National Sports

TORONTO — Amen Obgongbemiga admits his high-school football coach was right after all. When Ogbongbemiga was attending Notre Dame High School in Calgary, he said head coach Dale Diluzio routinely extolled the virtues of playing in the NCAA.

Jesse Puljujarvi returns to the Edmonton Oilers a more confident player, and thus more confident he can be a regular in the lineup. The fourth overall pick in the 2016 entry draft by the Oilers did not re-sign with the club last year.

It was hard to see if Alex Bono was smiling under his face mask this week after entering the Toronto FC record book with his 29th career shutout and 52nd victory. But his class was hard to miss. As was his appreciation for what he has.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Toronto FC added to its road warrior reputation Wednesday, defeating the New England Revolution 1-0 for a fourth straight win while extending its unbeaten run to six.

A look at what's happening around the majors today: OCTOBER OCTANE Maybe it’s the Southern California air or the atmosphere indoors in Texas, but the ball is really flying this post-season .

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A pair of red cards were the undoing of the Vancouver Whitecaps Wednesday. The undermanned club dropped a 3-0 decision to the San Jose Earthquakes in California, extending Vancouver's losing streak to three games.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Bojan Krkic scored on a penalty kick in the 74th minute to help the Montreal Impact beat the Columbus Crew 2-1 on Wednesday night. Thel Impact (6-8-2) have won two straight after a four-match losing streak.

The NHL's free agency market grew a bit more crowded Wednesday as the deadline passed for teams to submit qualifying offers to restricted free agents.

Pierre Dorion vividly remembers Matt Murray entering the Pittsburgh crease inside a raucous Canadian Tire Centre with the Ottawa Senators up 4-0 midway through the first period of Game 3 of the 2017 Eastern Conference final.

NEW YORK — ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC averaged 1,836,000 viewers for 16 broadcasts in Major League Baseball’s expanded wild-card round, drawing far more viewers for 16 games but an average down vastly from the single-knockout contests in previous years.