In brief: Digest: Penguins close out Rangers in Game 5 rout
NHL: Mike Sullivan was right. The past is the past for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Pittsburgh ended its postseason hex against the New York Rangers emphatically Saturday, lighting up Henrik Lundqvist in a remarkably easy 6-3 rout in Game 5 to win the series 4-1 in Pittsburgh and advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Rookie Bryan Rust scored twice during a four-goal burst in the second period and Matt Murray made 38 saves for the Penguins. Pittsburgh which outscored the Rangers 14-4 over the final three games to gain a measure of revenge after New York ended the Penguins’ seasons each of the last two years.
Not this time. Matt Cullen, Carl Hagelin, Conor Sheary and Phil Kessel also scored for the Penguins to end a miserable and brief postseason for Lundqvist, who stopped just 17 of 23 shots and failed to make it to the third period for the third time in the series.
Hawks rout Blues in Game 6: Artem Anisimov, Trevor van Riemsdyk and Dale Weise scored during Chicago’s dominant second period, and the Blackhawks beat the St. Louis Blues 6-3 on Saturday night to send their first-round playoff series to Game 7.
Andrew Shaw added a third-period goal in his return from a one-game suspension for using a gay slur during Chicago’s 4-3 loss in Game 4. Andrew Ladd had a goal and an assist as the Blackhawks improved to 15-1 in their last 16 Game 6s in the playoffs.
Chicago trailed 3-1 in the series, but stayed alive with a 4-3 double-overtime victory in St. Louis on Thursday. Then, the defending Stanley Cup champions trailed 3-1 after one period in Game 6, but found a way again.
Game 7 is Monday night.
Ducks lead series 3-2: Ryan Garbutt scored the go-ahead goal in the second period for the Ducks, who beat the Nashville Predators 5-2 for the first win by a home team in their first-round series, which Anaheim leads 3-2.
Nashville had won the first two games in Anaheim, California, before the Ducks tied it with two wins on the Predators’ home ice.
David Perron scored the tying goal earlier in the second and assisted on Garbutt’s goal along with Ryan Getzlaf.
The Ducks added three goals in the third. Sami Vatanen scored on a breakaway, Cam Fowler had a power-play goal and Ryan Kesler added an empty-netter.
Game 6 is Monday in Nashville.
Lillard leads, Blazers grab first playoff win
NBA: Damian Lillard scored 32 points and the Portland Trail Blazers found their offense at home, beating the Los Angeles Clippers 96-88 in Portland, Oregon, to pull within 2-1 in the Western Conference first-round series.
Newly crowned Most Improved Player CJ McCollum added 27 points for Portland, which snapped a five-game losing streak to the Clippers going back to the regular season.
Mason Plumlee had six points, 21 rebounds and nine assists for Portland, which hosts Game 4 on Monday night.
Chris Paul finished with 26 points for the Clippers, who had held the Blazers to an average of just 88 points in the first two games – down from an average of 105.1 in the regular season. Paul has scored 25 or more points in four straight playoff games dating to last season.
Thunder leads series 3-1: Russell Westbrook had 25 points and 15 assists, and the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the host Dallas Mavericks 119-108, taking a commanding 3-1 lead in a testy first-round series that got quite a bit testier. Enes Kanter had his second straight playoff career high with 28 points for the Thunder, who never trailed in two games in Dallas after the Mavericks evened the series with a one-point win in Oklahoma City following a 38-point loss in the opener.
Kevin Durant scored 19 points before he was ejected in the final minute for a flagrant foul on Dallas’ Justin Anderson. It was the last of several tense moments, and Dallas team security had to make sure Durant didn’t leave the court in front of the Mavericks bench.
Dirk Nowitzki had 27 points and eight rebounds for the Mavericks.
Lin, Walker lead Hornets: Jeremy Lin scored 18 points, Kemba Walker had 17 and the Charlotte Hornets beat the Miami Heat 96-80 in Charlotte, North Carolina, to snap a 12-game playoff losing streak and earn their first postseason victory in 14 years. Rookie Frank Kaminsky, who got the starting nod, scored eight of his 15 points during an 18-0 run in the third quarter that broke open a 53-all game.
The Heat lead the series 2-1, with Game 4 set for Monday night.
Pacers tie series: George Hill and Ian Mahinmi each scored 22 points, Paul George added 19 and the Indiana Pacers beat the Toronto Raptors 100-83 in Indianapolis to tie the first-round playoff series at 2-2.
Game 5 in the best-of-seven series is Tuesday night in Toronto.
Jonas Valanciunas led Toronto with 16 points, and Kyle Lowry and DeMarre Carroll each had 12.
Conley wins Joe Dumars award: Mike Conley of the Memphis Grizzlies joins rare company as a two-time winner of the Joe Dumars Trophy for sportsmanship. The NBA announced that Conley joins Grant Hill (3) and Jason Kidd (2) as multiple winners since the award’s inception in the 1996. The point guard also won in 2014.
“He’s very deserving as just a wonderful human being, a class act on the court, the way he carries himself and certainly all the things he does in the community,” Grizzlies coach Dave Joerger said. “He plays the game the right way, and then he carries that over into the community and all the positive things he’s done here in the last nine years is just fantastic.”
The NBA will make a $10,000 donation on behalf of Conley to his charity of choice, Methodist Healthcare Foundation. The money is earmarked for the sickle cell center.
Conley received 58 of 327 first-place votes and 2,209 total points from NBA players, who voted among finalists Kyle Korver (Atlanta), Pau Gasol (Chicago), Damian Lillard (Portland), Shaun Livingston (Golden State) and Luis Scola (Toronto).
Curry expected to return: Stephen Curry is expected to play Sunday in Game 4 of Golden State’s first-round series against Houston. Curry sprained his right ankle in the series opener and missed the last two games. Golden State won the first one without him, but Houston took Game 3 on Thursday night to cut the series deficit to 2-1. The Warriors officially listed him as probable, but coach Steve Kerr says he expects him to play.
Curry participated in a 5-on-5 scrimmage in practice Saturday and says that if he doesn’t have any setbacks he “should be good” for Sunday.
He says the biggest thing was feeling like his ankle was stable when he tried to pivot or make moves to avoid defenders. He says: “I can deal with a little discomfort that comes along with it as long as it feels stable.”
Barnes takes one- stroke lead at Texas
Golf: Ricky Barnes shot a 5-under 67 to take a one-stroke lead in the Valero Texas Open in San Antonio in a bid for his first PGA Tour victory.
Winless in 221 starts with a career-best runner-up finish in the 2009 U.S. Open, the 35-year-old Barnes had an 11-under 205 total at TPC San Antonio. He closed with a bogey after a wild drive near a cactus bush on the par-5 18th.
Brendan Steele, the leader after each of the first two rounds, was second after a 72.
Former world No. 1 Luke Donald and three-time tour winner Charley Hoffman were two strokes back. Donald, coming off a second-place tie last week in the RBC Heritage in South Carolina, shot a 68. Hoffman missed a 7-foot birdie putt on the last hole and settled for a 70.
Austin-Allen team leads Legends: Woody Austin and Michael Allen shot a 12-under 59 in better-ball play to take the second-round lead in the PGA Tour Champions’ Bass Pro Shops Legends of Golf at Big Cedar Lodge in Ridgedale, Missouri.
Austin and Allen played Buffalo Ridge’s Springs Course after opening with a 5-under 49 on the par-3 Top of the Rock course. Austin won the Mitsubishi Electric Classic last week in a playoff in Georgia for his second victory in the last three events on the 50-and-over tour.
Defending champions Billy Andrade and Joe Durant were a stroke back at 16 under along with the teams of David Frost-Roger Chapman and Kenny Perry-Scott Hoch. Frost and Chapman had a 61 at the Springs, while Andrade-Durant and Perry-Hoch each shot 46 at Top of the Rock. At the par-3 course, the teams played nine holes of modified alternate shot and nine of better ball.
Nomura keeps three-stroke lead: Haru Nomura shot a 1-under 71 at Lake Merced to maintain a three-stroke lead in the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic in Daly City, California. Nomura had three birdies and two bogeys to take a 10-under 206 total into the final round. She won the Australian Women’s Open in February, pulling away to beat top-ranked Lydia Ko by three strokes for her first LPGA Tour title.
South Africa’s Lee-Anne Pace and South Korea’s Na Yeon Choi were tied for second. Pace had a 69, and Choi shot 71.
So Yeon Ryu was 5 under along with Brooke Henderson, Catriona Matthew and Gerina Piller.
Ko was six strokes back at 4 under after a 73. The two-time defending champion will be 19 on Sunday.
Earnhardt wins NASCAR Xfinity Series
Auto Racing: Dale Earnhardt Jr. dominated all day and regained the lead on a late restart to win the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Richmond International Raceway in Richmond, Virginia, earning his 24th career victory in the series and first in more than six years.
Earnhardt built a lead of more than 5 seconds as the first 125 laps were run caution-free. When a caution finally flew with 15 laps to go, he and the other 10 cars on the lead lap headed for the pits, and chaos ensued, causing the race to go nine extra laps.
Earnhardt was beaten off pit road by his J.R. Motorsports teammate Justin Allgaier, one of four drivers contending for a $100,000 bonus. But Brennan Poole, another contender for the bonus, stayed on the track on old tires. When the race when back to green, he nudged the back of Allgaier’s car, sending him spinning out of the race. That opened a door for Earnhardt to get back in front and for Ty Dillon to hold on for second and claim the $100,000 bonus in overtime.
Pagenaud takes pole spot at Barber: A different Team Penske driver will take his turn at the front of the pack. Simon Pagenaud continued his hot streak by taking the pole position at Barber Motorsports pack in Birmingham, Alabama, the road course where he made his IndyCar debut in 2011. Pagenaud, the Frenchman who already has a win and two runners-up finish in the first three races, edged teammate Will Power in Fast 6 qualifying with a lap of 1:06.7262.
Team Penske is 4 for 4 in taking pole positions this season, but it’s the first of the year for Pagenaud. Power and Helio Castroneves (twice), both of whom have multiple wins at Barber, had divvied the first three poles.
Chevrolet continued to dominate with the top five qualifiers with only Graham Rahal breaking into the top six for Honda.
Power, a two-time winner on the 17-turn, 2.3-mile road course, had the second fastest lap. He’d won the pole three times since 2010 in Alabama and starts up front for the sixth consecutive year.
Defending champion Josef Newgarden will start third, followed by Scott Dixon, Sebastian Bourdais and Graham Rahal.
Nadal to face Nishikori at Barcelona final
Miscellany: Rafael Nadal will play Kei Nishikori in the Barcelona Open final after both past champions won their semifinals in straight sets at Barcelona, Spain. Nadal saw off Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany 6-3, 6-3 to return to his first final here since 2013, when he won the tournament a record eighth time.
Nishikori, the two-time defending champion, beat Benoit Paire of France 6-3, 6-2 earlier on the outdoor clay court.
Nadal holds an 8-1 win-loss record against Nishikori, but expects a tough final.
Johnson stops Cejudo: Demetrious Johnson successfully defended his flyweight title for the eighth straight time, stopping Henry Cejudo in the first round at UFC 197 in Las Vegas. Johnson improved to 23-2-1 in handing Cejudo his first professional loss at 10-1.
Working from a clinched position, Johnson landed a hard right elbow, followed by two knees to the body and a devastating knee to the jaw that sent Cejudo reeling. Johnson followed Cejudo to the mat, landing a couple more power shots that forced the referee to stop the fight at 2:49 of the round.
On the undercard, lightweight contender Edson Barboza looked sharp in a unanimous decision over former lightweight champion Anthony Pettis. Sergio Pettis, Danny Roberts, James Vick and former female straw-weight champion Carla Esparza also won fights.
Roczen wins AMA Supercross: Ken Roczen won the Monster Energy AMA Supercross race at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusettes, for his fourth 450SX victory of the season. Roczen led all 20 laps in the main event. Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac Cortez was second, and series leader Ryan Dungey finished third on a KTM to extend his record podium streak to 31.
Dungey, an eight-time winner this year, has a 43-point lead over second-place Roczen with two races left.
Husqvarna’s Martin Davalos won the Eastern Regional 250SX race for his second victory of the year. Yamaha’s Jeremy Martin was second, and Honda’s Malcolm Stewart finished third. Stewart leads the standings, five points ahead of Yamaha’s Aaron Plessinger. Martin is third, 14 points behind Stewart.