Penguins top Capitals 6-3 to remain perfect at home
The Pittsburgh Penguins have stayed afloat by showing a remarkable ability to rally late. Forced to protect a rare thirdperiod lead, they didn’t let the opportunity go to waste.
Tristan Jarry made a series of big stops late and a pair of empty-net goals by Zach Aston-Reese and Sidney Crosby helped the host Penguins pull away for a 6-3 victory over the somewhat rusty Washington Capitals on Sunday.
Pittsburgh entered the game having been either tied or trailing going into the third period in each of its first 12 games. Nursing a one-goal advantage this time around, the Penguins held their ground to stay unbeaten at PPG Paints Arena
(5-0), with three of those wins coming against the rival Capitals.
“There was a lot to like,” Pittsburgh head coach Mike Sullivan said. “We competed hard.”
Bryan Rust scored twice — including a second-period power-play goal that ended an 0for-20 stretch with the man advantage — and added an assist. Brandon Tanev and Jake Guentzel also scored for Pittsburgh, which has won two straight. Jarry made 28 saves and assisted on Aston-Reese’s empty-netter with 1:03 to go, whichfinally put Washington away.
Nicklas Backstrom collected his 250th career goal for Washington and Jakub Vrana and Evgeny Kuznetsov also scored, but the Capitals looked a little off while playing for the first time in a week thanks a series of COVID-19related postponements.
Vitek Vanecek finished with 32 stops but Washington — finally at full strength after three-plus weeks of COVID-19 roster disruptions — remained winless this month (0-4).
“I think overall, we’re trying to play hard and trying to do the right things, but seems like we’re doing the same mistakes over and over again,” Backstrom said. “These easy goals against us. It’s just an area we have to get better on.”
Kuznetsov showcased the firepower of the NHL’s top-ranked power play when he knuckled one by Jarry just 5:18 into the first, but the Penguins — who have grown comfortable playing from behind — recovered when Rust and Tanev beat Vanecek 32 seconds apart later in the first period to give Pittsburgh the lead.
Rust later ended Pittsburgh’s seven-game power-play goal drought when he took a pretty feed from Kris Letang and stuffed it short side past Vanecek 6:44 into the second period to put Pittsburgh up 3-2. Guentzel then flicked a rebound by Vanecek just past the game’s midway point to give the Penguins their first two-goal lead in a regular-season game since March 10, 2020.
The somewhat comfortable margin didn’t last long.
Backstrom drew Washington within one with 2:11 left in the second period when he lifted the stick of Pittsburgh star Evgeni Malkin and snuck a shot by a surprised Jarry.
Pittsburgh, however, appeared to wear down the Capitals in the third after Jarry withstood a flurry midway through the period. The Penguins controlled the closing minutes, with Aston-Reese and then Crosby flipping the puck into the empty net 15 seconds apart to give Pittsburgh its first win by multiple goals this season.
Golden Knights 1, Avalanche 0: Max Pacioretty scored early in the second period and MarcAndre Fleury made 30 saves for host Vegas.
Vegas, which improved to 5-1-0 since returning from a pause due to COVID-19 protocols, leapfrogged the St. Louis Blues to reclaim first place in the West Division. The Golden Knights are one point ahead of St. Louis with 21. Vegas was playing on the second of back-to-back days after a 3-1 win at San Jose on Saturday.
Fleury, who has allowed two or fewer goals in seven of his eight starts this season, improved to 12-5-2 lifetime against the Avalanche. Colorado goaltender Philipp Grubauer made 23 saves.
Serena Williams tumbled to the ground, her heavily taped right ankle turning, her body contorting, her racket flying.
This was early in the second set of a competitive-as-can-be matchup in the Australian Open’s fourth round against a younger version of herself – stinging serves, huge groundstroke cuts, a fierce streak — and during a stretch Sunday (Saturday night EST) when things seemed to be slipping away.
Williams quickly put up a hand to indicate she was OK, retied the laces of her right shoe and, while it took her a bit to regain control, she did so, just in the nick of time. Grabbing the last two games, Williams pulled out 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 victory over No. 7 seed Aryna Sabalenka to reach the quarterfinals at Melbourne Park.
Two years ago at this tournament, Williams was on the verge of a quarterfinal win when she hurt her ankle and ended up losing.
“Well, my first thought was, ‘Not another ankle sprain in Australia.’ But I knew immediately that it wasn’t. Then I was more embarrassed than anything. I was like, ‘Oh, my goodness.’ I don’t like falling,” Williams said. “But I was fine. I mean, once I realized I didn’t twist my ankle, like at all, I was like, ‘OK, I’m good, let me just get up.’ ”
Williams, who wore a black T-shirt with “Unstoppable Queen” in capital gold letters to her news conference, moved closer to an eighth Australian Open championship and recordtying 24th Grand Slam singles title overall.
Her most recent came in 2017, while she was pregnant.
On a cloudy day with the temperature in the mid-60s, both Williams and Sabalenka dismissed much in the way of subtlety or nuance.
“I was OK with it, really,” Williams said. “If she wants to play power, let’s go.”
These two hit the ball hard, over and over again in Rod Laver Arena, and Williams was barely better. She ended up with more winners, 30-24, and more aces, 9-4, while cranking up her bestin-the-game serve to as fast as 126 mph.
When Williams needed to volley, she did, claiming 13 of 15
points when she went to the net. More importantly, she covered the court much in the way she did in her younger days, when opponents’ apparent winners were rendered mere fodder for her own strikes.
And she showed no signs of trouble from the left Achilles tendon that hampered her in a U.S. Open semifinal loss in September and forced her to withdraw from the French Open before the second round later that month.
With the high quality of the match, the only shame was that no fans were there to see it in
person. That’s because this was Day 2 of the five-day lockdown imposed by the Victoria state government after some COVID-19 cases emerged at a local hotel. (Any cheering or chatter TV viewers heard at home was being piped in to broadcasters’ feeds).
Williams now faces No. 2ranked Simona Halep, a twotime major winner who beat French Open champion Iga Swiatek 3-6, 6-1, 6-4. The other quarterfinal on that half of the draw will be Naomi Osaka against unseeded 35-year-old Hsie Suwei of Taiwan.
Eight-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic shrugged off a side muscle injury to beat Milos Raonic 7-6 (7-4), 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 in a night match and register his 300th win in a Grand Slam match.
Top-ranked Djokovic joined Roger Federer as the only men to achieve the milestone.
He injured a stomach muscle when he fell during his thirdround victory over Taylor Fritz and there were concerns he wouldn’t recover in time to play Raonic. But he competed fully for almost three hours. He was wearing tape above his right hip and later said if he wasn’t playing a major, he’d probably already have withdrawn from the event.
His quarterfinal will be against U.S. Open finalist Alexander Zverev, who beat No. 23-seeded Dusan Lajovic 6-4, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3. Dominic Thiem — the Australian Open runner-up and U.S. Open champion in 2020 — looked physically compromised in a 6-4, 6-4, 6-0 loss to three-time major semifinalist Grigor Dimitrov.
Osaka barely advanced, saving two match points and grabbing the last four games to top Garbine Muguruza 4-6, 6-4, 7-5.
Daniel Berger got into the mix quickly with an eagle and finished it off with one even better, holing a 30-foot putt on the par-5 18th for a 7-under-par 65 and a two-shot victory Sunday in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
Berger won for the second time since the PGA Tour returned to golf from the COVID-19 pandemic, starting with a playoff victory at Colonial last June.
This was another wild chase on a crisp, breezy day along the Pacific, and Jordan Spieth went from leading to lagging. He went from a two-shot lead to a threeshot deficit through six holes, going from the leading character to a support role. Spieth birdied the last two holes for a 70 to tie for third with Patrick Cantlay (68).
Maverick McNealy, who played at Stanford and once lived in a house near the 15th green at Pebble Beach, made five birdies over his last eight holes for a 66 and was tied for the lead after his eagle putt on the 18th stopped inches away.
Berger was in the group behind him, and fired a fairway metal into the heart of the 18th green, 30 feet away.
He only needed two putts for birdie to win, and instead finished with a flair.
“That was the best putt I’ve ever hit in my life,” Berger said.
Berger finished at 18-under
270 for his fourth career victory.
Spieth finished in the top four for the second week in a row, a strong sign that his game is coming back after a drought that dates to his 2017 British Open victory at Royal Birkdale.
The real heartache belonged to Nate Lashley.
Lashley, playing in the final group with Spieth, nearly holed his wedge on the 11th for a tap-in birdie that took him to 16-under and leading by one shot. He was tied with Berger with three holes to play when Lashley went long on the 16th hole.
He pitched out to 12 feet, missed the par putt and then missed the next two putts from the 3-foot range. That gave him a triple bogey from which he could not recovery.
A field that featured only three players from the top 20 in the world got one of them as a winner — Berger, who was outside the top 100 in the world when golf returned last June as he tried to come back from injuries.
Cantlay again was vexed by the Pebble Beach greens. He had five putts from inside the 15-foot range on the back nine, most looking as though they had a chance.
Berger hit 4-iron from 229 yards to 20 feet and rolled in the eagle putt on the par-5 second hole to catch Spieth early, and he followed with an aggressive drive that left a flip wedge to 5 feet for birdie on No. 3. He had three eagle putts on the day, narrowly missing a 10-foot attempt on the sixth hole.
Lashley quietly moved into contention with so much attention on Spieth. Cantlay was never too far away. McNealy showed up late with his 31 on the back nine.
“I had the adrenaline pumping coming down the stretch there and feelings that I hadn’t really felt on the golf course in a little while, trying to close this out and give myself a chance,” McNealy.
Ultimately, it was Berger in position to win and he delivered an eagle he won’t soon forget.