Steve Bernier scored twice and added an assist in his Sabres debut, pushing Buffalo back into an NHL playoff position with an 8-4 win over the Nashville Predators on Wednesday.
Ryan Miller stopped 24 of 26 shots to earn his 29th victory despite missing eight minutes of the second period after having his nose bloodied by a shot from Marek Zidlicky that hit him on the mask. Bernier scored on his first two shots, giving Buffalo a 2-0 lead, a day after being acquired in a trade from San Jose.
Toni Lydman had a career high four assists, and Ales Kotalik had a goal and two assists.
PHOTO: AP
Jason Arnott scored twice for Nashville.
Sharks 4, Blue Jackets 2
Brian Campbell notched up his first point for visitors San Jose, which scored three goals in an eight-minute span of the second period to beat Columbus.
Jonathan Cheechoo ran his goal streak to four games, Joe Pavelski had a goal and an assist, and Torrey Mitchell and Jeremy Roenick also scored for the Sharks, who won their third in a row.
Wild 3, Lightning 2
At Tampa, Florida, Pierre-Marc Bouchard had a goal and an assist to lead Minnesota past Tampa Bay.
Pavol Demitra and Brian Rolston also scored for the Wild, who snapped a four-game losing streak.
Michel Ouellet and Jeff Halpern scored the goals for the Lightning, who are last in the Eastern Conference and have lost five straight.
Maple Leafs 4, Panthers 3, SO
At Sunrise, Florida, Matt Sundin's second goal with 1:08 left in regulation forced overtime, and Toronto went on to a shootout victory over Florida.
Tomas Kaberle scored the only goal of the shootout, and Toronto's Vesa Toskala sealed the victory when he blocked Olli Jokinen's wrist shot.
Jassen Cullimore, Brett McLean and Rostislav Olesz scored for Florida.
Blackhawks 1, Coyotes 0
At Chicago, Patrick Lalime made 32 saves for his first shutout in more than a year, and Jason Williams scored the lone goal in Chicago's win over Phoenix.
Lalime wasn't tested heavily in posting his first shutout since Feb. 7 last year, and the 35th of his NHL career. He started his third straight game for Chicago because No. 1 goalie Nikolai Khabibulin remained sidelined due to back spasms.
Ilya Bryzgalov stopped 24 shots for Phoenix. He made several tough saves early before Williams scored 7:58 into the game.
Avalanche 3, Canucks 2, SO
At Vancouver, British Columbia, Joe Sakic tied the game with 14.7 seconds left, and Marek Svatos scored the winning goal in the shootout, lifting Colorado to a win over Vancouver.
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
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