The Florida Panthers earned their first regulation victory over Vancouver in more than 12 years on Monday, beating the Western Conference-leading Canucks 2-1 in Sunrise, Florida.
Dmitry Kulikov and Marcel Goc each scored in the second period to erase a 1-0 deficit and the Panthers (21-13-8) held firm for their first regulation win against the Canucks since October 1999.
Backup goaltender Scott Clemmensen allowed a first-period score to Dale Weise just three minutes in, but recovered to make 25 saves as he got his second straight start in three games in place of the injured Jose Theodore.
“We believe that we can beat anyone in the league on any given night,” Clemmensen told reporters. “Vancouver is one of the best teams in the league. We think we can beat them. We showed it tonight.”
Vancouver’s Roberto Luongo had 20 saves as he returned to the place where he spent five seasons before being traded to the Canucks (26-14-3) in 2006.
The loss prevented Vancouver coach Alain Vigneault from becoming the Western Conference coach for the All Star Game in Ottawa.
That honor will go instead to San Jose’s Todd McLellan, whose team has the greatest points percentage in the Western Conference through Monday’s games.
Coming off an emotional 4-3 victory at Boston on Saturday in a rematch of last season’s Stanley Cup Final, the Canucks may have experienced a bit of a letdown.
“We’ve got to find the emotions to win this game,” Vancouver’s Daniel Sedin said. “It was there for us and we let it slip away.”
The Panthers were able to extend their lead in the Southeast Division to five points with the win.
In Monday’s other game, it was:
‧ Kings 5, Capitals 2
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
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