Jury rules Derrick Rose and friends did not rape woman
NHL: Rookie Patrik Laine completed a hat trick 2:40 into overtime, helping the Winnipeg Jets overcome a four-goal deficit to beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-4 on Wednesday night in Winnepeg, Manitoba.
The confident Finn got the better of his first head-to-head matchup against fellow rookie Auston Matthews, tying the game with 55 seconds left in the third before winning it in overtime. Laine went second overall in the 2016 draft behind Matthews, despite Laine’s insistence he should have gone first.
Laine has four goals on the season, tying Matthews and three others for the NHL lead.
Toronto led 4-0 early in the second period on two goals from Nazem Kadri and one each from Connor Carrick and William Nylander.
Tyler Myers and Mark Scheifele also scored for the Jets.
Michael Hutchinson made 36 saves for Winnipeg, and Frederik Andersen had 29 saves for Toronto.
Howard, Red Wings edge Rangers: Jimmy Howard made 32 saves to lead the Detroit Red Wings to a 2-1 victory over the New York Rangers on Wednesday night.
Thomas Vanek and Drew Miller scored for Detroit, which improved to 2-2-0.
After beginning the season with two straight losses, the Red Wings have won consecutive games.
And they have Howard to thank for their latest win as New York had the better of play for wide stretches. The Rangers outshot Detroit 33-18 for the game and Howard was forced into making highlight reel stops to keep the Red Wings in the game.
New York led 1-0 as Mika Zibanejad redirected Ryan McDonagh’s slap shot from the right point past Howard 1:09 into the game. The Rangers carried the 1-0 lead into the first intermission, following an opening 20 minutes in which they outshot the Red Wings 14-7.
Bergeron expected to return for home opener: The Boston Bruins won twice and lost once during their season-opening trip despite missing center Patrice Bergeron because of a lower-body injury. When they host the New Jersey Devils at TD Garden in their home opener Thursday night, the Bruins are expected to have their scoring leader back.
Bergeron practiced with the Bruins on Wednesday for the first time since he suffered the injury near the end of practice Oct. 12.
Bergeron said he felt fine after going through the entire practice and not being limited in his activities. He wouldn’t get more specific about his injury and would only say, “It was in practice. I just hurt myself.”
Rose cleared in rape suit, poses with jury
NBA: NBA star Derrick Rose and two friends were cleared Wednesday in a $21.5 million lawsuit that accused them of gang raping his ex-girlfriend when she was incapacitated from drugs or alcohol.
Jurors in Los Angeles federal court reached the verdict in less than four hours after concluding there was a lack of evidence to support the woman’s claims and dismissing her account as unbelievable.
“It felt like she was playing us,” said a juror who would only give his first name as Jared. “The second her lawyer started questioning her, she would start crying. I mean, granted, that could be realistic, but I feel l’m pretty good at reading people, and I felt as if it was false.”
Jared was among several jurors who spoke to reporters outside the courthouse, none of whom gave their full names.
Rose remained stoic as the verdict was read and later thanked jurors and posed for photos with them in the lobby, draping his left arm around each one who wanted a souvenir of the Knicks point guard as one of his lawyers snapped photos on their phones.
“I am thankful that the jury understood and agreed with me,” Rose said in a statement. “This experience and my sensitivity to it was deep. I am ready to put this behind me and focus on my family and career.”
The case was X-rated at times with testimony from the men about poolside group sex at a mansion Rose rented in Beverly Hills in the summer of 2013 and multiple sexual encounters throughout the night and into the next morning.
The woman denied having sex at Rose’s place, saying she had a few tequila shots and felt drugged before going home. Her lawyer said the defense invented the story to make it look like she had willingly had sex with the men.
The incident in question happened hours later in the early morning of Aug. 27 when she said the three men came to her Los Angeles apartment and had sex with her after she had passed out.
The issue for the jury was whether she consented to sex or was too intoxicated to do so. The men all said it was clear she was willing when she stopped the three outside her bedroom door and said, “One at a time.”
Messi scores hat trick to lead Barcelona 4-0
Soccer: Lionel Messi scored a hat trick to inflict a humbling defeat on his former mentor Pep Guardiola in Barcelona, Spain, leading Barcelona to an emphatic 4-0 victory over Manchester City in the Champions League.
Messi sped through City’s defense and around former Barcelona goalkeeper Claudio Bravo before giving the hosts a 17th-minute lead in a Group C match that both teams finished with 10 men.
It only got worse for Bravo, who was sent off in the 53rd minute for using his hands to block a shot outside the area after his poor pass gifted the ball to Luis Suarez.
Messi struck again in the 61st and 69th to take his total to 89 goals in Europe’s top club competition. The Argentina forward is second only to Cristiano Ronaldo, who has scored 98.
Barcelona was reduced to 10 men after substitute Jeremy Mathieu was shown a second yellow card in the 73rd, but Neymar still rounded off the win from a pass by Messi. The Brazil striker scored moments after he had missed a penalty that Messi had earned.
“We know Barcelona. When they arrive (in the area) their strikers punish you,” Guardiola said. “It’s October. We have lost a match. It’s not a quarterfinal or semifinal. Now we have to analyze what happened and rest … We are in the process (of growth).”
Guardiola lost for the second time upon returning to Camp Nou where he established himself as one of the world’s top managers by leading Barcelona to 14 titles from 2008-12. The former Barcelona player coached Bayern Munich when the German side lost 3-0 here in the Champions League semifinals two years ago, when Messi scored twice.
After winning its first 10 matches under Guardiola, City has now gone winless in four games in all competitions.
Barcelona extended its unbeaten run at home in European competition to 18 matches.
A third win in as many games increased the five-time European champion’s control of the group. Barcelona has nine points, while second-place City stays on four. Borussia Moenchengladbach is third with three points after beating Celtic 2-0 in Glasgow.
Barcelona and City will meet again in Manchester on Nov. 1.
U.S. women top Swiss 4-0: Lynn Williams scored 49 seconds into her national team debut, and Tobin Heath, Christen Press and Samantha Mewis added goals to lead the U.S. over Switzerland 4-0 in an exhibition game in Sandy, Utah.
U.S. coach Jill Ellis gave five players debuts as the Americans retool ahead of the 2019 World Cup.
Stanford junior midfielder Andi Sullivan and Chicago Red Stars defender Casey Short started, and Williams, a Western NY forward, entered at the start of the second half. Western NY defender Abby Dahlkemper followed in the 72nd minute and Legends FC forward Ashley Hatch in the 76th.
The 23-year-old Williams, this year’s National Women’s Soccer League MVP and leading scorer, dashed past a defender, then drew out goalkeeper Gaelle Thalmann and threaded the ball inside a post in the 46th to put the Americans ahead. Williams became the 20th American woman to score in her international debut.
Heath doubled the lead in the 61st off Crystal Dunn’s cross, her 17th international goal and fifth this year. Press tapped in Kelley O’ Hara’s pass in the 69th for her 36th international goal, and Mewis scored with a header in the 76th.
The U.S. and Switzerland play another exhibition Sunday at Minneapolis.
Safety fears recalled in ex-coach’s lawsuit
Miscellany: An investigator testified that threatening emails and calls about a witness who helped produce child molestation charges against Jerry Sandusky were not enough to make him fear for the man’s safety.
Anthony Sassano with the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office took the stand during the third day of trial in former assistant football coach Mike McQueary’s whistleblower and defamation lawsuit against Penn State.
“There was discussion, and no one expressed any concern,” Sassano told jurors.
McQueary claims he was damaged when the school put him on paid administrative leave after Sandusky was charged in 2011. McQueary had told authorities he saw Sandusky abuse a boy in a team shower a decade earlier, and proved to be a key witness at the 2012 trial that led to a 45-count conviction.
The university is defending its handling of McQueary, focusing on safety concerns as the scandal broke and led to the firing of then-head coach Joe Paterno, forced out the school’s president and even caused a riot-type disturbance near campus.
But Sassano says investigators concluded McQueary and the public were not at risk when Penn State played Nebraska a week later. Evidence in the trial has included threats against McQueary and vague warnings that something could happen at Beaver Stadium if he was there on game day.
Wrist injury sidelines Navarro: A wrist injury killed off Carla Suarez Navarro’s hopes of qualifying for the WTA Finals as the Spanish player retired while facing Australian Daria Gavrilova in the Kremlin Cup.
Needing to win the Kremlin Cup to qualify for the elite competition in Singapore this weekend, Suarez Navarro was down 6-4, 3-0 to Gavrilova in the second round when she retired. Gavrilova, who was born in Moscow, will play seventh-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the quarterfinals, after she beat Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic 6-1, 6-4.
Top-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova remains on course to claim the last WTA Finals place after she beat France’s Alize Cornet 6-4, 7-5 in their second-round match. The Russian was in strong form, landing 76 percent of her first serves, and next plays Hungarian Timea Babos, seeded ninth.
Shields, Johnson named Sportswomen of the Year: Boxer Claressa Shields and water polo goaltender Ashleigh Johnson have been honored as Sportswomen of the Year by the Women’s Sports Foundation.
The Rio Olympics gold medalists won the awards at the foundation’s annual dinner. Shields was given the individual honor, and Johnson won in the team competition.
Shields became the first U.S. boxer to win consecutive Olympic gold medals. Johnson had 51 saves in Rio, including nine in the gold-medal game.
Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman won the Billie Jean King Contribution Award. Pakistani pro squash player Maria Toorpakai Wazir, who moved to Canada after receiving death threats from the Taliban, earned the Wilma Rudolph Courage Award.
The Women’s Sports Foundation, created by tennis great Billie Jean King in 1974, provides travel and training grants and community-based sports opportunities.