Chris Drury scored two power-play goals and the Buffalo Sabres beat the Boston Bruins 6-2 and improved their record to 8-0 to match their franchise-best start in the NHL on Saturday.
Jason Pominville and Maxim Afinogenov scored 1:39 apart early in the second period to open a 4-1 lead for the Sabres, who matched the 1975 club record for consecutive victories to start a season. Buffalo also won 13 straight in the regular season in 1975.
Ales Kotalik and Thomas Vanek also scored for Buffalo, and Martin Biron had 26 saves.
Phil Kessel, Boston's No. 1 pick in this year's draft, scored his first NHL goal.
Thrashers 4, Panthers 2
At Atlanta, Marian Hossa scored two more goals, Ilya Kovalchuk finally got one in regulation and Atlanta kept up the best start in franchise history.
Islanders 4, Hurricanes 3, OT
At Uniondale, New York, Tom Poti scored New York's third power-play goal 23 seconds into overtime, capping the Islanders' rally over Carolina.
Canadiens 8, Avalanche 5
At Montreal, Sheldon Souray had two goals and two assists and Chris Higgins scored Montreal's fourth power-play goal midway through the third, leading the Canadiens in Colorado goalie Jose Theodore's return to the Bell Centre.
Lightning 6, Capitals 4
At Washington, Martin St. Louis and Nikita Alexeev scored 22 seconds apart during a three-goal second period that carried Tampa Bay past Washington.
Rangers 5, Maple Leafs 4, SO
At Toronto, Brendan Shanahan scored the only goal of the shootout after getting his eighth goal of the season in regulation to lead New York over Toronto.
Senators 8, Devils 1
At Ottawa, Antoine Vermette and Dean McAmmond scored two goals apiece to help Ottawa earn its first win in six homes games this season.
Penguins 5, Blue Jackets 3
At Pittsburgh, Evgeni Malkin scored for the third straight game, leading Pittsburgh over Columbus.
Malkin, the highly touted Russian rookie, scored on a wrist shot midway through the third period to put Pittsburgh ahead 4-2 and become the first player to score in his first three NHL games since Jan Caloun did it for the San Jose Sharks in 1995-96.
Canucks 4, Predators 3, OT
At Nashville, Tennessee, Lukas Krajicek's first goal of the season lifted Vancouver in overtime.
Blues 4, Blackhawks 3
At Chicago, Lee Stempniak scored twice and assisted on Petr Cajanek's tiebreaking goal early in the third period to help St. Louis beat Chicago.
Cajanek converted a rebound of Stempniak's shot from the slot 2:57 into the third to snap a 3-3 tie. Stempniak, in his second pro season, had his first three-point game in the NHL, and Bill Guerin also scored for the Blues.
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