SUNDAY SPORTS: COMEBACK CATS DO IT AGAIN

Matthew Tkachuk’s goal at 1:51 of overtime lifted the visiting Florida Panthers to a 2-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday night. The Panthers, who grabbed a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference final series, won Thursday’s opener 3-2 when Tkachuk scored the winner in the fourth overtime period. Aleksander Barkov also scored for Florida on Saturday. Jalen Chatfield scored for the Hurricanes. Game 3 is Monday in Sunrise, Florida.

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The Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas Stars play Game 2 of their NHL Western Conference final series on Sunday afternoon in Sin City. The Golden Knights won Friday’s opener 4-3 when Brett Howden scored at 1:35 of overtime.

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It’ll be the Battlefords North Stars versus the Brooks Bandits for the National Junior A Hockey crown. Battlefords dumped the host Portage Terriers 7-1 in a semifinal on Saturday while defending champion Brooks dismantled the Ottawa Jr. Senators 3-1. Sunday’s final goes at 4:00 pm ET on TSN.

The defending National Lacrosse League champion Colorado Mammoth and the Buffalo Bandits advanced to the 2023 NLL Finals following Colorado’s 9-7 thrilling victory over Calgary in Saturday’s NLL West Conference Final Game 3. The same two teams battled for the NLL championship last season in an epic three-game series.

This season’s championship battle begins Saturday, May 27 at 7pm ET/5pm MT at the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, with live coverage on ESPNU, TSN, ESPN+ and TSN+. The best-of-three series shifts to Denver’s Ball Arena for Game 2 on Monday, May 29 at 4pm ET/2pm MT on ESPN2, TSN, ESPN+ and TSN+. A deciding Game 3, if necessary, heads back to Buffalo on Saturday, June 3 at 7:30pm ET/5:30pm MT and broadcast live on TSN, TSN+ and ESPN+. 

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Jamal Murray scored 37 points, Nikola Jokic  added 24 points and the Denver Nuggets rolled to a 3-0 lead in the Western Conference finals with a 119-108 win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday. The Nuggets have never been this close to the N-B-A Finals in 47 years in the league. Anthony Davis had 28 points for the Lakers, who hadn’t lost 3 straight games since early February. Game 4 is Monday in L-A.

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The Toronto Blue Jays dropped their third straight game Saturday by blowing a 5-2 lead against the visiting Baltimore Orioles en route to a 6-5 setback in 10 innings. Ryan O’Hearn went 3-for-5 and had 4 R-B-Is, including a 3-run homer in the eighth inning off Jordan Romano that tied the game 5-5. George Springer hit a 2-run homer for the Jays and Danny Jansen hit a solo shot. The teams play again Sunday.

The Vancouver Whitecaps got a first-half goal from Pedro Vite and a second-half own goal to defeat the visiting Seattle Sounders 2-0 on Saturday night in Major League Soccer action. Elsewhere, the visiting Toronto F-C surrendered a goal to Gyasi Zardes in second-half stoppage time to lose 1-0 to Austin F-C, while the New York Red Bulls scored twice in the first half to beat the visiting C-F Montreal 2-1.

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Corey Conners of Listowel, Ontario, was one of three players to manage the rain and tough Oak Hill golf course on Saturday, and he’ll have a legitimate shot to win the P-G-A Championship on Sunday. Brooks Koepka (KEHP’-kuh) of Florida has the 54-hole lead at 6-under, one stroke ahead of Conners and Viktor Hovland of Norway. American Bryson DeChambeau is at 3-under.

(CP)