Roberto Luongo made 32 saves for his second shutout of the season and 53rd overall, leading the Vancouver Canucks to their fourth straight victory, 3-0 over the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday.
Stanley Cup champions Chicago suffered their eighth regulation loss at home, matching their regular-season total from last season. The Blackhawks are 6-8-0 at home after going 29-8-4 last season at United Center.
Tanner Glass, Christian Ehrhoff and Henrik Sedin scored to give the Canucks and Luongo the all the offense they needed to avenge a 7-1 home loss to the Blackhawks on Nov. 20.
Red Wings 4, Ducks 0
In Anaheim, Jimmy Howard made 41 saves for his fifth NHL shutout and Johan Franzen scored on Detroit’s first shot of the game.
The shutout was the second this season for Howard, including a 4-0 win over the Ducks on opening night at Detroit. Tomas Holmstrom, Dan Cleary and Valtteri Filppula also scored for the Western Conference-leading Red Wings, who won their fourth in a row and ninth in 11 games to take a five-point lead over Dallas and Vancouver.
Rangers 2, Islanders 0
In New York, Henrik Lundqvist earned his fourth shutout of the season and Marc Staal scored in the second period to help the New York Rangers sweep the home-and-away series against the Islanders.
One night after the Rangers recovered from a pair of blown two-goal leads in a 6-5 win in Long Island, the teams engaged in a defensive struggle. The Rangers won despite recording only 21 shots on Dwayne Roloson, largely because they gave up a season-low 17 to the Islanders.
Brian Boyle sealed it with an empty-net goal with 2.6 seconds left. The Rangers have won six of eight.
Sabres 5, Blue Jackets 0
In Buffalo, Ryan Miller made 19 saves for Buffalo for his first shutout of the season and 18th overall and Drew Stafford had a goal and an assist in his return from a shoulder injury.
The Sabres won for just the third time in their 11 games against the Blue Jackets.
Thomas Vanek and Tyler Ennis each had a goal and two assists, Jochen Hecht and Jason Pominville also scored, and Derek Roy chipped in a pair of assists for the Sabres.
Flames 3, Wild 2, SO
In St Paul, Minnesota, Rene Bourque and Alex Tanguay scored in a shootout to lift Calgary past Minnesota.
Flames goalie Henrik Karlsson stopped Minnesota’s Mikko Koivu and Pierre-Marc Bouchard to start the shootout, but the Wild’s Patrick O’Sullivan extended the tiebreaker.
Bourque then beat Niklas Backstrom between the legs to give the Flames only their fourth victory in their past 12 games.
Tanguay and Mark Giordano scored in regulation for the Flames.
Karlsson, playing for only the fourth time this season, stopped 20 shots for Calgary.
Martin Havlat and Bouchard scored in regulation for the Wild.
Hurricanes 2, Avalanche 1, OT
In Raleigh, North Carolina, Brandon Sutter scored at 1:15 of overtime, rookie Jeff Skinner had his eighth goal of the season and Cam Ward made 34 saves to help Carolina edge Colorado.
In OT, Sutter darted in on the right side, beating goalie Craig Anderson to the left for his fifth goal.
Japan’s Shohei Ohtani is the record-breaking baseball “superhuman” following in the footsteps of the legendary Babe Ruth who has also earned comparisons to US sporting greats Michael Jordan and Tom Brady. Not since Ruth a century ago has there been a baseball player capable of both pitching and hitting at the top level. The 30-year-old’s performances with the Los Angeles Dodgers have consolidated his position as a baseball legend in the making, and a national icon in his native Japan. He continues to find new ways to amaze, this year becoming the first player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases
Zhang Shuai yesterday said that she nearly quit after losing 24 matches in a row — now the world No. 595 is into the quarter-finals of her home China Open. The 35-year-old is to face Spain’s Paula Badosa as the lowest-ranked player to reach this stage in the history of the tournament after Badosa reeled off 11 of the last 12 games in a 6-4, 6-0 victory over US Open finalist Jessica Pegula. Zhang went into Beijing on a barren run lasting more than 600 days and her string of singles defeats was the second-longest on the WTA Tour Open era, which
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Naomi Osaka is braced for a “battle” after yesterday setting up a clash with Coco Gauff in the round-of-16 of the China Open, while top seed Aryna Sabalenka also marched on. Osaka defeated 60th-ranked American Katie Volynets 6-3, 6-2 and next faces Gauff in a showdown of former US Open champions in Beijing. World No. 2 Sabalenka swatted aside Ashlyn Krueger 6-2, 6-2 for her 14th consecutive victory and plays another American in 24th-ranked Madison Keys. Looking ahead to the Gauff meeting, four-time Grand Slam champion Osaka said: “She’s very athletic, obviously.” “For me, my strongest traits are being aggressive and also my serve,
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