Jaromir Jagr scored on his return to Pittsburgh on Thursday, sparking the Philadelphia Flyers to a 4-2 victory and snapping the Penguins’ four-game win streak.
Jagr, who spent the first 11 years of his career with the Penguins, broke a 1-1 tie with his 12th goal of the season to give the Flyers the momentum in the second period.
The 39-year-old joined Philadelphia in the off-season after spending three years in Russia and admitted that he should have scored a hatful in familiar surroundings.
Photo: AFP
“I felt pretty good, I had so many chances,” Jagr told reporters. “I could have scored five goals, but I just couldn’t score. Fifteen years ago I would score five, but not anymore.”
Pittsburgh’s Jordan Staal had opened the scoring, before Kimmo Timonen tied it at 1-1 midway through the first period.
After Jagr put the Flyers ahead six minutes into the second, Matt Read made it 3-1 10 minutes later.
Photo: Reuters
Pittsburgh’s Tyler Kennedy cut the deficit to 3-2 with a slap shot at 13 minutes, 31 seconds in the third period, but Maxime Talbot clinched the win with an empty-net goal with 25 seconds remaining.
The victory moved Philadelphia (22-10-4) into a tie with the New York Rangers for first place in the Atlantic Division, while the Penguins (21-12-4) stayed two points behind.
Sergei Bobrovsky made 24 saves to help secure the win for the Flyers, while Claude Giroux chipped in two assists to run his assist total to 29 on the season.
The Flyers had lost four of five coming into the night, but found inspiration in Pittsburgh.
JETS 1, KINGS 0, OT
In Winnipeg, Canada, Evander Kane scored the only goal of the game 69 seconds into overtime as Winnipeg edged Los Angeles.
Kane scooped the puck out of goalie Jonathan Bernier’s pads and fired it into the net.
Bernier and Jets goalie Chris Mason were the stars throughout until Kane’s winner. Mason made 31 saves and earned his first shutout of the season, while Bernier was the tough-luck loser despite making 26 saves.
The Kings have not lost in regulation since Darryl Sutter took over as coach, going 3-0-2. However, Los Angeles failed on five power plays and have scored only four man-advantage in the past 17 games.
WILD 4, OILERS 3
In St Paul, Minnesota, Dany Heatley scored his third goal in four games to help Minnesota snap an eight-game losing streak with a victory over Edmonton.
Mikko Koivu, Jarod Palmer and Pierre-Marc Bouchard also scored for the Wild.
Taylor Hall, Ladislav Smid and Shawn Horcoff scored for the Oilers, who have lost six of seven. Their only win in that stretch was against the Wild last week.
AVALANCHE 3, COYOTES 2
In Denver, Colorado, Semyon Varlamov made 25 saves as Colorado denied Phoenix.
Gabriel Landeskog had a goal and an assist, while Kevin Porter and Stefan Elliott also scored for Colorado, who went 8-1 at home this month.
Mikkel Boedker scored both goals for the Coyotes.
Avalanche center Matt Duchene left the game early in the first period with an injury and did not return.
CANUCKS 5, DUCKS 2
In Anaheim, Daniel Sedin scored twice and twin brother Henrik once as Vancouver defeated Anaheim.
Cody Hodgson and Mason Raymond also scored for the Canucks, who tied Chicago for first place in the overall NHL standings.
Bobby Ryan and Nick Bonino scored third-period goals for Anaheim.
HURRICANES 4, MAPLE LEAFS 3, OT
In Raleigh, North Carolina, Eric Staal scored a power-play goal 3 minutes, 9 seconds in overtime to lift Carolina to a comeback win over Toronto.
Staal had two goals and an assist, while Zac Dalpe and Brandon Sutter also scored for the Hurricanes. who rallied from a two-goal deficit.
It was the Hurricanes’ third straight home win, their longest streak there this season.
Nikolai Kulemin, Joffrey Lupul and Nazem Kadri had Toronto’s goals.
ISLANDERS 3, FLAMES 1
In Uniondale, New York, John Tavares scored a goal and added an assist in New York’s win against Calgary.
Andrew MacDonald and Brian Rolston also scored, while Evgeni Nabokov made 29 saves for New York, who had lost four in a row at home coming in.
Tim Jackman scored the lone goal for the Flames, who had won their previous four.
LIGHTNING 4, CANADIENS 3
In Tampa, Florida, Vincent Lecavalier scored a tiebreaking goal midway through the third period to lift Tampa Bay over Montreal.
Steven Stamkos netted his NHL-leading 23rd of the season, while the Lightning also got goals from J.T. Wyman and Marc-Andre Bergeron.
Michael Cammalleri, David Desharnais and Erik Cole scored for the Canadiens, who have lost six of seven.
BLUE JACKETS 4, STARS 1
In Dallas, Rick Nash scored twice as Columbus won in regulation on the road for the first time this season, sinking Dallas.
Steve Mason made 36 saves, while Antoine Vermette added a goal and Fedor Tyutin’s empty-net goal with 2 seconds left clinched the victory for the Blue Jackets, who have an NHL-worst 25 points.
Vernon Fiddler had the sole goal for Dallas.
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