With the score tied in the third period, Markus Naslund popped out of the penalty box and set up the winning goal as the New York Rangers beat Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals 4-3 in Game 1 of the NHL Eastern Conference series.
Naslund fed Brandon Dubinsky, who made a move that left defenseman Jeff Schultz sprawled on the ice. Dubinsky then beat goalie Jose Theodore inside the near post with 8 minutes, 17 seconds remaining.
Scott Gomez had a goal and two assists, Nik Antropov and Naslund each had a goal and an assist, while Henrik Lundqvist made 32 saves for the seventh-seeded Rangers.
PHOTO: AP
Tomas Fleischmann, Viktor Kozlov and Alexander Semin scored, Ovechkin had a pair of assists and Jose Theodore made 17 saves for Washington.
Game 2 is tomorrow in Washington.
PENGUINS 4, FLYERS 1
PHOTO: AFP
In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin each had a goal and an assist as Pittsburgh shut down frustrated Philadelphia’s fleet of scorers.
Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, idle for long stretches in the first two periods as his teammates controlled play at the other end, made 26 saves to help the Penguins win their fourth consecutive conference playoff series opener.
Tyler Kennedy and Mark Eaton also scored for the Penguins, who beat the Flyers in five games last year in the Eastern Conference finals. Simon Gagne scored late in the third period for Philadelphia.
Game 2 is tonight in Pittsburgh.
DEVILS 4, HURRICANES 1
In Newark, New Jersey, Martin Brodeur made 18 saves, while Zach Parise and Jamie Langenbrunner each had a goal and an assist as New Jersey downed Carolina.
Defenseman Mike Mottau scored in the first period, Parise and Patrik Elias added goals in the second period, while Langenbrunner scored in the third.
Martin Brodeur, who set the regular-season record for NHL career wins last month, came within 11 minutes of tying Patrick Roy’s record for career playoff shutouts at 23 before Ray Whitney scored on a rebound.
Game 2 is tonight in New Jersey.
Canucks 2, Blues 1
In Vancouver, Daniel Sedin had a goal and an assist, while Roberto Luongo made 25 saves as Vancouver beat St Louis.
Sami Salo added a power-play goal for the Canucks, 14-1-1 at home since the start of February. Brad Boyes had a power-play goal for St Louis.
Game 2 is tonight in Vancouver.
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