The San Jose Sharks extended their winning streak to four games, all of them on the road, with a 4-2 victory over the struggling Detroit Red Wings at Joe Louis Arena on Friday.
“I thought it was a hell of a game for early in the year,” Sharks coach Todd McLellan told reporters. “It could have gone either way, just like all the other ones, but it was a hard-played game.”
It was a third consecutive defeat for the Red Wings after starting the season with five wins.
“We needed to get a win here, any way you look at it,” Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. “We’ve suddenly lost three in a row, and those things start to pile up on you, so it’s very important that we get on our flight and respond. We just have to find a way to get a win.”
Joe Thornton scored the winning goal on a breakaway with less than two minutes remaining in the second period, snapping a crisp shot along the ice past a surprised Red Wings goalie Jimmy Howard.
Thornton then secured the win with an empty-net goal in the final minute of the third.
“He [Thornton] had so much time, I was thinking deke,” Howard said of the third goal. “I thought he was going to try something. I didn’t think he was going to fire it in between the hash marks. He noticed that he was all alone, so I figured that he was going to try and deke. He surprised me by shooting it that fast.”
Henrik Zetterberg scored the only goal of the first period to give the Red Wings the lead, quickly firing a bounce pass off the end boards from Nicklas Lidstrom into the open net before Sharks goalie Antti Niemi could get across to make the save.
Ryan Clowe tied the game early in the second period with a power-play goal and the speedy Patrick Marleau beat Ian White to a loose puck in front of the Red Wings net and snapped a shot into the top -corner to give the Sharks a 2-1 lead.
Detroit battled back to tie the score with a power-play goal with five minutes left in the second period when Tomas Holmstrom, stationed directly in front of the Sharks goal, deflected a shot by Pavel Datsyuk.
OILERS 3, AVALANCHE 1
In Denver, Colorado, Devan Dubnyk had a season-high 40 saves, and defensemen Cam Barker and Andy Sutton each scored their first goals of the season as Edmonton downed Colorado.
Ryan Smyth added a goal and two assists to help the Oilers win their fourth straight.
Ryan O’Reilly scored for Colorado, which leads the league with six road wins, but fell to 0-3 at home despite having a season-high 41 shots.
Both teams are off to good starts after finishing last season 29th (Colorado) and 30th (Edmonton) in the NHL last season. The game featured the first meeting between the top two picks in the NHL draft, Edmonton’s No. 1 overall pick Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Colorado’s Gabriel Landeskog, the second overall selection.
HURRICANES 3, BLACKHAWKS 0
In Raleigh, North Carolina, Cam Ward made 30 saves in his first shutout of the season as the Carolina Hurricanes ended a three-game losing streak by beating the Chicago Blackhawks.
Tim Brent scored on a -deflection and Brandon Sutter and Jiri Tlusty added third-period goals for the Hurricanes, who claimed their first win since Oct. 18 in Boston.
Corey Crawford stopped 30 shots for the Blackhawks, who were beaten in regulation for the first time since opening night.
They entered with a two-point lead in the Central Division, but were shut out for the first time this season and remained winless at the RBC Center, which opened in 1999.
Patrick Marleau had a goal and an assist and Ryane Clowe also scored for the Sharks.
Henrik Zetterberg and Tomas Holmstrom scored for Detroit, who have lost three in a row, -Nicklas Lidstrom had two assists and Jimmy Howard made 26 saves.
San Jose has eliminated Detroit in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs the past two seasons. It was a seven-game set last spring in which the Red Wings rallied from a 3-0 series deficit to for a decisive Game 7.
FLAMES 3, BLUES 1
In Calgary, Alberta, Roman Horak had a goal and an assist and Miikka Kiprusoff made 28 saves as Calgary downed St Louis.
Tom Kostopoulos and Olli Jokinen also scored for the Flames. Horak, a 20-year-old rookie, had two points for the second straight game after after getting his first career goal against Colorado on Wednesday night.
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