Chicago moved back to the top of the NHL’s Central Division by beating Washington 3-2 in Sunday’s clash of the league’s respective conference leaders.
Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Dennis Rasmussen scored for the Blackhawks, who moved a point above Dallas, who have a game in hand.
In other key clashes, Anaheim beat local rival Los Angeles to cut the gap between the Pacific Division’s top teams to just two points, and Tampa Bay won at Boston to also move within two points of its division lead.
Photo: AP
Chicago goaltender Corey Crawford made 28 saves, while Andrew Ladd got an assist in his return to Chicago after he was reacquired in a trade with Winnipeg on Thursday last week.
Marcus Johansson and Evgeny Kuznetsov scored for Washington, who had won five of six. The Capitals remained a comfortable 16 points clear of their nearest rivals in the East.
Anaheim’s Corey Perry got his ninth career hat-trick to power the Ducks past Los Angeles 4-2.
The Ducks trailed the Kings by 15 points on Jan. 2, but have gone 19-4-1 since, while Los Angeles are 12-10-2 in that time span.
David Perron had one of three power-play goals for Anaheim, who have won eight straight.
Alec Martinez and Tanner Pearson scored for the Kings, who had won their previous four.
Tampa Bay stretched their winning run to six games by defeating Boston 4-1, moving within two games of state rival Florida.
Ryan Callahan scored twice, Steven Stamkos converted a penalty and Alex Killorn also scored. Stamkos has scored in all six games of the winning streak.
Kevan Miller scored the Bruins’ only goal.
St Louis’ David Backes and Kyle Brodziak scored in the second period to lead the Blues to a 5-2 victory over undermanned Carolina.
San Jose’s Joe Pavelski and Tomas Hertl scored 2 minutes, 28 seconds apart in the third period, lifting the Sharks over Vancouver 4-1.
Minnesota halted a run of nine successive losses at the Xcel Energy Center by beating Florida 3-1, with Erik Haula scoring the go-ahead goal midway through the third period.
Edmonton snapped a seven-game skid by downing the New York Islanders 3-1, with Leon Draisaitl, Anton Lander and Brandon Davidson all scoring in the third period.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB