Red Wings greet Blue Jackets with loss in opener

The playoff-neophyte Columbus Blue Jackets belonged on the ice with the mighty Detroit Red Wings for more than half of Game 1.

Then, center Manny Malhotra made an awful decision and Columbus couldn’t recover.

Detroit’s Jonathan Ericsson scored the go-ahead goal with 6:39 left in the second period on a shot that Malhotra tried to snatch with his glove, the defending Stanley Cup champions scored again less than a minute later and went on to beat the visiting Blue Jackets 4-1 on Thursday night.

“I saw the shot all the way and I wanted to grab it,” Malhotra said. “But I didn’t get enough of it, obviously.”

Columbus’ Ken Hitchcock said he doesn’t coach his players to do what Malhotra did in front of goalie Steve Mason.

“We’ve made that mistake before and it cost us the same way,” Hitchcock said. “That’s an easy, simple save for Mason.”

In other openers:

•Phil Kessel had two goals and an assist, and Zdeno Chara scored with 8:45 left to break a third-period tie and give the Boston Bruins a 4-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens.

Tim Thomas stopped 26 shots for the Bruins, who are the top-seeded team in the Eastern Conference but haven’t advanced past the first round in a decade.

Montreal and Boston have met an NHL-record 32 times in the playoffs, with the Canadiens winning 24 times, including last year when they had the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference but needed seven games to get out of the first round.

•Martin Havlat scored 12 seconds into overtime and the Chicago Blackhawks won their first playoff game in seven years, beating the Calgary Flames 3-2.

•Jonas Hiller made a sparkling playoff debut with 35 saves for eighth-seeded Anaheim, and Ryan Getzlaf had a goal and an assist in the third period of the Ducks’ 2-0 victory over the San Jose Sharks, who won the Presidents’ Trophy with 117 points during the regular season.

Getzlaf set up captain Scott Niedermayer’s tiebreaking power-play goal early in the third before roaring out of the penalty box to score with 2:25 to play.

•Carcillo suspended, Stevens fined: Philadelphia Flyers forward Daniel Carcillo was suspended for one game and coach John Stevens was fined $10,000 by the NHL, one day after Carcillo hit Pittsburgh’s Maxime Talbot in the head in the playoff opener.

With 7 seconds left in the third period in the Penguins’ 4-1 victory Wednesday night, Carcillo delivered a blow to Talbot’s head directly off a faceoff.

Talbot wasn’t hurt and Carcillo was not penalized for the hit.

Golf

Cejka has lead at Heritage

Alex Cejka, who missed more than three months last year because of neck surgery, shot his best round in nearly two years, a 7-under-par 64, to take a one-stroke lead at the Verizon Heritage at Hilton Head Beach, S.C. His bogey-free performance was capped by a 47-foot putt for birdie on the difficult, wind-swept 17th hole at Harbour Town. That left Cejka with his first first-round lead since 2006, a shot ahead of two-time U.S. Open champion Lee Janzen and two in front of last year’s Masters winner, Trevor Immelman.

Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson did not tee it up. Only six of the world’s top 20 took part.

Basketball

Harangody, Mills declare

Notre Dame forward Luke Harangody is putting his name in the NBA draft with the intention of turning pro, but will leave open the option of returning for his senior season. Harangody, who averaged 23.3 points and 11.8 rebounds last season, has led the Big East in scoring and rebounding in back-to-back seasons. He was the league’s player of the year in 2008.

Syracuse point guard Jonny Flynn turned pro and signed with an agent, ending his college career after two seasons. Saint Mary’s guard Patty Mills and Xavier forward Derrick Brown declared themselves eligible but will not hire agents.

Tennis

Federer, Williams lose

Stanislas Wawrinka beat his Olympic doubles partner, Roger Federer, at the Monte Carlo Masters in Monaco 6-4, 7-5 in the third round, in Federer’s first tournament since getting married to longtime girlfriend Mirka Vavrinec on Saturday.

At Charleston, S.C., second-seeded Venus Williams was upset in the third round of the Family Circle Cup, falling to 63rd-ranked Sabine Lisicki of Germany 6-4, 7-6 (5).

Miscellany

Armstrong to race

Lance Armstrong has told organizers that he will race in the Giro d’Italia. The announcement posted on the Gazzetta dello Sport’s Web site removed doubts that the seven-time Tour de France champion would miss the race after having surgery on a broken right collarbone last month. The Giro runs May 9-31.

It will mark the first time Armstrong races in the Italian classic, considered cycling’s second most important race after the Tour.

•Lysacek leads U.S.: World champion Evan Lysacek helped the United States into the lead after the first day of competition at the figure skating World Team Trophy in Tokyo.

The United States finished the first of three days with 48 points, followed by Japan (43) and Canada (39) in the first edition of the event.

Americans Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto finished first in the original dance with 64.27 points, followed by Canadians Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir (60.98 points).

Japan’s Mao Asada was first in the women’s short program, scoring 75.84 points to finish comfortably ahead of world silver medalist Joannie Rochette of Canada, who received 62.08 points.

The inaugural ISU World Team Trophy features the six best figure skating teams of the 2008-09 season. Qualifying along with the United States, Japan and Canada were Russia, France and China.

The three-day event continues today.

•Dennis steps aside: McLaren chief executive Ron Dennis relinquished all Formula One roles amid the fallout from a lying scandal that could lead to the auto racing team being banned from the world championship.

•Vick back in Kansas: Suspended NFL star Michael Vick has returned to a federal prison in Kansas after a stint in Virginia for his bankruptcy case.