NHL
Anaheim’s Brad Staubitz scored the winning goal as the Ducks beat the Vancouver Canucks 3-1 on Thursday in a clash of NHL Western Conference division leaders.
Staubitz’s goal gave the Ducks a 2-0 lead that held up after 40 minutes, before a Vancouver rally fell short in the third period.
Photo: AFP
Elsewhere, New Jersey won their final home game of the season by beating high-flying Pittsburgh, Montreal beat a Winnipeg team who saw their playoff hopes ended and Ottawa sealed their place in the post-season with victory over Washington.
Anaheim’s game against Vancouver was respectively their last road and home games. The defeat ended the Canucks’ run of eight straight home victories.
Matt Beleskey, also in the second period, and Andrew Cogliano, with a short-handed empty-netter in the final minute, scored for the Ducks, while Jason Garrison netted for the Canucks.
New Jersey’s Ilya Kovalchuk scored his first goal since injuring a shoulder last month, giving the Devils a 3-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Kovalchuk’s goal with 6 minutes, 10 seconds remaining helped New Jersey overcome a 2-0 deficit and win their home finale.
Penguins star Sidney Crosby missed his 10th straight game because of a broken jaw, but he was cleared by medical personnel to return to hockey-related activity.
The Montreal Canadiens’ 4-2 win over Winnipeg came immediately after the Jets learned their playoff hopes were over.
Wins by the New York Rangers and the Ottawa Senators saw them clinch the final two playoff spots in the Eastern Conference.
The Canadiens broke out of a slump in which they had lost five of six.
Ottawa’s 2-1 overtime win over the Washington Capitals was enough to put the Senators into the playoffs.
Sergei Gonchar scored 47 seconds into overtime after Erik Karlsson had set up Ottawa’s first goal in his sooner-than-anticipated return from a torn Achilles tendon.
Alex Ovechkin scored for Washington, the Southeast Division champions, who had nothing at stake.
The Senators, who have two games remaining, moved up to sixth in the East. If they remain there, Ottawa would face the Capitals, who have won 10 of 12 overall — with the only losses against the Senators.
Philadelphia’s Oliver Lauridsen and Danny Briere scored to lead the Flyers to a 2-1 win over the New York Islanders, who dropped to eighth place in the Eastern Conference.
Lauridsen scored only his second career NHL goal as the Flyers — who will miss the playoffs for the first time since 2007 — won their home finale.
The Islanders are headed to the playoffs for the first time in six seasons. They dropped to eighth place after failing to earn a point for the first time in 12 games.
The Columbus Blue Jackets stayed alive in the Western Conference playoff race with a 3-1 win over the Dallas Stars.
Cam Atkinson scored twice and Sergei Bobrovsky made 31 saves for the Blue Jackets, who are level on points with eighth-placed Minnesota, but the Wild hold the tiebreaker.
To make the playoffs, Columbus needs to beat Nashville today and have the Stars beat Detroit in regulation, or have the Wild earn no more than one point in their two remaining games.
Before the game ended, the Stars were eliminated from playoff contention when Detroit defeated Nashville.
The Boston Bruins kept in control of the tight race for the Northeast Division title by beating the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-0.
The Bruins and Montreal are tied with 61 points, but Boston have two games remaining, while the Canadiens only have one.
Dennis Seidenberg and Daniel Paille scored in the second period, while goalie Tuuka Rask took care of the rest as the Bruins won, despite being outshot 30-24.
St Louis’ Ryan Reaves scored twice in the Blues’ 4-1 win over the Calgary Flames, while goalie Brian Elliott earned his NHL-leading 10th win this month.
New York captain Ryan Callahan scored the overtime winner as the Rangers rallied to beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3 and clinch an Eastern Conference playoff berth.
Detroit moved closer to a 22nd straight playoff appearance by beating the Nashville Predators 5-2, with Pavel Datsyuk having a goal and two assists for the Red Wings.
Toronto’s Phil Kessel scored twice to lead the playoff-bound Maple Leafs to a 4-0 win over the last-placed Florida Panthers.
For the first time in almost 36 years, a Parisian derby will be played in French soccer’s top flight when reigning champions Paris Saint-Germain FC take on the nouveau riche Paris Football Club (PFC) today. Not one of the players involved in today’s match — PFC’s 38-year-old third-choice goalkeeper Remy Riou is almost certainly not going to be involved — was born the last time there was a Parisian derby in Ligue 1. That was on Feb. 25, 1990, when Moroccan midfielder Aziz Bouderbala scored a brace as Racing Paris 1 beat PSG 2-1 at the Parc des Princes home that
BOUNCING BACK: Antetokounmpo had just returned from an eight-game injury absence last month, leading the Milwaukee Bucks to their third win in four games Giannis Antetokounmpo threw down the game-winning dunk with 4.7 seconds remaining to lift the Milwaukee Bucks to a 122-121 victory over the Charlotte Hornets and grab a slice of NBA history on Friday. The Bucks trailed by as many as 16 on their home floor, but Antetokounmpo scored 12 of his 30 points in the final quarter to help seal the win in a frantic finish that saw five lead changes in the final 45.7 seconds. The two-time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) added 10 rebounds and five assists. It was his 158th regular-season game with at least 30 points, 10 rebounds and
Stan Wawrinka’s 40-year-old legs did not let him down over three-plus hours in his first singles match of a farewell tour yesterday. Three-time Grand Slam singles champion Wawrinka beat Arthur Rinderknech of France, who is ranked 29th to Wawrinka’s 157th, 5-7, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5). The match went 3 hours, 16 minutes. Wawrinka last month announced that this year would be his last on the ATP tour. “Today was a tough battle ... it’s amazing to come here for the first time, to have so much support,” Wawrinka said yesterday. “Twenty years on tour, you kind of always play in the same place
Four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka yesterday got her season off to a winning start for Japan in the United Cup, after the UK’s Emma Raducanu pulled out of their singles clash with a fitness issue, while in Brisbane, Taiwan’s Latisha Chan and Wu Fang-hsien crashed out of the women’s doubles. In Perth, despite Osaka’s win, the UK took the match 2-1 with a deciding mixed doubles victory. Osaka was too strong for reserve and 276th-ranked Katie Swan, winning 7-6 (7/4), 6-1 as Raducanu watched from the sidelines. “I’m proud of how I fought,” Osaka said. “I’d never played here, it was tough.” Britain
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