Vonn’s third place enough to regain overall lead

American Lindsey Vonn finished third in a World Cup downhill Sunday at Zauchensee, Austria, good enough to regain the lead in the overall standings.

The defending overall and downhill champion trailed co-winners Anja Paerson of Sweden and Dominique Gisin of Switzerland by 0.17 seconds. They both finished the 1.83-mile Kaelberloch course in 1 minute, 47.52 seconds.

Vonn won her third World Cup event of the season and 16th overall, leaving her two short of American Tamara McKinney’s record 18 victories.

Vonn moved ahead of Maria Riesch of Germany, who had led the standings but finished seventh. Vonn has 776 points, followed by Riesch with 765 and Paerson with 702.

Vonn also tops the downhill standings after two events.

•Pranger wins slalom: Manfred Pranger of Austria won a World Cup slalom race at Wengen, Switzerland, for his first victory in four years, while Bode Miller lost control in the second run and did not finish. Miller, the defending overall champion, stretched his season-long winless streak to 20 races.

•Schairer takes world title: Markus Schairer of Austria rallied in the final stretch of the snowboardcross to win at the snowboard world championships at Hoengseong, South Korea, while Helene Olafsen of Norway dominated for the women’s title.

Schairer secured his first world title by nosing out 2007 champion Xavier Delerue by just a less than an inch — the closest final at a snowboard world championship. Nick Baumgartner of the United States took the bronze.

•Davis skates to record: Shani Davis of the United States set a track record to win the 1,000-meters and earn the overall title at the sprint speedskating world championships in Moscow. Wang Beixing of China won her first overall sprint title.

•German dominates luge: Two-time world champion Tatjana Huefner of Germany won a luge race at Oberhof, Germany, for her fifth World Cup victory of the season. She’s won five of six World Cup races.

Cycling

Armstrong races again

Lance Armstrong made a cautious return to professional cycle racing Sunday, finishing 64th among 133 riders in a 30-mile criterium in downtown Adelaide, Australia.

More than 138,000 people watched Armstrong return from three years of retirement and begin a campaign to win his eighth Tour de France title.

He stayed well back in a tight field throughout Sunday’s race on a winding circuit around leafy Rymill Park, following team instructions to avoid any chance of crashing.

Armstrong will compete in the six-day Tour Down Under, which starts Tuesday. The criterium does not count toward Tour overall standings.

Australia’s Robbie McEwen — a winner of 12 stages in the Tour de France — won the race for the Russian Team Katusha.

NBA

Stoudemire sparks Suns

Amare Stoudemire scored 31 points, Steve Nash had a season-high 18 assists and the Phoenix Suns beat the Raptors at Toronto 117-113, their ninth consecutive victory over the struggling Raptors.

Jason Richardson added 17 points, Shaquille O’Neal and Matt Barnes each had 16 and Leandro Barbosa scored 14 for the Suns.

Toronto lost its fifth straight.

•Wade helps Heat beat Thunder: Dwyane Wade had 32 points and 10 assists to help the Miami Heat beat the Thunder 104-94 at Oklahoma City.

Wade went on a scoring flurry early and then came back in to stave off a fourth-quarter rally by the Thunder. He capped the night by methodically taking apart Oklahoma City’s defense with a series of passes to his teammates.

Kevin Durant led Oklahoma City with 31 points.

College Basketball

Wildcats stun Gophers

Craig Moore hit six 3-pointers and finished with 22 points to lead Northwestern over No. 18 Minnesota 74-65 at Evanston, Ill., for its first win over a ranked opponent in nearly three years.

Long a Big Ten doormat, the Wildcats (9-6, 1-4) have hinted that better days are coming. Well, this certainly was one.

The Wildcats had dropped 26 of 27 Big Ten regular-season games, including their first four this season.

•Cal beats Stanford in thriller: Alexis Gray-Lawson scored a career-high 37 points, converting two free throws with 1:09 to play that put her team ahead for good and scoring again with 21 seconds left to lift No. 11 California to a thrilling 57-54 victory over archrival and ninth-ranked Stanford at Berkeley, Calif.

The Golden Bears (14-2, 5-0 Pac-10) won their sixth straight and beat the Cardinal in Berkeley for the first time since a 64-59 victory on Dec. 12, 1993, and the first time overall since a win Feb. 4, 2007, on Stanford’s home floor, that snapped a 14-game skid in the series.

Stanford’s Kayla Pedersen and Jillian Harmon each missed 3-pointers to tie it in the waning seconds.

NHL

Fleury shuts out Rangers

Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 33 shots, Petr Sykora had a goal and an assist and Sidney Crosby returned to lead the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 3-0 victory over the New York Rangers at Pittsburgh.

Fleury posted his second shutout of the season and 13th of his career, while Chris Minard and Tyler Kennedy added goals for Pittsburgh.

The Penguins have won three of their past four games and moved back into playoff position in the Eastern Conference.

•Smyth, Hejduk 300th goals: Ryan Smyth and Milan Hejduk scored their 300th career goals in the Colorado Avalanche’s 6-2 win over the Calgary Flames at Denver, becoming just the second set of players in NHL history to reach the milestone in the same game.

Miscellany

Vancouver needs millions

The city of Vancouver will borrow more than $360 million to ensure the $800-million athletes village will be built for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

British Columbia politicians voted unanimously to support legislation that allows Vancouver to borrow the money without going to a public referendum.

•Sarkisian completes staff: Washington has hired Aaron Roderick from Utah to be its new wide receivers coach.

A school spokesman said Saturday night that new Huskies coach Steve Sarkisian had completed his staff by hiring his former teammate at BYU.