NEW YORK – Riley Nash scored twice and backup goalie Anton Khudobin made 18 saves as the Boston Bruins beat the New York Islanders, 2-1, Saturday night, snapping a four-game losing streak.
Nash broke a 1-1 tie with his second goal of the contest at 4:12 of the third period, beating Islanders goalie Thomas Greiss from the slot for his seventh goal of the season. Dominic Moore assisted on the decisive goal, which lifted Boston two points ahead of the Islanders for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference.
John Tavares scored for New York and Greiss finished with 16 saves.
Tavares had a golden chance to knot the score with just over six minutes left in the third period but rang the puck off the crossbar with the Islanders on their sixth power play of the game.
FONTANA, Calif. – Kyle Larson held off Joey Logano on the final lap to win the NASCAR Xfinity race at Auto Club Speedway on Saturday.
Larson thrived out of a late restart with smart moves and a clever lane choice on Fontana’s five-wide asphalt. The native Californian won the Xfinity race at Fontana for the second time in his Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet.
Larson, the Cup series points leader, is also on the pole for Sunday’s race with a chance for a weekend sweep.
Kyle Busch was third, with Erik Jones in fourth and rookie William Byron in fifth.
Cup regulars Larson, Busch and Logano dominated the Xfinity race on a cloudy day at Fontana. Logano twice rallied from far back in the pack to challenge the leaders.
MELBOURNE, Australia – Lewis Hamilton took the pole position with the fastest lap ever at Albert Park and will start the season-opening Australian Grand Prix at the front of the grid.
The times kept improving during the three practice sessions and the Mercedes driver’s last flying lap in qualifying Saturday was 1 minute, 22.188 seconds. That lowered the mark Sebastian Vettel set in his Ferrari in the last of the three practice sessions, which was already lower than the previous quickest time in Melbourne he set here in taking pole position for the 2011 GP.
Vettel overhauled Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas for second spot in 1:22.456, but three-time world champion Hamilton had done enough to claim the pole in Australia for the sixth time. Kimi Raikkonen was fourth in the second Ferrari.
AUSTIN, Texas – Dustin Johnson and Jon Rahm advanced to the semifinals of the Dell Technologies Match Play, staying on track for a potential showdown between the No. 1 player and Spain’s rising star.
Johnson lost a 3-up lead at the turn and for the first time in 71 holes of this event, he was in a match that was all square. He answered with two birdies and put away Alex Noren.
Rahm was so dominant Saturday that he played only 27 holes in his two matches. The 22-year-old rookie has yet to play the 18th hole at Austin Country Club.
Johnson faces Hideto Tanihara in the semifinals. Rahm plays Bill Haas, who eliminated Phil Mickelson in the quarterfinals, 2 and 1.
KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. – Roger Federer won his opening match Saturday at the Miami Open, returning to the tournament after a two-year absence and beating 19-year-old American qualifier Frances Tiafoe 7-6 (2), 6-3.
Federer took the lead with a flawless tiebreaker after both players held easily throughout the first set, and Tiafoe then became more inconsistent with his groundstrokes.
The resurgent Federer won Key Biscayne in 2005 and 2006, and is among the favorites this year. He is 14-1 in 2017, including his 18th Grand Slam title at the Australian Open and a title at Indian Wells last week.
No. 1 seed Stan Wawrinka easily won his opening match against Horacio Zeballos, 6-3, 6-4.
SAN JOSE, Calif. – Midfielder Sebastian Llleget and defender John Brooks have been dropped from the U.S. roster for Tuesday’s World Cup qualifier at Panama, and forward Paul Arriola has been added.
Llleget scored the first goal in Friday’s 6-0 win over Honduras, and then exited after his left foot was hurt during a slide tackle by Ever Alverado that earned the Honduran defender a yellow card in the 15th minute. Brooks left on a stretcher in the 70th minute because of a sinus infection, the U.S. Soccer Federation said Saturday.
Forward Jordan Morris (right ankle) and defender Michael Orozco (right knee) also were dropped from the roster. Neither dressed Friday.
Lletget, who got his first international goal, will return to Los Angeles for evaluation.
CINCINNATI – The Bengals released eight-year veteran linebacker Rey Maualuga, saying they were moving to a younger group at the position.
Saturday’s move comes five days after they signed free-agent linebacker Kevin Minter to a one-year deal, an indication they were going in a different direction.
Maualuga was Cincinnati’s second-round pick in 2009. He played in 114 games, starting 104 of them. Maualuga and Andy Dalton were named team captains in 2012.
Second-year linebacker Nick Vigil also is expected to get an expanded role next season in a defense that slipped in 2016, finishing 17th in yards allowed.
CARRABASSETT VALLEY, Maine – Laurenne Ross and Ryan Cochran-Siegle won super G titles Saturday in the U.S. Alpine Championships at Sugarloaf Mountain.
Ross is a 2014 Olympian who also won the 2013 U.S. Championship in the super G. She was timed in 1:21.44. Cochran-Siegle finished in 1:19.66 for his first national title. He was second in the super G and giant slalom at last year’s U.S. Championships.
Cochran-Siegle, the son of 1972 Olympic slalom gold medalist Barbara Ann Cochran, beat U.S. ski team teammate Jared Goldberg by 0.26 seconds. U.S. ski team veteran Travis Ganong took third.
Local favorite Sam Morse finished fourth. He was fifth in the super G and first in the downhill at this month’s junior world championships.
U.S. ski team member Stacey Cook and Megan McJames tied for second, 1.05 seconds off the pace, in front of U.S. teammates Alice McKennis and Nina O’Brien.
Several notable absent skiers were: Ted Ligety, Andrew Weibrecht, Lindsey Vonn, Julia Mancuso and this year’s World Cup overall champ, Mikaela Shiffrin.
SPINDLERUV MLYN, Czech Republic – Chris Corning of the United States and Zoi Sadowski Synnott of New Zealand won the final World Cup snowboard slopestyle races of the season on Saturday.
Corning clinched the 10-man final with 92.34 points.
Fridtjof Tischendorf of Norway was second with 87.20, while Briton Jamie Nicholls placed third with 86.40.
Overall leader Redmond Gerard of the United States finished seventh to claim the World Cup slopestyle title.
The 16-year-old Sadowski Synnott dominated the women’s event with 87.32 points to beat Spencer O’Brien of Canada in second and Silvia Mittermueller of Germany in third.
Overall World Cup winner Jamie Anderson of the United States didn’t compete at the northern Czech resort.