Disrupting the norm will have to wait until Game 2 of supers, at least, for UCF's softball team.No. 8 UCLA, the nation's highest-scoring offense, belted another three home runs in a 9-1 victory on May 22 to open the best-of-three Los Angeles Super Regional in the NCAA Tournament. Bri Alejandre, Kaniya Bragg and Rylee Slimp went deep for the Bruins (51-8), who plated six runs in the fifth inning to win via mercy rule.Megan Grant, the Division I home run leader with 40, walked in all three of her plate appearances. Taylor Tinsley pitched a three-hitter for the Bruins, though Sierra Humphreys tagged a towering home run to bust up the shutout effort.UCF (41-18-1) will have its season on the line when it returns to Easton Stadium for Saturday's 10 p.m. first pitch.Were going to be feisty, were going to be chippy tomorrow," Knights coach Cindy Ball-Malone said. "Theyre going to have to beat us.Here are three takeaways from Game 1, which quickly got out of hand when UCF's pitchers lost command.UCLA punishes UCF pitching for free passesFreshman Ava Stuewe largely held the nation's highest-scoring lineup in check through three innings, though Bri Alejandre tagged her for a solo home run to break the ice.However, Stuewe departed in the fourth after walking Alejandre and plunking Bragg. Isabella Vega entered to control the damage and got the desired ground ball from Soo-Jin Berry, but Humphreys' only play was a hesitated toss to first.Vega got ahead in the count 0-2 on Suarez, who half-swung at a couple of riseballs. But Suarez fouled off a pair of strikes, worked the count full and pulled a backbreaking double just inside the line in left.UCLA chased Vega in the fifth, again cashing in when gifted baserunners. Vega hit the first two Bruins she faced, and Bragg turned on a riseball for a three-run homer to break the game open.Slimp ended it four batters later, sitting on a changeup from reliever Macy Miles and belting it well over the right-field wall."That was quite a game until that last inning," Ball-Malone said. "That's what this team does, especially when you give them so many freebies."Southern California native Sierra Humphreys homers for UCFHumphreys, one of four UCF starters hailing from California, took away at least one run from UCLA in the fourth with a diving catch behind second base. Moments later, she put the Knights on the board.The sophomore launched a solo home run off Tinsley to lead off the fifth, her 14th of the season and third in the month of May. Humphreys grew up about an hour east of Los Angeles in Corona. Her mom, Krista, is the head coach at Centennial High School Sierra's alma mater and a three-time national champion at Arizona."It was obviously a full-circle moment," Humphreys said. "It gave us all a lot to play for because I'm not the only one from California; I know Coach Bear (Ball-Malone) is, too. It gave us another reason and something bigger to play for. At the end of the day, it's just a game and we were playing for each other and something bigger than ourselves."Aubrey Evans and Ashleigh Griffin provided the other hits for UCF. Tinsley retired the first nine Knights in order to begin the game.UCF faces historically long odds to advance to WCWSBall-Malone called UCLA "giants" before the Knights departed Orlando. No program has won more national championships or reached more Women's College World Series than the Bruins.UCF, by contrast, has only qualified for supers twice and is looking to become the 14th unseeded team since 2005 to make it to Oklahoma City. Mississippi State and Arizona State, also unseeded, prevailed Friday against pre-tournament favorite Oklahoma and defending champ Texas, respectively.Falling behind in the best-of-three series, however, only makes UCF's task that much more historically difficult. Of the 160 previous super regionals, roughly 79% of Game 1 winners have advanced."Regardless of what everybody says on paper, they want to go after it. They want to go to the World Series too," Ball-Malone said. "Its going to be a tall task, but I want to see them fight. Well take it one pitch at a time, but anything can happen."This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: UCF Knights softball takeaways from Game 1 super regional loss to UCLA

What stood out most from the Golden Knights' win in Game 2 of the Western Conference finals.

Fresh off a return from an ACL injury, Sharks forward Cameron McInnes has finalised his next move.

Following the tragic news, the NASCAR great's son Brexton, who celebrated his 11th birthday just three days before his father's passing, shared a subtle tribute on social media on Friday.

Jack Eichel and Ivan Barbashev scored in a 2:07 span in the third period and the Vegas Golden Knights stunned the Colorado Avalanche 3-1 on Friday night to take a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference Final.Eichel tied it, then set up Barbashev for the go-ahead goal with 8:38 remaining. Barbashev added an empty-netter with 1:03 remaining. The comeback stunned the capacity crowd and wiped out the top-seeded Avalanche's 1-0 lead.By winning twice at Ball Arena, the Golden Knights put the Avalanche in a huge hole. Since 1982, road teams that started 2-0 in the conference finals have a 13-0 series record.They understand the situation, said Vegas coach John Tortorella, whose team is 17-4-1 since he took over on March 29. Im not sure where the series goes. Im not sure where Game 3 goes. But I know Im not going to have to worry about that, because they get it."Carter Hart had another stellar performance, stopping 29 shots. He made 36 saves in a 4-2 win on Wednesday.Colorado was cruising after Ross Colton opened the scoring in the first period. But things unraveled for the Avalanche in the third. Eichel lined a shot past Scott Wedgewood for his first goal in 11 games to get Vegas on the board. I havent scored in a million days, he cracked.The Golden Knights then took advantage of a miscue Devon Toews and Brock Nelson struggled to clear the puck along the boards in the Avalanche end as Eichel sent a pass to Barbashev, who rang in a shot off the post.This was the fourth third-period comeback by the Golden Knights in this postseason, the most in a single playoffs in team history, according to NHL Stats.Just resiliency, Hart said. Thats the key word for our group here weve just stuck in games and just grinded it out, and just battled. Resiliency, thats a term that describes our group really well. Were never out of the fight, and were always grinding in games.Game 3 is Sunday night in Las Vegas. The Avalanche are hoping to have star defenseman Cale Makar back in the lineup. He has missed the last two games because of an upper-body injury. There's urgency to get him back since he got hurt, Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. He's doing all the work he can possibly do to get back as fast as he can.Before the Golden Knights' rally, the Avalanche were 45-0-0 when leading after two periods in the regular season and playoffs combined. It stings for sure right now, Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog said. But tomorrow well wake up, have a meeting, fly to Vegas and regroup. Thats all you can do.Vegas struggled on the power play, going 0 of 4. The team also saw defenseman Brayden McNabb limp to the locker room in the first period soon after taking a check along the boards. He returned for the third period. The hard-checking Golden Knights finished with 32 hits and 16 blocked shots. We know how hard it is to win, Eichel said. A lot of that falls on playing hard defensively.Avalanche defenseman Josh Manson briefly left late in the second period after delivering a check on Barbashev and then ramming his face into the boards. Wedgewood had 22 saves.We can't ride the emotional roller-coaster like fans, Bednar said. If you lose Game 1, you're getting swept. If you win Game 1, we're sweeping them. That's not reality. You have to deal with the task at hand and what's to come. We're not going to try and win four games in the next night in Vegas. We're going to try to win one game.___AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Jack Eichel and Ivan Barbashev scored in a 2:07 span in the third period and the Vegas Golden Knights stunned the Colorado Avalanche 3-1 on Friday night to take a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference Final.Eichel tied it, then set up Barbashev for the go-ahead goal with 8:38 remaining. Barbashev added an empty-netter with 1:03 remaining. The comeback stunned the capacity crowd and wiped out the top-seeded Avalanche's 1-0 lead.By winning twice at Ball Arena, the Golden Knights put the Avalanche in a huge hole. Since 1982, road teams that started 2-0 in the conference finals have a 13-0 series record.They understand the situation, said Vegas coach John Tortorella, whose team is 17-4-1 since he took over on March 29. Im not sure where the series goes. Im not sure where Game 3 goes. But I know Im not going to have to worry about that, because they get it."Carter Hart had another stellar performance, stopping 29 shots. He made 36 saves in a 4-2 win on Wednesday.Colorado was cruising after Ross Colton opened the scoring in the first period. But things unraveled for the Avalanche in the third. Eichel lined a shot past Scott Wedgewood for his first goal in 11 games to get Vegas on the board. I havent scored in a million days, he cracked.The Golden Knights then took advantage of a miscue Devon Toews and Brock Nelson struggled to clear the puck along the boards in the Avalanche end as Eichel sent a pass to Barbashev, who rang in a shot off the post.This was the fourth third-period comeback by the Golden Knights in this postseason, the most in a single playoffs in team history, according to NHL Stats.Just resiliency, Hart said. Thats the key word for our group here weve just stuck in games and just grinded it out, and just battled. Resiliency, thats a term that describes our group really well. Were never out of the fight, and were always grinding in games.Game 3 is Sunday night in Las Vegas. The Avalanche are hoping to have star defenseman Cale Makar back in the lineup. He has missed the last two games because of an upper-body injury. There's urgency to get him back since he got hurt, Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. He's doing all the work he can possibly do to get back as fast as he can.Before the Golden Knights' rally, the Avalanche were 45-0-0 when leading after two periods in the regular season and playoffs combined. It stings for sure right now, Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog said. But tomorrow well wake up, have a meeting, fly to Vegas and regroup. Thats all you can do.Vegas struggled on the power play, going 0 of 4. The team also saw defenseman Brayden McNabb limp to the locker room in the first period soon after taking a check along the boards. He returned for the third period. The hard-checking Golden Knights finished with 32 hits and 16 blocked shots. We know how hard it is to win, Eichel said. A lot of that falls on playing hard defensively.Avalanche defenseman Josh Manson briefly left late in the second period after delivering a check on Barbashev and then ramming his face into the boards. Wedgewood had 22 saves.We can't ride the emotional roller-coaster like fans, Bednar said. If you lose Game 1, you're getting swept. If you win Game 1, we're sweeping them. That's not reality. You have to deal with the task at hand and what's to come. We're not going to try and win four games in the next night in Vegas. We're going to try to win one game.___AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Industry figures briefed on the move said the idea has not been taken forward at this point, after EU scepticism.

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