Henrik Lundqvist stopped 26 shots for his NHL-leading 11th shutout and Derek Stepan deflected in Michael Sauer’s shot for the New York Rangers to beat the Boston Bruins 1-0 on Saturday.
It was the Rangers’ eighth victory in their last 10 games, moving them four points ahead of eighth-place Buffalo in the Eastern Conference.
Lundqvist earned his 35th career shutout in his 400th career NHL game.
Tuukka Rask made 22 saves for Boston, who have lost seven of their last 10 games. It was the sixth time the Northeast-leading Bruins have been shut out this season.
FLYERS 4, ISLANDERS 1
In Uniondale, New York, James van Riemsdyk scored two goals in the first period and finished his first NHL hat-trick in the third to help Philadelphia remain alone atop the Eastern Conference.
Jeff Carter gave the Flyers the lead at 8 minutes, 11 seconds, and van Riemsdyk made it 2-0 just 22 seconds later. Blake Comeau got the Islanders within a goal, but van Riemsdyk scored again before the period ended.
Van Riemsdyk’s 19th of the season made it 4-1 at 9:15 of the third during a power-play and gave him his first three-goal game in 145 career contests. Sergei Bobrovsky made 36 saves.
New York are now eliminated from the playoff race.
KINGS 4, AVALANCHE 1
In Los Angeles, Ryan Smyth had a goal and an assist, Michael Handzus connected on a power-play and Los Angeles won after losing scoring leader Anze Kopitar for at least six weeks because of a broken right ankle.
Kopitar was checked lightly by defenseman Ryan O’Byrne against the left boards in the Colorado zone before falling backward. He lay on the ice for several moments, before he was helped off in severe pain.
The Kings tightened their grip on a playoff spot and completed their first four-game season sweep of the Colorado-Quebec Nordiques franchise. Milan Hejduk scored for Colorado.
CAPITALS 2, CANADIENS 0
In Montreal, Braden Holtby made 18 saves for his second shutout, while Marco Sturm and Alexander Semin scored as Washington sent Montreal to their third straight shutout loss.
Holtby, recalled from Hershey of the AHL earlier in the day, faced little offense from Montreal, who had not been held scoreless in three straight games since Oct. 23 to Oct. 29, 1949.
Washington, who have won 14 of 17, played their third straight game without injured captain Alexander Ovechkin. The Canadiens have been held without a goal since last Sunday, when they had their highest-scoring game in three years in an 8-1 win in Minnesota.
SABRES 2, DEVILS 0
In Buffalo, New York, Ryan Miller stopped 30 shots for his fifth shutout of the season to all but end New Jersey’s playoff hopes.
Nathan Gerbe and Thomas Vanek scored first-period goals to help the Sabres win their third straight and maintain their hold on eighth place in the Eastern Conference.
The Devils were shut out on consecutive nights following a 1-0 shootout loss at Pittsburgh. They’ve gone 173:55 without scoring a goal.
In other NHL play, it was:
‧ Lightning 4, Hurricanes 2
‧ Red Wings 4, Maple Leafs 2
‧ Ducks 2, Blackhawks 1
‧ Predators 4, Stars 2
‧ Blues 6, Wild 3
‧ Flames 5, Oilers 4, SO
‧ Sharks 4, Coyotes 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
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
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier