The Anaheim Ducks avenged last weekend’s loss to San Jose by beating the Sharks 6-3 on Tuesday, making it 11 wins from 12 games and opening a seven-point lead in the Pacific Division.
San Jose would have fallen into a tie for second in the division, but Los Angeles failed to make ground after losing to Dallas, while St Louis hung on to edge fading Minnesota and close on the Central Division lead, while New Jersey beat Eastern Conference leaders Pittsburgh.
Anaheim’s Ryan Getzlaf scored his 20th goal of the season and added two assists, while Francois Beauchemin got his first goal of the campaign.
Nick Bonino and Matt Beleskey each had a goal and an assist, while Andrew Cogliano and Kyle Palmieri also netted for the Ducks, who have not lost in regulation in 17 home games this season.
Dan Boyle and Bracken Kearns scored power-play goals, while Logan Couture scored for the Sharks, whose four-game winning streak ended.
St Louis’ Jaden Schwartz scored for the sixth straight game to help the Blues beat the Minnesota Wild 2-1 and close within four points of Central leaders Chicago.
T.J. Oshie also had a goal for St Louis, who are 5-0-2 in their past seven road games.
Ryan Suter scored in the closing seconds for the Wild, who have lost a franchise-record six straight games in regulation and have just 11 points from their past 18.
New Jersey’s Adam Henrique scored inside two minutes to set up the Devils’ 2-1 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Michael Ryder connected early in the second period for the Devils, who overcame the loss of veteran forward Patrick Elias in the first period after he was knocked to the ice.
Matt Niskanen cut it to 2-1 for Pittsburgh at 6 minutes, 58 seconds of the second period off a pass from Sidney Crosby.
Dallas’ Erik Cole scored twice to lead the Stars to a 3-2 win over the struggling Los Angeles Kings.
Tyler Seguin netted his 20th goal of the season for the Stars, who have five points from the first three of five straight home games.
Jeff Carter and Anze Kopitar scored for the Kings, who have lost four straight.
Colorado’s Ryan O’Reilly and Gabriel Landeskog scored power-play goals to help the Avalanche snap a four-game losing streak by beating the Columbus Blue Jackets 5-3.
Nathan MacKinnon, Jamie McGinn and Jan Hejda also scored for the Avalanche, who won despite being outshot 38-23. Nick Foligno, Boone Jenner and Ryan Johansen scored for Columbus.
Carolina’s Alexander Semin scored 3:27 into overtime to give the Hurricanes a 5-4 win over the Montreal Canadiens, halting a five-game skid.
The Hurricanes, who had trailed 3-0 in the second period, took the lead only for Montreal defenseman P.K. Subban to tie the game 4-4 with 9:44 remaining.
Jeff Skinner scored a pair of power-play goals 37 seconds apart, Eric Staal tied the game 3-3 and Manny Malhotra made it four goals in seven minutes for Carolina.
Montreal had taken a seemingly winning lead via an opening goal from Lars Eller, then two from Max Pacioretty.
New York’s John Tavares scored 32 seconds into the third period and added a power-play goal with 6:43 left to lead the Islanders rally over the Boston Bruins, winning 5-3.
Phoenix’s Keith Yandle scored his second goal with 6.5 seconds showing on the overtime clock and earlier setting up Mikkel Boedker’s tying goal with 70 seconds left in regulation, helping the Coyotes beat the Edmonton Oilers 4-3.
New York’s Brad Richards scored the lone goal in the shootout, giving the Rangers a 2-1 victory over the Florida Panthers.
Philadelphia’s Brayden Schenn had a goal and two assists to lead the Flyers over the Calgary Flames 4-1, while Winnipeg goalie Al Montoya made 27 saves as the Jets shut out the Buffalo Sabres 3-0.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set