Kris Versteeg scored 59 seconds into the third period, while Patrick Kane added two more goals as the Chicago Blackhawks beat the St Louis Blues 4-1 on Wednesday night for their fourth consecutive victory.
Marcus Kruger also scored for Chicago, and Antti Raanta had 40 saves in his first start since Corey Crawford was sidelined by a left foot injury. Versteeg also had the primary assist on each of Kane’s goals.
Back at home after a 5-1 road trip, Chicago killed off each of St Louis’ six power plays and won for the seventh time in eight games.
Ian Cole scored in the second for the Blues, who had won four of five. Jake Allen made 29 saves. Martin Brodeur was the backup to Allen in St Louis’ first game since the NHL’s winningest goalie signed a one-year contract on Tuesday.
WILD 2, CANADIENS 1
In St Paul, Minnesota, Jason Zucker and Jason Pominville scored improbable goals to lift Minnesota over Montreal. Darcy Kuemper stopped 18 shots after allowing four goals in each of his last two starts. Minnesota have won seven of 10.
Alex Galchenyuk scored in the final minute after Montreal pulled goalie Carey Price, who made 33 saves. The Canadiens are 1-3-1 in their past five games.
Playing with heavy hearts one day after the death of Hall of Famer Jean Beliveau, the Canadiens dedicated the game to the longtime captain who won 10 Stanley Cup titles as a player and seven more as an executive. All Montreal players wore No. 4 on their helmets.
Other than getting the first six shots of the third period, the Canadiens provided little offense against a team missing their top defenseman, Ryan Suter.
Suter sat out due to illness, marking the first time the NHL leader in ice time has missed a game since joining the Wild on July 4, 2012. He had played in 153 consecutive regular-season games and 18 more in the post-season.
DUCKS 5, FLYERS 4, SO
In Anaheim, California, Jakob Silfverberg and Corey Perry scored in the shootout as Anaheim rebounded from Wayne Simmonds’ late tying goal for a victory over spiraling Philadelphia.
Simmonds scored his second goal with 2.6 seconds left in regulation for the Flyers, who lost their ninth consecutive road game.
Frederik Andersen made 31 saves for Anaheim, stopping Claude Giroux to end the shootout.
Patrick Maroon scored in the third period for the Ducks, who pulled even with Tampa Bay atop the overall NHL standings with their fifth win in seven games.
Sami Vatanen, Cam Fowler and Ryan Getzlaf also scored for Anaheim, 0who came back from a two-goal deficit while the clubs combined for six goals in an entertaining second period.
Michael Raffl and R.J. Umberger also scored in the second period for Philadelphia. Steve Mason stopped 29 shots in the Flyers’ sixth straight defeat overall — and their second straight heartbreaker following a last-minute loss in San Jose on Tuesday night.
JETS 3, OILERS 2, OT
In Winnipeg, Canada, Mathieu Perreault scored 17 seconds into overtime as Winnipeg sent Edmonton to their 11th straight loss.
Perrault tipped Jacob Trouba’s point shot past goalie Ben Scrivens to win it. Trouba and Dustin Byfuglien also scored for the Jets.
Teddy Purcell Perron and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had goals for the Oilers (6-15-5), who have not beaten a Western Conference opponent this season.
Edmonton’s longest winless streak is 14 games from Oct. 11 to Nov. 7, 1993.
Ondrej Pavelec made 24 saves in the win. Scrivens stopped 21 shots.
Perron had given Edmonton a 2-1 lead at 1 minute, 31 seconds of the third period when he capitalized on a Winnipeg turnover. Byfuglien tied it with 3:06 left in regulation when he redirected in Mark Stuart’s point shot. He also assisted on Trouba’s goal.
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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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