New York Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist earned his 46th NHL shutout to help his team to a 2-0 win over Washington on Wednesday, ending a run of three games without a win.
Brad Richards helped set up goals by Ryan Callahan and John Moore, and Lundqvist made 22 saves.
The Capitals were unable to produce much of a scoring threat, even with their formidable power play and three-time NHL MVP Alex Ovechkin, and fell to 2-5.
The Capitals have not scored a goal against Lundqvist since Game 5 of last season’s Eastern Conference quarter-finals, which the Rangers won in seven games.
Since then, Lundqvist has shut out New York for nine consecutive periods, stopping 86 straight shots.
Ovechkin, who leads the Caps with six goals, recorded a team-high seven shots, but continued to be frustrated by Lundqvist, who held him to one goal on 30 shots during last year’s playoff series.
In the day’s other game, Anaheim beat Calgary 3-2 to extend their best-ever start to a season.
Finn Teemu Selanne scored the first goal of his 22nd NHL season, while Dustin Penner and Kyle Palmieri scored first-period goals for the Ducks, who have won five of their first six games for the first time in the club’s two-decade history.
The Ducks have won 26 of their past 27 home games against Calgary.
The Flames have not won in Anaheim since Jan. 19, 2004, the longest drought for any Ducks opponent.
Lee Stempniak scored a short-handed goal and Jiri Hudler got credit for a deflected goal early in the third period for the Flames, who lost in regulation for the first time this season.
Anaheim goalie Victor Fasth recorded 33 saves, while Calgary goaltender Joey MacDonald finished with 19 stops.
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