Minnesota ended a long run of defeats at the hands of St Louis by winning 4-2 on Thursday, preventing the slumping Blues from reclaiming the NHL Western Conference lead.
The loss saw St Louis fall into a tie for the Central Division lead with Colorado, who beat Vancouver by the same scoreline.
Among other results, league-leading Boston lost in a shootout at Winnipeg, while Tampa Bay won at home against Philadelphia in a game with big playoff implications for both teams.
Minnesota had lost their previous nine games against St Louis, but two goals from Kyle Brodziak and 43 saves by John Curry in his Wild debut ended that run. Nino Niederreiter added a goal and an assist as Minnesota made it six wins from seven games.
Kevin Shattenkirk and Jaden Schwartz scored for the Blues, who dropped their fourth straight and also lost star T.J. Oshie to a head-high blow from Wild enforcer Mike Rupp in a chaotic second period. Rudd was ejected, while a bloodied Oshie eventually got up after five minutes on the ice.
Winnipeg’s Bryan Little scored in the shootout to give the Jets a 2-1 victory over Boston in their last home game of the season.
Winnipeg’s Evander Kane had tied the game with 1 minute, 57 seconds left in regulation.
Brad Marchand scored the opening goal in the first period for the Bruins.
Colorado’s Tyson Barrie scored the go-ahead goal in the third period as the Avalanche defeated Vancouver 4-2.
Paul Stastny added two goals and John Mitchell added a late empty netter for Colorado, who are only a point behind Anaheim for the Western Conference lead.
Henrik Sedin and David Booth scored for Vancouver.
Tampa Bay moved within a point of second place in the Atlantic Division by beating Philadelphia 4-2.
Tyler Johnson opened the Lightning’s account and Richard Panik, Eric Brewer and Steven Stamkos all netted in the third period for Tampa Bay, who were without injured goalie Ben Bishop.
Wayne Simmonds and Sean Couturier scored for the Flyers, who missed a chance to move clear third in the Metropolitan Division.
The New York Islanders inflicted a costly 2-0 defeat on Montreal.
The loss, combined with Tampa Bay’s win over Philadelphia, hurt the Canadiens’ chances of starting the playoffs on home ice.
Montreal are second in the Atlantic Division with 98 points and one game left to play, while the Lightning have 97 points with two games remaining.O
Evgeni Nabokov made 19 saves for his fourth shutout this season, and Ryan Strome and Brock Nelson scored power-play goals late in the second period for the Islanders.
Nashville too had a 2-0 win which inflicted damage on the playoff hopes of their opponents, beating Phoenix.
Pekka Rinne made 29 saves, and Craig Smith and Patric Hornqvist scored for the Predators.
The loss hurt Phoenix’s quest for the Western Conference’s eighth and final playoff spot. The Coyotes entered the day two points behind Dallas in the wild-card race. Both teams have two games remaining, including tomorrow’s season finale when Dallas visits Phoenix.
Ottawa’s Erik Karlsson scored the winner in the shootout to lift the Senators to a 2-1 win over New Jersey.
Washington’s Troy Brouwer scored twice as the Capitals won 5-2 at Carolina.
Los Angeles ended a run of three-straight outs by winning 3-0 at Edmonton, with Marian Gaborik having two goals and an assist.
Florida’s Nick Bjugstad had two goals and an assist to lift the Panthers over Toronto 4-2.
The New York Rangers clinched home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs by beating Buffalo 2-1 on Thursday, with Rick Nash scoring the winner with 1:42 left.
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
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
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier