Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin scored his 50th goal of the season and added an assist to lock up his second NHL scoring title as the Penguins beat the Philadelphia Flyers 4-2 on the closing day of the regular season on Saturday.
Malkin finished with 109 points pre-playoffs and became the ninth player in Penguins history to reach the 50-goal mark when he scored with 12 seconds left in the second period to give Pittsburgh a two-goal lead.
Sidney Crosby, Chris Kunitz and Pascal Dupuis also scored for the Penguins, who knocked off the Flyers for the first time at Consol Energy Center.
Brayden Schenn and Jaromir Jagr scored for the Flyers, who rested leading scorer Claude Giroux in preparation for their first-round playoffs matchup between the two teams this week.
CAPITALS 3, RANGERS 1
In New York, Washington cost New York their chance to clinch the Presidents’ Trophy for the best regular-season record.
The Rangers finished with 109 points and gave up overall top spot to Vancouver, who clinched it with a win on the final day. That will also give the Canucks home-ice advantage if they meet the Rangers in the Stanley Cup finals.
Washington, who set up the win with three first-period goals, claimed the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference.
Alex Ovechkin, Mathieu Perreault and Nicklas Backstrom also scored for the Capitals, while third-string goaltender Braden Holtby made 35 saves.
FLAMES 5, DUCKS 2
In Calgary, Akim Aliu scored his first two NHL goals to lead Calgary to a season-ending win over Anaheim.
By winning their final two games, the Flames reached the 90-point mark for the eighth season in a row. However, since going to the Stanley Cup finals in 2004, they have been ousted from the playoffs in the first round four times followed by three years of not making the postseason.
Jay Bouwmeester, Anton Babchuk and Lee Stempniak also scored for Calgary.
Bobby Ryan scored his 30th and 31st goals of the season for the Ducks, who finished with their worst record since 2003-2004.
BRUINS 4, SABRES 3, SO
In Boston, Patrice Bergeron had three assists before scoring the winner in the shootout to lead defending Stanley Cup champions Boston into the playoffs with a win over Buffalo.
Tyler Seguin scored twice and Brad Marchand also had a goal for the Bruins, who will be the No. 2 seed in the East.
Brad Boyes scored twice for the Sabres, who had already been eliminated from the playoff race.
CANUCKS 3, OILERS 0
In Vancouver, the hosts took out the Presidents’ Trophy with victory over Edmonton.
Henrik Sedin, Sammy Pahlsson and David Booth scored for the Canucks, who needed at least a point from this game to take the regular-season title.
LIGHTNING 4, JETS 3, OT
In Winnipeg, Steven Stamkos scored his 60th goal and Teddy Purcell had a hat-trick — including the overtime winner — to lift Tampa Bay over Winnipeg.
Fans gave Stamkos a standing ovation after his third-period goal, making him the second player since 1996 to net 60 in a season.
Jets forward Jim Slater scored his second goal of the night with 53 seconds left in regulation to send the game into overtime. Nik Antropov also scored for Winnipeg.
In other NHL action, it was:
‧ Panthers 4, Hurricanes 1
‧ Blackhawks 3, Red Wings 2, SO
‧ Blues 3, Stars 2
‧ Devils 4, Senators 2
‧ Sharks 3, Kings 2, OT
‧ Blue Jackets 7, Islanders 3
‧ Coyotes 4, Wild 1
‧ Predators 6, Avalanche 1
‧ Canadiens 4, Maple Leafs 1
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