Backes’ goal gives Blues win over Pens
NHL: David Backes deflected a slap shot by Alexander Steen past Marc-Andre Fleury midway through the third period to lift the visiting St. Louis Blues to a 1-0 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday.
Brian Elliott stopped 33 shots to pick up his fourth shutout of the season as one of the NHL’s best defensive teams shut down Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and company.
Fleury made 26 saves for the Penguins but watched Backes’ deflection carom off his glove and into the net just after a penalty against Malkin expired.
St. Louis bounced back from a one-sided loss at Philadelphia on Saturday to improve the league’s best road record to 23-11-3. Pittsburgh’s top-ranked power play went 0 for 5 a day after scoring three times in a win over Tampa Bay.
• Ducks end slide at home: Corey Perry and captain Ryan Getzlaf each had a goal and two assists, and the Anaheim Ducks snapped their four-game home skid with a 6-2 victory over the Florida Panthers.
Teemu Selanne, Jakob Silfverberg, Kyle Palmieri and Perry scored during Anaheim’s four-goal second period.
• Rinne blanks Blackhawks: Pekka Rinne made 29 saves for his first shutout in more than a year to lead the visiting Nashville Predators to a 2-0 win over the Chicago Blackhawks.
Mike Fisher and Gabriel Bourque scored for Nashville, which won its second straight and improved to 3-1 against Chicago this season.
• Canucks double up Sabres: Zack Kassian had four assists and the Vancouver Canucks rallied to beat the visiting Buffalo Sabres 4-2.
The Canucks have consecutive wins for the first time since mid-January. Vancouver pulled within three points of eighth-place Phoenix, and one point of ninth-place Dallas, in the race for the second wild-card playoff spot in the Western Conference.
The Sabres, last in the NHL by a wide margin, suffered their eighth loss in the past 10 games as they squandered an early 2-0 lead.
• Wild edge Wings: Matt Moulson’s goal at 2:15 of overtime gave the Minnesota Wild a 4-3 come-from-behind win over the host Detroit Red Wings.
Down 22, Suns rally past Timberwolves
NBA: Markieff Morris scored 25 points off the bench to lead the Phoenix Suns to their biggest comeback of the season, a 127-120 victory against the Minnesota Timberwolves in Minneapolis.
Phoenix trailed by 22 in the first half but shot a season-high 57 percent from the floor to overcome Kevin Love’s 36 points and 14 rebounds. Love fell an assist short of a triple double.
• Cavs rally, end Knicks’ streak: Jarrett Jack scored a season-high 31 points and the visiting Cleveland Cavaliers won 106-100 to end the eight-game winning streak of the New York Knicks, who wasted a chance to pull within two games of a playoff spot.
The Knicks, who led by as many as 17 points, were outscored 29-16 in the fourth quarter. They couldn’t stop Jack and couldn’t get a basket from Carmelo Anthony, who missed all five shots in the final period and finished with 32 points.
• Kidd wins in return to Dallas: Joe Johnson scored 22 points, including the tying layup in regulation and the go-ahead 3-pointer in overtime, to lead the Brooklyn Nets past the Mavericks 107-104 in Jason Kidd’s return to Dallas as a coach.
The Nets swept the two-game season series with Dallas in their first year under Kidd, who spent his 41st birthday on the floor where he was essentially the coach at point guard when the Mavericks won the 2011 title.
• Kings crush Bucks: DeMarcus Cousins had 32 points and 12 rebounds and Isaiah Thomas had 30 points and eight assists in the Sacramento Kings’ 124-107 victory that sent the visiting Milwaukee Bucks to their seventh straight loss.
Clarkson wins NCAA women’s hockey title
Miscellany: Shannon MacAulay scored on a breakaway with 4:16 left in the third and it proved to be the difference as Clarkson beat two-time defending champion Minnesota 5-4 in the NCAA women’s hockey championship in Hamden, Conn.
Vanessa Plante broke a 3-3 tie from the point with 8:28 to go for Clarkson. MacAulay, who also had two assists, stole the puck at her own blue line and scored on a backhander on the break to make it 5-3.
Minnesota defenseman Baylee Gillanders cut the lead in half 35 seconds later, but Clarkson held on for its first NCAA championship in any sport for the Potsdam, N.Y. school.
• Thompson clinches skicross title: Olympic champion Marielle Thompson of Canada clinched the World Cup skicross title by winning the last event of the season in La Plagne, France. Thompson beat world champion Fanny Smith of Switzerland in the final. Georgia Simmerling of Canada finished third.
Victor Oehling Norberg of Sweden captured his first World Cup title despite a quarterfinal elimination.
Olympic champion Jean-Frederic Chapuis of France beat Christoph Wahrstoetter of Austria in the men’s final.
Brady Leman of Canada took third and Andreas Schauer of Germany was fourth.
• Two killed in Sochi avalanche: An avalanche killed two skiers at the Russian mountain resort used for the Sochi Olympics the day after it opened to the public, the resort said.
Six skiers were on the middle section of Labirint run when the avalanche struck, the Roza Khutor resort said in a statement. The snow buried two women, and rescuers who dug them out were unable to save them, it said. The four other skiers escaped unharmed.
• Boxing’s Duff dies at 84: Mickey Duff, the celebrated British boxing manager and promoter, has died. He was 84.
The London Ex-Boxers’ Association says Duff, who was born in Krakow, Poland, died in his sleep early Saturday.
Duff, who moved to England in the late 1930s, won 61 of 69 professional fights before retiring from the ring at the age of 19. He went on to manage 16 world champions, including Frank Bruno, Joe Calzaghe, Jim Watt and Alan Minter.
In 1999, Duff was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
• Honor Code injured: Honor Code will miss the Wood Memorial on April 5 and the Kentucky Derby a month later because of a slight ligament tear.
Trainer Shug McGaughey said the injury to the upper right hind leg will heal and he’ll wait 60 days before re-evaluating the 3-year-old colt.