Stewart Cink, Webb Simpson share early lead at Sony Open

HONOLULU — Stewart Cink could not remember a more ideal day in Hawaii, and he had a round that matched the occasion.

Enjoying a surge in the twilight of his career, the 47-year-old Cink putted for birdie on all but one hole Friday on his way to a 7-under 63 that gave him a share of the early lead with Webb Simpson.

Cink already won the season-opener in the Safeway Open in September, his first victory since the 2009 British Open at Turnberry. He and his wife, a cancer survivor, recovered

from COVID-19. His 23-yearold took a leave from Delta Airlines to caddie for him. It doesn’t take much to make him smile.

Simpson had another 65 that must have felt similar. He took bogey on the tough par4 second hole — in the water off the tee on Thursday, a poor chip on Friday — and finished with a string of birdies. Simpson holed a 40-foot birdie putt on the par-3 seventh hole, hit it tight on No. 8 and two-putted from 18 feet on the par-5 ninth.

They were at 10-under 130 going into a weekend that was wide open.

Joaquin Niemann of Chile, the runner-up last week, had a 69 and was among the group one shot behind that included Hideki Matsuyama and Collin Morikawa. Matsuyama had a 28 on the front nine to close out his round.

Kaprizov scores in OT in debut, lifts Wild over Kings

LOS ANGELES — Kirill Kaprizov scored his first NHL goal with 1:13 remaining in overtime and finished with three points as the Minnesota Wild rallied for a 4-3 victory over the Los Angeles Kings in the season opener for both teams Thursday night.

The 23-year-old Russian scored on a breakaway, putting the puck past Los Angeles goaltender Jonathan Quick. Kaprizov, who is the third Russian-born player to make his NHL debut with the Wild, also had a pair of assists. He was a fifth-round selection by Minnesota in 2015 before signing a two-year, entry-level contract last summer.

Minnesota trailed 3-1 after two periods before rallying. Jonas Brodin, Victor Rask and Marcus Foligno also scored for the Wild. Cam Talbot made 32 saves in his Minnesota debut.

Dustin Brown scored his 300th goal, Jeff Carter had a goal and an assist and Andreas Athanasiou also scored for Los Angeles. Quick stopped 23 shots.

Brown got his milestone goal with 2:55 remaining in the second on the power play with a wrap-around that put the Kings in front by two goals.

Stone breaks tie in 3rd, Golden Knights beat Ducks

LAS VEGAS — Mark Stone scored the tiebreaking goal early in the third period, Robin Lehner made 20 saves and the Vegas Golden Knights beat the Anaheim Ducks 4-2 Thursday night in the season opener for both teams.

The Golden Knights improved to 9-2-2 against Anaheim since they entered the league in 2017.