Vancouver goaltender Roberto Luongo produced a shutout in his 700th NHL game, leading the Canucks to a 3-0 win over the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday that opened a five-point gap between the Northwest Division’s top teams.
Luongo earned his second shutout of the season — both against the Wild — and the 57th in his NHL career as the Canucks (25-13-3) moved to the top of the league standings with 53 points.
Luongo was not severely tested, but was good when he had to be. Top-line forwards Daniel Sedin and Alex Burrows had goals, and Manny Malhotra scored into an empty net in the final minute.
Photo: Reuters
Vancouver have one more point than Western Conference-rival Chicago, and the Eastern Conference-leading New York Rangers.
The Wild (21-14-6), who led the Northwest before a rash of injuries last month, have lost 10 straight in Vancouver.
BRUINS 6, DEVILS 1
In Newark, New Jersey, Patrice Bergeron scored twice as Boston routed New Jersey and moved within a point of the Eastern Conference lead.
Tim Thomas made 30 saves as the defending Stanley Cup champions got back on track after their seven-game winning streak was snapped on Saturday against Dallas.
Gregory Campbell got Boston even at 1-1 in the first period, and Nathan Horton scored his fifth power-play goal of the season to give the Bruins the lead. David Krejci and Shawn Thornton added goals in the third.
David Clarkson put the Devils on top early with his team-leading 14th goal, but it was not enough to keep New Jersey from its heaviest loss for more than a month.
CANADIENS 7, JETS 3
In Montreal, Lars Eller had four goals and an assist as Montreal bounced back from a poor road trip by trouncing Winnipeg.
Travis Moen had three assists, while Josh Gorges, Tomas Kaberle and Michael Cammalleri also scored for the Canadiens, who improved to 6-7-6 at home.
Tim Stapleton, Blake Wheeler and Andrew Ladd scored for the Jets, who had won three straight going in.
SHARKS 3, DUCKS 1
In Anaheim, Brad Winchester and Benn Ferriero scored 27 seconds apart in the second period as San Jose beat Anaheim for the first time in four tries this season.
Joe Pavelski also scored for the Sharks, who were inexplicably mastered in their first three meetings with the woebegone Ducks, who sit 29th in the NHL standings.
Corey Perry scored for the Ducks, who have lost the first three games of their six-game homestand.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with