Justin Fontaine had a goal and two assists, while linemate Thomas Vanek also scored as the Minnesota Wild breezed by the St Louis Blues with a 6-3 victory on Saturday.
Chris Stewart, Zach Parise, Jonas Brodin and Mikko Koivu also contributed goals, while Charlie Coyle and Ryan Suter each had two assists for the Wild, who improved to an NHL-best 22-6-2 since trading for goalie Devan Dubnyk on Jan. 14.
Dubnyk, acquired from Arizona for a third-round draft pick, has started all 30 of those games. He made 26 saves to beat the Blues on a second straight weekend.
Vladimir Tarasenko and Jaden Schwartz each had a goal and an assist, while Paul Stastny scored late for the Blues.
Vancouver’s Radim Vrbata set up the equalizer for Nick Bonino in the second period and scored the go-ahead goal during a five-on-three power play in the third, leading the Canucks over the Los Angeles Kings 4-1.
Eddie Lack made 25 saves for Vancouver.
Daniel Sedin and Bo Horvath scored empty-net goals in the final minute.
In Calgary, Alberta, Rene Bourque scored his second goal of the game at 4 minutes, 1 second of overtime to give the Columbus Blue Jackets a 3-2 win over the Flames.
Artem Anisimov also scored for Columbus, who have won six of seven overall, including their first sweep of western Canada.
Sean Monahan and Jiri Hudler scored for Calgary.
Jesper Fast and J.T. Miller scored, while Mats Zuccarello had the lone goal for New York in the shootout as the Rangers edged the Carolina Hurricanes 3-2.
Fast’s goal at 12:59 of the second gave the Rangers a 2-1 lead after Miller had tied it at 3:39.
Carolina struck first as Elias Lindholm scored 2:01 in, but the Rangers swept the five-game season series.
The Florida Panthers beat the Boston Bruins 2-1 after Brandon Pirri scored the winning shootout goal. Pirri beat Tuukka Rask in the second round of the shootout. Roberto Luongo turned aside all three of Boston’s shooters.
Jimmy Hayes scored in regulation for the Panthers, while Luongo made 26 saves in his second start since returning from injury.
Tomas Plekanec scored in the first period and Carey Price made 29 saves for his second shutout in a row and ninth of the season as the Montreal Canadiens beat the San Jose Sharks 2-0, while Jaroslav Halak made 26 saves in his return to the lineup as the New York Islanders ended a four game losing streak with a 3-0 win over the New Jersey Devils.
In other games, Kyle Turris scored the winning goal as the Ottawa Senators extended their winning streak to six games by topping the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-3, the Winnipeg Jets blanked the Washington Capitals 3-0 and the Nashville Predators shut out the Buffalo Sabres 3-0.
The Dallas Stars had a 4-0 win over the Chicago Blackhawks, the Pittsburgh Penguins downed the Arizona Coyotes 3-1 and the Edmonton Oilers were 5-4 winners over the Philadelphia Flyers.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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