Lightning bounce back, beat Avalanche in Game 3
TAMPA, FLA. >> Steven Stamkos, Pat Maroon and Ondrej Palat each had a goal and an assist, and the Tampa Bay Lighting scored four times in the second period and beat the Colorado Avalanche 6-2 Monday night in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final.
Anthony Cirelli, Nicholas Paul and Corey Perry also scored to help the two-time defending champion Lightning bounce back after playing poorly while losing the first two games on the road. Nikita Kucherov and Victor Hedman had two assists, and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 37 shots.
Stamkos, Paul, Maroon and Perry scored in the second period, when the Lightning chased Colorado goalie Darcy Kuemper while pulling away to trim their series deficit to 2-1.
Gabriel Landeskog had two goals and Mikko Rantanen had two assists for the Avalanche. Kuemper gave up five goals on 22 shots before he was replaced by Pavel Francouz, who finished with nine saves.
Game 4 is Wednesday night at Amalie Arena, where the Lightning have won a franchise-record eight straight playoff games and Colorado lost on the road for the first time this postseason.
Swimming
CECCON SETS WORLD RECORD, LEDECKY CLAIMS YET ANOTHER TITLE >> Italy's Thomas Ceccon set a world record in the men's 100 backstroke and Katie Ledecky claimed yet another gold at the swimming world championships.
Ceccon stunned the competition in Budapest by clocking 51.60 seconds to
shave 0.15 seconds off the previous best mark set by American Ryan Murphy at the 2016 Olympics.
Murphy finished second, 0.37 seconds behind, followed by compatriot Hunter Armstrong, 0.38 behind Ceccon.
“Hats off to Thomas,” Murphy said of seeing his record beaten. “That's a really, really fast time and it's going to be an exciting couple of years.”
While the young mustached Italian claimed his first world title, Ledecky extended her record title haul to 17 with her fourth in the 1,500 freestyle.
Ledecky never looked threatened and clocked 15:30.15 — just under 10 seconds more than her world record from 2018 — to finish 14.74 seconds ahead of fellow American Katie Grimes.
WNBA
GRINER'S WIFE SAYS SCHEDULED CALL NEVER HAPPENED >> WNBA star Brittney Griner tried to call her wife nearly a dozen times through the American embassy in Russia on the couple's fourth anniversary Saturday, but they
never connected since the phone line at the embassy was not staffed, Cherelle Griner said Monday.
The couple has not spoken by phone in the four months since Griner's arrest in Russia, where she remains jailed. That was to have changed Saturday, when a long-awaited call was to have finally taken place after getting Russian government approval. But the day came and went without any contact, leaving an anguished Cherelle Griner to wonder what went wrong and to suspect at least initially that Russian authorities had thwarted the call.
On Monday, she said she learned from her wife's lawyers a more distressing truth: Brittney Griner had actually tried to call 11 times over a period of several hours, dialing a number she'd been given at the U.S. embassy in Moscow, which the couple had been told would then patch the call through to Cherelle Griner in Phoenix. But each time, the call went unanswered because the desk at the embassy where the phone rang was apparently unstaffed on Saturday.
MAGIC-THUNDER, PISTONSBLAZERS TO OPEN VEGAS SUMMER LEAGUE >> NBA Summer League will start with a little Midnight Madness feel, at least in some of the country.
And if the Orlando Magic keep the No. 1 draft pick, then that player won't wait long for his summer debut.
The league released the 75-game summer league schedule, with the first game in Las Vegas set to pit Orlando against Houston on July 7 at 10 p.m. Eastern. That game will be followed by a midnight Eastern tipoff between Portland and Detroit, with those two matchups the only ones on the Day 1 schedule.
Most teams will open their Las Vegas slates on July 8 or July 9. All 30 NBA teams will be taking part, all playing five games.
Tennis
SERENA WILLIAMS SKIPS PRACTICE AHEAD OF COMPETITIVE RETURN >> Serena Williams skipped her scheduled practice session at Eastbourne at late notice on Monday as the 23-time Grand Slam champion prepares to make her return to competition after a year away.
Williams trained at a nearby club over the weekend and was expected to have an on-site session at Devonshire Park ahead of playing doubles with Ons Jabeur. Their first match is set for Tuesday against Sara Sorribes Tormo and Marie Bouzkova.
The 40-year-old Williams, who hasn't competed anywhere since she was injured in the first round of Wimbledon last year, was awarded a wild card for singles at the All England Club.