Blues slash Sabres for 4th straight success
11 Dec 2017
NEW YORK — Vladimir Tarasenko scored with 36 seconds left in overtime to lift the St. Louis Blues to their fourth consecutive win, 3-2 over the Buffalo Sabres on Sunday night.
The Sabres tied the game 2-2 with 1:27 left to play in the third period on Evan Rodrigues' second goal of the game, off a rebound, after Buffalo pulled goalie Robin Lehner for an extra attacker.
Blues goalie Jake Allen had to stop just 14 shots through the first two periods before the Sabres cut the lead to 2-1 on a power-play goal by Rodrigues 1:42 into the third period. Rodrigues was playing just his third game for the Sabres, and the two goals were his first of the season.
Maple Leafs 1, Oilers 0
Backup goaltender Curtis McElhinney earned his first shutout of the season as Toronto made Zach Hyman's goal in the first minute of the game stand up for a victory over Edmonton.
McElhinney, who was playing in his fifth game of the season, made 41 saves, some spectacular, in picking up his sixth career shutout. He improved to 6-0-0 in his career against Edmonton. Oilers goalie Laurent Brossoit stopped 22 shots.
Blackhawks 3, Coyotes 1
Artem Anisimov scored the go-ahead goal with 4:47 left in the third period, and Chicago pulled away for a win over Arizona. Tommy Wingels and Nick Schmaltz also scored as the Blackhawks earned their second consecutive win.
Chicago improved to 8-5-2 on home ice and beat Arizona for the eighth straight meeting. Anthony Duclair scored the Coyotes' lone goal. Arizona is winless in its past four games.
Chicago goaltender Corey Crawford made 31 saves to improve to 13-7-2. Arizona goaltender Scott Wedgewood dropped to 3-6-3 despite turning aside 34 shots.
Wild 4, Sharks 3 (OT)
Minnesota's Nino Niederreiter stole the puck from San Jose defenseman Dylan DeMelo and scored with 1:34 left in overtime. San Jose rallied from a 3-1 deficit after two periods to force the extra session.
The Sharks' Brent Burns started the third-period comeback with his second goal of the game and fourth of the season at 2:41 on the power play. Tomas Hertl tied it with his seventh of the season at 14:59 after Minnesota goalie Alex Stalock failed to freeze a shot by DeMelo.
Ice hockey brothers first bans after NZ drug probe
Two brothers who played ice hockey for New Zealand have become the first athletes to be banned after an investigation into the sale of performance-enhancing drugs to amateur sportspeople in the country.
Mitchell and Lachlan Frear have been banned for two years by the Sports Tribunal of New Zealand (STNZ) after they purchased the banned substance clenbuterol from an illegal distributor in 2014.
The duo are among up to 100 athletes at the lower levels of several sports who have been implicated in the investigation after the imprisonment earlier this year of the owner of a website that sold banned substances.
The website owner Josh Townshend was jailed in May for two years for advertising, possession and supplying prescription medication.
Drug Free Sport New Zealand (DFSNZ) investigated Townshend's database and found up to 100 sportspeople as potential clients. None were considered to be participating among the higher echelons of New Zealand sport.
DFSNZ, however, initiated disciplinary proceedings against the people identified, chief executive Nick Paterson said as all participants who were members of national sports organizations were subject to anti-doping policies. — Reuters