The Chicago Blackhawks held off the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 on Friday to claim a sixth successive home victory for the first time in eight seasons.
Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith and Troy Brouwer all scored as Chicago raced to a 3-0 lead, then withstood a pair of late goals by the Leafs’ Phil Kessel to seal the win.
It was Chicago’s third victory in a row since the return of injured captain Jonathan Toews and maintained their lead in the Central Division (11-5-2).
The Blackhawks last won six consecutive games at home in the 2001 to 2002 season when they won seven in a row.
“Tonight we looked like we were on our way — we had a comfortable lead and let it unravel a little,” Chicago coach Joel Quenneville told reporters. “I don’t know if it was letting up, but they scored a goal [in the second period] and it gave them life. We’re happy we got the win.”
Goaltender Vesa Toskala made 31 saves for the Maple Leafs (3-9-5), who suffered their second defeat in a row.
Kane gave Chicago the lead with a snap shot 3:22 into the game and the Blackhawks made it 2-0 10 minutes later on Keith’s goal. Brouwer capitalized on a power play at 2:51 in the second to make it 3-0.
Kessel tried to rally Toronto by beating goaltender Cristobal Huet with just over two minutes left in the second period and scored again at 5:33 in the third. Huet finished with 29 saves.
“Huet made some big saves in the third and they had a lot of chances, you have to give them credit,” Keith said. “We have to make sure when we have a lead we make smart plays with the puck.”
CAPITALS 3, WILD 1
Brian Pothier scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period as Washington beat Minnesota 3-1 on Friday for their fourth win in a row without Alex Ovechkin.
Mike Green scored in the second period for the Capitals, Brooks Laich added an empty-net goal in the final minute, and Semyon Varlamov made 29 saves. Cal Clutterbuck scored for the Wild, 2-9-1 on the road this season.
Ovechkin has missed five games because of an upper-body injury but is expected back any day — perhaps as early as last night at New Jersey.
SABRES 2, FLAMES 1, SO
At Buffalo, New York, Jason Pominville scored the winner in the fourth round of the shootout, and Ryan Miller made 25 saves for Buffalo.
Pominville beat Miikka Kiprusoff with a wrist shot that went between the goalie’s legs. Miller then stopped Rene Bourque’s attempt to secure the bonus point.
Derek Roy scored in regulation for the Sabres. Daymond Langkow scored for Calgary, and Kiprusoff made 32 saves.
THRASHERS 7, KINGS 0
At Atlanta, Ilya Kovalchuk and Maxim Afinogenov each had two goals and two assists for Atlanta, while Ondrej Pavelec made 38 saves for his first career shutout.
Thrashers rookie Evander Kane, the fourth overall draft pick, also scored two goals and had an assist.
BLUE JACKETS 3, DUCKS 2, SO
At Columbus, Ohio, Rick Nash scored the shootout winner and also had a goal in regulation as Columbus edged Anaheim.
Mathieu Garon stopped both Anaheim shooters in the tiebreaker after making 32 saves in regulation and overtime.
Kristian Huselius also scored in the shootout and had a goal and an assist for Columbus.
Bobby Ryan and Todd Marchant scored for Anaheim.
ISLANDERS 4, HURRICANES 3, OT
At Raleigh, North Carolina, Kyle Okposo scored with 14.4 second left in overtime, and rookie John Tavares had his first two-goal game to help New York extend Carolina’s winless streak to 14 games — matching the franchise record.
Mark Streit added a goal, and Martin Biron made 25 saves for New York. Tuomo Ruutu, Ray Whitney and Tim Gleason scored for Carolina.
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