Ryan Smyth had a goal and an assist, and Joe Sakic added two assists, leading the Colorado Avalanche past the Minnesota Wild 3-1 on Sunday.
The Wild are 0-2-1 since a 7-0-1 start. The Avalanche improved to 5-0 at home.
Peter Budaj had 29 saves for the Avalanche. Minnesota rookie Josh Harding, starting consecutive games for the first time, made 19 saves.
PHOTO: AP
The Wild nearly tied it with 2:58 left. Petteri Nummelin skated around the back of the net with the puck and tried to put a shot into the top of the net. Budaj reached with his glove and made the save.
Wojtek Wolski got an insurance goal with 37 seconds left.
Oilers 3, Ducks 2, SO
At Anaheim, California, Oilers rookie Andrew Cogliano scored a short-handed goal with 1:27 left in the third period, Mathieu Garon made 31 saves and Edmonton beat Anaheim in a shootout to send the defending Stanley Cup champion Ducks to their fourth straight loss.
Ales Hemsky also scored for Edmonton and connected in the shootout to seal the victory after Sam Gagner opened the tiebreaker with a goal against Jean-Sebastien Giguere. Chris Kunitz and Corey Perry scored for Anaheim (4-7-2).
The Oilers faced the Ducks for the first time since luring second-year left wing Dustin Penner away from Anaheim.
Red Wings 3, Canucks 2
At Vancouver, British Columbia, Jiri Hudler's highlight-reel goal in the final minute of the second period propelled Detroit past Vancouver.
With the game tied at 2, Hudler skated around defenseman Alexander Edler down the right wing before pulling the puck quickly to his forehand and roofing a shot over the left shoulder and glove of goalie Roberto Luongo from close range.
The Red Wings beat Vancouver for the second time in four nights and won their fifth straight overall, giving them an NHL-best 19 points (9-2-1) this season.
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