In brief: Blackhawks complete NHL playoff sweep of Minnesota
NHL: Corey Crawford made 34 saves, Patrick Kane had a goal and an assist, and the Chicago Blackhawks advanced to the Western Conference finals with a 4-3 win over the Minnesota Wild on Thursday at St. Paul, Minnesota, for a four-game sweep.
Goals by former Spokane Chief Jared Spurgeon and Nino Niederreiter with 2 minutes, 18 seconds and 1:27 left gave them one last shot, with their net emptied. The final few whacks were either wide or turned aside by Crawford, who stopped 124 of 131 shots in the four games. The Wild never led in the series.
• Montreal stays alive: Carey Price stopped 22 shots, Max Pacioretty had a goal and two assists, and the Montreal Canadiens beat the Tampa Bay Lighting 6-2 in Tampa, Florida, to stay alive in their second-round playoff series.
Pacioretty and Andrei Markov scored in the first as the Canadiens avoided a sweep with their first victory in nine games this year against the Lightning.
• Belarus beats U.S. for first time: Belarus beat the United States for the first time with a 5-2 decision at the ice hockey world championship at Prague.
Following five losses to the Americans, Belarus’ milestone win in Ostrava was its third in the group stage, and a major step to advance to the quarterfinals for the second straight year.
Nine-time Pro Bowler Reed retires a Raven
NFL: Ed Reed came into the NFL as a member of the Baltimore Ravens, and now he’s leaving as one.
The nine-time Pro Bowl safety formally announced his retirement after signing one final contract with the team that drafted him 24th overall in the 2002 draft.
Reed played 11 seasons in Baltimore before splitting time with Houston and the New York Jets in 2012. He did not play last season.
Reed was the 2004 NFL Defensive Player of the Year, and his 1,590 yards on interception returns are the most in league history.
• Cowboys sign troubled LSU tackle: The Dallas Cowboys signed former LSU offensive tackle La’el Collins, who had been a projected first-round pick in last week’s NFL draft until his name came up in a police investigation.
Collins, a 2014 All-Southeastern Conference lineman, has never been named a suspect or person of interest in the shooting death of 29-year-old Brittney Mills.
After he went undrafted, Collins met with police, who say he has answered all of their questions. Collins also submitted to a paternity test that proved he’s not the father of Mills’ infant son, who was born alive after the shooting but died days later.
Seattle arena deal looks promising
MISCELLANY: The hopes of bringing the NBA back to Seattle and adding an NHL team passed a significant milestone when a final environmental impact statement found no major issues to block a projected new multipurpose arena in Seattle’s stadium district.
But the toughest challenge might still be ahead for arena investor Chris Hansen and his partners: Rewriting the original language on the arena proposal for hockey to become the first tenant of a new building.
The FEIS on the proposed arena near Safeco Field and CenturyLink Field was released by the city after nearly two years of work and comes with a competing suburban arena proposal gaining momentum after becoming public recently. It could become a race of arena proposals with the ultimate goal of getting both NBA and NHL franchises to call Seattle home in the near future.
• Past champions advance at Madrid Open: Past champions Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray cruised into the Madrid Open quarterfinals.
On the women’s side, two-time champ Serena Williams and titleholder Maria Sharapova reached the semifinals, and remained on course to meet in the final.
Nadal, the two-time defending champion, eased past Simone Bolelli of Italy 6-2, 6-2.
Murray looked sharp as he dispatched Marcel Granollers of Spain 6-2, 6-0.
The top-seeded Williams beat Carla Suarez Navarro 6-1, 6-3, and said the score was not indicative of the match.
Sharapova defeated Caroline Wozniacki 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 despite seven double faults.
Sharapova hadn’t beaten Wozniacki since 2013, losing both of their matches last year at the U.S. Open and WTA Finals.
• TPC Sawgrass early star at TPC: The biggest star at The Players Championship at Ponte Verde Beach, Florida, was not Rory McIlroy or Jordan Spieth playing together in the morning. And it wasn’t Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods in back-to-back groups in the afternoon.
It was the TPC Sawgrass all day long in another round of big numbers, curious shots and endless entertainment.
Charley Hoffman was among four players tied for the lead at 5-under-par 67. He was thrilled with his eight birdies, the most of anyone.
McIlroy also had a boring round by his standards - two birdies, an eagle, one bogey for a 69.
Spieth wasn’t so fortunate. He shot a 75, matching his worst score of the year.