U.S. women’s hockey on the ice
Meghan Duggan and her U.S. hockey teammates were on the ice practicing in Plymouth, Mich., just where they wanted to be, two days after agreeing to a deal that avoided a boycott — and a little more than 24 hours before playing rival Canada in the world championship opener for both teams.
“It’s our Stanley Cup in any given year, in a non-Olympic year,” Duggan, the team’s captain, said Thursday. “To put that on the line initially for us was an unbelievable gutwrenching sacrifice. … ”
The American women made a bold move earlier this month, publicly threatening to not show up at the marquee event at USA Hockey arena, and it paid off when the off-ice battle ended Tuesday night with a four-year deal.
Members of the U.S. women’s hockey team now will make $3,000-$4,000 a month with the ability to earn about $71,000 annually. They can make up to $129,000 in Olympic years with contributions from the U.S. Olympic Committee. That’s quite a boost for a group of women who were getting $1,000 a month for six months around the Olympics.
More hockey
Freshman forward Jaycee Gebhard of the No. 8 Robert Morris University women’s team was named the 2016-17 Women’s Hockey Commissioners’ Association National Rookie of the Year. Assistant coaches from the 36 NCAA Division I women’s programs voted on the honor. Gebhard is the fourth recipient of this award, which was established in 2014, and is the first from Robert Morris to receive it.
Tennis
Roger Federer’s run at the Miami Open in Key Biscayne, Fla., was one point from ending. He was down, 6-4, in a third-set tiebreaker to Tomas Berdych before fourth-seeded Federer fought off those two match points and beat the 10th-seeded Berdych, 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (6), in a quarterfinal matchup . Caroline Wozniacki, seeded 12th and a part-time South Florida resident, made the women’s final for the first time in 10 tries by topping second-seeded Karolina Pliskova, 5-7, 6-1, 6-1. No. 11 Venus Williams and No. 10 Johanna Konta played for the other spot in the final .
Soccer
FIFA wants to hold a new six-team playoff round in the 2026 World Cup host country to complete the expanded 48-team tournament lineup. The final two qualifying slots would be decided in the proposed mini-tournament played in the November before the World Cup as a test event, a move that puts the Confederations Cup’s longterm future at risk.
Figure skating
Javier Fernandez of Spain took the lead in the men’s event at the world championships in Helsinki. The two-time defending champion skated an immaculate short program to the tune of “Malaguena,” landing a quadruple toeloop-triple toeloop combination, plus a quad salchow, for 109.05 points. That was within two points of Yuzuru Hanyu’s world record. Japan’s Shoma Uno is second with 104.86 points ahead of the free skate, which is Saturday. U.S. and Four Continents champion Nathan Chen was sixth with 97.33 points.
Horse racing
El Areeb was knocked out of Kentucky Derby contention because of a slight knee fracture. Trainer Cal Lynch said that El Areeb would have surgery Monday for the injury that is not careerthreatening. El Areeb had won the Jerome and Withers, making him one of the East Coast’s leading candidates May 6 for the Kentucky.