John Tavares on Thursday night narrowly missed out on his second hat-trick in a week and Thomas Greiss got his second straight shutout as the New York Islanders beat the Dallas Stars 3-0 in their first game since firing long-time coach Jack Capuano.
The Islanders canned Capuano in the middle of his seventh season on Tuesday, replacing him on an interim basis with Doug Weight.
Tavares has seven goals in four games after scoring twice and then having an empty-net shot deflected wide late in the third period. He had three goals at Florida on Jan. 13.
Greiss stopped 23 shots after making 32 saves in a 4-0 win over Boston on Monday.
Calvin de Haan added an empty-net goal on a coast-to-coast shot with four seconds left.
Kari Lehtonen made 33 saves for Dallas, who were coming off a 7-6 victory over the New York Rangers on Tuesday night.
SENATORS 2, BLUE JACKETS 0
In Columbus, Ohio, Kyle Turris and Ryan Dzingel scored goals and Mike Condon made 42 saves to lead the Ottawa Senators past the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Condon was always where he needed to be for the Senators, who have won four of their past five and handed Columbus their fifth loss in the past eight games.
The Blue Jackets had trouble establishing passing lanes and shot the puck right at Condon or off target. Eleven Columbus players took multiple shots with nothing to show for it.
CAPITALS 7, BLUES 3
In St Louis, Missouri, Andre Burakovsky, T.J. Oshie and Evgeny Kuznetsov each had a goal and an assist to lead the Washington Capitals over the St Louis Blues.
Jay Beagle, Brett Connolly, Marcus Johansson and Justin Williams also scored, while Alex Ovechkin and Daniel Winnik each had two assists to help Washington earn at least a point in their 12th straight game for an NHL-best 66 points.
Braden Holtby bounced back from his roughest outing of the season with 22 saves. Holtby was pulled after giving up a season-high five goals on 26 shots in an 8-7 overtime loss at Pittsburgh on Monday. He improved to 22-8-4 and 5-0 lifetime against St Louis.
Alexander Steen scored twice and Jaden Schwartz had a goal and two assists for St Louis.
In other results, it was:
‧ Rangers 5, Maple Leafs 2
‧ Wild 4, Coyotes 3
‧ Predators 4, Flames 3
‧ Ducks 2, Avalanche 1
‧ Sharks 2, Lightning 1
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