Ales Hemsky had two goals and an assist as the Edmonton Oilers held on to end the Philadelphia Flyers’ four-game winning streak with a 5-4 win on Sunday.
Sheldon Souray added a goal and an assist, Erik Cole and Dustin Penner also scored, and Tom Gilbert had three assists for the Oilers, who won their second straight after dropping five in a row.
Mike Knuble and Simon Gagne each had a goal and an assist, and Braydon Coburn and Jeff Carter also scored goals for Philadelphia, which outscored its opponents 19-7 during the streak.
PHOTO: AP
HURRICANES 6, MAPLE LEAFS 4
At Raleigh, North Carolina, Tuomo Ruutu had a goal and an assist and Carolina scored three times in less than 4 minutes during the second period of a victory over Toronto.
Dwight Helminen and Chad LaRose also had a goal and an assist apiece, Joe Corvo and Ray Whitney also scored and Eric Staal added an empty-netter for Carolina, which scored four goals in the second period to rally from a 3-1 deficit.
THRASHERS 5, PANTHERS 3
At Atlanta, Ilya Kovalchuk scored two goals and added an assist as Atlanta held off Florida to end a six-game losing streak.
The defeat was the fourth straight for the Panthers.
Kovalchuk scored both goals — his fourth and fifth — and assisted on Bryan Little’s sixth goal in the second period, giving the Thrashers a 4-1 lead. Erik Christiansen assisted on both of Kovalchuk’s goals.
The Panthers made it close when Nathan Horton scored at 18:20 of the second period and Noah Welch got his first goal of the season 3:17 into the final period.
Todd White scored an empty-net goal with 44 seconds remaining to clinch the victory for Atlanta, which hadn’t won since Oct. 18.
DUCKS 3, FLAMES 2
At Anaheim, California, Ryan Getzlaf had a goal and an assist to help Anaheim edge Calgary and end the Flames’ six-game winning streak.
In other games, it was:
• Sharks 5, Avalanche 3
• Red Wings 3, Canucks 2
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Crowds descended on the home of 17-year-old Chinese diver Quan Hongchan after she won two golds at the Paris Olympics while gymnast Zhang Boheng hid in a Beijing airport toilet to escape overzealous throngs of fans. They are just two recent examples of what state media are calling “toxic fandom” and Chinese authorities have vowed to crack down on it. Some of the adulation toward China’s sports stars has been more sinister — fans obsessing over athletes’ personal lives, cyberbullying opponents or slamming supposedly crooked judges. Experts say it mirrors the kind of behavior once reserved for entertainment celebrities before
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures
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