Thomas Vanek and Mikko Koivu scored early in a three-goal third period and the Minnesota Wild pulled away to beat the Calgary Flames 4-2 in the NHL on Friday.
Matt Dumba and Zach Parise also scored for Minnesota, who began the night three points behind Chicago for third place in the Central Division and one point up on Winnipeg for the top wild-card spot. The Wild have won four in row and six of seven.
Devan Dubnyk stopped 23 shots. He made his 33rd consecutive start since joining Minnesota and 34th overall, tying Antti Niemi for the most consecutive starts in the NHL since 2010-2011.
Josh Jooris and Markus Granlund scored for Calgary. Making his fifth straight start, Karri Ramo stopped 31 shots before being pulled in the third period.
With the game tied at 1 in the third period, Justin Fontaine circled behind the Calgary net and lost the puck briefly. He quickly gathered it in the left circle and backhanded a pass across to Vanek alone at the edge of the crease. His second whack knocked the puck in at 3 minutes and 36 seconds for his seventh goal in 10 games.
Less than four minutes later, Koivu and Stewart perfectly executed a two-on-one entering the offensive zone with Stewart’s centering pass to Koivu tipped into the Calgary net.
Parise scored unassisted on a breakaway nearly five minutes later for his 30th goal of the season to make it 4-1. Granlund scored on a tip with 4 minutes and 43 seconds to play for the Flames.
The Flames were one point behind Los Angeles in the Pacific Division entering the game and three points behind Winnipeg for the second wild-card playoff spot. Calgary have played one more game than the Kings.
Cam Atkinson scored twice in Columbus’ four-goal first period and added an empty-net goal in the final minute for his second career hat-trick to help the Blue Jackets win their fifth straight game, 5-2 over the Chicago Blackhawks.
Ryan Johansen and Kevin Connauton also connected for the Blue Jackets. They set a team record with their seventh consecutive road victory and have won eight of nine overall.
Brandon Saad and Jonathan Toews scored for Chicago, who dropped their second straight.
Columbus’ Sergei Bobrovsky made 31 saves.
Chicago goalie Corey Crawford was pulled with 3 minutes and 14 seconds left in the first period after allowing four goals on 13 shots. Scott Darling finished, and stopped all 13 shots he faced.
At Edmonton, Alberta, Richard Bachman made 29 saves for his second NHL shutout and the Edmonton Oilers beat the Dallas Stars 4-0.
Jordan Eberle, Derek Roy, Benoit Pouliot and Andrew Miller scored to help the Oilers win their second straight game.
Kari Lehtonen made 24 saves for the Stars, who had won four in a row.
Dallas remained eight points behind Winnipeg for the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference, with just seven games left.
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