The San Jose Sharks moved a step closer to clinching top spot in the NHL’s Western Conference by beating the Vancouver Canucks 4-2 on Thursday.
Joe Thornton scored his first goal since returning from a lower-body injury, while Joe Pavelski, Manny Malhotra and Logan Couture also netted for the Sharks.
San Jose leads Chicago by two points heading into the final weekend of the regular season, but the Blackhawks have a game in hand and the tiebreaker edge.
PHOTO: AFP
The Northwest Division champion Canucks are locked in as the third seed for the playoffs. The only question for Vancouver is whether Henrik Sedin will be the first Canucks player to win the NHL scoring title. Sedin had an assist, giving him 108 points on the season — two more than Washington’s Alex Ovechkin.
Pavel Demitra and Andrew Alberts scored for Vancouver.
COYOTES 3, KINGS 2, SO
In Los Angeles, Phoenix overcame a two-goal deficit in the closing stages to beat Los Angeles.
Drew Doughty and Jack Johnson scored in regulation for the Kings before Matthew Lombardi and Taylor Pyatt scored one minute, 24 seconds apart in the third period to tie it for the Coyotes.
Phoenix’s Adrian Aucoin scored the winner in the fourth round of the shootout.
BRUINS 3, SABRES 1
In Boston, the hosts beat Buffalo to solidify their position in the Eastern Conference playoff race.
With the win, Boston moved out of eighth place in the East and passed Philadelphia to tie for sixth with Montreal.
Dennis Wideman got the go-ahead goal while Miroslav Satan and Mark Recchi also tallied for the Bruins, who scored more than twice for the first time in almost a fortnight.
Derek Roy scored for Buffalo, which had clinched the Northeast Division title.
PENGUINS 7, ISLANDERS 3
In Pittsburgh, Sidney Crosby took the NHL lead with his 49th goal and became the third-youngest player in NHL history to reach the 500-point mark, leading Pittsburgh to a rout of New York.
Crosby finished with four points, assisting on goals by Alex Goligoski and Bill Guerin, giving him 104 points for the season and 501 in his five-season career.
In other NHL play, it was:
• Panthers 3, Devils 2
• Stars 3, Ducks, 2, SO
• Wild 2, Flames 1, SO
• Lightning 4, Senators 3, SO
• Hurricanes 5, Canadiens 2
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