RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Victor Hedman and his Tampa Bay Lightning teammates spent the better part of a week in North Carolina keeping a watch on what was going on back home as Hurricane Milton roared ashore.
Now, with the storm past along with their regular-season opener, they can finally get back home and figure out what's next.
The Lightning beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-1 in Friday night's season opener for both teams to cap a long stay in the Raleigh area, their haven to get out of Florida ahead of Milton's arrival. Tampa Bay's premature departure meant spending days skating to get ready, spending time with their families in an extended stay in a new place and hoping for the best back home.
“I think most of the guys have gotten reports about their own properties,” Hedman said, adding later: “It's good to have a few days to kind of get everything together.”
This week's storm left at least 10 people dead as of Friday night amid flooding and tornadoes, while the number of customers in Florida without power was roughly 1.9 million, according to poweroutage.us. The Lightning's preseason game against Nashville on Monday was canceled, and the team instead headed to the North Carolina to get out of the area before Milton made landfall.
Jon Cooper, who has coached the Lightning to two Stanley Cups, wasn't sure exactly how his team might respond Friday night with disrupted routines and worry.
“Outwardly as a coach, you want to be optimistic, but sometimes you're a little nervous inside,” Cooper said. “So you weren't exactly sure how things were going to go. But I do know the guys really wanted to play a hockey game.”
Other than Jordan Staal's goal, Cooper liked the way Tampa Bay played in the first period. A strong third period that included three goals — the go-ahead one-timer and two empty-netters — from Nikita Kucherov pushed the Lightning to victory.
“I think everybody's so locked in right now,” Kucherov said.
The game between perennial playoff teams offered a welcomed distraction and normalcy in an abnormal situation, at least.
Many of the players had family with them on the trip, and Cooper let the team have Wednesday off as they geared up for opening night. Cooper also grabbed the chance to venture over to Duke in nearby Durham to reconnect with Blue Devils men's lacrosse coach John Danowski, Cooper's coach at Hofstra during his own playing career (1986-89) that included scoring 74 goals and winning two conference championships.
Danowski offered a tour of Duke and its venerable Cameron Indoor Stadium men's basketball home, and Cooper said he also got to meet retired Blue Devils Hall of Fame men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski — the winningest coach in that sport's history with 1,202 wins in a career that included five NCAA titles and 13 Final Fours.
Next came a visit to nearby North Carolina since the Lightning were staying in Chapel Hill, home to the Tar Heels basketball program that has won six NCAA titles and is known for its notable basketball alums.
“We saw the many hundreds of pictures of Michael Jordan everywhere and found a pretty cool establishment there,” Cooper told reporters earlier Friday. "It was good, we had a good time. For me, though, I didn’t realize how close Duke and North Carolina were from each other, and I see why there’s such a rivalry.
“It’s the things you have to do when you’ve got a little extra time on your hands.”
The Lightning and Hurricanes were originally slated to play again in Florida on Saturday, though that game was postponed due to Milton recovery. That means Tampa Bay won't play again until hosting New Jersey on Tuesday.
“I don't know if anybody on the team has power,” Cooper said after the win. “Everybody's probably be going back to Tampa and staying in a hotel. ... This will be the first time that anybody gets to see what damage has been done with their own eyes. Is there water in your house or not? So that's going to be trying. We're not out of the woods yet with some of the adversity we've got to face.”
The team won't skate Saturday and will aim to return to work Sunday, hopefully with some certainty about what's ahead.
“We’re super excited to get back home and hopefully get our lives going again," Hedman said, “and hopefully we’re done with the storms this year.”
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
Tampa Bay Lightning's Nikita Kucherov (86) is congratulated after his goal by teammate Nicholas Paul (20) as Carolina Hurricanes goaltender Frederik Andersen (31) looks on during the third period of an NHL hockey game in Raleigh, N.C., Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Karl B DeBlaker)
Tampa Bay Lightning's Nikita Kucherov (86) celebrates after his goal along the fence during the third period of an NHL hockey game against the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh, N.C., Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Karl B DeBlaker)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Dodgers shelled out $1 billion for Japanese talent in the offseason and it's paying off in the playoffs.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto outdueled Yu Darvish in a historic playoff matchup of Japanese-born starters, and the Dodgers got home runs from Kiké Hernández and Teoscar Hernández to beat the San Diego Padres 2-0 on Friday and advance to the National League Championship Series.
“It's pretty sweet,” a smiling Freddie Freeman said.
Yamamoto allowed two hits over five innings for the Dodgers before being pulled after 63 pitches in a decisive Game 5 between heated NL West rivals who were meeting in a Division Series for the third time in five years.
He signed a $325 million, 12-year deal in December, shortly after the Dodgers lured superstar Shohei Ohtani from the Los Angeles Angels with a record $700 million, 10-year contract.
Ohtani and the Dodgers will play the wild-card New York Mets in the best-of-seven NLCS starting Sunday in Los Angeles.
"We’re ready for the next level,” manager Dave Roberts said.
The Dodgers won a decisive Game 5 at home for the first time since taking a 1981 NL Division Series against Houston after a season split into halves following a players' strike.
“We went through a lot of injuries, a lot of ups and a lot of downs. We fight, we fight and keep going,” star outfielder Mookie Betts said. “All season everybody says the Dodgers are winning the World Series, the Dodgers are winning the World Series. And we get to this series, and all of a sudden we’re the underdog.”
Boasting the majors’ best regular-season record of 98-64, they successfully avoided a third straight NLDS elimination.
“We'd been in a little bit of a DS funk,” said Andrew Friedman, president of baseball operations. “For the guys that had been there, they could feel that after we got down 2-1. The new guys wanted no part of that.”
The Padres’ big hitters went bust with their season on the line. Three-time batting champion Luis Arraez, Fernando Tatis Jr., Jurickson Profar and Manny Machado were 1 for 14 in Game 5 as Los Angeles pitchers retired their last 19 batters.
“Everybody was picking them to win because we have no pitching, we can't hit with runners in scoring position, this and that,” a soaked Kiké Hernández said. “We're the ones popping bottles now.”
San Diego's powerful lineup went scoreless for the final 24 innings of the series, dropping the last two games after taking a 2-1 lead back home.
“I think stunning is appropriate,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said.
Yamamoto and Darvish were the first Japanese-born starting pitchers to square off in major league playoff history. The 26-year-old Yamamoto was the fifth rookie to start a winner-take-all game in Dodgers history.
He joined Orel Hershiser, Jerry Reuss, Sandy Koufax and Johnny Podres as the only Dodgers pitchers with a scoreless start of at least five innings in a winner-take-all postseason game.
“For Yamamoto, I don’t think any of us can appreciate the pressure on a global scale," Roberts said. "He was pitching for the country of Japan.”
Yamamoto handed the ball to a stellar bullpen that carried the Dodgers during the regular season when their starters were hit hard by injuries. Evan Phillips got five outs, fanning Profar and Machado in the seventh before Alex Vesia whiffed rookie standout Jackson Merrill to end the inning.
Vesia was warming up for the eighth when he exited with an injury. Michael Kopech came on and worked a perfect inning before Blake Treinen got three quick outs for his third career postseason save and second of the series.
With that, the NL West champs spilled out of the dugout for hugs and then headed back into their clubhouse for another celebration. Clayton Kershaw, Gavin Lux, Kopech, Walker Buehler and Tyler Glasnow huddled in a corner smoking victory cigars.
In the middle of the room, its carpet drenched in alcohol and music blaring, a laughing Ohtani delighted in opening bottles of beer and pouring them over the heads of teammates and staff members.
“Anytime you’re smelling like champagne, it means you’re doing something good,” Betts said.
The 38-year-old Darvish, who was Ohtani's childhood idol, gave up an early home run to Kiké Hernández, then set down 14 in a row. Teoscar Hernández’s homer chased Darvish in the seventh and made it 2-0.
The Padres and Dodgers combined to retire 26 consecutive batters — the longest streak in a single game in postseason history.
Darvish gave up three hits in 6 2/3 innings, struck out four and walked one. He dropped to 0-5 in elimination games — four of them quality starts.
“I thought Yu was magnificent again. Had them off balance. Couple of swings got him. Other than that, he was really good,” Shildt said.
Darvish and Ohtani teamed to help win last year’s World Baseball Classic for Japan, but they were rivals Friday. Ohtani struck out three times, including twice against Darvish in a game watched on Saturday morning in Japan.
Ohtani hit a tying three-run homer in Game 1, his playoff debut, but was mostly quiet the rest of the series after becoming the first player in major league history to reach 50 homers and 50 stolen bases in a season.
The teams combined to score 43 runs in the first five games of the series, but the winner-take-all finale was a tense pitching affair in front of a sellout crowd of 53,183 that included Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James and a Hollywood contingent of Brad Pitt, Rob Lowe, Bryan Cranston and Jimmy Kimmel.
The wild-card Padres ended the series scoreless since the second inning of Game 3. They became the first team to lead 2-1 in a best-of-five series and fail to push across a run in the final two games.
Yamamoto successfully covered first base three times after inducing grounders, making it easier on Freeman who started after missing Game 4 with a sprained right ankle.
The Dodgers led 1-0 on the drive by Kiké Hernández with two outs in the second. It was the 14th career postseason homer for Kiké Hernández, who was brought back to the Dodgers this season to make an impact in October.
Los Angeles staved off elimination in San Diego with an 8-0 victory in Game 4 to force the deciding game back home, where fans tossing balls and trash on the field caused a 12-minute delay in a Game 2 loss. The public-address announcer warned fans in the middle of the fifth Friday not to throw objects or go on the field.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Roberts said Vesia complained of cramping. He will have X-rays and an MRI.
UP NEXT
The Dodgers are headed to the NLCS for the 16th time overall and first since 2021 when they lost to Atlanta in six games. Los Angeles went 4-2 against the Mets during the regular season.
The Padres head into the offseason with plenty of promise for next year. They challenged the Dodgers for the NL West title down to the final days of the regular season.
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB
Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani applauds in the dugout during the second inning in Game 5 of a baseball NL Division Series against the San Diego Padres, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
San Diego Padres pitcher Yu Darvish gets a ball back as he pitches during the fifth inning in Game 5 of a baseball NL Division Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani (17) waits to bat as San Diego Padres starting pitcher Yu Darvish, right, throws during the fifth inning in Game 5 of a baseball NL Division Series against the San Diego Padres, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, left, shakes hands with catcher Will Smith after San Diego Padres' Fernando Tatis Jr. grounded into a double play during the third inning in Game 5 of a baseball NL Division Series Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani pops out during the third inning in Game 5 of a baseball NL Division Series against the San Diego Padres, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
San Diego Padres starting pitcher Yu Darvish throws to a Los Angeles Dodgers batter during the third inning in Game 5 of a baseball NL Division Series Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
San Diego Padres pitcher Yu Darvish, bottom center, throws to Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani during the first inning in Game 5 of a baseball NL Division Series Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Los Angeles Dodgers' Kiké Hernández celebrates as he rounds first base following his solo home run during the second inning in Game 5 of a baseball NL Division Series against the San Diego Padres, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
San Diego Padres starting pitcher Yu Darvish throws to a Los Angeles Dodgers batter during the first inning in Game 5 of a baseball NL Division Series Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Los Angeles Dodgers' Kiké Hernández celebrates as he rounds second base following his solo home run during the second inning in Game 5 of a baseball NL Division Series against the San Diego Padres, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Los Angeles Dodgers' Kiké Hernández (8) celebrates his solo home run with Shohei Ohtani, center, and Teoscar Hernández during the second inning in Game 5 of a baseball NL Division Series against the San Diego Padres, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto throws to a San Diego Padres batter during the second inning in Game 5 of a baseball NL Division Series Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
