Andrew Brunette's two goals led another unlikely outburst by the Minnesota Wild, who sidestepped elimination for the fifth time in postseason with a 5-1 victory over Vancouver on Wednesday.
The Western Conference semifinal series is tied at 3-3, with a deciding Game 7 set for Thursday in Vancouver. The winner will face the Anaheim Mighty Ducks in the West finals.
Dwayne Roloson made 30 saves for Minnesota, who also got goals from Darby Hendrickson, Antti Laaksonen and seldom-used Lubomir Sekeras. Cliff Ronning had three assists and Marian Gaborik had two as the Wild went 3-for-5 on the power play.
Ed Jovanovski scored his seventh goal of the playoffs for the Canucks, who have not lost three straight all season.
The Wild, who've scored 12 goals the last two games, are an NHL-leading 14-for-55 (25.5 percent) on the man advantage during the postseason.
Minnesota was a surprise qualifier for the playoffs in its third season, but the Wild are a game away from advancing to the conference finals. They became just the fourth team in NHL history to win five elimination games in one postseason. No team has ever overcome two 3-1 series deficits in the same postseason. The Wild trailed Colorado by that number in the first round before winning three straight -- two in Denver.
Kjellberg leaves
Anaheim right wing Patric Kjellberg has left the team for unspecified personal reasons and isn't expected to be available for the Western Conference finals, coach Mike Babcock said Wednesday.
Kjellberg, 33, has been used mostly on penalty killing this season. He played in 76 games and had 19 points. The native of Sweden had appeared in each of the Ducks' 10 playoff games and had no points. Babcock said Kjellberg left for family reasons.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was