The Pittsburgh Penguins clinched home-ice advantage throughout the NHL Eastern Conference playoffs by beating the Boston Bruins 3-2 on Saturday.
Jarome Iginla scored the go-ahead goal for the Penguins, who put a dampener on the return of hockey to Boston. The game had been pushed back a day due to the manhunt for the suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings.
In other key games, Phoenix kept a pulse in their playoff hopes by edging NHL leader Chicago, Washington downed Montreal to open a three-point lead in the Southeast Division and Toronto secured their first playoff berth in nine years by defeating Ottawa.
Pittsburgh took a nine-point lead in the East over Montreal, who could get just eight more points in their remaining four games. The Bruins remained in fourth place with five games to go.
The Penguins won their sixth straight game, despite the absence of Sidney Crosby, who missed his eighth game with a broken jaw.
Phoenix’s Mikkel Boedker and David Schlemko scored shootout goals to lift the Coyotes to a 3-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks.
Phoenix, who ended Chicago’s seven-game winning streak, trail Columbus by three points for the final playoff spot with four to play.
Despite the loss, the league-leading Blackhawks have earned a point in 11 straight.
Washington’s Troy Brouwer and Alex Ovechkin each scored twice as the Capitals downed the Montreal Canadiens 5-1.
Ovechkin took a step toward a third Rocket Richard Trophy as the NHL’s top goal scorer with his 29th and 30th of the season. He has 20 goals in his last 18 games.
Goaltender James Reimer put in an enormous effort with 49 saves, helping the Maple Leafs to a 4-1 win over the Ottawa Senators.
In other NHL action, it was:
‧ Islanders 5, Jets 4 SO
‧ Flyers 5, Hurricanes 3
‧ Devils 6, Panthers 2
‧ Canucks 2, Red Wings 1
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later