Dan Cleary scored with three minutes remaining as the defending champions Detroit Red Wings defeated the upstart Anaheim Ducks 4-3 in the decisive seventh game of their quarter-final series.
Jiri Hudler, Mikael Samuelsson and Darren Helm each had a goal for the second-seeded Red Wings, who will face the fourth-seeded Chicago Blackhawks in the NHL semi-finals.
Chris Osgood stopped 24-of-27 shots in front of a sold out Joe Louis Arena crowd to grab the win for Detroit, which is trying to become the first club to repeat as Stanley Cup champions since the 1997 and 1998 Red Wings claimed back-to-back titles.
PHOTO: EPA
Detroit has won three of five playoff series against Anaheim and is in the semi-finals for the third consecutive season.
Corey Perry and Teemu Selanne each had a goal and an assist while Bobby Ryan tied the game at three for the eighth-seeded Ducks, who are now 2-2 in game sevens in franchise history.
It was an especially tough loss for Finnish star Selanne, who might have played his final game as a Duck.
Once again penalties hurt the Ducks as Hudler scored a power-play goal in the opening period with Anaheim forward Ryan Getzlaf in the penalty box for slashing.
The Red Wings peppered 17 first-period shots at Anaheim goalie Jonas Hiller and led 2-0 after the opening frame. Anaheim fought back and tied the contest 7:37 into the third period. Corey Perry had the puck at the left side and fed it over to the right side where rookie Bobby Ryan redirected it past Osgood.
■HURRICANES V BRUINS
AFP, BOSTON
Scott Walker made the most of his first playoff goal, notching the game winner as the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Boston Bruins 3-2 in Game Seven of their NHL quarter-final playoff series.
Walker, known more for his using his fists than scoring goals, scored with just under two minutes left in the first overtime, poking the puck past Bruin goalie Tim Thomas.
Carolina advances to the conference championship to play Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Pittsburgh beat the Washington Capitals in game seven of their series on Wednesday.
Rod Brind’Amour scored for Carolina to tie it 1-1 after Byron Bitz had given Boston a lead just six minutes earlier. Brind’Amour was hit in the head area with an errant puck while sitting on the players’ bench and had to leave the game in overtime.
Russian Sergei Samsonov gave Carolina a 2-1 lead at 7:45 of the second period, but Canadian Milan Lucic tied it for the Bruins at 6:19 of the third.
New Taipei Kings guard Jeremy Lin on Friday was named the Taiwan Professional Basketball League’s (TPBL) Player of the Month, the first domestic player to win the award, while the Hsinchu Toplus Lioneers are to welcome their third head coach in less than a year. Lin averaged 22 points, 5.4 rebounds and 6.6 assists over five games in October and last month, helping the Kings to second in the standings with a 4-2 record as of Friday. The Kings last night defeated the Lioneers 96-78 to move level with the top-of-the-table Formosa Dreamers (5-2), while in the night game, the New Taipei
TO NO AVAIL: The Denver Nuggets’ Serbian center Nikola Jokic surpassed his 53-point performance in the 2023 Western Conference semi-finals against Phoenix The Washington Wizards withstood a 56-point explosion from Denver star Nikola Jokic to beat the Nuggets 122-113 on Saturday and snap their 16-game NBA losing streak. Jokic, who won his third NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) award last season, posted a career scoring high — surpassing a 53-point performance in game four of the 2023 Western Conference semi-finals against Phoenix and a 50-point regular-season best against Sacramento in 2021. The Serbian big man added 16 rebounds and eight assists, but it was all to no avail as Washington, buoyed by 39 points from Jordan Poole, won for the first time
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Taiwan’s Lin Cheng-jing won a bronze medal in the clean and jerk in the women’s under-49 kg division at the 2024 IWF World Weightlifting Championships in Bahrain on Saturday. Lin won her first medal at a World Weightlifting Championships for lifting 107kg in the clean and jerk in her weight class, 2kg more than Rosegie Ramos of the Philippines. However, Ramos won bronze for the combined lift after topping Lin by 5kg in the snatch. Ri Song-gum of North Korea won gold in the division’s combined lift with a total of 213kg, while Xiang Linxiang of China took silver with
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