National Sports

Jack Eichel watched Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final 10 rows from the ice at TD Garden last June. A Boston Bruins fan growing up, the captain of the Buffalo Sabres didn't have a rooting interest in the series-clinching tilt against St.

Two of the three Canadian Hockey League players picked in the top-10 selections in this year's NHL draft are going back to their junior teams.

OTTAWA — Canada will go with a familiar roster for its women's soccer friendly against host Japan next month. Twenty-one of the 24 players on the roster for the Oct. 6 game in Shizuoka return from Canada's World Cup squad.

Gabriela DeBues-Stafford was a fierce five-foot-three bundle of energy when Lynn Kanuka got to know her four years ago at the Summer Universiade. The Canadian track legend saw something of herself in the young runner.

CHENGDU, China — Canada's Denis Shapovalov survived a third-set tiebreaker, while countryman Felix Auger-Aliassime dropped his opening match on Thursday at the Chengdu Open. The eighth-seeded Shapovalov, from Richmond Hill, Ont.

FUKUOKA, Japan — Italy made it 14 tries in two Rugby World Cup wins and nearly 100 points scored after crushing Canada 48-7 on Thursday.

VANCOUVER — Craig Anderson says it's good to get tested early in the year, but the Ottawa Senators goalie would still like to face fewer shots than he did on Wednesday night.

TORONTO — Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas learned of the headline-grabbing allegation against Auston Matthews the same way many fans did — on Twitter.

Wednesday's Games Canadian Championship Second Leg Toronto 1 Montreal 0 (Montreal wins 3-1 on penalty kicks) --- NHL Pre-season Toronto 3 Montreal 0 Boston 2 New Jersey 0 Buffalo 4 Columbus 3 (OT) Pittsburgh 4 Detroit 2 Nashville 3 Carolina 0 Washing

TORONTO — Auston Matthews stood at the backdrop in the Toronto Maple Leafs' locker room answering a series of questions about his team's latest pre-season performance.