Washington edged NHL leaders Anaheim in a shootout and Pittsburgh cruised past Calgary on Friday to further congest the crowded top of the Eastern Conference standings.
Pittsburgh’s win moved the Penguins back to the top of the Metropolitan Division — above the idle New York Islanders — while Washington remained just two points behind after beating the Ducks. The top six teams in the East are separated by just five points.
Washington’s Evgeny Kuznetsov and Nicklas Backstrom scored in the shootout to give the Capitals a 3-2 win against Anaheim.
After Alex Ovechkin, Washington’s third shooter, failed to score, Anaheim had a chance to extend the game. However, Washington goalkeeper Philipp Grubauer — making his first appearance of the season — stopped Ryan Kesler.
Jason Chimera had a goal and an assist in regulation for Washington.
Kesler had a goal and an assist for the Ducks, who took a point and eked out their overall league lead to three points.
Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby had two goals and an assist to lead the Penguins to a 4-0 win at Calgary.
Marc-Andre Fleury got his NHL-leading eighth shutout of the season while David Perron and Brandon Sutter also scored for the Penguins.
Fleury made 21 saves to surpass Tom Barrasso’s club record for shutouts in a season.
Chicago’s Brandon Saad scored in overtime to lift the Blackhawks to a 2-1 win at Winnipeg.
Patrick Kane also scored for the Blackhawks.
Mark Scheifele scored for the Jets, who have not won in six games since the All-Star break.
Winnipeg announced before the game that Evander Kane will undergo left shoulder surgery and be out of the lineup for four to six months.
Columbus routed St. Louis 7-1 on Friday, with Nick Foligno setting a career high with his 19th and 20th goals of the season and also contributing an assist.
New Jersey sent Toronto hurtling to a franchise-worst 11th straight loss, with Patrik Elias scoring his 400th career goal to help the Devils win 4-1.
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