Martin Straka's sixth NHL hat trick pushed him over the 20-goal mark for the sixth time and carried the streaking New York Rangers to a 3-2 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday.
Straka scored in each period for the roller-coaster Rangers, who are back on an upswing. They have won three straight following a seven-game losing streak that came on the heels of a season-high, five-game victory spurt.
Straka gave the Rangers a 2-0 lead and finished his first hat trick since last March 29 with an unassisted breakaway goal that made it 3-1 with 13:06 left. Straka flashed a wide smile after his third tally brought dozens of hats raining to the ice after his 21st goal.
PHOTO: AP
Coyotes 2, Hurricanes 0
At Raleigh, North Carolina, Curtis Joseph made 29 saves in his second straight shutout and Phoenix beat slumping Carolina.
Yanic Perreault and Ed Jovanovski each scored to lead the Coyotes to their season-best fourth straight win.
Capitals 5, Canadiens 1
At Washington, Dainius Zubrus and Alexander Semin each scored twice, Alex Ovechkin had three assists and Washington ended its five-game losing streak.
Zubrus put Washington ahead 2-1 in the first period with two goals in less than 2 1/2 minutes.
Maple Leafs 10, Bruins 2
At Boston, Alex Steen had a hat trick and two assists and Toronto cruised past Boston.
With the Leafs trailing 2-1 after the first period, Toronto scored five goals in the second period.
Devils 4, Islanders 3
At East Rutherford, New Jersey, Zach Parise scored two goals to lead New Jersey over the New York Islanders.
Sergei Brylin and Patrik Elias also scored for the Devils, who lead the Atlantic Division.
Blues 2, Blackhawks 0
At St. Louis, Lee Stempniak and Dennis Wideman each scored to lead St. Louis over Chicago.
St. Louis has not given up a goal in the first period since Andy Murray became coach 12 games ago.
Lightning 3, Wild 2
At St. Paul, Minnesota, Martin St. Louis and Vincent LeCavalier scored goals for Tampa Bay, which ended Minnesota's eight-game home winning streak.
Dan Boyle also scored for the Lightning, who won for only the second time in five games.
Stars 6, Oilers 5, SO
At Edmonton, Alberta, Sergei Zubov and Jussi Jokinen scored in a shootout as Dallas overcame a late tying goal to beat Edmonton.
The Stars rallied from a 4-1 deficit, but needed the shootout heroics after Ales Hemsky tied the game for Edmonton.
Flames 5, Panthers 4, OT
At Calgary, Alberta, Mark Giordano scored 4:30 into overtime to give Calgary a win over Florida in a victory marred by an injury to leading scorer Jarome Iginla.
Calgary scored when Stephane Yelle won a face-off from Jozef Stumpel and fed a pass across to Giordano, who fired a hard slapshot past Alex Auld.
Sharks 9, Red Wings 4
At San Jose, California, Patrick Marleau had a goal and three assists while becoming San Jose's career scoring leader and Joe Thornton contributed four assists during their rally from a three-goal deficit.
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