Worlds parallel event produces joint winners
CORTIN A D ’A MPEZZO, ITA LY » Katharina Liensberger was talking to reporters in the mixed zone when she learned that her silver medal in the parallel vent had been upgraded to a tie for gold at the Alpine skiing world championships.
“I just cannot believe it, but it’s true,” Liensberger said. “I was a little bit confused in the finish.”
There was plenty of confusion to go around as the parallel event made its debut at the world championships.
The format with skiers competing side by side on giant slalom-like courses is a TV-friendly spectacle meant to add more excitement to the championships. But the event has seen so many rule changes over the years that even organizers needed some time to sort it out.
The women’s two-run final between Marta Bassino and Liensberger ended in a tie, and organizers initially declared the Italian the winner as she came from behind in the second leg. However, that was an old rule which isn’t valid anymore. So the results were quickly changed.
Bronze in the women’s event went to France’s Tessa Worley, who defeated Paula Moltzan of the United States.
There was no confusion over the result in the men’s final, where Mathieu Faivre won both runs against Croatian skier Filip Zubcic to earn France its first gold of the worlds. Loic Meillard won bronze for Switzerland after beating Alexander Schmid of Germany.
Nazem Kadri scored with 39.7 seconds left in the third period Tuesday to give the Avalanche a 3-2 victory against the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena.
Rookie defenseman Bo Byram threw the puck to the net from the blue line, forward Joonas Donskoi got a stick on the puck and Kadri buried the rebound behind goalie Marc-Andre Fleury in the second of four consecutive games between the teams.
Goalie Philipp Grubauer made 27 saves for the Avalanche, which improves to 8-4-1 heading into Saturday’s outdoor game against Vegas in Lake Tahoe.
The Avs led 1-0 after the first period and 2-1 after the second. Colorado’s goals came from first-line forwards Nathan MacKinnon and Brandon Saad, the latter scoring 63 seconds after the Knights tied it 1-1 on Max Pacioretty’s power-play goal. Saad tucked a backhand shot past Fleury at 17:39 of the second period, giving the Avs momentum after Pacioretty’s made Colorado pay for on its first disadvantage with defenseman Jacob MacDonald in the penalty box for tripping.
The Avs, who lost 1-0 to the Knights on Sunday to begin their four-game “series,” started strong and MacKinnon nearly scored on his first shift. But the star center got the game’s first goal just 7:08 into it, one-timing Mikko Rantanen’s feed from between the circles.
Vegas tied it 2-2 at 6:52 of the third period when Jonathan Marchessault put a shot past Grubauer after the goalie stopped consecutive shots by William Karlsson and Reilly Smith.
The Avalanche again played without seven regulars, including top defenseman Cale Makar who took warmup as a gametime decision. Makar was an upper-body injury scratch for the second consecutive game. Colorado also was without secondpairing defenseman Sam Girard, who is at the tail end of COVID19 protocol along with left wing and team captain Gabe Landeskog.
New dates. The NHL announced makeup dates for four postponed Avalanche games plus new dates for three other Colorado games: Minnesota at Colorado, postponed on Feb. 4, is now Feb. 24 at 7 p.m.; Colorado at Arizona, originally scheduled for Feb. 25, is now Feb. 26 at 7 p.m.; Anaheim at Colorado, originally scheduled for March 31, is now March 16 at 7 p.m.; Arizona at Colorado, postponed on Feb. 9, is now March 31 at 7:30 p.m.; Arizona at Colorado, postponed on Feb. 11, is now April 12 at 7 p.m.; Colorado at St. Louis, postponed on Feb. 6, is now April 14 at 7 p.m. Also, the Colorado at St. Louis game that was postponed
Feb. 7 will be scheduled at a later date.
Footnotes. Colorado defenseman Dennis Gilbert was in a first-period fight with Keegan Kolesar and left the game with a facial injury. Gilbert, who played just 1:59, didn’t lose the fight but took at least one significant punch. … Avs third-string goaltender Hunter Miska was added to COVID absence protocol list and he was replaced on the roster by Peyton Jones, who has been the Colorado Eagles’ No. 1 goalie.