Martin Brodeur tied Terry Sawchuk’s NHL record with his 103rd shutout to lead the New Jersey Devils to a 3-0 victory over the Buffalo Sabres in the NHL on Monday.
Brodeur was rarely tested in making 22 saves to tie Sawchuk, who played from 1949 to 1970. It was Brodeur’s second shutout of the season after he blanked Carolina on Oct. 17.
Brodeur earned his league-leading 18th victory of the season. He preserved the shutout with a lightning-quick glove stop on Buffalo defenseman Steve Montador’s wrist shot from the slot 5 minutes into the third period.
Brian Rolston, Travis Zajac and Niclas Bergfors scored for New Jersey.
CAPITALS 3, LIGHTNING 0
At Tampa, Florida, Alex Ovechkin scored two goals in his return from a two-game suspension as Washington beat the Lightning for the 12th consecutive time.
Ovechkin was suspended by the NHL following a kneeing penalty during a Nov. 30 game with Carolina. Both of his goals came during the Capitals’ three-goal second.
Eric Fehr also scored for the Capitals. Tampa Bay has lost five of six.
MAPLE LEAFS 5, THRASHERS 2
At Toronto, Vesa Toskala made 22 saves in his first start since Nov. 23 and Alexei Ponikarovsky scored goals 28 seconds apart for the Toronto.
Lee Stempniak, Matt Stajan and Mikhail Grabovski also had goals for the Maple Leafs. It was the first time Toronto won a weekday game at home this season and it came against one of the NHL’s best road teams. Bryan Little and Marty Reasoner scored for Atlanta.
CANADIENS 3, FLYERS 1
At Montreal, Mike Cammalleri notched his team-leading 16th goal after Andrei Kostitsyn scored on Montreal’s third shot of the game in the second period.
Carey Price made 14 saves and Marc-Andre Bergeron also scored for Montreal, which won its second in a row following an 0-3-1 skid despite managing just 13 shots, including one in the opening period.
Daniel Briere scored an unassisted goal in the first for Philadelphia, which lost its fifth in a row, including an 8-2 loss to Washington on Saturday in Peter Laviolette’s debut behind the Flyers’ bench.
AVALANCHE 4, BLUES 0
At St Louis, Missouri, Peter Budaj stopped 35 shots and Chris Stewart had two goals and an assist as Colorado ended a five-game trip with a shutout.
Paul Stastny and Matt Duchene each scored goals, Wojtek Wolski had three assists and John-Michael Liles collected two assists for the Avs.
Budaj earned his seventh career shutout and first this season in his fifth start.
HURRICANES 3, PENGUINS 2
At Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Manny Legace stopped 30 shots and Ray Whitney had the decisive goal and an assist as Carolina won on the road for the first time this season.
Eric Staal and Joni Pitkanen each had two assists and Andrew Alberts and Jussi Jokinen also scored as Carolina ended its 13-game road losing streak (0-10-3).
Sidney Crosby and Mike Rupp scored less than a minute apart in the second.
OILERS 3, PANTHERS 2, SO
At Sunrise, Florida, Shawn Horcoff scored once in regulation and again in the shootout to lead Edmonton over Florida.
Dustin Penner also scored and Jeff Deslauriers made 33 saves for Edmonton. Deslauriers was playing in his ninth straight game while starter Nikolai Khabibulin recovers from a back injury.
Dominic Moore scored two goals for the Panthers and Tomas Vokoun stopped 26 shots.
In other NHL action, it was:
• Coyotes 2, Wild 0
• Kings 2, Flames 1
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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