Simon Gagne and Scott Hartnell scored power-play goals on Sunday as Philadelphia handed Pittsburgh its first loss in a month.
Philadelphia won 3-1, its second win in a row, to open a two-point lead over Pittsburgh in the race for the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference and home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
Martin Biron made 27 saves and Darroll Powe added an empty-net goal for the Flyers, who have three games in hand on the Penguins.
PHOTO: AP
Kris Letang scored for Pittsburgh. The Penguins hadn’t lost since Feb. 22 at Washington, were 8-0-2 in their past 10 and lost in regulation for only the second time in 17 games under interim coach Dan Bylsma.
WILD 3, OILERS 0
At St Paul, Minnesota, Nicklas Backstrom made 31 saves for his seventh shutout of the season and Owen Nolan scored twice for the hosts.
The Wild are a point behind eighth-place Nashville in the race for the final Western Conference playoff spot. Edmonton is seventh, two points ahead of Nashville.
SHARKS 3, AVALANCHE 1
At San Jose, California, Milan Michalek had a goal and an assist, Evgeni Nabokov made 31 saves and San Jose reclaimed the overall NHL lead with its third home victory in four days.
Jamie McGinn also scored, Devin Setoguchi added an empty-netter and Alexei Semenov had two assists for San Jose, who took advantage of an unusual cluster of Shark Tank appearances to get back in the race for the franchise’s first Presidents’ Trophy. The Sharks improved their NHL-leading home record to 30-3-4 and earned their 106th point, two off the team record and one more than Detroit in the NHL standings.
Longtime Sharks defenseman Scott Hannan scored his first goal of the season for the last-place Avalanche, who lost their fourth straight and 11th in 14 games.
BRUINS 4, DEVILS 1
At Boston, Michael Ryder and Milan Lucic scored on deflections off New Jersey players for Eastern Conference-leading Boston.
The win clinched the Northeast Division title for Boston, who locked up a playoff berth on Saturday night when Florida lost to Columbus. Marc Savard and Chuck Kobasew also scored for Boston, 7-9-4 in its last 20 games.
In other games it was:
• Blackhawks 4, Kings 1
• Senators 2, Rangers 1
• Ducks 6, Coyotes 2
‘CRIMINAL ACT’: The UCI said it ‘strongly condemns’ Dylan Groenewegen’s ‘dangerous behavior,’ which left Jakobsen in critical condition and injured other cyclists Dutch cyclist Fabio Jakobsen was in a coma on Wednesday, in “serious” condition, after he was thrown into and over a barrier at 80kph in the conclusion to the opening stage of the Tour de Pologne. Footage showed 23-year-old Jakobsen, of the Deceuninck-Quick-Step, racing elbow-to-elbow with fellow Dutchman Dylan Groenewegen of Jumbo-Visma as both men frantically tussled in a tight sprint to the line in Katowice. However, Jakobsen came off worst, somersaulting over the barriers before colliding with a photographer after Groenewegen had veered suddenly to the right, squeezing his rival into the security wall. “His condition is very serious. His life is
Taiwan Steel on Sunday grabbed three points with a narrow 1-0 win against Hang Yuan FC, to move into the No. 2 spot on the Taiwan Football Premier League (TFPL) log, while Taipower FC beat NTUS 2-0 to maintain first place. Taking advantage early in the match of opposition defenders who had not yet settled down, Taiwan Steel’s attacking trio of Wu Chun-ching, Marc Fenelus from the Turks and Caicos Islands, and Benchy Astama from Haiti pushed forward with good passes. After only one minute of play, Fenelus dribbled from the right flank, feeding a short pass inside the penalty area to
LEAVING IT LATE: Rakuten added late runs last night to add to wins on Wednesday against the Brothers and the Lions on Friday that went down to the last batter The Rakuten Monkeys rallied to post three late runs for another close win, prevailing 5-3 over the Uni-President Lions yesterday as Taiwan’s second-half CPBL season got started with lower scoring output, but exciting finishes. It was Rakuten’s third win in a row. In two games this week, they seized victory in dramatic fashion with their last at-bat and have drawn level with the CTBC Brothers on top of the table after yesterday’s results, 0.5 games in front of the Fubon Guardians and 1.5 games ahead of the Lions. It was tied at 1-1 early, with Rakuten hosting the Lions at the Taoyuan Intenational
STAYING COOL: Hamilton said that his ‘heart nearly stopped’ when he noticed the puncture, but he kept going to beat Alain Prost’s total of six home wins in France Lewis Hamilton said he feared he might not make it home when a last lap puncture almost derailed his charge to a record seventh British Grand Prix victory on Sunday. “I didn’t think I would make it round the last two corners,” the world champion said. The front left tire of his Mercedes had delaminated and deflated on his final lap, leaving the six-time world champion to nurse his vehicle to the finish as second-placed Max Verstappen hunted him down. “I just can’t believe it,” Hamilton said. “It was heart-stopping. I backed off and stayed chilled and was so glad it happened on
RSS