Jaromir Jagr is not even thinking about retiring after having three assists to pull into a tie for second place on the NHL’s career points list as the Florida Panthers beat the Buffalo Sabres 4-3 after a shoot-out on Tuesday night.
Jagr pulled even with Mark Messier at 1,887 points, trailing only Wayne Gretzky (2,857). Jagr received a long ovation from fans after tying Messier and acknowledged the crowd.
“When I retire, I’ll look back at what I did, maybe I’m going to think about it a little more, but right now I just enjoy every moment I get a chance to play in this league and try to do everything I can to stay in this league,” 44-year-old Jagr said. “I love it so much. I know when I said I want to play until 50 everybody was laughing at me, but I’ll work every day to do it.”
Photo: AP
Roberto Luongo stopped 33 shots, including both attempts in the shoot-out, to pull into a tie with Terry Sawchuk for fifth all-time in the NHL with 447 wins.
Nick Bjugstad scored his first goal of the season, while Keith Yandle also scored and Aleksander Barkov had a goal and two assists for the Panthers.
The Panthers blew a 2-0 lead when the Sabres scored three consecutive goals.
“When you’re playing a game and all of a sudden you’re down 3-2, you don’t really think about that kind of stuff,” Jagr said.
The Panthers tied the game with 3 minutes, 51 seconds left in the third. Bjugstad, who missed 19 games with a broken hand, evened the score at 3-3 when he swept in the puck from in front off a pass from Barkov, who got the puck from Jagr.
“We didn’t quit, we battled back, we tied it in the last five minutes and won it in a shoot-out,” Jagr said.
Jagr had his last three-point game on Nov. 19 against Ottawa.
“We’re really lucky,” Panthers interim coach Tom Rowe said. “This doesn’t come around a lot. When you have two guys with Jagr, who is definitely going to be in the Hall of Fame, [Luongo] is going to be in the Hall of Fame, and to be able to watch it front row is a lot of fun.”
Rasmus Ristolainen and Sam Reinhart each had a goal and an assist for the Sabres. Evander Kane also scored and Robin Lehner made 36 saves.
The US’ bid for a fourth consecutive CONCACAF Nations League title came to a stunning end as they fell 1-0 to Panama after a stoppage-time goal from Cecilio Waterman on Thursday in Inglewood, California. Despite dominating possession, the US struggled to break down a resilient Panama side for long periods. Panama spent the bulk of the match defending, but pounced on a giveaway by the US before substitute forward Waterman sent a shot from the right side of the area to the bottom left corner late in stoppage time. Up next for Panama in tomorrow’s final is to be Mexico, who beat
DOMINATION: McLaren drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris took the first two spots as Mercedes’ George Russell and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen followed them Australian Oscar Piastri yesterday roared back from season-opening disappointment in his home race by winning the Formula One Chinese Grand Prix from pole position in a McLaren one-two with championship-leading teammate Lando Norris. George Russell finished third for Mercedes, ahead of Red Bull’s reigning champion Max Verstappen with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Saturday’s sprint winner Lewis Hamilton fifth and sixth respectively. Piastri’s win denied Norris a third victory in a row, including last year’s Abu Dhabi season-ender, but left champions McLaren unbeaten in two races so far this year. “Mega job guys. The car was very, very lovely,” Piastri said
TO FINAL FOUR: France had 22 chances and scored two goals, while Croatia could not manage a single shot on target in 120 minutes. Les Bleus won 5-4 on penalties France on Sunday overturned a two-goal deficit to qualify for the UEFA Nations League Final Four by eliminating Croatia 5-4 on penalties after a 2-0 victory in their quarter-final second leg at the Stade de France. Dayot Upamecano scored the winning spot kick in a nail-biting shootout in which France keeper Mike Maignan made two saves, sending Les Bleus into the semi-finals against Spain. Michael Olise opened the scoring and Ousmane Dembele doubled their lead 10 minutes from time to send the tie into extra time after their 2-0 loss in Split, Croatia, on Thursday. France had a total of
Armand Duplantis will be among the reigning Olympic champions adding star power to the world indoor championships this weekend when the Chinese city of Nanjing hosts the first major global athletics meet since the Paris Games last year. The three-day event was originally slated for 2020 and faced multiple postponements due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but Nanjing’s Sports Training Center would finally welcome more than 570 athletes for the start of the showpiece today. One of the main attractions would be pole vaulter “Mondo” Duplantis, who soared 6.27m to break the world record for a staggering 11th time in Clermont-Ferrand last
RSS