In St Louis and Colorado took 2-0 leads in their NHL first-round playoff series with wins on Saturday, while Columbus won a post-season game for the first time in franchise history as they squared their series against Pittsburgh.
St Louis notched their second-straight 4-3 overtime win over Chicago to leave the Blackhawks with an uphill task of successfully defending the Stanley Cup.
Colorado teenager Nathan McKinnon was irrepressible as the Avalanche won 4-2 at home against Minnesota to also take a strong grip on a passage to the next round.
Columbus’ Matt Calvert scored the winning goal in double overtime to clinch the historic victory for the Blue Jackets.
St Louis defenseman Barret Jackman scored on a drive through traffic to seal victory over Chicago.
The Blues rallied after Chicago defenseman Brent Seabrook received a five-minute major and game misconduct penalty for a vicious elbow to the head of David Backes, who had to be helped off the ice, went straight to the locker room and did not return for the extra period.
Vladimir Tarasenko forced overtime with his second goal of the series, beating Corey Crawford with a wrist shot that banged off the right post and in with 6.4 seconds to go. Kevin Shattenkirk had a goal and two assists for the Blues.
Duncan Keith, Seabrook and Michael Rozsival scored in a span of five shots to put the Blackhawks up 3-2 early in the third. However, Seabrook’s penalty proved costly, and he could be suspended for Game 3 in Chicago today.
Colorado’s Gabriel Landeskog scored twice, while Semyon Varlamov stopped 30 shots to help the Avalanche beat Minnesota 4-2.
The Wild were unable to contain the quickness of MacKinnon, who had a goal and three assists.
Paul Stastny, the star of Game 1, also had a goal and three assists and his empty-netter sealed the win after Minnesota’s Marco Scandella had made it 3-2 with 1 minute, 19 seconds remaining.
Charlie Coyle also scored early for the Wild.
Minnesota’s starting goalie Ilya Bryzgalov was replaced in the second period by Darcy Kuemper, who stopped all 14 shots he faced, giving the Wild a selection dilemma for the games ahead.
Columbus’ Calvert banged home a rebound 1:10 into the second overtime to secure the 4-3 win over Pittsburgh and a squared series.
Pittsburgh goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury blocked the initial shot by Cam Atkinson, but Calvert stood all alone at the left post and wristed a shot into the open net.
Jack Johnson had tied the game with 6:01 left in regulation for the Blue Jackets. Ryan Johansen also scored the first playoff goal of his career for Columbus.
Pittsburgh’s Brian Gibbons scored twice and Matt Niskanen added his second goal of the playoffs, but the Penguins were outplayed for much of the final three-plus periods.
Taiwanese tennis veteran Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) and her Latvian partner Jelena Ostapenko finished runners-up in the Wimbledon women's doubles final yesterday, losing 6-3, 2-6, 4-6. The three-set match against Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Elise Mertens of Belgium lasted two hours and 23 minutes. The loss denied 39-year-old Hsieh a chance to claim her 10th Grand Slam title. Although the Taiwanese-Latvian duo trailed 1-3 in the opening set, they rallied with two service breaks to take it 6-3. In the second set, Mertens and Kudermetova raced to a 5-1 lead and wrapped it up 6-2 to even the match. In the final set, Hsieh and
Taiwanese tennis veteran Hsieh Su-wei and her Latvian partner, Jelena Ostapenko, advanced to the Wimbledon women’s doubles final on Friday, defeating top seeds Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and Taylor Townsend of the US in straight sets. The fourth-seeded duo bounced back quickly after losing their opening service game, capitalizing on frequent unforced errors by their opponents to take the first set 7-5. Maintaining their momentum in the second set, Hsieh and Ostapenko broke serve early and held their lead to close out the match 6-4. They are set to face the eighth-seeded pair of Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Elise Mertens
Outside Anfield, the red sea of tributes to Diogo Jota and his brother, Andre Silva, has continued to grow this week, along with questions over whether Liverpool could play at Preston today, their first game since the brothers’ tragic loss. Inside Anfield, and specifically a grieving Liverpool dressing room, there was no major debate over the pre-season friendly. The English Premier League champions intend to honor their teammate in the best way they know how. It would be only 10 days since the deaths of Jota and Silva when Liverpool appear at Deepdale Stadium for what is certain to be a hugely
ON A KNEE: In the MLB’s equivalent of soccer’s penalty-kicks shoot-out, the game was decided by three batters from each side taking three swings each off coaches Kyle Schwarber was nervous. He had played in Game 7 of the MLB World Series and homered for the US in the World Baseball Classic (WBC), but he had never walked up to the plate in an All-Star Game swing-off. No one had. “That’s kind of like the baseball version of a shoot-out,” Schwarber said after homering on all three of his swings, going down to his left knee on the final one, to overcome a two-homer deficit. That held up when Jonathan Aranda fell short on the American League’s final three swings, giving the National League a 4-3 swing-off win after