SPORTSINBRIEF

Pospisil, Bouchard suffer losses at Hopman Cup

PERTH, Australia — Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard suffered a suspected buttocks injury in a loss to Belgium at the Hopman Cup on Friday.

Bouchard, from Westmount, Que., played through the discomfort and completed the match, dropping a 6-4, 6-4 decision to Elise Mertens.

Bouchard is scheduled to compete at next week’s Hobart International ahead of the Australian Open, which begins Jan. 15.

David Goffin beat Vernon’s Vasek Pospisil 6-2, 6-4 in the other match to hand Canada its third straight loss at the mixed team event.

Also Friday, Angelique Kerber won her singles match and contributed heavily in the deciding mixed doubles victory that gave Germany a 2-1 win over Australia and a spot in the final against Switzerland.

Valanciunas scores 20 as Raptors beat Bucks

MILWAUKEE — Banished to the bench with two fouls less than 90 seconds into the game, Jonas Valanciunas provided little help in the first half for the Toronto Raptors. He sure made up for it in the third quarter. Valanciunas scored all of his 20 points in the decisive third quarter and Toronto beat the Milwaukee Bucks for the second time this week, 129-110 on Friday night.

Toronto outscored Milwaukee 43-19 in the third quarter to win its fourth consecutive game, including a 131-127 overtime victory over the Bucks on Monday. The Raptors have won 10 of 12.

Serge Ibaka scored 17 of his team-high 21 points in the first half, and DeMar DeRozan, who scored 52 points in Monday’s win, had 14 of his 20 in the third.

Valanciunas and DeRozan combined to make 14 of 16 shots and score 34 points in the third.

Duchene nets OT winner as Sens rally over Sharks

OTTAWA — The Ottawa Senators were able to pull off the unexpected Friday night.

The Senators mounted an unlikely comeback, scoring four unanswered goals to defeat the San Jose Sharks 6-5 in overtime. Matt Duchene scored his second of the game seven seconds into the extra period to give Ottawa a much-needed victory.

“We finally got rewarded for the things we’ve been doing,” said Duchene. “We’ve had some tough stretches defensively and offensively, but we’ve been doing a lot of good things for a while and it hasn’t been going in. It’s nice to see that happen. We had a lot of guys step up for us.”

Down 5-2 to start the third period, the Senators (13-17-9) got goals from Derick Brassard, Duchene and Mike Hoffman to tie the game. Ryan Dzingel and Mark Stone also scored and Craig Anderson made 30 saves.

1st goal for Byfuglien in Jets’ win over Sabres

WINNIPEG — Blake Wheeler and Jacob Trouba each had a goal and an assist as the Winnipeg Jets extended their point streak to five games with a 4-3 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Friday. Wheeler is also on a personal five-game point run, with five goals and three assists. All five of those markers have been scored in the four games the right winger has played at centre in place of injured Mark Scheifele. The Jets are 4-0-1 in their last five games and 24-11-7 overall, good for first in the NHL Central Division as St. Louis was idle and one point back.

Winnipeg defenceman Dustin Byfuglien raised his arms in celebration and looked up to the rafters after scoring his first goal of the season in his 30th game. It was his second game back after missing 10 games with a lower-body injury.