The Philadelphia Flyers clinched an NHL playoff spot with a 3-0 win over the New Jersey Devils on Friday.
Martin Biron stopped all 22 shots for his fourth shutout as the Flyers completed a remarkable turnaround from being the worst team in the league last season to make the Eastern Conference playoffs.
The Devils remained fourth in the East’s playoff standings, a point ahead of the New York Rangers.
The two teams were due to meet yesterday in a game to decide who clinches home ice advantage in the first round of playoffs.
Panthers 4, Hurricanes 3
In Raleigh, North Carolina, Florida won to prevent Carolina from clinching the Southeast Division.
Nathan Horton had a goal and an assist for the Panthers, who snapped a 13-game losing streak on Carolina’s home ice, winning there for the first time since 2002.
The Hurricanes would have clinched the division with a victory and outshot Florida 46-17 while committing no penalties to the Panthers’ nine.
The loss meant that Carolina would go from Southeast Division leader to missing the playoffs entirely if Washington beat Florida yesterday.
Islanders 4, Rangers 3, SO
In New York, Richard Park scored a short-handed goal in the second period and then added the decisive tally in the shootout as the Islanders finished their season by beating the Rangers in their all-New York match.
In the fourth round of the shootout, Park scored before goaltender Wade Dubielewicz turned aside Petr Prucha’s shot.
Bruins 2, Senators 1
In Ottawa, Boston edged Ottawa as both teams clinched playoff berths.
Tim Thomas came within 8:14 of recording his third straight shutout against Ottawa and Zdeno Chara scored against his former team as Boston drew level with Ottawa for sixth place in the Eastern Conference.
Blackhawks 3, Predators 1
In Chicago, the league’s rookie scoring leader Patrick Kane recorded his 20th goal of the season and had an assist as Chicago downed Nashville.
Patrick Lalime made 29 saves for the Blackhawks, who won their fourth straight.
Nasvhille lost for the first time in regulation in seven games.
The Predators finished in eighth place in the Western Conference, clinching the last playoff spot.
Nashville will face league-leading Detroit in the opening postseason round.
The Predators were 3-3-2 against the Red Wings in regular-season play.
Coyotes 4, Stars 2
In Dallas, Phoenix snapped a three-game losing streak by beating Dallas.
Rookie Daniel Carcillo had three goals for his first career hat trick and another rookie Martin Hanzal notched the tiebreaking goal in the second period.
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