Ray Emery made 20 saves for his first playoff shutout, leading the Ottawa Senators past the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-0 and victory in their NHL first-round series in five games on Thursday.
Dany Heatley, Antoine Vermette and Chris Kelly scored second-period goals.
The Senators scored three times in the middle period and held Sidney Crosby without a point for a second straight game. Crosby led the NHL in scoring this season.
PHOTO: AP
Emery helped Ottawa weather two early 5-on-3s, including one that lasted 1:14 after Dean McAmmond was given a delay of game minor for backhanding the puck over the glass with Wade Redden already in the penalty box.
Heatley scored his second goal of the series on a power play 1:08 into the second and Vermette made it 2-0 when he drove through the slot and scored on Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.
Kelly brought the sellout crowd to its feet with a roar once again when he beat Fleury at 17:55.
Ducks 4, Wild 1
At Anaheim, California, the Ducks wrapped up their first-round playoff series against Minnesota in five games after a pre-game skirmish.
Ryan Getzlaf scored the go-ahead goal late in the second period, Corey Perry got his first career playoff goal with 9:31 remaining, and Travis Moen added an empty-net goal with 57 seconds left.
Jean-Sebastien Giguere, getting his first start in eight games, made 26 saves for Anaheim.
The Ducks' Chris Pronger scored just 1:02 into the game, and Marian Gaborik tied it briefly with a short-handed goal at 15:42 of the second period. But Getzlaf scored less than a minute later.
The teams had a brief pushing match during warmups, with no officials on the ice. The Wild's Derek Boogaard and the Ducks' George Paros, their team's enforcers, exchanged words, then players from both sides crowded to center ice. There was some yelling and pushing, but no punches thrown. The players eventually backed off.
Shortly later, Anaheim's Teemu Selanne was struck in the head by a puck and fell to the ice. It wasn't immediately known who shot the puck.
In other NHL action it was:
Flames 3, Red Wings 2;
Stars 1, Canucks 0, OT
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
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite