Marcus Nilson, Shean Donovan and Ville Nieminen each had a goal and an assist, as the Calgary Flames remained kings of the playoff road with a 4-1 victory over the San Jose Sharks Tuesday night.
Nilson matched the fastest goal in Calgary's postseason history -- just 20 seconds after the opening faceoff -- but the resulting blow to the Sharks' psyche was even more important. The accidental goal put San Jose in a hole it never escaped.
"It's tough to come back from something like that," Nilson said. "But we did the hard work to back it up, too. We earned the win."
Donovan scored 10 minutes after Nilson's goal, and Nieminen and captain Jarome Iginla clinched the victory with third-period goals 44 seconds apart. That sent the sixth-seeded Flames back home with an improbable 2-0 series lead over the Pacific Division champions.
"We'd be lying if we said this is what we expected, but it's a tremendous bonus," center Craig Conroy said. "This is definitely the most special season I've had, and it just seems like anything can happen now."
Game 3 is today at the Saddledome, where the Flames are just 3-3 in the playoffs. But thanks to a 7-2 road record that includes three straight wins, they've got a great shot at their first Cup finals since 1989, when they won the championship.
Miikka Kiprusoff followed his 49-save performance in the opener with just 17 saves, including a handful of fine stops in the final minutes. With a fast start, puck possession and relentless forechecking -- three of San Jose's hallmarks -- Calgary shocked the sold-out Shark Tank into silence.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB