The Los Angeles Kings earned a small amount of breathing space in the jam-packed Western Conference playoff race with a nail-biting 2-1 shootout victory over the Calgary Flames on Monday.
Jarret Stoll scored in regulation and one of his team’s two conversions during the shootout, while goaltender Jonathan Quick made 27 saves and forced two shootout misses from Calgary to move the Kings into sole possession of fifth place in the West, one point behind Phoenix.
Anze Kopitar netted the decisive shootout score with a cheeky shot that he nonchalantly slid through the legs of Calgary goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff.
“I didn’t know [where I was going to shoot] off the bat. I tried the shot and it’s a good thing it worked for me,” Kopitar told reporters. “We knew how big this game was. We just want to keep this pace up and go from there.”
Despite their fifth loss in six games, the Flames (37-27-11) earned a point and are in a three-way tie for eighth in the conference and just three points behind Los Angeles (41-26-6).
Olli Jokinen forced overtime for Calgary with his game-tying goal at 15:13 in the third, a little more than 1 minute after Stoll’s tally, but the visitors could not break through during overtime and missed their last two attempts in the shootout.
Kiprusoff made 26 saves in the loss to rebound from a forgettable performance one day earlier when he was pulled after allowing three goals on five shots to the Anaheim Ducks.
With his latest triumph, Quick improved to 8-0 this season in shootouts.
“He’s very athletic and a very flexible guy,” Stoll said of his teammate. “You can tell when guys are going in on him that he’s reading the shot. He gives us confidence.”
PENGUINS 5, RED WINGS 4
In Detroit, Michigan, the Pittsburgh Penguins blew a four-goal lead before pulling out a 5-4 victory following a shootout against the Detroit Red Wings in the NHL on Monday.
Pascal Dupuis had two goals and an assist to help Pittsburgh build its big lead. Tyler Kennedy put the Penguins ahead 4-0 at 13:16 of the second period, ending Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard’s night.
Henrik Zetterberg started Detroit’s comeback with 2:19 left in the second, Valtteri Filppula had a goal early in the third, and Danny Cleary and Mike Modano scored 2:21 apart midway through the period to make it 4-4.
Pittsburgh’s James Neal scored the only goal in the shootout and Brent Johnson stopped 37 shots for the Penguins.
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