The Chicago Blackhawks won their 11th consecutive game with a 3-2 victory over the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday night to extend the best start in NHL history.
Daniel Carcillo scored the tiebreaking goal with 49.3 seconds left, and Jonathan Toews and Andrew Shaw also scored for Chicago, who reached the halfway point of a season shortened by a lockout without losing in regulation time. The remarkable Blackhawks have earned at least one point in their first 24 games, an NHL record.
Dating back to last year’s regular season, the streak is 30 games.
The Blackhawks broke the previous team record for consecutive wins with their 10th in a row on Tuesday night, when they beat Minnesota 5-3.
John Mitchell and Matt Duchene scored for Colorado, who have lost six of seven.
Anaheim’s Jonas Hiller faced only 18 shots in his first shutout of the season and Corey Perry scored in the first period as the Ducks beat the Phoenix Coyotes 2-0 for their ninth consecutive victory at home.
The Ducks have the second-best record in the NHL with 16 wins and three losses, and still trail the Blackhawks by 10 points. Anaheim’s start is level with the best in club history after 22 games.
Jason LaBarbera made 22 saves for Phoenix, one of them on a penalty shot by Andrew Cogliano.
At Toronto, Phil Kessel had a goal and two assists to help the Maple Leafs hold off the Ottawa Senators 5-4 in a game highlighted by a knockout punch from Frazer McLaren.
Only 26 seconds into the game McLaren downed Dave Dziurzynski when he caught the Ottawa forward flush with a right to the chin, sending him face down to the ice. A woozy Dziurzynski was slow getting up and eventually needed help from two teammates to skate off.
Tyler Bozak and James van Riemsdyk each had a goal and an assist for the Maple Leafs, who won their third straight.
Miikka Kiprusoff made 32 saves in his return from a knee injury to lead the Calgary Flames to a 4-1 win over the San Jose Sharks.
Blake Comeau scored the tiebreaking goal early in the third period. Jarome Iginla, Roman Cervenka and Curtis Glencross (into an empty net) also scored for the Flames.
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
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