The Blackhawks scored a brace of unanswered third-period goals to open the defense of their Stanley Cup crown with thrilling 6-4 comeback victory over the Washington Capitals in Chicago, Illinois, on Tuesday.
In other opening night action, the Toronto Maple Leafs held on to edge the Montreal Canadiens 4-3 in an Original Six matchup, while the Winnipeg Jets got off to a flying start by rallying to beat the Edmonton Oilers 5-4.
The Blackhawks kicked off the new NHL season by celebrating last year’s championship, raising the Stanley Cup banner to the rafters at a rocking United Center, then set to work on collecting a third title in five years.
Photo: AFP
The crowd was on their feet again in the third period as Chicago staged a furious rally, scoring three times in the final 12 minutes to stun the visitors.
Trailing 4-3, Brandon Saad tied the game, while Johnny Oduya celebrated his 32nd birthday in style by firing home the winner, before Marian Hossa added an insurance marker with 38 seconds to play.
Brandon Bollig, Patrick Kane and Brent Seabrook also found the back of the net for the Blackhawks, while Mikhail Grabovski bagged a hat-trick, picked up an assist and was unlucky to finish on the losing team in his first game as a Capital.
Alex Ovechkin, the NHL’s most valuable player, scored the other Washington goal.
“If anything, our turnovers gave them momentum, gave them life, and they’re a really good hockey team,” Capitals coach Adam Oates told reporters.
“It’s hard to play that way. You don’t want to trade chances, trade opportunities with them. That’s more their style, not ours. We’re more about territory,” Oates added.
In Montreal, James van Riemsdyk’s power-play goal gave Toronto a 1-0 lead before Lars Eller and Brendan Gallagher responded to give the Canadiens a 2-1 advantage into the first intermission.
The Maple Leafs regained control in the second with an even-strength goal from captain Dion Phaneuf and short-handed one from Tyler Bozak.
Mason Raymond, in his first game for Toronto, put the Maple Leafs 4-2 ahead early in the third before Eller closed out the scoring with his second goal of the night.
“Tonight, I thought our special teams were the difference in the game,” Toronto manager Randy Carlyle said. “The short-handed goal kind of turned everything in our favor and the power play got us going.”
One of the NHL’s most bitter and fierce rivalries turned nasty when Canadiens enforcer George Parros was taken out of the arena on a stretcher after banging his head on the ice during a third period fight with Toronto tough guy Colton Orr.
Parros lay motionless on the Bell Centre ice as Montreal medical staff rushed to his side and the sellout crowd went silent.
He was transported to a Montreal area hospital.
The Canadiens later released a statement saying Parros had sustained a concussion, but was alert and conscious.
“You never want to see a guy get hurt like that, it’s a scary situation,” Orr told reporters after the game ended. “I just hope he’s alright.”
As the Blackhawks had done earlier, the Jets struck for three unanswered goals, including two from Michael Frolik, to clinch an opening night win.
With Edmonton leading 4-2 late in the second, Frolik cut the Oilers lead to one before the end of the period.
Jacob Trouba pulled the Jets level midway through the third with his first career NHL goal, before Frolik sealed the victory with just over five minutes to left in regulation.
Mark Scheifele and Bryan Little had the other Winnipeg goals, while Mike Brown, Boyd Gordon, Ales Hemsky and Jesse Joensuu tallied for the Oilers.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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