Mathieu Garon stopped 29 shots for his 17th career shutout to lead the Columbus Blue Jackets to a 3-0 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday.
Rick Nash, Derick Brassard and Kyle Wilson had goals and Jake Voracek added two assists for the Blue Jackets, who have won six of eight.
Garon, a second-round pick by the Canadiens in the 1996 draft, played three seasons for Montreal. He improved to 8-0-4 in home games since joining Columbus as a free agent last year.
SENATORS 3, MAPLE LEAFS 2
In Toronto, Sergei Gonchar and Erik Karlsson scored power-play goals 2:26 apart in the second period as Ottawa beat slumping Toronto.
Mike Fisher had the other goal for the Senators on a penalty shot.
Brian Elliott appeared poised to become the third straight goalie to blank the Maple Leafs until Francois Beauchemin trickled a point shot by him at 5:15 of the third period.
Clarke MacArthur also scored for the Maple Leafs. Toronto captain Dion Phaneuf left in the second period with an apparent injury to his left leg.
WILD 1, SHARKS 0
In St Paul, Minnesota, Niklas Backstrom stopped 36 shots and Andrew Brunette scored the game’s only goal as Minnesota shut out the powerful San Jose Sharks.
The Sharks held an 18-4 shots advantage midway through the second, but found themselves trailing after Brunette scored a 5-on-3 goal with 7 minutes left in the period.
The Wild killed five power plays, highlighted by a key stop with 7 minutes remaining in the third.
The Sharks entered as the top power-play team in the NHL at 31.6 percent.
CANUCKS 4, OILERS 3
In Edmonton, Alberta, Raffi Torres scored a hat trick against his former team as Vancouver withstood a late charge to beat Edmonton for its fourth straight win.
Daniel Sedin also scored for the Canucks (6-3-2), who won for the first time on the road this season. Vancouver plays seven of its next eight away from home.
Dustin Penner, Ryan Jones and Gilbert Brule scored for the Oilers (3-5-2), who have one win in their past eight games after a 2-0 start.
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