Marian Gaborik scored the tiebreaking goal early in the third period, as the Los Angeles Kings spoiled San Jose’s outdoor party with victory over the Sharks on Saturday.
Kyle Clifford also scored and Jonathan Quick made 31 saves as the Kings won their seventh straight game and dealt more heartbreak to their Northern California rivals after knocking San Jose out of the playoffs the past two seasons.
Gaborik silenced an enthusiastic crowd of 70,205 just over 4 minutes into the third period when he took the puck away from Brent Burns in the neutral zone and skated in before beating Antti Niemi with a shot from the top of the circle.
Photo: AFP
The Sharks were unable to get the equalizer against Quick.
Burns scored the lone goal for the Sharks, who have lost six of eight games to put their 10-season streak of playoff appearances in jeopardy. Niemi made 27 saves.
CAPITALS 3, ISLANDERS 2, SO
Evgeny Kuznetsov scored the lone goal in a shootout and Braden Holtby had 30 saves, as Washington beat the New York Islanders for their fourth straight victory.
After the first-place Islanders forced overtime by scoring with goalie Chad Johnson on the bench, Kuznetsov followed overtime by beating Johnson on the first attempt of the shootout. Holtby subsequently denied all three New York attempts, the last by Ryan Strome.
The Islanders were 12-1 in games decided after regulation, including 7-1 in shootouts.
Eric Fehr put the Capitals up 2-1 at 14 minutes, 26 seconds of the third period. Matt Niskanen also scored for Washington, and Nickas Backstrom had an assist for his NHL-leading 64th point.
Strome put in a rebound from the left circle at 19 minutes, 12 seconds of the third period to tie it. Travis Hamonic scored early for the Islanders.
The teams split four games this season.
RED WINGS 7, STARS 6, OT
Niklas Kronwall scored 36 seconds into overtime and Detroit defeated Dallas after overcoming a pair of two-goal deficits in a wild third period.
Trevor Daley, Cody Eakin and Erik Cole scored in a 3-minute span of the second period to give the Stars a 4-2 lead.
However, Jakub Kindl had two goals 45 seconds apart in the third to tie it at 4-4 in his return from the minors. It was the first two-goal outburst for Kindl in 242 career games.
Curtis McKenzie and Shawn Horcoff gave the Stars a 6-4 advantage before Justin Abdelkader’s power-play goal and Pavel Datsyuk’s second of the game tied the score again.
Horcoff’s goal chased Jimmy Howard from the game after he gave up a season-high six goals. Jonas Gustavsson stopped two shots for the Red Wings.
Dallas goalie Kari Lehtonen had 29 saves, but allowed a season-high seven goals.
Datsyuk also had two assists. Kronwall, Abdelkader and Gustav Nyquist each had a goal and an assist.
Daley, Cole, Horcoff and Jamie Benn each had a goal and an assist for the Stars.
In others games it was:
‧ Flyers 3, Predators 2, SO
‧ Canadiens 3, Blue Jackets 1
‧ Ducks 2, Oilers 1
‧ Senators 4, Panthers 1
‧ Devils 3, Hurricanes 1
‧ Maple Leafs 4, Jets 3, OT
‧ Penguins 4, Blues 2
‧ Lightning 4, Coyotes 2
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with