ICE HOCKEY
Dallas Stars win Game 1
Miro Heiskanen, Mikael Granlund and Matt Duchene on Wednesday scored power-play goals in a 5 minute, 26 second span early in the third period as the Dallas Stars opened their NHL Western Conference Finals rematch against the Edmonton Oilers with a 6-3 victory. Dallas began the third period with a two-goal deficit and a man advantage from a penalty that carried over from the second. Heiskanen scored 32 seconds in on a shot from near the blue line, Granlund tied it and Duchene put the Stars ahead to stay with a second-effort score that made it 4-3.
Photo: AP
TENNIS
Wu Fang-hsien advances
Wu Fang-hsien on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals at the Internationaux de Strasbourg after the Taiwanese and her partner, Jiang Xinyu of China, defeated Caroline Dolehide of the US and Fanny Stollar of Hungary. The Taiwanese-Chinese pair won 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 to set up a shot at the final today in their semi against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Guo Hanyu of China, who eliminated Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Shuko Aoyama of Japan 6-3, 6-2 at the Strasbourg Tennis Club in France.
Photo: AFP
CRICKET
SKY wins MotM
Suryakumar Yadav, or SKY, had double reason to celebrate his match-winning knock on Wednesday as it not only helped the Mumbai Indians claim the last Indian Premier League (IPL) playoff spot, but also earned him a Man of the Match (MotM) award to show off to his wife. The middle-order lynchpin’s unbeaten 73 off 43 balls powered Mumbai to 180-5 before they bundled out the Delhi Capitals for 121 inside 19 overs, sealing a playoff berth alongside the Gujarat Titans, the Royal Challengers Bengaluru and the Punjab Kings. Suryakumar has been the five-time champion’s highest scorer this season, but until Wednesday had not received the individual recognition he perhaps deserved. “My wife told me a sweet story,” a beaming Suryakumar said during the presentation ceremony. “She said: ‘You’ve got all the awards except the Man of the Match award.’ From the team’s point of view, the knock was important and this trophy is for her. She waits for these moments and we celebrate it when we go back.”
Photo: AP
FOOTBALL
Pushing ban voted down
Another season of the “Brotherly Shove” is coming soon after NFL owners failed to pass a proposal to ban the rugby union-style, short-yardage play commonly employed by Super Bowl champions the Philadelphia Eagles. A proposal to eliminate any play involving pushing or shoving ballcarriers forward did not receive the required 24 votes of support on Wednesday at the NFL owners meetings in Eagan, Minnesota. ESPN reported the final vote was 22-10.
Wilyer Abreu watched the ball leave the park and tossed his bat high in the air. His Venezuela teammates streamed out of the dugout in celebration. The comeback was on and the win over the reigning World Baseball Classic (WBC) champion Japan was within reach. Japan, their 11-game WBC winning streak on the line, held a 5-4 lead in the sixth inning of Saturday’s thrilling quarter-final matchup when Abreu put his team ahead with the biggest swing of the game: a three-run shot off Hiromi Itoh that sent the loanDepot Park crowd into a passionate roar and helped seize Venezuela’s 8-5
A BREATHLESS BATTLE: France clinched the championship in a vicious back-and-forth match with England, denying Ireland the title by just a few points France won back-to-back Six Nations titles after beating England 48-46 on a last-second penalty-kick by Thomas Ramos in a thriller for the ages on Saturday. England scored their seventh try in the 77th minute and converted for 46-45. If the score held for a few more minutes, Ireland would have been crowned the champion. But France pressed yet again with 14 men, lost possession, regained it, and earned two simultaneous penalties after the fulltime siren. Captain Antoine Dupont debated with referee Nika Amashukeli where the penalty spots were. Ramos, who did not miss a goal-kick all night, finally lined up his seventh
Home runs are greeted with a celebratory shot of espresso and the donning of an Armani jacket. Victories are marked with bottles of red wine while the soaring voice of opera singer Andrea Bocelli echoes through the locker room. Welcome to baseball, Italian-style. Written off as 80-1 underdogs before the World Baseball Classic started, Italy’s fairytale tournament has carried them all the way to today’s (Taipei time) semi-finals in Miami against Venezuela. On Saturday, Italy — who scored a stunning upset of a star-studded US lineup during the pool phase — kept their unbeaten campaign alive with a nail-biting 8-6
Kimi Antonelli became Formula 1’s second-youngest race winner with a composed drive to victory for Mercedes in an eventful Chinese Grand Prix yesterday. The 19-year-old Italian was the youngest pole position starter and briefly lost the lead to Lewis Hamilton of Ferrari at the start, but retook it soon after and was in control after that. “We did it! We did it!” Antonelli shouted to his team on the radio amid laughs and whoops. It was another 1-2 finish for Mercedes to start the season as Antonelli’s teammate George Russell came through a battle with both Ferraris to finish second. Lewis Hamilton was
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