The Toronto Maple Leafs blanked the New Jersey Devils 2-0 on Monday on the back of James Reimer’s 31 saves, while the game between the Boston Bruins and Ottawa Senators was postponed in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings.
Phil Kessel broke a scoreless deadlock late in the third period and Jay McClement scored into an empty net with 36.6 seconds remaining to back Reimer’s third shutout of the season and lift Toronto to the win.
The Devils’ defeat was their 10th in a row and their second consecutive game with no points. The defending Eastern Conference champions are in 11th place, six points below the post-season cutoff with only six games remaining.
No new date has been scheduled for the Senators-Bruins match.
Hockey fans were turned away from the stadium in downtown Boston after two bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon earlier on Monday, killing three people, injuring more than 100 others and sending authorities rushing to aid wounded spectators.
At Montreal, Scott Hartnell scored three goals as the Philadelphia Phillies ended a four-game losing streak with a 7-3 victory over the Canadiens.
Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek each had a goal and two assists, while Wayne Simmonds and Erik Gustafsson also scored for the Flyers, who matched their season-high for goals as they try to make a late push for a playoff spot.
Philadelphia are in 12th place in the Eastern Conference, four places and seven points behind the New York Rangers and the post-season cutoff. The Flyers have six games remaining.
Max Pacioretty, Brendan Gallagher and Alex Galchenyuk scored for the Canadiens, who have had two lopsided losses since clinching a playoff spot on Thursday last week.
Chicago’s Andrew Shaw, Niklas Hjalmarsson and Marian Hossa scored in the third period after Dallas rallied to push the Blackhawks to 5-2 past the Dallas Stars for their sixth consecutive win.
Jonathan Toews netted his team-leading 21st goal and Viktor Stalberg also scored for NHL-leading Chicago, who have points in nine consecutive games. Ray Emery made 16 saves and improved to 16-1.
Jamie Benn scored both goals for the Stars, whose five-game winning streak ended.
The Stars remained in ninth place in the Western Conference, two points below the post-season cutoff with only six games to go.
In other games, the Vancouver Canucks downed the Nashville Predators 5-2, the Columbus Blue Jackets had a 4-3 overtime win against the Colorado Avalanche, the Minnesota Wild edged the Calgary Flames 4-3 and the San Jose Sharks blanked the Phoenix Coyotes 4-0.
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
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