Taylor Beck scored twice on Tuesday as the Nashville Predators routed the Toronto Maple Leafs 9-2 in the NHL.
Nashville, who led 8-0 in the third period, also got goals from Filip Forsberg, Calle Jarnkrok, Roman Josi, Eric Nystrom, Mike Ribeiro, Derek Roy and Colin Wilson, while Shea Weber had three assists.
Maple Leafs goalie Jonathan Bernier lasted one period, allowing three goals — two by Beck — on 12 shots. He let in just three goals in his previous two starts. Pekka Rinne continued his early-season dominance by turning aside 29 shots.
Elsewhere in the NHL, Pittsburgh halted Montreal’s six-game winning streak with a 4-0 victory, Buffalo beat San Jose 4-1 in front of a snowstorm-depleted crowd and Carolina defeated Dallas 6-4 for their first win in regulation on the Stars’ home ice in nearly 20 years.
Pittsburgh’s Marc-Andre Fleury made 27 saves for his league-leading fourth shutout of the season in the Penguin’s win over the Canadiens.
Beau Bennett and Steve Downie had first-period goals for the Penguins, while Brandon Sutter and captain Sidney Crosby each scored in the second. Pittsburgh have now won 10 of their past 11.
Fleury, who made a couple of key saves early on, is 8-1-0 with a .944 save-percentage in his past nine starts dating to Oct. 25.
The Sabres got their eighth straight win against the Sharks since the 2009-2010 season on a night when New York’s Buffalo area received more than 1.2m of snow, limiting the crowd to about 6,200.
Brian Gionta had two goals and an assist, while Nicolas Deslauriers and Brian Flynn also scored for Buffalo. Jhonas Enroth stopped 20 shots over the final two periods after replacing starter Michal Neuvirth, who suffered a lower-body injury in the first period.
The Sabres improved to 16-1 at home against the Sharks. Buffalo also won consecutive games for the first time since February last year.
Carolina’s Eric Staal had two third-period goals and an assist to rally the Hurricanes, who closed a 2-0 gap with four second-period goals. The last of those chased Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen after he stopped 12 of 16 shots in nearly 36 minutes.
The Hurricanes had not won in regulation at Dallas since 1996, when they were the Hartford Whalers.
Carolina ended a three-game losing streak and improved to 2-6-2 on the road. The Stars lost their seventh consecutive home game.
In Columbus, Ohio, Jimmy Howard made 28 saves for his 19th career shutout, while Tomas Tatar and Tomas Jurco had a goal and an assist each to lift Detroit past the Blue Jackets 5-0.
In other games, the New York Islanders got three goals in the second period to defeat Tampa Bay Lightning 5-2, Boston’s Tuukka Rask made 33 saves for his first shutout of the season as the Bruins beat St Louis 2-0 and Jonathan Quick made 30 saves to lead the Los Angeles Kings past Florida 5-2.
Also, the Washington Capitals topped the Arizona Coyotes 2-1 in overtime, the Winnipeg Jets beat the New Jersey Devils 3-1 and the Calgary Flames edged the Anaheim Ducks 4-3 in a shootout.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite