deserve the win.The worst team in the NHL last season, the Leafs

When she was little, Sheri Zimmerer Branum was a nonstop bundle of energy. She fell in love with sports shortly after she started walking, ran everywhere and became an avid soccer player. When I was 2, all I wanted for Christmas was a Green Bay Packers football helmet, she says.In high school she played soccer on the boys team, then went to Bowling Green where she was a central midfielder for four years. Now 46, shes still the same high-energy athlete and person. Every day she bounces from her jobs as an occupational therapist and high school soccer coach to training and competing as an elite age-group triathlete.I love being busy, says Branum, who lives in Milan, Ohio, with her husband and two teenagers. Every day I like to be busy and I look forward to being busy.Many of those busy hours are spent swimming, biking and running in triathlon, a sport she embraced in 2003 after a former college soccer teammate dared her to enter a sprint-distance triathlon in Cleveland. Her time wasnt memorable, but that didnt matter. She was hooked by the challenge of trying to succeed in three disciplines while being inspired by the athletes all around her.Thirteen years after her first tri, she finds it unbelievable that she continues to excel and improve. In September, she competed on behalf of the U.S. in the International Triathlon Union World Triathlon Grand Final championships in Cozumel, Mexico, winning the bronze medal in the Olympic-distance race and finishing fifth in sprint distance. I never thought I would be able to achieve that level of fitness and competitiveness, she says.Yet ever since those days as an energetic kid, her competitive streak has been part of her success story. A lean 5-foot-2, 100-pound dynamo under short, blond locks, she has always stood tall in sports. She says the support she received from her late father, Jerry Zimmerer, has been invaluable. I race by Sheri Zimmerer Branum in honor of my dad, who instilled in me from a young age that I could achieve anything I wanted to, and that dynamite comes in small packages, she says.Branum has been an occupational therapist for 21 years, treating patients who have suffered strokes and brain injuries, have heart ailments, and those with mobility-inhibiting diseases like Parkinsons.My goal is to rehabilitate people of all ages with various disabilities or disease processes to reach their maximum level of independence, she says.She works for Firelands Regional Medical Center in Sandusky, Ohio, traveling across the northern part of the state to aid people in their homes. Its exciting what you can do for them to keep them safe and independent, she says.The job also has given her insights into how to take care of herself as an athlete. As she has moved into her 40s, she listens more to her body when it sends signals that shes overtraining or might be close to an injury. She tries to heed those signals and back off. Plus, she has added more weight training to maintain strength.You might not tell by looking at me, she says, laughing.What she learned in earning her masters degree in occupational therapy and through experience and continued study has been invaluable. Its helped me with understanding the body holistically, she says. To know everything must work together in order to perform your best.That knowledge led Branum to change her eating habits about three years ago to fuel her long, active days. She now eats six to 10 small meals a day. The goal is to have a constant flow of nutrients and hydration.As the kids got older I was able to train more frequently, and then I noticed my nutritional demands changed, she says. I was feeling lightheaded frequently, so I started always having food with me and making sure I was always snacking and eating. Immediately, she felt better and her performance improved.If Im feeling sluggish, I usually eat 100 to 200 calories and I feel better, she says. Her menu is full of apples, bananas, peanut and almond butters, rice cakes, chicken, vegetables, salads and whey protein shakes.Branum gets in some type of training every day. Even on an off day, shell do a 30-minute bike ride. On most days shes up before sunrise, doing some laundry and house cleanup before heading off for a swim, bike or run workout. Then comes work, followed by two to three hours of soccer practice during the season. Sometimes, shell sneak in another workout late in the day.She has coached soccer for 15 years, since her daughter began playing. Now she coaches her daughters varsity girls team at Edison High in Milan. Soccer was Branums first love, and remains a big part of her life, but she no longer plays. Sometimes in practice her athletes will try to coax her into action, but she mostly declines.Recently she was invited to play an indoor match and accepted. But she quickly benched herself. I was like, This is a recipe for a serious injury and Ill be regretting my decision, she says. So I played three minutes and told my daughter she could take all my shifts, because I didnt want to get hurt. Thats the last thing I need.Perhaps most impressive of all -- and in spite of her busy schedule -- Branum says shes a better triathlete now than she was 10 years ago because of her improved cardiovascular fitness and technical skills in each sport. In 2015, she was third in the sprint-distance (750-meter swim, 20K bike, 5K run) national age-group (45-49) championships. This year, she has taken first overall among women in nine regional sprint- or Olympic-distance triathlons or road races. She also set a PR of 1:26:20 in the Columbus Half Marathon in October.Her highlight, though, was representing the U.S. with her performance at the triathlon worlds in Cozumel. To her it was a dream to enjoy the camaraderie of teammates while competing against athletes from across the world. I was excited when I got [the USA racing singlet] in the mail and excited to wear it, she says.Branum had never done an open-water swim in the Caribbean until her Olympic-distance (1.5K swim, 40K bike, 10K run) race in Mexico. The current and buoys were shifting, which made for a tightly packed swim, and she came out of the water in 33rd place. But she poured it on in the bike portion with the 11th-best time before posting the top 10K run (41:34) to clinch her spot on the podium.She has had one success after another the past two years. This year in Omaha, Nebraska, she again qualified for the U.S. team at the 2017 age-group world championships in the Netherlands. When you start to believe in yourself, then you start to see even better results, she says.The combination of belief and busyness has been a winning one for Branum, and triathlon has become her perfect passion.Its an amazing challenge to try to improve your swim and your bike and your run while being healthy and fulfilling all your other life goals, she says. Tony Phillips Jersey Large . It just didnt show when he hit the ice. Berra made 42 saves and Kris Russell scored at 1:32 of overtime, lifting the Calgary Flames to a 3-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday night. Custom Athletics T-shirts . Peter Gammons, an analyst for Major League Baseballs network and website, drew the ire of hockey fans on Sunday when he criticized the two NHL teams on Twitter for their physical game the night before. http://www.customathleticsjersey.com/custom-tony-phillips-jersey-large-75c.html . 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TORONTO -- The last time Mitch Marner remembers attending a Maple Leafs game as a fan, Mats Sundin returned to Air Canada Centre as a Vancouver Canuck.Over seven years later, Sundin was back to see his No. 13 raised to the rafters, and Marner was there, too, scoring his first NHL goal to help Toronto roll over the Boston Bruins 4-1 for its first win of the season on Saturday night.Marner got his first goal in only his second game, joined on the scoresheet by fellow rookie and Toronto native Connor Brown. Their efforts came on the heels of Auston Matthews historic debut, when he became the first player in the modern NHL to score four goals in his first game.Its a lot of excitement and obviously theres going to be (a) learning curve and growing pains throughout the way, but theyve been playing great so far, teammate James van Riemsdyk said of the youth movement.Brown and Marner opened the scoring about 10 minutes apart, landing the Leafs in the record books once more. Toronto became the first team since expansion in 1967-68 to have rookies combine for the first six goals to start a season, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.Brown had the games first goal after barely two minutes, joined shortly after by the 19-year-old Marner and then van Riemsdyk a few minutes after that.The fourth overall pick of the 2015 draft, Marner took a pass from Tyler Bozak just outside the Boston blue line, gained the offensive zone with space and fired a shot far-side past goaltender Anton Khudobin.A native of nearby Thornhill, Ontario, Marner followed with an exuberant celebration.To finally be playing in front of these fans for real, its pretty crazy, Marner said. And for the first one to go in in front of them, its kind of sweet.Outside of Matthews, Marner was perhaps Torontos most dangerous player in a season-opening overtime loss to Ottawa on Wednesday. He had six shots in the 5-4 overtime defeat, following that up withh a goal and four more shots in 15-plus minutes against the Bruins on Saturday.ddddddddddddHes shown a knack for getting behind the oppositions defense, finding a seam and some space for his first goal on Saturday.Thats just good anticipation and good smarts where he can pick his spots to use his speed to get himself in those situations, van Riemsdyk said.Marner said hed give the puck from his first goal to his parents.Anton Khudobin allowed four goals on 20 shots for Boston. David Pastrnak scored his third goal in two games this season.Overall, not a good enough effort on our part, said Bruins coach Claude Julien. And at the end of the night, you dont deserve the win.The worst team in the NHL last season, the Leafs have quickly shown themselves to be a much faster and highly skilled entity in the early days of this season, led by Marner, Matthews and 20-year-old William Nylander. Often that youth shows itself in less effective ways though, including a messy second period in which Torontos sloppiness with the puck led to chances and sustained offensive zone time for Boston.Id like us to obviously take better care of the puck and so well learn how to do that, Leafs coach Mike Babcock said afterward.Frederik Andersen gave up only one goal on 25 shots following his wobbly five-goal outing in Wednesdays season opener.Matthews was quiet on Saturday after his unparalleled showing earlier in the week. He was held point-less and finished with only two shots in nearly 17 minutes.Game notes The Maple Leafs retired 17 sweaters in a pre-game ceremony, altering a long-standing team policy where jersey numbers were honored but not retired.UP NEXTBruins: Conclude their season-opening three-game trip Monday night at Winnipeg.Maple Leafs: Begin a three-game trip Wednesday night at Winnipeg. ' ' '