Martin Brodeur made all 21 saves and mostly avoided his No. 1 nemesis Sean Avery in helping the New Jersey Devils beat the Dallas Stars 5-0 in the NHL on Wednesday.
John Madden scored twice for the Devils, who chased Marty Turco from the net in the second period. Zach Parise and David Clarkson had goals 53 seconds apart in the third period, and Jamie Langenbrunner also scored.
Brodeur is five shutouts away from Terry Sawchuk’s NHL record of 103, and eight wins shy of Patrick Roy’s league mark of 551.
Avery made headlines in the playoffs when he waved his arms and stick in the face of Brodeur, a practice eliminated by a new rule the next day. Brodeur gave Avery a few shoves to try to move him out of the crease in their latest meeting, and Avery complained that penalties weren’t called. Brodeur also fired a puck at Avery during a clearing attempt from behind the net in the second period.
SHARKS 7, FLYERS 6, SO
At Philadelphia, former Philadelphia star Jeremy Roenick scored the deciding goal in a shootout for San Jose to hand Philadelphia its season-opening sixth straight loss.
Joe Pavelski and Roenick both beat Martin Birone to help the Sharks salvage the victory after they blew a 6-4 lead in the third period.
PANTHERS 3, SENATORS 1
At Ottawa, Rostislav Olesz and Nathan Horton scored 48 seconds apart, and Craig Anderson made 41 saves in his first start of the season for Florida.
Cory Stillman assisted on Horton’s goal that made it 2-0 in the first, then scored his third of the season midway through the second to restore Florida’s two-goal lead.
Daniel Alfredsson had a power-play goal for Ottawa.BLACKHAWKS 3, OILERS 0
At Chicago, Nikolai Khabibulin made 23 saves for his 39th career NHL shutout and Chicago ended Edmonton’s season-opening winning streak at four games.
Patrick Sharp, Brent Seabrook and Aaron Johnson scored to help the Blackhawks win their second straight game and improve to 2-1-0 since Joel Quenneville replaced Denis Savard as coach last Thursday.
Khabibulin’s shutout was his first of the season and fourth since he joined the Blackhawks as a free agent in July 2005.
RED WINGS 4, BLUES 3
At St Louis, Tomas Holmstrom scored for the fourth straight game for Detroit.
The Red Wings improved to 3-0 on the road and ended St Louis’ season-opening home winning streak at three. Detroit is 4-1-0 after opening with a loss to Toronto.
Henrik Zetterberg, Nicklas Lidstrom and Johan Franzen also scored for Detroit. Keith Tkachuk, Brad Boyes and T.J. Oshie scored for the Blues.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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