The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Ottawa Senators 3-1 and completed a four-game sweep of their NHL first-round playoff series on Wednesday.
Evgeni Malkin and Jarko Ruutu scored second-period goals, Sidney Crosby scored into an empty net with 7.5 seconds remaining and had an assist, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 21 saves for Pittsburgh, which got its first sweep in 16 years and its first playoff series win since 2001.
Left wing Cory Stillman scored for Ottawa.
The sweep was a measure of revenge for the young Penguins, who were knocked out of last year’s playoffs in five games by the Senators. Ottawa went on to make its first Stanley Cup finals appearance in modern franchise history, losing in five to Anaheim.
The Penguins also became the first team to advance to the second round. Pittsburgh will face Boston, if the Bruins overcome their 3-1 series deficit against Montreal to advance, or the winner of the New Jersey-New York series.
Rangers 4, Devils 3
At New York, Marc Staal scored his first playoff goal with 3:13 left in Game 4, and New York took a 3-1 lead in the series against New Jersey.
Scott Gomez had two goals and Chris Drury also scored for the Rangers, who could end the series today with a win at New Jersey. New York took the first two games on enemy ice before splitting two at home.
Rookie defenseman Staal took a pass from Martin Straka, who provided the Rangers with one of their four one-goal leads, and fired a drive from inside the blue line that got by Brodeur.
Gomez sealed it with an empty-netter with 12.2 seconds left.
Patrik Elias scored twice and Mike Mottau got New Jersey even in the third period. Brodeur finished with 34 saves.
Predators 3, Red Wings 2
At Nashville, Tennessee, Dan Hamhuis and Shea Weber scored in a 32-second span in the first period, and Nashville evened the first-round Western Conference series with Detroit at 2-2.
Dan Ellis stopped 39 shots, Greg de Vries added a goal and Martin Erat had two assists as the Predators grabbed a lead in the first period and never let up on the top-seeded Red Wings. They even chased six-time Vezina Trophy winner Dominik Hasek at 6:35 of the second, having stopped 11 of 14 shots.
Pavel Datsyuk scored twice for Detroit.
Game 5 is tonight in Detroit.
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