Griner, Phoenix block

Daniel Royer scored his first MLS goal in the 60th minute and the New York Red Bulls clinched a playoff berth for the seventh straight year with a 1-0 victory over the Montreal Impact on Saturday night at Red Bull Arena.

Royer headed down Chris Duvall’s cross near the penalty area, bouncing it into the right corner. The Austrian international joined the Red Bulls (13-9-9, 48 points) on Aug. 3.

Diana Taurasi scored 30 points and Brittney Griner added 22 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks to help the eighth-seeded Phoenix Mercury beat the host No. 3 New York Liberty 101-94 on Saturday night.

The Mercury will head to Minnesota for the semifinals, which is a five-game series as opposed to the single elimination games that Phoenix won in the opening two rounds of the postseason. Taurasi improved her record to 13-3 in WNBA elimination games in her storied career, including a 6-0 mark on the road.

Just as they did during their first-round playoff game, Phoenix players Mistie Bass and Kelsey Bone kneeled during the playing of the national anthem. Liberty guard Brittany Boyd sat on the bench with her head bowed. She also did that in the regular-season home finale Sept. 13.

Bradley Wright-Phillips’ six-game scoring streak came to an end, but the Red Bulls took a share of the top spot in the Eastern Conference, tied at 48 points with Toronto FC and New York City FC. The Red Bulls own the goal-differential tiebreaker, but Toronto FC has a game in hand.

Red Bulls captain Dax McCarty returned to the lineup for the first time since suffering a small tibial plateau fracture in

Brad Marchand scored twice off assists from Sidney Crosby, including a go-ahead goal early in the third period, and Canada beat Russia 5-2 in the World Cup of Hockey semifinals. The Canadians will face the winner of the Sweden-Team Europe game Sunday in the best-of-three finals.

DUSTIN REGAINS LEAD SHARE

Dustin Johnson made one mistake that suddenly put some intrigue into the final day of the PGA Tour season — the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup.

Johnson clipped a tree trying to get out of the rough on the 17th hole and made double bogey, and only a birdie on the final hole at East Lake allowed him to shoot a 1-under 69 and regain a share of the lead