Vancouver’s high-scoring winger Daniel Sedin notched two goals as the Canucks claimed a 4-3 win over the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks on Friday in their NHL playoff series.
Sedin, who led the NHL in regular season scoring with 104 points, scored on the power play in the second period and at even strength in the third — which proved to be the game winner.
Vancouver, who had the NHL’s best regular season record, now lead the best-of-seven series 2-0. The teams now head to Chicago for Game 3 today.
Photo: Reuters
Chicago’s Ben Smith had two goals for the Blackhawks, who again had trouble putting pressure on Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo and were outshot by Vancouver 27 to 26.
CAPITALS 2, RANGERS 0
In Washington, Capitals goalie Michal Neuvirth made 22 saves for his first playoff shutout to help the Capitals beat the New York Rangers 2-0 on Friday to strengthen their NHL series lead.
The Capitals have a 2-0 lead in the best of seven Eastern Conference series, which now shifts to New York for Game 3 today.
The Capitals scored twice inside two minutes early in the second period, with Neuvirth and the Washington defense holding the Rangers at bay for the remainder of the game.
“I feel pretty good about my game right now,” Neuvirth told reporters. “We didn’t give up any big scoring chances — I think it was a solid team effort tonight.”
After a slow start in the first period, the Capitals seized momentum two minutes into the second period when Jason Chimera opened the scoring with a wrist shot from the slot.
Less than a minute later, New York’s Ryan McDonagh was called for roughing and Jason Arnott scored on the powerplay to double the advantage.
“Special teams are going to win you games all the time,” Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau said. “We got a lucky break [on Arnott’s goal]. It was a great shot and we deserved to score.”
The miserly Capitals defense gave up just nine shots in the final two periods as they eased to victory.
“It’s a valuable lesson. We had some turnovers. It caused the momentum change right away in the second period,” Rangers coach John Tortorella said. “For about five or six minutes there, they surged on us. They scored a goal, we take a penalty, get an unfortunate bounce and that’s a big part of the game.”
LIGHTNING 5, PENGUINS 1
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, three broken teeth and a fat lip didn’t stop Martin St Louis from helping Tampa Bay bite back as the Lightning evened the first-round Eastern Conference series against the Pittsburgh Penguins with a 5-1 win on Friday.
St Louis had a goal and assist, and Eric Brewer scored and added two assists for the Lightning.
For St Louis, the performance was payback after the diminutive forward was livid that no penalty was called after he was cracked across the face by Zbynek Michalek’s errant stick in the second period of Tampa Bay’s 3-0 loss in Game 1 on Wednesday night.
Vincent Lecavalier, Nate Thompson and Mattias Ohlund — into an empty net — also scored. Simon Gagne had three assists and Tampa Bay rediscovered their high--powered offense to blow the game open with a three-goal first period. Craig Adams scored for the Penguins.
Game 3 is tomorrow night in Tampa Bay, Florida.
In other NHL play, it was:
Ducks 5, Predators 3
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