In brief: Hurricanes send Bruins to another loss

NHL: Anthony Stewart and Jiri Tlusty scored third-period goals to help the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Boston Bruins 3-2 on Wednesday night at Raleigh, N.C.

Joni Pitkanen scored on the power play and Cam Ward made 26 saves for the Hurricanes. They never trailed, claimed their first win and avoided matching their worst start since the lockout.

Tyler Seguin and Brad Marchand scored and Tim Thomas stopped 31 shots for the Bruins, who have lost two straight and three of four.

The reigning Stanley Cup champions’ power-play unit remained punchless. Boston came up empty on five chances with the man advantage to drop to 1 for 18 for the season.

The Bruins – who were held scoreless through two periods and were in danger of being shut out in consecutive games for the first time since 2009 – twice cut Carolina’s lead to one goal in the third.

• Flyers remain undefeated: Andrej Meszaros scored the go-ahead goal in the third period to keep the Philadelphia Flyers undefeated with a 5-4 victory over the visiting Vancouver Canucks.

James van Riemsdyk, Claude Giroux, Chris Pronger and Jakub Voracek scored for the Flyers in their home opener and goalie Ilya Bryzgalov won his third straight start.

• Avalanche roar back for win: Gabriel Landeskog scored his first NHL goal with 40 seconds left and Steve Duchene’s shootout goal was the difference in the Colorado Avalanche’s 3-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets before 8,986, the smallest crowd to watch a regular-season game at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.

NCAA closes book on Newton investigation

College football: The NCAA said it found no major violations committed by Auburn regarding Cam Newton or other pay-for-play allegations and has concluded multiple investigations of the program.

The NCAA released a statement saying it has closed its 13-month investigation into Auburn’s recruitment of the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback, whose father shopped his services to another school for nearly $200,000.

The dark cloud of the investigation hovered over the program during the Tigers’ national championship run.

The NCAA also cleared Auburn in allegations by four former players that they received payments during their recruitment or careers.

Giants’ Phillips fined for hit on Seattle TE

NFL: The NFL has fined New York Giants safety Kenny Phillips $20,000 for a hit on Seattle Seahawks tight end Zach Miller.

Phillips was flagged for a hit on a defenseless Miller in the first quarter of the Seahawks’ 36-25 win over the Giants on Sunday.

Expansion Whitecaps topple D.C. United

Soccer: Long Tan’s first goal helped the Vancouver Whitecaps beat D.C. United 2-1 at Vancouver, British Columbia.

The expansion Whitecaps, long since eliminated from the playoffs, posted their second straight victory.

China wins again, but U.S. closes gap

Men’s gymnastics: A crash on vault. A few wobbly handstands. A couple of steps on landings.

Take those away and maybe, just maybe, it’s the United States standing atop the podium at the world gymnastics championships in Tokyo instead of China.

“We just showed the world we’re not falling behind,” Jonathan Horton said after the U.S. won the bronze medal, its first at worlds since 2003. “Did China have a mistake today? I don’t think they fell on anything, and they only beat us by two points – and we had mistakes. So they’re feeling the pressure, Japan’s feeling the pressure. We don’t have that much to do when we go home. We’ve got some minor details to focus on.”

China has run roughshod over the men’s gymnastics world for much of this century, winning five straight world titles as well as the gold medals at the Sydney and Beijing Olympics. For much of that time, the Chinese had the meet won simply by getting off the bus. They were that much better than everyone else and not only did the competition know it, they freely admitted it.

But China’s air of invincibility took a hit at these worlds, even if the Chinese left the floor as they usually do, index fingers held high in the air, gold medals around their necks.

IndyCar Series returns to Detroit

Auto racing: Open-wheel racing is returning to the Motor City.

The IndyCar Series will run at Detroit’s Belle Isle Park on June 3, 2012, marking the first open-wheel championship race in the city since 2008. General Motors Corp.’s Chevrolet division will sponsor the event.

“This is the Motor City and we’re proud to bring back the race,” Detroit businessman and team owner Roger Penske said after announcing his company will dedicate $6 million to improve the 2.1-mile race course on the city’s largest park.