Momentum often shifts in this year’s postseason
COLLEGES: The American Football Coaches Association wants the NCAA to consider allowing players who transfer and sit out a season at their new school to earn back that year of eligibility by graduating. AFCA executive director Todd Berry said the association’s board of trustees, a group of active college coaches representing each FBS conference along with FCS, Division II and Division III, unanimously backed the proposal to contribute to the NCAA’s work on reforming transfer rules . ... Yale and Harvard will play their annual football rivalry game Nov. 17 at Fenway Park in Boston . ... Chicago State named former Bears and Notre Dame defensive tackle Chris Zorich as its new athletic director, replacing interim AD Tracy Dildy.
GYMNASTICS: Sabrina Vega, a former member of the U.S. national team, is the latest to file suit over former sports doctor Larry Nassar’s sexual abuse. Vega was on the team that won a gold medal at the 2011 World Championships. She filed a lawsuit in Texas against Nassar, USA Gymnastics, the U.S. Olympic Committee and Bela and Martha Karolyi, who ran a ranch north of Houston that was the training ground for U.S. women’s gymnastics. Vega alleges the defendants failed to protect her and other athletes.
NBA: The Grizzlies decided to make J.B. Bickerstaff their next head coach, removing the interim tag from his title. The team did not disclose terms Tuesday of Bickerstaff ’s new deal. He will be introduced at a news conference Wednesday. Bickerstaff was the associate head coach when Memphis fired David Fizdale in late November of his second season . ... The Knicks interviewed Warriors assistant Mike Brown for their coaching job . ... The Hornets are seeking permission to interview Trail Blazers assistant David Vanterpool for their vacant coaching position.
NFL: Raiders G Vadal Alexander was suspended without pay for the first four games next season for a violation of the league policy on performance-enhancing drugs. Alexander, 24, played 15 games for the Raiders last season with four starts and has appeared in 24 games overall with nine starts in two seasons . ... Jack Mills, the agent for Baker Mayfield, said on a podcast that if Mayfield were available at No. 2, the Patriots were considering a stunning move to draft the Oklahoma quarterback as an eventual replacement for Tom Brady . ... The Bills announced the resignation of president Russ Brandon, who was also the president of the NHL Sabres and named Kim Pegula president of both teams . ... The Titans claimed LB Gimel President off waivers from the Texans.
NHL: Guy Boucher will be back behind the Senators bench next season, and so will his entire staff. Speaking on an Ottawa sports radio station, Senators general manager Pierre Dorion confirmed that Boucher and his assistants will return despite the club’s second-to-last place finish in 2017-18.
SOCCER: Real Madrid stayed on track for a third straight Champions League title after a 2-2 draw against Bayern, reaching its third straight final 4-3 on aggregate. Karim Benzema scored both goals for Madrid.
Desperation turns to jubilation in the NHL playoffs when a trailing team manages to score the tying goal late in regulation to force overtime.
That sudden change of emotions would figure to fuel a team’s momentum in overtime. But that’s not always the case, as evidenced for three straight nights when a team that squandered a late lead managed to bounce back in overtime and earn a win.
The Golden Knights and Sharks each experienced both sides of that roller coaster the last two games, with the Golden Knights responding with William Karlsson’s goal in overtime in Game 3 in San Jose.
That came two nights after the Sharks saw Nate Schmidt tie Game 2 with 6:32 left only to end up on the winning side on Logan Couture’s power-play goal in the second overtime.
“You just move on,” Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant said. “It’s playoff hockey. We were disappointed when they scored with roughly two minutes left in the hockey game. We regrouped in the overtime session between periods and said let’s go out there and get this game.”
This postseason has featured four games in all that went to overtime after one team tied it with less than five minutes to play. The team that blew the lead has come out on top in three of those games, with the Predators doing it to the Jets in Game 2 of their secondround series on Sunday night and the Blue Jackets doing it to the Capitals in Game 2 in the first round.
The Blue Jackets are the only team this postseason to force overtime with a goal in the final five minutes and win, having done it in Game 1 against the Capitals.
For all the talk of lategame momentum, teams scoring those late goals are just 7-8 in overtime the last two postseasons.
“We weren’t too happy with this as a team,” said Knights goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, who made Karlsson’s winner possible by robbing Couture earlier in the OT. “But everyone was relaxed between periods. We talked and we knew what we had to do.”
Momentum can be very fleeting in the playoffs whether in a game or a series. In the first five days of the second round, no team has won consecutive games in a series.
The Sharks will try to put the Game 3 loss in the past and continue that pattern to tie their series at two games apiece when they take the ice for Game 4 on Wednesday night.
“It’s easy,” Couture said. “The schedule-makers did a good job of playing games every other day so it’s easy to forget about a game when you’ve got another one (coming).” AP