The NHL defending champions crushed the new season’s pacesetters when the Detroit Red Wings beat the San Jose Sharks 6-0 on Thursday.
Detroit goalie Ty Conklin made 24 saves for his sixth NHL shutout and Pavel Datsyuk had two goals and two assists for the Red Wings.
San Jose has the league’s best record but the Sharks lost for the second straight night.
PHOTO: AP
CANADIENS 5, FLYERS 2
In Montreal, Alex Kovalev scored a goal to reach 900 NHL career points as Montreal snapped Philadelphia’s five-game winning streak.
Sergei Kostitsyn and Steve Begin each had a goal and an assist for the Canadiens, who responded to three straight defeats.
Kovalev scored for the second game in a row after a personal 19-game goal drought.
BRUINS 8, MAPLE LEAFS 5
In Boston, David Krejci had his first NHL hat trick as Boston held on to beat Toronto in a free-scoring clash.
Boston’s Phil Kessel scored twice to extend his point streak to an NHL-high 16 games as the Bruins won their 12th straight home game despite nearly blowing a four-goal lead.
The Leafs had won three in a row.
CAPITALS 4, BLUES 2
In Washington, the home team made it five consecutive wins by downing struggling St Louis.
Viktor Kozlov had two goals and an assist for the Capitals, who improved to 13-1-1 at home.
Three Capitals goals in a span of just over three minutes from late in the second period turned a 1-1 stalemate into a one-sided affair.
COYOTES 2, PREDATORS 1
In Glendale, Arizona, Kyle Turris recorded his first two-goal game, including the go-ahead score with 10 minutes left, as Phoenix edged Nashville.
The Coyotes leapfrogged Nashville and Minnesota, who did not play, into seventh place in the Western Conference.
HURRICANES 2, PANTHERS 1, OT
In Raleigh, North Carolina, Joe Corvo scored with 43 seconds left in overtime to lift Carolina past Florida.
The Hurricanes have won 15 of 16 at home against the Panthers.
In other NHL action on Thursday it was:
• Penguins 6, Thrashers 3
• Stars 6, Blue Jackets 5, SO
• Avalanche 2, Lightning 1, SO
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
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB