Monday Sports: Lift Off!

STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS (Round 1)

JETS 7, AVALANCHE 6

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — Captain Adam Lowry and Kyle Connor each scored twice to propel Winnipeg to a 7-6 victory over Colorado in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series on Sunday.

A sold-out crowd of 15,225 white-clad fans had plenty to cheer about at the “whiteout” parties inside and outside Canada Life Centre.

Mark Scheifele had a goal and two assists and Josh Morrissey registered a goal and assist. Vladislav Namestnikov also scored. Brenden Dillon, Gabriel Vilardi and Nino Niederreiter each added a pair of assists and Connor picked up one helper. Connor Hellebuyck made 40 saves for the Jets, who are on a nine-game win streak.

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CANUCKS 4, PREDATORS 2

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Dakota Joshua scored twice and had an assist and Vancouver stormed back for a 4-2 win over Nashville in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series.

Trailing 2-1, the Canucks rallied with a pair of goals 12 seconds apart — by Pius Suter and Joshua — midway through the third period.

Elias Lindholm also scored and Thatcher Demko stopped 20 shots for Vancouver, which was the Pacific Division champion and hosted a playoff game for the first time since 2015.

Jason Zucker and Ryan O’Reilly scored for Nashville, and Juuse Saros made 17 saves.

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RANGERS 4, CAPITALS 1

NEW YORK (AP) — Jimmy Vesey had a goal and an assist, Artemi Panarin also scored, and the New York Rangers beat Washington 4-1 in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series.

Matt Rempe and Chris Kreider also scored, Barclay Goodrow had two assists and Igor Shesterkin finished with 20 saves to help the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Rangers get the postseason off to strong start.

The Rangers, seeking their first Stanley Cup championship in 30 years, won their third straight and 11th in the last 14 games. New York’s Peter Laviolette became the first coach in NHL history to take six different teams to the Stanley Cup playoffs.

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PANTHERS 3 LIGHTNING 2

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Carter Verhaeghe tapped in a pinpoint pass from Aleksander Barkov for the lead 58 seconds into the third period, Matthew Tkachuk added a goal and an assist and the Florida Panthers beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-2 in Game 1 of their NHL playoff series opener Sunday.

Barkov had two assists, Sam Reinhart also scored and Sergei Bobrovsky had 17 saves for the Panthers, who won a Game 1 on home ice for the first time since 1997.

Brandon Hagel and Steven Stamkos got the goals for Tampa Bay, which now trails Florida in a series for the first time. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 25 stops for the Lightning, who pulled him for an extra attacker with 3:08 remaining. Tkachuk got an empty-netter 63 seconds later, and Florida soon began celebrating a 1-0 series lead.

Stamkos scored with 9.3 seconds left for the Lightning.

MLB

SAN DIEGO – Joe Musgrove pitched seven strong innings for the first time since July 4th and Xander Bogaerts homered as the San Diego Padres beat the visiting Toronto Blue Jays 6-3 Sunday to avoid a three-game sweep. Musgrove improved to 4-and-0h against the Blue Jays, who picked him in the first round of the 2011 draft. Davis Schneider and Ernie Clement hit solo homers for the Jays. The Padres snapped a three-game losing streak and halted the Jays‘ two-game win streak.

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Dodgers slugger Shohei Ohtani has broken Hideki Matsui’s record for the most homers hit by a Japanese-born player in Major League Baseball. Ohtani crushed a two-run homer deep into the right field bleachers off Adrian Houser of the New York Mets in the third inning at Dodger Stadium. The homer was the 176th of Ohtani’s six-plus seasons in the majors. That’s one more than Matsui.

NBA PLAYOFFS (Round 1)

CELTICS 114 HEAT 94: BOSTON (AP) — Jayson Tatum notched his first career playoff triple-double with 23 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists to lead the Boston Celtics past the Miami Heat 114-94 on Sunday to open their first-round playoff series.

CLIPPERS 109, MAVERICKS 97: LOS ANGELES (AP) — James Harden scored 28 points, Ivica Zubac had a double-double and Los Angeles defeated Luka Doncic and Dallas to win their playoff series opener.
BUCKS 109, PACERS 94: MILWAUKEE (AP) — Damian Lillard scored all 35 of his points before halftime and Milwaukee withstood the absence of Giannis Antetokounmpo to defeat Indiana in their Eastern Conference playoff opener.
THUNDER 94, PELICANS 92: OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 28 points, including the go-ahead basket in the final minute, and top-seeded Oklahoma City edged New Orleans in Game 1 of their first-round Western Conference playoff series.

NASCAR

For the first time since he became a NASCAR Cup team owner, Jordan was at the track to savor in person a victory by one of his drivers. When Michael McDowell crashed with the finish line in sight at Talladega Superspeedway, losing control in a desperate effort to block another driver from passing him, Tyler Reddick sped right on by to steal the checkered flag Sunday.

Not unlike all those times Jordan sank an improbable shot to win the game for the Chicago Bulls.

“To me, this is like an NBA playoff game,” said Jordan, who co-owns the 23XI team with Denny Hamlin. “And for us to win a big race like this, it means so much to me. I’m all in. I love it.”

GOLF

THE WOODLANDS, Texas (AP) — Nelly Korda etched her name in the LPGA Tour record books, winning her record-tying fifth straight tournament with a two-stroke victory in the Chevron Championship for her second major title. Korda joins Nancy Lopez and Annika Sorenstam as the only players to win five consecutive LPGA events.
HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. (AP) — Masters champion Scottie Scheffler is on the verge of another victory. He just has to wait one day because of the rain. Scheffler chipped in for eagle and was comfortably ahead in the RBC Heritage when storms arrived.

(Canadian Press)