SUNDAY SPORTS

Down three runs and in danger of getting pushed to the World Series brink, the San Francisco Giants surged past the Royals 11-4. The Giants’ victory evened the best-of-seven series against Kansas City at two games apiece. Pablo Sandoval had the go-ahead, two-run single in the sixth at a pulsating AT&T Park.

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The New York Islanders have continued their surprising start to the NHL season, improving to 6-2-0 with a 7-5 win over the visiting Dallas Stars.

The game was tied 4-4 in the third period before Frans Nielson scored a hat trick over the final 10 1/2 minutes, including an empty-netter with one-tenth of a second remaining. Lubomir Visnovsky, Brock Nelson and Nikolay Kulemin each added a goal and an assist for the Isles, who are off to their nest eight-game start since 2001-02.

Elsewhere on ice:

– Montreal leads the East at 7-1 after Carey Price stopped 34 shots and Lars Eller scored the game-winner in a 3-1 triumph over the New York Rangers. Max Pacioretty had a goal and an assist in the Canadiens’ fourth consecutive win.

– Sidney Crosby collected three more points in Pittsburgh’s 3-0 shutout at Nashville, finishing with a goal and two assists. Marc-Andre Fleury handled 20 shots in his first shutout of the season and 29th of his career.

– Boston was a 4-1 winner at Toronto as Dougie Hamilton contributed a goal and two assists. Tuukka Rask stopped 32 shots and blanked the Maple Leafs until late in the game.

– Ryan Reaves and Dmitrij Jaskin scored in the last two minutes of the second period to give St. Louis a 3-1 lead in a 3-2 triumph against Chicago. Brian Elliott stopped 24 shots for the Blues.

– Brayden Schenn scored the game-winner with 8:55 remaining to push Philadelphia past Detroit 4-2. Michael Raffl led the Flyers’ offence with two goals and an assist.

– Cody Hodgson and Nicolas Deslauriers scored during the first six minutes of the third period to give Buffalo a 2-0 lead in a 2-1 victory over San Jose. The Sabres ended a four-game losing streak in which they had been outscored 12-1.

– New Jersey’s four-game skid is over after Jaromir Jagr scored a power-play goal at 3:39 of overtime to complete the Devils’ 3-2 win at Ottawa. Rookie Damon Severson has seven points in eight games after furnishing a goal and an assist.

– Joel Ward’s second goal of the night broke a 1-1 tie in Washington’s 3-1 victory at Calgary. Nicklas Backstrom also scored and Braden Holtby stopped 20 shots for the Capitals.

– Jason Zucker doubled his season goal output by scoring twice, including a short-handed tally in Minnesota’s 7-2 rout of Tampa Bay. Zach Parise and Marco Scandella each had a goal and an assist for the Wild, who fell one shy of their team record for goals in a game.

– Arizona beat Florida 2-1 on Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s goal 2:20 into overtime. Justin Hodgman scored in his NHL debut and Mike Smith made 23 saves in the Coyotes’ first victory in four games.

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The B.C. Lions are playoff bound after a 28-23 victory over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. B-C’s starting quarterback Kevin Glenn went down in the fourth quarter, but Jason Beck filled in admirably, throwing two touchdowns. In Toronto, it was another nail-biting win for the Argos over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Mitchell Gale’s one-yard T-D run with just over five minutes remaining led Toronto to a thrilling 26-24 win.

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The Vancouver Whitecaps have clinched a spot in the Major League Soccer playoffs with a 1-nil victory over the Colorado Rapids. Kendall Waston scored in the 70th minute, flinging himself at a corner kick to head home a goal his team desperately needed. Canada’s other two M-L-S teams saw their disappointing seasons come to an end. Toronto F-C lost 1-nil at New England, while Montreal played D-C United to a 1-1 draw.

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Canada’s world junior champion Nam Nguyen (NOO’-wen) landed a quadruple Salchow and two triple Axels to win a bronze medal at Skate America — his senior Grand Prix debut. The medal was a bit of a surprise for the 16-year-old from Toronto — he was way back in seventh after Friday’s short program.

(Canadian Press)