Jason Spezza’s second career hat trick lifted the Ottawa Senators to a 3-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins in the NHL on Saturday.
Spezza beat goalie Dany Sabourin three times in the second period. He has six goals in five games. Dany Heatley added a pair of assists and Alex Auld made 17 saves for Ottawa.
NHL scoring leader Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal each had a goal and an assist for the Penguins. Malkin’s goal was a short-handed effort, while Staal’s came on the power play. Sidney Crosby had an assist to extend his point streak to six games.
BRUINS 4, PANTHERS 0
At Sunrise, Florida, Phil Kessel scored his team-leading 16th goal and Manny Fernandez won his seventh consecutive start as Boston beat Florida.
Kessel has scored in five straight games and has six goals in that span. He also owns the NHL’s longest current point streak — an 11-game run.
Fernandez stopped 26 shots in his first shutout of the season.
Michael Ryder, Shane Hnidy and Blake Wheeler also scored. David Krejci had three assists for the Bruins, who have won 16 of their last 19 games.
DEVILS 2, CANADIENS 1, OT
At Montreal, Zach Parise scored a power-play goal 31 seconds into overtime to lift New Jersey over Montreal and 4-1 on a a five-game road trip.
Scott Clemmensen, who made 25 saves, became the first New Jersey goalie other than Martin Brodeur — who had left elbow surgery early last month — to start against the Canadiens since February 1997.
RED WINGS 5, BLACKHAWKS 4
At Detroit, Pavel Datsyuk scored in a shootout to complete Detroit’s comeback from a two-goal deficit.
Valtteri Filppula had a goal and an assist and Henrik Zetterberg and Marian Hossa also scored for the Red Wings.
FLYERS 2, HURRICANES 1, OT
At Raleigh, North Carolina, Jeff Carter’s NHL-leading 19th goal 3:34 into overtime carried Philadelphia past Carolina.
Carter won a faceoff in the Carolina zone against Rod Brind’Amour, pivoted around him, and beat goalie Michael Leighton from the right side.
The Hurricanes outshot the Flyers 36-31, but Antero Niittymaki was solid for Philadelphia, which played overtime for the fourth time in five games.
THRASHERS 5, ISLANDERS 1
At Uniondale, New York, Ilya Kovalchuk’s second-period goal helped Atlanta snap a five-game losing streak.
Bryan Little, Eric Boulton, Eric Perrin and Chris Thorburn also scored for the Thrashers, who have beaten the Islanders twice this season.
CAPITALS 2, MAPLE LEAFS 1
At Toronto, Milan Jurcina’s third-period goal stood up as the winner and Washington beat Toronto.
Karl Alzner also scored for Washington.
SABRES 4, LIGHTNING 3
At Tampa, Florida, Derek Roy scored the tiebreaking goal midway through the third period, and Drew Stafford had a goal and two assists to lead Buffalo past Tampa Bay.
Thomas Vanek and Jochen Hecht also scored for the Buffalo, which has won seven in a row at Tampa Bay. Ryan Miller improved to 12-1 against the Lightning.
Martin St. Louis, Paul Ranger and Vinny Prospal had the Lightning goals.
In other games, it was:
• Predators 1, Wild 0
• Blues 4, Coyotes 3
• Oilers 3, Sharks 2, OT
• Kings 3, Blue Jackets 0
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set