New champ will be crowned
DALLAS -- Radek Faksa made a promise to his 2 1/2-year-old son when they were playing together before the Dallas Stars took the ice for Game 7.
Faksa did indeed score in his return to the lineup after missing four games because of an undisclosed injury. His go-ahead goal came on a backhander 44 seconds into the third period, after his son had been taken home, and Dallas beat the defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights 2-1 on Sunday night to wrap up the first-round series.
“I’m happy I did,” Faksa said. “And so I can show him the video in the morning, and we can watch it together.”
Only captain Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin have played longer for the Stars than Faksa, a fourth-liner in his ninth season who scored his goal from the circle to the left of goalie Adin Hill. Dallas also got another Game 7 goal from 20-year-old Wyatt Johnston.
Jake Oettinger had 21 saves in his second Game 7 victory. He also had the Stars’ only penalty, though they killed that off after he was called for tripping Ivan Barbashev in front of the net midway through the third.
“The last period was a clinic. Just so proud of the guys of how we responded,” Oettinger said. “It’s a long playoffs and you’re going to need different guys to step up at different times. A lot of hockey left so hopefully a lot more heroes. run ride.”
The Stars, the No. 1 seed in the West, move on to play well-rested Colorado in the second round. Game 1 is in Dallas on Tuesday night, a week after the Avalanche wrapped up their series against Winnipeg with a Game 5 victory.
Brett Howden scored for Vegas, which couldn’t pull off another series winner in Dallas, where last year the Knights wrapped up the Western Conference Final with a win in Game 6. Hill had 22 saves in his third game of this series after Logan Thompson started the first four.
The visitor won the first four games in this series until the home teams held serve the last three games.
It’s going to be a
CLEVELAND -- Donovan Mitchell brought redemption and relief to himself and the Cavaliers.
A year after being bullied and bounced in the first round of the NBA playoffs, Cleveland is moving on. Mitchell made sure.
“This is why I’m here,” he said. “It’s my job.”
Mitchell scored 39 points, Caris LeVert added 15 and Cleveland avoided a potentially franchise-shifting loss by rallying for a 106-94 win over the Orlando Magic on Sunday in Game 7 to advance in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
The Cavs trailed by 18 in the first half and were in danger of being eliminated early for the second year in a row -- a scenario that may have led to firings.
But Mitchell, who scored 50 in a Game 6 loss at Orlando and has been battling a left knee injury for months, put the Cavs on his back. He carried them past an up-and-coming Orlando team whose playoff inexperience showed in the second half.
“I don’t mean this disrespectful, but it doesn’t really mean much,” Mitchell said. “We didn’t come in just to win the first round. We accomplished one goal, now we have to do it again. That’s the mindset.”
According to the NBA, Cleveland’s comeback is the largest in a Game 7 since the league began tracking play-by-play in 199798.
Evan Mobley grabbed 16 rebounds and Darius Garland hit a critical 3-pointer -- after getting a pep talk from Mitchell -- in the fourth for Cleveland, which won its first playoff series without
LeBron James since 1993.
The Cavs will begin the second round on the road against the top-seeded Celtics in Game 1 tonight (Tuesday). Boston went 2-1 against the Cavs this season.
In the closing minutes, the towel-waving crowd inside Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse chanted, “We want Boston!” -- a matchup that didn’t look likely an hour earlier.
“I’m pretty sure everybody thinks they’re going to come in and kick our ass,” Mitchell said. “So for us to continue to stay level-headed throughout, and just be who we are, that’s the key.”
Paolo Banchero scored 38 -- just 14 after halftime -- and added 16 rebounds to lead the Magic, who grew up in the series but couldn’t figure out how to win in Cleveland as both teams held serve on their floors.
DEAR DR. ROACH: My father is in his mid-60s and recently underwent surgery to repair mitral valve prolapse. Everything went smoothly, and his recovery has been good, with the exception of this morning. He has resumed smoking (after telling his doctors that he quit), and he experienced a dizzy spell where his vision in one eye became hazy, then gray, then black. His blood pressure was fairly high at this time. He sat down, and after several minutes, his vision slowly returned.
He has seen strobe lights in his peripheral vision a couple of times in the past. His doctor attributed this to ocular migraines, but my father has no history of migraines. His doctor believes the cause of his episode this morning was a retinal migraine caused by dehydration. I’m afraid it might have been a transient ischemic attack (TIA) and that he could end up having a stroke. What do you advise?
–L.S. ANSWER: Transient loss of vision in one eye is called “amaurosis fugax” and is often considered a TIA, which is a big warning sign of an impending stroke. You are wise to take it seriously. Many people minimize serious symptoms until it is too late.
There are several factors that make me concerned about a TIA, including his recent surgery. Surgery is a major risk factor for blood clotting. Smoking is another big risk factor.
It is true that migraines can cause a temporary loss of vision. Since he has never had a migraine, this diagnosis is less likely. What makes it even less likely is that migraines almost always have visual changes, such as scintillations. Still, it could be possible that this is a migraine phenomenon, since they don’t always obey the “rules” written in textbooks.
The change in vision from blurry to grey to black is not out of the ordinary for a TIA, which happens when the blood flow to the retina is interrupted, often from a blood clot. However, the episode’s duration of a few minutes is more consistent with a TIA than a migraine. One unusual cause, giant cell arteritis (GCA), needs to be evaluated because vision loss can be permanent in this case.
Given how serious a TIA is, I strongly encourage him to get an urgent evaluation, including a careful eye exam by an expert; an evaluation of the blood vessels of his neck by ultrasound or CT/MRI angiography; and blood testing for GCA.
If all testing comes out looking good, his doctor may have been right. Still, a stroke can cause permanent loss of brain function, and his risk is high enough that he’s doing himself a disservice if he does not get evaluated.
DR. ROACH WRITES: A recent column on Dupuytren’s contracture generated several letters, some of which advised needle fasciotomy. This is an alternative to the options I discussed, which were traditional surgery, radiation and collagenase injection.
A well-done trial published in March showed that after two years, traditional surgery had the best results with 78% success, compared to 65% in the collagenase patients and 50% in the needle fasciotomy group. Success was defined by a contracture release of more than 50% and “acceptable” control of symptoms.
There still may be good reasons to choose alternatives to surgery with some patients, but better long-term results were found with traditional surgery in this study.