Fast Break

Hockey

Panthers’ Zednik stable after cut

Florida Panthers forward Richard Zednik underwent surgery to close a deep gash on the right side of his neck, after he was cut by a teammate’s skate during a game against the Sabres on Sunday night at Buffalo, N.Y.

Zednik was in stable condition at a Buffalo hospital.

“The surgery was successful, and he’s resting comfortably in the hospital,” team spokesman Brian Goldman said.

Blood gushed from Zednik’s neck after he was hurt midway through the third period of Buffalo’s 5-3 victory, creating a frightening moment that delayed the game for about 15 minutes, and there was a brief discussion about postponing the game altogether.

Zednik was behind the play and skating into the right corner of the Sabres’ zone, when teammate Olli Jokinen was upended by Sabres forward Clarke MacArthur. Jokinen fell head-first to the ice, and his right leg flew up and struck Zednik directly on the side of the neck.

Clutching his neck, Zednik immediately raced to the Florida bench, leaving a long trail of blood. Arriving at the bench, he nearly fell into the arms of a team trainer, who quickly applied a towel to the cut. Zednik was then helped off the ice by the trainer and teammate Jassen Cullimore.

Junior Hockey

Chiefs woes continue

Things didn’t get better a night after they couldn’t have gotten any worse for the Spokane Chiefs.

For the third time this Western Hockey League season, the Chiefs were shutout, falling 2-0 at Seattle.

The Chiefs suffered their worst loss of the season on Saturday night in a 7-2 loss to the Tri-City Americans.

Track and field

Kallur breaks long-held record

Susanna Kallur broke an 18-year-old world record in the women’s 60-meter indoor hurdles Sunday, clocking 7.68 seconds to lower the mark by 0.01 seconds, at Karlsruhe, Germany.

The Swede broke the record set by Russia’s Ludmila Narozhilenko – who later changed her name to Ludmila Engquist after becoming a Swedish citizen – on Feb. 4, 1990.

•At Moscow, Yelena Soboleva broke her own indoor world record in the 1,500 meters at the Russian indoor championships.

Soboleva finished in 3 minutes, 58.05 seconds at the CSKA indoor arena, shaving 0.23 seconds off the mark she set at the Russian nationals on Feb. 12, 2006.

The regional team of Yevgenia Zinurova, Olga Kotlyarova, Maria Savinova and Natalia Ignatova from the Ural Mountains region of Sverdlovsk finished in 8:14.53 to set a world record in the women’s 4X800-meter relay.

They broke the old mark of 8:18.54 set by the Moscow team at the Russian nationals in Volgograd on Feb. 11, 2007.