hour after hour.

"You can't develop that in the classroom or anywhere else," Gilbert said.

He said teams needed to be prepared for whatever the weather was going to be, which is unpredictable on Dartmoor.

Gilbert said: "I've been out here in August and I've seen sleet, so we do need them to be ready for that bad weather, that heavy rain, maybe even a snow flurry or the heat so by training in the winter they would have experienced some of that so they'll be used to the worst of it for definite.

"I think preparation is the main thing.

"If you turn up and your kit isn't in good order, then you're going to have a really difficult weekend and it's going to affect your chances of finishing.

"If you go through your kit and make sure it's all packed properly, you've got the right items, the right food and you're not bringing anything unnecessary, because that'll add weight and slow you down, then you'll be in the right position to do well at Ten Tors and enjoy it as well."

Head of outdoor education at the college, Olly Rees, who has been training groups for 13 years, said the training involved "a lot of days on Dartmoor" as well as a coast path walk, which all teams are required to do ahead of any Ten Tors Challenge.

Rees said it was "pretty cool" seeing what new participants achieve through the training from not being able to read a map to navigating around a route and looking after themselves for a day and a half.

Col Bird said organising the event started as soon as last year's finished.

"There's a team that's permanently assigned to Ten Tors planning who are liaising with all the agencies and various organisations that support the event, and there are a lot.

"It takes a lot of time to set the conditions for success.

"We will start planning for Ten Tors 2027 no sooner than we've presented the medals this year."

St Ives Academy leader Thomas Studd said six students, two girls and four boys, had been training for the Jubilee Challenge

It was Studd's first time leading a Ten Tors Challenge team in 2025 and the reason for coming back was because it was one of the "most incredible things" he had done in his 20 years of teaching.

"I just thought it was a fantastic event, the scale of it was impressive.

"It's wonderful to see a small group of children and see them realise what they can do, how they can cope with difficult times, manage blistering feet, cold weather, cooking in the cold and making it something they want to do again."

He said this year's group had all different "skills, interests, energy levels and personalities".

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He said a four and a half hour coastal training in west Cornwall in March went well, but there was still room for improvement.

"I thought the boys would have just charged on ahead to show how heroic they were but they didn't," Studd said.

"They paused, stopped at all the right times and listened at all the right times to relay information up and down the line.

"They all worked well... we have a good group."

He hopes to run both a Jubilee Challenge and Ten Tors Challenge group next year.

Col Bird added: "Good luck with the last parts of your training and kit preparation and the very best of luck for the day."

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More on this story

• Teamwork and adrenaline: How teens tackle Ten Tors

Related internet links

• Ten Tors Challenge

Guernsey FC manager Tony Vance has said he is "dumbfounded" by a decision to strip his side of home advantage in their play-off final.

The Green Lions had been due to host Peacehaven and Telscombe in the Southern Combination Premier Division play-off final on Sunday, 10 May.

But with the island having its annual Liberation Day celebrations that weekend there have been difficulties in arranging travel for the game.

It has led to the Southern Combination Football League rearranging the game for either Tuesday 12 or Wednesday, 13 May on the English mainland - a decision which Guernsey FC say they are considering lodging an appeal against.

"I think dumbfounded is an understatement," Vance told BBC Radio Guernsey about his feelings when he heard the news.

"The joy and excitement of having a home play-off, which we'd earned, and then suddenly being given a bombshell.

"Those are the rules - whoever finishes higher gets the home play-off.

"We will do anything we can to help people get over - it is logically difficult, particularly on a Liberation Day weekend, so we were prepared to do that and then before we even got the chance we were given the bombshell that we were no longer having the game."

• Guernsey FC stripped of home advantage in play-offs
• Fazakerley double helps Guernsey FC reach play-off final

'What's happened isn't right'

Guernsey earned the right to host the final as they finished the season in third place, two places higher than Peacehaven.

The islanders beat Horsham YM 3-0 in the play-off semi-final on Saturday afternoon while Peacehaven were 1-0 winners at second-placed Haywards Heath Town that evening.

Guernsey are hoping to be promoted back to the eighth tier of English football at the first attempt, after being relegated from the Isthmian League last season.

When approached by the BBC, the Southern Counties Football League said they would not comment on the situation.

But Vance says home advantage at Victoria Park would have been a big advantage for his side.

"What it can do to the home team is huge in terms of you're in a comfortable surrounding, you know the pitch, you know everything about it, the dressing room, the whole matchday experience, that can't be underestimated," he added.

"In addition to that, when the noise is like it is - and I've played in games and coached in games when you're on the other side of it when the noise is just unbelievable - it can really have an effect on you.

"Since we started this campaign we've strived to get a home play-off, so this decision has been made within 24 hours after an entire season of effort from the players, people who book the travel, everyone and anyone around the football club, and it could be taken away from us and we're extremely disappointed and frustrated.

"What's happened isn't right."

Related internet links

• Guernsey FC