Neal leads Penguins’ charge over Rangers
NHL: James Neal scored twice, Evgeni Malkin handed out three assists and the Pittsburgh Penguins chased reigning Vezina Trophy winner Henrik Lundqvist from the net in the second period of a 6-3 victory over the Rangers in New York’s home opener on Sunday night.
Veteran backup Tomas Vokoun started for Pittsburgh over Marc-Andre Fleury and was solid in making 31 saves.
• Wild blank Stars behind Parise’s first goal: Zach Parise scored his first goal with the Wild and Josh Harding stopped all 24 shots he faced in his first start since being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and Minnesota beat the Dallas Stars 1-0 in St. Paul, Minn.
• Vanek leads Sabres to rout in win over Flyers: Thomas Vanek scored twice and added three assists in leading the Sabres to a 5-2 season-opening win over the Philadelphia Flyers in Buffalo, N.Y.
Ryan Miller made 27 saves in helping Buffalo improve to 6-1-1 in its past eight season openers.
• Marleau, Sharks topple Flames: Patrick Marleau scored a pair of goals to lead the San Jose Sharks to a 4-1 win over Calgary, spoiling the debut of new Flames coach Bob Hartley, in the season-opener for both teams in Calgary, Alberta.
Martin Havlat and defenseman Dan Boyle also scored for the Sharks during a three-goal second period.
Nuggets edge Thunder in overtime
NBA: Kenneth Faried scored the go-ahead layup in overtime, and the Denver Nuggets overcame 30-plus point games from Kevin Durant (37) and Russell Westbrook (36) to beat visiting Oklahoma City 121-118, snapping the Thunder’s six-game winning streak.
Corey Brewer scored 26 points, including 15 in the fourth quarter, to lead the Nuggets.
• Raptors extend Lakers’ road woes: Landry Fields had a season-high 18 points and 10 rebounds as the Toronto Raptors sent the Los Angeles Lakers to their fifth straight road loss, 108-103.
Kobe Bryant scored 26 points and Pau Gasol had 25 for the Lakers, whose road skid is their longest in six years. Dwight Howard was ejected after his second technical foul with 1:18 left in the first half.
Zeller leads Indiana over Northwestern
Men’s basketball: Cody Zeller scored 21 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, and No. 2 Indiana beat Northwestern 67-59 in Evanston, Ill.
The Wildcats (11-8, 2-4 Big Ten) pulled within five three times, but the Hoosiers (16-2, 4-1) prevailed after seeing a six-game win streak end with a loss to Wisconsin last week.
No. 7 California holds off No. 14 UCLA
Women’s basketball: Layshia Clarendon scored 22 points to help No. 7 California (15-2, 5-1 Pac-12) to a 70-65 win over No. 14 UCLA (13-4, 4-2) in Berkeley, Calif.
Talia Caldwell had 14 points and 11 rebounds while Gennifer Brandon also had a double-double with 12 points and 14 boards for the Golden Bears.
It’s Cal’s third win over a Top 25 team in its last five games.
• Iowa upsets No. 12 Purdue: Jaime Printy and Melissa Dixon scored 15 points apiece and Iowa never trailed in defeating No. 12 Purdue 62-46 in Iowa City, Iowa.
Theairra Taylor had nine points and 10 rebounds, and Samantha Logic had 10 assists as the Hawkeyes (14-5, 3-2 Big 10) handed Purdue (15-3, 4-1) its first conference loss this season.
• Aggies handle Lady Bulldogs: Courtney Walker scored 12 points to lead a strong perimeter game by No. 20 Texas A&M (14-5, 4-1 Southeastern Conference) in its 64-46 win over No. 13 Georgia (16-3, 4-2) in Athens, Ga.
The Aggies hit 51 percent (26 of 51) from the field and made 5 of 10 3-pointers.
Germany’s Greipel wins criterium
Cycling: Andre Greipel easily outsprinted his rivals to win the Tour Down Under’s 30-mile criterium.
The German sprint star, riding for the Lotto Belisol team, claimed his third win in the criterium, which is raced over 10 laps of a course through parkland near downtown Adelaide, Australia.
The criterium does not count toward general classification in the Tour, which starts with an 85-mile stage Tuesday. Greipel does win the right to wear the tour leader’s ocher jersey.
• Ullrich won’t make TV appearance: Former Tour de France winner and banned German rider Jan Ullrich says he has no plans for a televised doping confession like the one by former rival Lance Armstrong.
Ullrich tells Focus magazine, “I will surely not go the way of Armstrong and speak before an audience of millions, even if some people keep pushing me to do it and perhaps even expect it of me.”
The German won the tour in 1997 and finished runner-up five times, three times behind Armstrong.
Gold lives up to name in women’s halfpipe
Winter sports: American Arielle Gold won gold in women’s halfpipe at the world snowboarding championship in Stoneham, Quebec.
Gold took first with 79 points. She was followed by Austria’s Holly Crawford with 77.25 and France’s Sophie Rodriguez, who had 72.50.
In the men’s competition, Switzerland’s Iouri Podladtchikov took gold in the halfpipe with an impressive score of 94.25. Japan’s Taku Hiraoka was second with 93.75, while Finland’s Markus Malin took bronze with 86.75 points.
• Rebensburg wins WC super-G: Germany’s Viktoria Rebensburg won a shortened World Cup super-G amid heavy snow in Cortina D’Ampezzo, Italy, while Lindsey Vonn struggled and lost her lead in the super-G standings.
Rebensburg finished in 1 minute, 16.45 seconds. Nicole Schmidhofer of Austria was second, 0.33 seconds behind, and overall leader Maze of Slovenia took third, 0.34 back.
Vonn, who finished seventh, dropped four points behind Tina Maze in the super-G standings after four of seven races. Maze increased her lead to a massive 718 points ahead of Maria Hoefl-Riesch of Germany, who finished 19th.
• Neureuther tops Hirscher in WC slalom: Felix Neureuther of Germany finally beat Austria’s Marcel Hirscher to win a World Cup slalom in Wengen, Switzerland.
Neureuther made up a 0.05-second deficit after the first leg to win by 0.21 over the overall World Cup leader.
Ivica Kostelic of Croatia was third, 0.25 behind Neureuther’s two-run time of 1 minute, 50.53 seconds.