Anaheim’s Nick Bonino scored on a power play — seconds after Detroit’s Justin Abdelkader was ejected for a violent hit on Toni Lydman — and the Ducks went on to a 4-0 victory over the Red Wings to take a 2-1 series lead in the Western Conference playoffs.
Elsewhere, Los Angeles, chasing back-to-back Stanley Cup titles, beat St Louis to trim the series deficit to 2-1, Washington beat the New York Rangers in overtime to go up 2-0 and Toronto beat Boston to square their series at 1-1.
Detroit’s Abdelkader appeared to catch Lydman square in the side of the head with his left shoulder, and he was given a major penalty for charging and a game misconduct with 4 minutes, 49 seconds remaining in the second.
The Ducks immediately took advantage, when Bonino backhanded a shot past the goalie from point-blank range.
Ryan Getzlaf, Emerson Etem and Matt Beleskey added to the lead in the third period for the Ducks.
Los Angeles goalie Jonathan Quick made up for his costly errors in the first two games of the series by shutting out St Louis as the Kings beat the Blues 1-0.
Slava Voynov scored the sole goal for the defending Stanley Cup champions, who got a brilliant performance from their goalie in a tight defensive game.
The Kings are unbeaten at home since March 23.
Washington’s Mike Green scored a power-play goal in overtime to give the Capitals a 1-0 win over the Rangers in a game featuring outstanding performances by both goaltenders.
Green nailed a one-timer from high in the slot precisely at the eight-minute mark of the extra period.
Washington goalie Braden Holtby made 24 saves for his first career playoff shutout, and has stopped 59 of 60 shots in the series. At the other end, Henrik Lundqvist made 37 saves for the Rangers.
Toronto’s Joffrey Lupul scored twice as the Maple Leafs beat the Bruins 4-2 to square the series away.
The Maple Leafs played aggressively from the start after a weak performance in the series opener. Toronto delivered 22 hits in the first period to just 10 for Boston.
Nathan Horton gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead at 1:56 of the second period, but Lupul scored at 5:18 on a power play and at 11:56.
Phil Kessel made it 3-1 on a breakaway 53 seconds into the third period. Johnny Boychuk cut the lead at 10:35, before James van Riemsdyk scored for Toronto at 16:53.
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