New Jersey’s Alexei Ponikarovsky scored on his own rebound in overtime to give the Devils a 4-3 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday and a 2-1 lead in the NHL Eastern Conference semi-final.
Patrik Elias, Ilya Kovalchuk and Zach Parise also scored for the Devils, who killed two penalties in overtime before Ponikarovsky came through with his first goal of the postseason on a backhander that sneaked past Ilya Bryzgalov.
Martin Brodeur made 25 saves for New Jersey. Kovalchuk, who missed Game 2 with a lower body injury, also had two assists in his return, including one on the game winner.
Photo: AFP
Danny Briere, Matt Carle and Brayden Schenn scored for the Flyers. Bryzgalov had 27 saves.
KINGS 4, BLUES 2
In Los Angeles, California, Drew Doughty had a goal and two assists to help Los Angeles to a win that put them on the brink of a place in the Western Conference final, holding a 3-0 series lead over St Louis.
Photo: AFP
Jonathan Quick made 18 saves for the eighth-seeded Kings, who improved to 7-1 in this postseason with a third-straight dominant win over the Blues.
Mike Richards scored the Kings’ first power-play goal in six games before setting up Doughty’s clinching goal with 11 minutes, 48 seconds to play.
Justin Williams and Dwight King also scored for Los Angeles, while Anze Kopitar had two assists.
Chris Stewart scored twice and Brian Elliott stopped 18 shots in a shaky performance for the Blues, who must accomplish just the fourth comeback from an 0-3 deficit in NHL history to advance.
The Kings can clinch their first conference finals berth in 19 years by winning Game 4 tomorrow.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
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
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