The Colorado Avalanche overcame a frightening injury to winger Darcy Tucker to defeat the Carolina Hurricanes 5-4 on Friday.
Tucker was checked into the boards by Carolina’s Tuomo Ruutu in the second period and laid unconscious on the ice for several minutes before being taken away on a stretcher.
The Avalanche reported Tucker suffered a concussion, but had regained consciousness and was fully alert.
PHOTO: AFP
“I just told the guys to stay focused,” Colorado coach Joe Sacco told reporters. “The biggest thing at that point was getting the two points. Just keep our focus, keep our cool and play the game.”
The Western Conference-leading Avalanche got goals from Milan Hejduk and Wojtek Wolski in the second to give them a 4-2 lead.
After Matt Cullen scored for the Hurricanes with under four minutes left in the second, Stastny, who netted twice, converted a decisive wrister at 6:21 in the third to give the Avalanche a 5-3 cushion before Carolina’s Ray Whitney pulled one back.
Playing at home for the first time after a seven-game road trip, the Avalanche won their fifth game in six, while the Hurricanes suffered a fifth successive defeat.
Colorado goaltender Craig Anderson made 32 saves, while Cam Ward stopped 31 shots for the Hurricanes.
“We got in trouble a couple times and [Anderson] made some big saves,” Stastny said. “He’s been doing it all year for us.”
Carolina went 2-0 up in the first period on goals from Joe Corvo and Ruutu before the home team responded with four unanswered scores.
Ryan O’Reilly and Stastny put in goals 31 seconds apart to tie the game before the end of the first.
PENGUINS 3, PANTHERS 2
The Pittsburgh Penguins overcame a two-goal deficit to beat the Florida Panthers on Friday, extending their winning streak to seven and retaining their early-season lead in the NHL.
Playing his 300th career game, Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby had a power-play goal and a short-handed score — his first in the NHL — in regulation, then beat Tomas Vokoun with a nifty deke in the shootout to help the Penguins improve to an NHL-best 9-1-0.
Steven Reinprecht scored twice in the first period for Florida.
The Panthers have lost six of seven to drop to 2-5-1.
BLUES 3, WILD 1
In St Louis, David Perron had a goal and an assist for his first points of the season after getting shifted to the checking line, helping St Louis beat Minnesota.
Jay McClement also scored, and Chris Mason made 20 saves for St Louis.
Chuck Kobasew scored for Minnesota. The Wild have lost seven straight on the road, four shy of the franchise worst.
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