Phil Kessel scored twice to lead the Toronto Maple Leafs to a 4-3 win over the New York Rangers on Monday to open an important home-and-home series between the Eastern Conference rivals.
Toronto (22-13-4) remained fifth in the Eastern Conference standings, moving four points ahead of idle Ottawa with their fifth win in six games.
Derek Stepan pulled New York into a 3-3 tie at 9 minutes of the third period, but Kessel put Toronto back ahead 39 seconds later. The Rangers (19-16-4) remain tied with the idle New York Islanders for seventh in the Eastern Conference with 42 points.
James van Riemsdyk and Ryan O’Byrne also scored for Toronto.
Rick Nash had the other two goals for New York.
BRUINS 6, HURRICANES 2
In Boston, Brad Marchand scored two goals and Tuukka Rask stopped 40 shots as Boston scored a season-high in goals while winning for the fourth time in five games.
Rich Peverley, Andrew Ference, Jordan Caron and Nathan Horton each added a goal, while defenseman Dennis Seidenberg established a career-high with three assists for Boston, who moved a point behind Montreal in the Northeast Division.
Patrick Dwyer and Drayson Bowman scored for the Hurricanes, who lost for the 12th time in 13 games, 11 of them coming in regulation.
Carolina have allowed four or more goals in 10 of their past 14 games.
DUCKS 2, OILERS 1
In Anaheim, California, Radek Dvorak scored two goals and Jonas Hiller made 27 saves after missing four games because of an illness as Anaheim moved closer to their second Pacific Division title in franchise history and the first since their 2006-2007 Stanley Cup championship season.
The Ducks lead Pittsburgh by one point for the NHL’s second-best overall record and trail Chicago by three with eight games remaining.
Ryan Getzlaf, Anaheim’s captain and leading scorer, missed his third straight game because of a leg injury.
Defenseman Nick Schultz ended a 58-game goal drought and Devan Dubnyk stopped 36 shots for the Oilers, who have lost three straight after a season-best five-game winning streak.
CANUCKS 2, COYOTES 0
In Vancouver, Ryan Kesler scored on his return to the lineup after a 20-game absence and Cory Schneider made 19 saves as Vancouver moved four points up on idle Minnesota in the Northwest Division standings.
Monday’s other result:
‧ Flames 3, Avalanche 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