Corey Perry had two goals and two assists, Teemu Selanne had two goals and an assist, and the relentless Anaheim Ducks beat the Vancouver Canucks 9-1 on Wednesday night for their 18th victory in 19 games.
Nick Bonino scored also two goals for the NHL-leading Ducks, who earned their eighth consecutive victory by scoring a club-record six power-play goals in the highest-scoring performance in the franchise’s two-decade history.
Andrew Cogliano, Jakob Silfverberg and Sami Vatanen also scored, and Frederik Andersen made 31 saves as Anaheim joined the 1967-1968 Montreal Canadiens as the only teams in league history to win 18 times in a 19-game span.
Zack Kassian scored for the Canucks, who picked up 58 penalty minutes in the third period of their seventh loss in eight games.
PENGUINS 4, CAPITALS 3
In Pittsburgh, Olli Maatta’s slap shot beat Michal Neuvirth with less than two minutes remaining to rally Pittsburgh for the victory against Washington.
Maatta’s fourth goal of the season gave Pittsburgh their only lead as the Penguins won their 13th straight home game, a club record.
Jussi Jokinen, Taylor Pyatt and Kris Letang also scored for the Penguins. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 25 shots to pick up his NHL-leading 27th victory.
Alexander Ovechkin’s 34th goal of the season gave Washington a 3-2 lead midway through the third period, but the Capitals collapsed over the final 10 minutes. Brooks Laich and Jason Chimera also scored for Washington, which lost for the seventh time in nine games. Neuvirth made 33 stops, but did not see Maatta’s blast from the point with 1 minute, 54 left.
MAPLE LEAFS 4, SABRES 3, SO
In Toronto, Tyler Bozak scored the clinching goal in the third round of the shootout and Toronto won their third straight by beating Buffalo.
James van Riemsdyk, Joffrey Lupul and Bozak scored in the shootout for Toronto.
Matt Moulson scored in the first round for Buffalo, but James Reimer stopped Cody Hodgson after Lupul tallied in the second, setting up Bozak’s winner.
Phil Kessel, Nikolai Kulemin and Morgan Rielly scored in regulation for the Leafs, while Matt Ellis, Moulson and Hodgson had goals for the Sabres.
Toronto earned their league-leading ninth shootout victory in their 13th shootout.
Reimer stopped 27 shots in regulation and overtime, while US Olympic goaltender Ryan Miller made 36 saves for the Sabres.
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