Ondrej Pavelec on Tuesday night stopped 41 shots while filling in for late scratch Henrik Lundqvist to help the New York Rangers to a 4-3 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Boo Nieves, Jesper Fast, Mats Zuccarello and Pavel Buchnevich scored in support of Pavelec, who drew the spot start because Lundqvist had the flu. Buchnevich provided the game-winner when his centering pass deflected off Pittsburgh’s Kris Letang and by Tristan Jarry 11 minutes, 12 seconds into the third period.
Phil Kessel picked up his team-high 13th goal for the Penguins. Conor Sheary added his ninth and Patric Hornqvist his 11th for Pittsburgh, who saw their season-high four-game winning streak snapped.
Jarry finished with 25 saves, but could only watch the puck smack off Letang’s stick and flutter by to give the Rangers the lead for good.
Penguins captain Sidney Crosby was held scoreless as his streak of five straight multipoint games ended.
DEVILS 4, BLUE JACKETS 1
In Columbus, Ohio, Stefan Noesen, Taylor Hall and Jesper Bratt each had a goal and an assist, while Cory Schneider made 41 saves to lift New Jersey over Columbus.
Travis Zajac also scored and rookie Nico Hischier had two assists for the Devils, one of several teams tussling with Columbus for first place in the rugged Metropolitan Division with one-third of the season in the books.
Schneider was outstanding in earning his 100th win with New Jersey during his fifth season with the franchise.
Nick Foligno scored and Sergei Bobrovsky had 32 saves for the Blue Jackets, who lost their second straight. The NHL’s worst power play went zero for six.
LIGHTNING 6, ISLANDERS 2
In Tampa, Florida, Yanni Gourde scored two of Tampa Bay’s three goals late in the second period against New York.
After the Islanders dominated the first 16 minutes of the second, Gourde had a power-play rebound goal at 16 minutes, 22 seconds and then gave Tampa Bay a 4-2 lead 1 minute, 34 seconds later on another rebound effort.
The Lightning’s top-ranked power play extended the advantage to three when Vladislav Namestnikov scored 50 seconds after Gourde’s second of the game.
Tampa Bay also got goals from Brayden Point, Andrej Sustr and Chris Kunitz, while Andrei Vasilevskiy made 29 saves. The Atlantic Division leaders are 11-2-1 at home.
Mathew Barzal and Jordan Eberle scored for the Islanders, who had won eight of 10. Thomas Griess stopped 28 shots.
In other results, it was:
‧ Red Wings 5, Jets 1
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