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.
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