Tomas Holmstrom scored 4:55 into the third period after Kris Draper tied it 37 seconds into the frame, lifting the Detroit Red Wings to a 3-1 victory over the Nashville Predators in the opening game of their first-round series.
Robert Lang gave the Red Wings a two-goal cushion with 1:45 left Wednesday night.
In Nashville's first playoff game in its six-season history, Adam Hall scored 16 seconds in the game -- the quickest Detroit has been scored against in its playoff history.
Tomas Vokoun made 18 saves during the first two periods before giving up two early goals in the third and finishing with 26 saves.
Barry Trotz, the only coach the Predators have had, was pleased his biggest concern was not a factor.
Game 2 in the best-of-seven series is Saturday in Detroit.
Bruins 3, Canadiens 0
In Boston, Andrew Raycroft posted a shutout in his playoff debut, Boston's mediocre power play came alive to beat Montreal in the opener of their 30th postseason series. Raycroft, one of the NHL's top rookies, stopped 31 shots.
Canucks 5, Flames 3
In Vancouver, British Columbia, Martin Rucinsky scored the first of Vancouver's four power-play goals in a playoff-opening victory over Calgary.
Sami Salo, Henrik Sedin and Brendan Morrison also took advantage of Calgary penalties and Mattias Ohlund added a goal during a delayed call to lift Vancouver to its seventh straight win, dating to the regular season.
Dan Cloutier made 26 saves, Markus Naslund had three assists, and Morrison set up two goals for the Canucks.
Chris Simon and Oleg Saprykin both had power-play goals, and Krzystof Oliwa also scored for the Flames, making their first playoff appearance in eight years.
Avalanche 3, Stars 1
In Denver, David Aebischer stopped 37 shots in his first playoff start, helping Colorado begin the playoffs by beating Dallas.
Peter Forsberg, Alex Tanguay and Joe Sakic scored to put the Avalanche up 3-0.
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
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
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier