The Pittsburgh Penguins took advantage of some shoddy defending to beat the Ottawa Senators 4-2 on Sunday and take a 2-1 lead in their best-of-seven NHL playoff series.
The Stanley Cup champions scored on their first shot in a bad tempered contest and although Ottawa rallied to tie the game, second period goals by forward Evgeni Malkin and captain Sidney Crosby secured the win for the visitors.
The Penguins, still unhappy about a hit from Ottawa’s Andy Sutton on Jordan Leopold in Game 2, started in an angry mood and the game was marked by a series of crunching hits, fights and penalties.
Ottawa had split the first two games of the series in Pittsburgh but appeared sluggish on their return home and were a goal down just 1:17 into the game when Alexei Ponikarovsky easily beat goaltender Brian Elliott.
“That goal was huge for us to get us started. It was tough sledding there in the first period but when you look up and you see 1-0, it’s a big boost for your team, especially when you go on the road,” Pittsburgh head coach Dan Bylsma told reporters.
Mike Fisher tied the game at 1:53 into the second period but four minutes later, rookie defender Erik Karlsson lost control of the puck near his net, allowing Maxime Talbot to steal in and present Malkin with an easy finish.
Crosby scored on a power play to give his team a 3-1 lead at 19:15 in the second period, effectively killing off the game.
Bill Guerin added a breakaway goal at 4:27 in the third period while Matt Cullen scored a late power play goal for Ottawa.
“We didn’t bury our chances and they were very opportunistic ... I think we all have to play a little bit better,” Ottawa head coach Cory Clouston said.
In Philadelphia, Daniel Carcillo netted the game-winner with a wrap-around score at 3:35 in overtime to help the Flyers to a 3-2 victory over the New Jersey Devils and a 2-1 series lead.
In Denver, goaltender Craig Anderson set a playoff record by making 50 saves in regulation without conceding as the Colorado Avalanche claimed a 2-1 series lead over the San Jose Sharks with a 1-0 overtime triumph.
Rookie Ryan O’Reilly scored the game-winner just 51 seconds into the extra session and Anderson finished with 51 total saves as Colorado stunned the top seeded team in the Western Conference.
In Detroit, Wojtek Wolski scored his third goal of the series with 32 seconds remaining in the second period to help the Phoenix Coyotes register a 4-2 victory over the Red Wings for a 2-1 series lead.
The West’s second seed, the Chicago Blackhawks, got 23 saves from Antti Niemi in a 2-0 shutout win over the Nashville Predators that evened their series 1-1.
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