Draisaitl’s Oilers also lose second final game
For German ice hockey star Leon Draisaitl, the dream of the Stanley Cup has become a distant dream. With the Edmonton Oilers, the national player lost the second of a maximum of seven NHL finals against the Florida Panthers 1:4 and also attracted attention with a hard foul. The Oilers are therefore already under considerable pressure ahead of their home games on Friday and Sunday.
Two days after the 0-3 defeat at the same venue, Edmonton was actually ahead after the first period thanks to a goal by Mattias Ekholm (12th). Niko Mikkola (30th) equalized for last year’s finalists, and in the final period Evan Rodrigues (44th/53rd) and Aaron Ekblad (58th) ensured the Oilers’ KO.
Draisaitl again failed to score a point, but caused a lot of excitement: With the score at 1:2, he hit his opponent Aleksander Barkov in the face with full force with his right elbow, but got away with a two-minute penalty. “It was simply a body check. I don’t think there was anything dirty about it,” said Draisaitl.
Things got tough right from the start of the game when Edmonton’s Warren Foegele took down his opponent Eetu Luostarinen after ten minutes and was given a five-minute penalty. Luostarinen limped but returned to the ice later. Florida was unable to take advantage of the power play – quite the opposite: after a penalty against Oliver Ekman-Larsson, only four players per team were left on the ice and the Oilers promptly took the lead. But Florida did not let this bother them and fought back.
Draisaitl has the chance to win the Oilers’ first title since 1990 and the first for a Canadian team since 1993. Recently, Edmonton has repeatedly failed just before reaching its big goal.
NBA: College coach Hurley rejects Lakers offer
Basketball coach Dan Hurley has turned down a million-dollar offer from the 17-time NBA champions Los Angeles Lakers and will remain coach at the University of Connecticut. “I am humbled by this whole experience,” the 51-year-old was quoted as saying in a statement from the college team. “Our focus now is on getting better this summer.”
The Lakers are said to have offered Hurley a six-year contract worth $70 million (approx. €65 million), which would have made him one of the six highest-paid coaches in the NBA. But Hurley, who recently won two consecutive US college basketball titles with the Connecticut Huskies, declined after a meeting with the Lakers on Friday.
“Ultimately, I am extremely proud of the championship culture we have built in Connecticut. We met as a team before today’s practice and our focus now is to grow together as a team as we continue to pursue titles,” Hurley said.
In six seasons with Connecticut, Hurley has 141 wins and 58 losses; a year ago, he signed a six-year, $32.1 million contract with the Huskies.
The Lakers fired their coach Darvin Ham at the beginning of May after being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. The Lakers and their top star LeBron James were defeated 4-1 by the Denver Nuggets, and a year earlier they had also lost to the Nuggets in the Western Conference final.
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