Filip Forsberg recorded his second hat-trick in four days and Pekka Rinne posted a 26-save shutout as the Nashville Predators downed the St Louis Blues 5-0 on Saturday.
Forsberg scored three goals during a 14-minute span to start the second period, leading the Predators to their fourth straight win.
Forsberg has a team-high 26 goals, including 12 this month. He posted his first career hat-trick in Tuesday’s 3-2 win at Toronto. Linemate Craig Smith scored the Predators’ first goal and Colin Wilson scored the fifth. Predators center Mike Ribeiro posted three assists, giving the playmaker 36 for the season.
Photo: AP
Rinne became the fifth active goalie to record 40 career shutouts.
SENATORS 6, FLAMES 4
In Calgary, Alberta, Mika Zibanejad scored three times in a span of 2 minutes, 38 seconds in the third period to lead the Ottawa Senators to a comeback victory over the Calgary Flames.
Zack Smith, Nick Paul and Jean-Gabriel Pageau also scored for Ottawa, which have won five of their last six and remained six points back of the Pittsburgh Penguins for the second wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference.
Johnny Gaudreau had two goals and an assist, and Joe Colborne and Sean Monahan also scored for the Flames, who are winless in their last four.
Trailing 4-2, Zibanejad got Ottawa’s rally started at 6:10, beating Joni Ortio on a wrist shot. He tied it at 7:59, and capped his first career hat-trick 49 seconds later.
RANGERS 3, STARS 2
In Dallas, Texas, Kevin Klein scored with 2:53 left to lift the New York Rangers over the Dallas Stars.
Ryan McDonagh gave the Rangers a 2-1 lead with a goal 8:26 into the third, and then helped prevent a tying goal by sliding over a loose puck at the goal line.
Valeri Nichushkin scored for Dallas with 4:01 left, but then Klein got the winner from the slot into the upper right corner of the net.
Chris Kreider also scored, and Henrik Lundqvist made 36 saves for the Rangers.
Colton Sceviour also scored for the Stars, who have lost four of their past five home games and have a one-point lead in the Central Division over Chicago.
PENGUINS 4, JETS 1
In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Carl Hagelin scored twice and the Pittsburgh Penguins welcomed star forward Evgeni Malkin back from injury with a victory against the Winnipeg Jets.
Hagelin scored his sixth and seventh of the season for Pittsburgh, and Scott Wilson added a third-period goal. Kris Letang also scored for the Penguins, who had Malkin back in the lineup after the 2012 NHL MVP missed 10 games with a lower-body injury.
In other NHL action, it was:
‧ Red Wings 5, Avalanche 3
‧ Blue Jackets 4, Panthers 3, SO
‧ Flyers 4, Coyotes 2
‧ Canadiens 4, Maple Leafs 1
‧ Kings 2, Sabres 0
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