The puck had barely touched the ice for the opening face-off when gloves were dropped and fists started flying as the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils tore into each other in their NHL Eastern Conference clash on Monday.
The Rangers looked to get the best of the early battle, in which three skaters from each team squared off, and emerged with a 4-2 win that clinched a spot in the playoffs and maintained their conference lead.
New York’s Mike Rupp, Brandon Prust and Stu Bickel traded punches with Eric Boulton, Cam Janssen and Ryan Carter of New Jersey to set off the early fireworks at Madison Square Garden.
Bickel’s brawl with Carter did not stop when they hit the ice as the New York defenseman continued to throw punches. Devils defenseman Bryce Salvador was hit with a 10-minute misconduct penalty for trying to pull Bickel off the bloodied Carter.
“We’re not going into the game saying: ‘We’ve got to go and send a message.’ We know what our team is about,” Rupp told reporters. “If they want to play that way, and think it will go really well that way, if they want to play an open game, I think we’re built well in that area, too.”
New York’s Brandon Dubinsky scored a minute after calm was restored and Dan Girardi stretched the lead to 2-0 less than a minute into the second.
New Jersey’s Patrik Elias and Petr Sykora netted later in the second, as did the Rangers’ Mats Zuccarello, as the Rangers took a 3-2 lead into the final period.
New York’s Derek Stepan made the game safe with a tip-in goal with 1 minute, 10 seconds left.
The win snapped two straight losses for the Rangers (45-20-7) and moved them three points clear of surging Pittsburgh in the Atlantic Division.
The Devils (41-27-5) remain sixth in the conference.
“It’s our first time since I’ve been here, in six years, that we clinched [the playoffs] this early,” Girardi said. “It’s a nice feeling knowing you’ll be in the playoffs. We have to handle it the right way.”
CAPITALS 5, RED WINGS 3
In Detroit, Michigan, Alexander Ovechkin scored twice as Washington held on for a win over -injury-plagued Detroit.
Mike Knuble had a goal and an assist, while Keith Aucoin and Jason Chimera also scored for Washington. Alexander Semin and Marcus Johansson each had two assists, while Braden Holtby made 30 saves to send Detroit to their fifth straight loss and seventh in eight games.
Kyle Quincey, Todd Bertuzzi and Danny Cleary scored for Detroit. Brendan Smith had two assists and Jimmy Howard stopped 17 shots.
BRUINS 8, MAPLE LEAFS 0
In Boston, Benoit Pouliot scored two goals, while Brian Rolston had a goal and three assists as Boston completed a six-game season sweep of Toronto.
Boston have outscored Toronto 36-10 this season. Tim Thomas is 5-0 against the Maple Leafs after being rarely tested in his fifth shutout of the season, while facing just 13 shots. He was also in net for a 7-0 rout, at Toronto on Nov. 5. The only one of the six games that the Bruins won by fewer than three goals was a 5-4 victory on March 6 in Toronto.
The Maple Leafs fell into a huge hole early, dropping behind 4-0 when Brad Marchand scored his 24th goal of the season just 12:42 into the game. That was when Toronto goalie James Reimer, who had stopped only five of nine shots, was replaced by Jonas Gustavsson.
SABRES 7, LIGHTNING 3
In Tampa, Florida, Marcus Foligno and Jason Pominville each scored twice as Buffalo trounced Tampa Bay.
Foligno had two of Buffalo’s four second-period goals, helping the Sabres take a 6-2 lead. Pominville scored in the first as the Sabres went up 2-0, and made it 7-2 on a goal 17 seconds into the third.
Drew Stafford, Corey Tropp and Brad Boyes had the other Buffalo goals. The Sabres are 4-1-2 over their last seven games and remain two points behind Washington for eighth place in the Eastern Conference.
Bruno Gervais, Trevor Smith and Ryan Malone scored for the Lightning, who have lost six of seven.
WILD 2, CANUCKS 0
In St Paul, Minnesota, Erik Christensen’s power-play goal late in the second period gave Josh Harding and Minnesota a long-sought win over suddenly sputtering Vancouver.
Kyle Brodziak’s empty-netter gave the Wild even more to smile about, hearing a rare end-of-the-game roar from their fans after this win over the Northwest Division leaders and competitors for the NHL’s best record.
DUCKS 5, SHARKS 3
In San Jose, California, Bobby Ryan had a goal and two assists as Jeff Deslauriers won in his first game in more than two months with Anaheim’s victory over San Jose.
Francois Beauchemin, Corey Perry, Nate Guenin and Kyle Palmieri also scored, while Nick Bonino had a career-high three assists for the last-place Ducks, who had lost five of six.
Marty Havlat, Ryane Clowe and Joe Pavelski scored for the Sharks, who missed a golden opportunity to improve their playoff positioning on a night their rivals were idle.
San Jose entered the night in ninth place in the Western Conference, but could have moved into third position by taking the Pacific Division lead with a win.
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