Last night’s National Hockey League game between the Buffalo Sabres and the visiting New York Rangers was postponed due to heavy snow in the Buffalo area, the league said on Thursday.
The NHL announcement came as the National Football League was considering contingency plans for tomorrow’s scheduled game in Buffalo between the Bills and New York Jets, which has now been moved to Monday.
Snowbound residents of western New York, who had been socked by 1.5m of snow in some areas earlier this week, awoke to another 30cm of accumulation on Thursday, with the possibility of a further 76cm expected, meteorologists said.
At least eight deaths have been blamed on the wintry blast.
In Thursday’s games, James van Riemsdyk scored two goals as the Toronto Maple Leafs snapped a three-game losing streak with a 5-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Maple Leafs left winger scored twice in a span of 2 minutes, 44 seconds as Toronto scored three unanswered goals in the second period after the first ended 1-1.
Center Alex Killorn and center Steven Stamkos scored for the Lightning.
CANADIENS 4, BLUES 1
Max Pacioretty scored twice to lead the Montreal Canadiens to a 4-1 win over the St Louis Blues.
Goaltender Carey Price made 31 saves for the Canadiens, who beat St Louis for the first time since Nov. 16, 2008.
BLACKHAWKS 4, FLAMES 3
Defenseman Adam Clendening scored just four minutes into his debut as the Blackhawks scratched out a 4-3 victory over the Calgary Flames.
Patrick Kane scored the game-winner at the 9 minute, 12 second mark of the third period for the Blackhawks.
SENATORS 3, PREDATORS 2
A second-period goal by Ottawa defenseman Jared Cowen stood as the winner in the Senators’ 3-2 victory over the Nashville Predators.
Senators goaltender Robin Lehner made 33 saves to pick up his first victory since Oct. 28.
RED WINGS 4, JETS 3
Detroit center Tomas Tatar scored two goals, including the game-winner late in the third period, and the Red Wings pulled off a scrappy, come-from-behind victory over the Winnipeg Jets, 4-3.
Tatar broke a 3-3 tie with his eighth goal of the season 15 minutes, 10 seconds into the third, but the Red Wings scored two unanswered goals to win.
WILD 3, FLYERS 2
Jason Zucker scored a tiebreaking goal with 45.4 seconds left in the game to lift the Minnesota Wild to a 3-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers.
Nino Niederreiter and defenseman Marco Scandella also scored goals, and goaltender Darcy Kuemper made 37 saves to help the Wild win their fourth successive game.
Claude Giroux scored the tying goal with 3 minutes, 30 seconds left and defenseman Mark Streit also had a goal for the Flyers, who lost their fourth consecutive game.
CAPITALS 3, AVALANCHE 2
Alex Ovechkin scored at 14 minutes, 4 seconds of the third period as the Washington Capitals beat the Colorado Avalanche 3-2.
Nicklas Backstrom had a goal and an assist and left winger Jason Chimera also scored for the Capitals. Goaltender Braden Holtby stopped 27 shots for Washington.
DUCKS 4, CANUCKS 3
Jakob Silfverberg and Corey Perry scored in a shootout as the Anaheim Ducks defeated the Vancouver Canucks 4-3.
Anaheim’s Matt Beleskey tied the game at 3-3 to force overtime when he scored at 11 minutes, 52 seconds of the third.
Anaheim improved their Western Conference-leading record to 12-4-5 for 30 points, while the Canucks dropped to 13-6-1 for 27 points.
In other games, it was:
‧ Stars 3, Coyotes 1
‧ Kings 3, Hurricanes 2
‧ Panthers 3, Sharks 2 (shootout)
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
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