Patrik Elias scored two goals, including the game-winner 39 seconds into overtime Friday night, to stretch the New Jersey Devils' unbeaten streak to 11 games with a 2-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Penguins forced overtime when Dick Tarnstrom scored a power-play goal with 26.8 seconds left in regulation.
Pittsburgh again played without Mario Lemieux, who missed his eighth straight game with a hip injury. The Penguins are 1-7 without him.
Elias gave the Devils a 1-0 lead 3:45 in.
Sabres 5, Hurricanes 0
In Buffalo, New York, Mika Noronen made 35 saves for his third career shutout, and J.P. Dumont had two goals and an assist to lead Buffalo over Carolina.
Ales Kotalik and Jochen Hecht each added a goal and an assist for Buffalo, which scored three goals in the second period. Hecht, Kotalik and Chris Drury scored in a 10:59 span in the second.
The Hurricanes have been outscored 8-0 in the middle periods of their last two games. Carolina is 1-4-2 in its last seven and has been outscored 24-11 in that stretch.
Jamie Storr allowed five goals on 25 shots.
Thrashers 6, Panthers 3
In Sunrise, Florida, Shawn McEachern had two goals, and Ilya Kovalchuk scored his NHL-leading 15th to lead Atlanta Thrashers to its third straight victory.
The Thrashers scored twice on the power play, and twice while skating short-handed in the second period.
McEachern, with only three goals this season, scored to give Atlanta leads of 1-0 and 5-3. Kovalchuk added two assists and has 27 points this season. J.P. Vigier and Andy Sutton had the short-handed goals.
Valeri Bure, Stephen Weiss and Olli Jokinen scored for Florida, 2-4 since general manager Rick Dudley took over as coach. The Panthers lost twice to Atlanta in less than a week.
Sharks 5, Coyotes 0
In Phoenix, Marco Sturm and Mike Ricci scored on San Jose's first two power plays in a blowout victory.
Alyn McCauley, Vincent Damphousse and Brad Stuart also had goals for the Sharks, who have an NHL-high eight ties -- one off their 2002-03 total. They needed the win just to tie Pittsburgh for fewest victories in the NHL (4).
Kyle McLaren had two assists, and Evgeni Nabokov and Vesa Toskala teamed up for San Jose's second shutout of the season.
Nabokov hurt his groin in the first period after stopping nine shots. Toskala finished with 31 saves, withstanding four Phoenix power plays over two periods.
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
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but