Eighth-seeded Kings sweep Blues aside

NHL: Dustin Brown scored two goals, Jonathan Quick made 23 saves, and the eighth-seeded Kings finished an improbable four-game sweep of the St. Louis Blues with a 3-1 victory in Los Angeles Sunday, advancing to the conference finals for just the second time in club history.

Rookie Jordan Nolan scored an early goal for the Kings, the first No. 8 seed in NHL history to eliminate their conference’s top two seeds in the same postseason.

After steamrolling top-seeded Vancouver and second-seeded St. Louis with eight wins in nine games, the Kings will face the winner of Phoenix’s series with Nashville in the Western Conference finals.

• Devils take 3-1 series edge over Flyers: Dainius Zubrus scored two goals and the New Jersey Devils rallied from an early two-goal deficit and pushed the Philadelphia Flyers to the brink of elimination with a 4-2 victory in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals in Newark, N.J.

New Jersey can advance with a win in Philadelphia Tuesday night.

Anthony, Knicks avoid elimination

NBA: Carmelo Anthony scored 41 points, Amare Stoudemire had 20 points and 10 rebounds in his return from a cut hand, and the New York Knicks snapped an NBA-record, 13-game postseason losing streak by beating the visiting Miami Heat 89-87 in Game 4 of their first-round series.

Baron Davis, who was carted off the court after he dislocated his right patella in the third quarter, becomes the latest Knicks guard lost to an injury. Jeremy Lin is still out after knee surgery and Iman Shumpert was lost for the season with a torn ACL in Game 1.

LeBron James scored 27 for the Heat, who will try to close it out in Game 5 at home on Wednesday.

• Hawes helps Sixers handle Bulls: Spencer Hawes scored 22 points and Jrue Holiday had 20 to help the Philadelphia 76ers beat the top-seeded Chicago Bulls for a 3-1 lead in the first-round series.

Holiday stretched the lead with consecutive 3-pointers late in the game to put the Sixers one win away from becoming only the fifth No. 8 seed to win an opening round series.

Game 5 is Tuesday in Chicago.

• Pierce lifts Celtics over Hawks: Paul Pierce scored 24 points in 18 minutes and the Boston Celtics opened a 37-point third-quarter lead before coasting to a 101-79 victory over the visiting Atlanta Hawks to take a 3-1 lead in the best-of-7 series.

The Celtics can finish off the Hawks in Atlanta on Tuesday.

Rajon Rondo had 20 points and 16 assists for Boston.

• Lakers push Nuggets to brink: Kobe Bryant scored 22 points, Andrew Bynum added 19 and the Los Angeles Lakers’ stars got plenty of help from their supporting cast in a 92-88 win over the Nuggets in Denver for a 3-1 lead in their first-round playoff series.

The Lakers can wrap it up Tuesday night when the series shifts back to Los Angeles for Game 5.

Kohlschreiber tops Cilic at BMW Open

Tennis: German Philipp Kohlschreiber beat Marin Cilic of Croatia 7-6 (8), 6-3 to win the BMW Open in Munich.

Kohlschreiber, seeded fourth, saved seven of eight break points to capture his fourth title in his sixth ATP final.

• Del Potro wins 2nd straight Estoril Open: Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro won his second consecutive Estoril Open title, using a strong serve to beat France’s Richard Gasquet 6-4, 6-2 in Oeiras, Portugal.

• Seppi secures Serbia Open title: Andreas Seppi of Italy defeated Benoit Paire of France 6-3, 6-2 to win the Serbia Open in Belgrade, Serbia.

Stieglitz retains super middleweight title

Boxing: Robert Stieglitz of Germany has kept his WBO super middleweight title with a unanimous decision over Nader Hamdan of Australia.

Stieglitz dominated the 12 rounds in Erfurt, Germany, but was forced to go the distance by a 38-year-old challenger who was called up as a late replacement for Britain’s George Groves. Groves pulled out last month because of an undisclosed injury.

The judges scored the fight 120-108, 117-111 and 117-111.

Armstrong finishes third in Ironman

Miscellany: Lance Armstrong dominated the cycling but finished third in the St. Croix (U.S. Virgin Islands) Ironman triathlon.

The seven-time Tour de France champion finished 3 minutes, 37 seconds behind winner Andy Potts of the U.S.

He completed the 1.2-mile swim in 24:29. He surged in front on the 56-mile bike course, finishing in 2:22:39 and opening an almost two-minute gap over Potts. The 40-year-old Texan faded in the closing 13.1-mile run in which his time of 1:18:38 was almost six minutes slower than that of Potts.

Potts won in 4:03:31.

• Cavendish wins second stage of Giro d’Italia: World champion Mark Cavendish of Britain won the second stage of the Giro d’Italia in a sprint finish. Taylor Phinney of the U.S. finished fourth but kept the overall lead despite a broken bike chain in the 128-mile loop starting and ending in Herning, Denmark.

Cavendish edged Matt Goss of Australia and finished in 4 hours, 53 minutes, 12 seconds. Geoffrey Soupe of France was third.

• Roethlisberger graduates: Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has graduated from Miami University in southwest Ohio, about nine years after leaving school for the NFL.

The university says the 30-year-old Roethlisberger received his bachelor’s degree in education and joined nearly 600 students during commencement at the campus in Oxford, Ohio.