Chennaiyin blast Kerala to keep last four hopes alive

Chhangte, Valskis and Crivellaro star NHL Results/Standings

KUWAIT CITY, Feb 2: The ball found the back of the net nine times at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi, but six of those were for a comfortably dominant Chennaiyin FC side as the visitors beat Kerala Blasters 6-3 on Saturday.

Chennaiyin was aided by braces from Lallianzuala Chhangte, Nerijus Valskis and Rafael Crivellaro. However, one won’t be wrong in crediting their rampage today to the absentee Blasters’ defense instead.

Skipper and striker Bartholomew Ogbeche and defender Gianni Zuiverloon were the only bright spots in an otherwise shambolic display of the Blasters’ on home turf.

Ogbeche starred with a brilliant hattrick, the first of this season and the 22nd in the League’s history to try and bring his side back into the game. However, abysmal defending from the home side shot it in the foot as it dropped to its seventh loss of the season, effectively ending hopes of breaking into the top four and ending its campaign in this edition of the League.

For Blasters keeper T.P. Rehenesh it was a nightmare, all due to a tendency to come way off his line, leaving the goal unmanned. While that cost him at a few points through the night, the biggest howler of the night had to be the opener of the tie.

Rafael Crivellaro’s goal for Chennaiyin FC may as well have Rehenesh registered for the assist. In the 39th minute, in an attempt to clear the ball, Rehenesh passed it straight down to Crivellaro who made no mistake from there on to get his side up on the scoreboard.

Coach Eelco Schattorie famously called TP his first choice keeper but perhaps it’s time for the Blasters to mix things up and use the services of

Crivellaro starred with a brace to

keep Chennaiyin hopes alive.

Bilal Khan for a bit.

While the aforementioned instance was his one true-blue error, the pressure got to the keeper, evident in his shaky keeping thereon.

Rehenesh should not shoulder the blame for the night. Kerala’s defense was criminally porous, with Zuiverloon being the only one taking the brunt of Chennaiyin’s arsenal. He put his body on the line more than once to stop a bulldozing Crivellaro. One wonders how steep the difference between the sides would have been if not for the Dutchman.

Kerala Blasters has, throughout the course of this season, relied unhealthily on Ogbeche for its scoring requirements. Rafael Messi Bouli was signed on to bolster the arsenal but on the field, it’s almost always Ogbeche pulling the team out of the ditch when things go downhill.

However, the Nigerian could not successfully pull off one of his rescue acts again, despite coming close. A brilliant hat-trick saw sublime shots from the skipper as he tore through a Chennaiyin lineup to try and give his side a fighting chance. At the post match press conference, Ogbeche’s tone was sombre. “We still have a thousand reasons to end this season strongly. We have three games left and we owe to our fans to win, to give them something to cheer for.”

Chhangte and Crivellaro were Chennaiyin’s lucky charms of the night. The Indian national has always had great pace and that came in handy as he registered a brace to his name in Kochi.

Crivellaro was clinical playing that central midfielder role to perfection on Saturday. Not only did he manage two goals of his own, but he also set up Valskis in the first half.

He also dropped back to defensive formations as and when required, especially in the second half. That no one could keep Ogbeche quiet was more a comment on the striker’s brilliance than Chennaiyin’s defense.

Chennaiyin FC scored it’s 150th goal in its 100th game in the League against an opposition playing its 50th game at home. Coach Owen Coyle promised the Men in Yellow a shot at the playoffs and it certainly looks like the Scott won’t be settling for anything less than that.

CALGARY, Alberta, Feb 2, (AP): Connor McDavid scored twice to lead the Edmonton Oilers to an 8-3 victory over the Calgary Flames.

Kailer Yamamoto had a goal and an assist for the Oilers, who have won two straight games since losing 4-3 in a shootout at home to the Flames on Wednesday.

Zack Kassian, Ryan NugentHopkins, Caleb Jones, Sam Gagner and Gaetan Haas also scored. Leon Draisaitl had four assists.

Oilers goalie Mike Smith made 15 saves and recorded the win even though he was ejected from the game with 24 seconds left in the second period for a secondary fight with Flames netminder Cam Talbot.

Mikko Koskinen played the final 20:24 of the game in net for the Oilers and stopped all eight shots he faced.

Buddy Robinson, Elias Lindholm and Matthew Tkachuk scored for the Flames. Mark Giordano had two assists.

Sabres 2, Blue Jackets 1, OT In Buffalo, New York, Jack Eichel scored 36 seconds into overtime, and Buffalo stopped Columbus’ six-game win streak.

Eichel controlled the puck in making his way up the ice from his own zone. He then circled from the left side to the right circle and snapped a shot past Matiss Kivlenieks.

Canadiens 4, Panthers 0 In Montreal, Jeff Petry had four assists, Carey Price made 29 saves and Montreal snapped Florida’s six-game win streak.

Nick Suzuki, Artturi Lehkonen, Tomas Tatar and Brendan Gallagher scored for the Canadiens, who improved to 6-2-0 in their last eight games.

Canucks 4, Islanders 3, OT In New York, Quinn Hughes scored twice, including his eighth of the season 42 seconds into overtime, and the Canucks earned their fifth consecutive victory.

J.T. Miller and Tim Schaller also scored for Vancouver, and Jacob Markstrom had 34 saves. The Pacific Division-leading Canucks improved to 14-3-0 since Dec 19.

Jets 5, Blues 2 In Winnepeg, Manitoba, Jack Roslovic had two goals and an assist to lead Winnipeg over St. Louis.

The Jets snapped a five-game losing streak and are 12-12-2 at home this season.

Connor Hellebuyck was outstanding in net for the Jets, stopping 38 shots. Jordan Binnington made 28 saves for the Central Division-leading Blues.

Rangers 1, Red Wings 0 In Detroit, Henrik Lundqvist made 33 saves for his first shutout of the season and Mika Zibanejad scored in the first period, giving the Rangers a win over Detroit.

The Rangers also beat Detroit at

Toronto Maple Leafs centre Auston Matthews (34) and Ottawa Senators right wing Connor Brown (28) battle for

the puck during second period NHL hockey action in Toronto, on Feb 1. (AP)

GEELONG, Australia, Feb 2 (AP): Belgium veteran Dries Devenyns out-finished Russia’s Pavel Sivakov

Sunday to win the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road cycle race Sunday, upstaging the star sprinters local favorites.

home on Friday night and have won six of nine games.

Detroit has lost eight straight games for the third time this season and has at least 15 fewer points than the rest of the league.

Stars 3, Devils 2, OT In Newark, N.J., Joe Pavelski scored 1:39 into overtime to lift Dallas over New Jersey.

Mattias Janmark broke into the Devils zone and took the initial shot, and Pavelski knocked the rebound past goalie Louis Domingue.

Maple Leafs 2, Senators 1, OT In Toronto, Mitch Marner scored on a power play at 3:54 of overtime, leading Toronto over Ottawa.

Jason Spezza scored in regulation for Toronto, which got 24 saves from Michael Hutchinson.

Flyers 6, Avalanche 3 In Philadelphia, Kevin Hayes and Joel Farabee scored two goals each and seldom-used reserve goaltender Alex Lyon made 28 saves to earn his first win in nearly two years as Philadelphia beat Colorado.

Sean Couturier assisted on three of the Flyers goals, including when he capitalized on a sloppy Colorado turnover eight minutes into the third period, stole a pass, and fed Farabee for a goal that would eventually count as the winner, putting the Flyers up 4-2.

The 38-year-old riding for the Deceuninck-Quickstep team, finished stronger than Sivakov in a two-man sprint to take out the 171 kilometer (106 mile) race. He was fourth in the race in 2018 and last month finished 10th in the Tour Down Under, the first event of the UCI World Tour.

France-based Sivakov, a fast-rising star of road racing, won the Young Rider classification in this year’s Tour Down Under and was ninth overall in last year’s Giro D’Italia.

Golden Knights 3, Predators 0 In Nashville, Tennessee, Chandler Stephenson, Nicolas Roy and Reilly Smith scored, Marc-Andre Fleury made 19 saves and Vegas blanked Nashville.

The Golden Knights have won two straight, including at Carolina on Friday night. Vegas held Nashville to its lowest shots on goal total of the season at 19 and ended the Predators’ two-game winning streak.

Bruins 6, Wild 1

Philadelphia Flyers’ Travis Konecny (right), and Colorado Avalanche’s Valeri Nichushkin chase after the puck during the second period of an NHL hockey game on Feb 1, in

Philadelphia. (AP)

In St Paul, Minnesota, NHL scoring leader David Pastrnak matched his career high with his 38th goal, Torey Krug scored twice and Boston had three power-play goals in the second period to surge past Minnesota.

Brad Marchand had a goal and an assist for the Bruins, who improved to 7-2-1 in their last 10 games. Anders Bjork and Jake DeBrusk also scored, and Jaroslav Halak had 25 saves.

Blackhawks 3, Coyotes 2 In Glendale, Arizona, Patrick Kane scored in the overtime shootout and ran his points streak to 12 games, and Corey Crawford stopped both shootout attempts he faced, leading Chicago past Arizona.

Brandon Saad scored twice in regulation and the Blackhawks won their first game out of the break and sixth of their last seven. Crawford finished with 40 saves.

Ducks 3, Kings 1 In Los Angeles, Ryan Miller made 46 saves and Anaheim beat Los Angeles.

It is the 42nd time in Miller’s 17-year career that he has made over 40 saves in a game, but only the 19th in which his team has won in regulation.

Max Jones, Derek Grant, Jacob Larsson scored for the Ducks, who have won four of six.