THURSDAY SPORTS PAGE: PANTHERS WIN AGAIN

NHL

PANTHERS 5 PENGUINS 2

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Anton Lundell scored twice, Matthew Tkachuk added a goal and two assists and the surging Florida Panthers cruised past the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-2 on Wednesday night.

Aaron Ekblad and Johan Gadjovich also scored and Evan Rodrigues added two assists to reach 200 career points as the Panthers extended their franchise-record road winning streak to nine. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 25 shots to win his fifth consecutive start.

Florida improved to 16-3-2 since Dec. 23, a stretch in which the Panthers have zoomed up the Atlantic Division standings to draw within striking distance of first-place Boston.

JETS 1, SHARKS 0

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — Connor Hellebuyck stops 17 shots for his third shutout of the season as Winnipeg beat San Jose.

Morgan Barron scored as the Jets won their second straight after a season-high five-game skid. Hellebuyck got his 35th career shutout and became the 10th goalie in NHL history to allow three goals or fewer for the 30 consecutive games in the regular season.

Kaapo Kahkonen stopped 39 shots for the Sharks, who were playing for the first time since Jan. 31 and fell to 4-2-2 in their last eight games.

WILD 3, COYOTES 1

TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — Joel Eriksson Ek and Matt Boldy each had a goal and an assist, Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 25 shots and Minnesota won its fourth straight.

Jonas Brodin also scored for the Wild, who have won seven of nine. Fleury got his 554th career win.

Coyotes forward Logan Cooley broke up Fleury’s bid for his 75th career shutout when he cut the deficit to 2-1 at 5:21 of the third period with a shot from the left circle through the five hole. Arizona has lost seven straight.

Connor Ingram started in goal and had 28 saves through two periods before he was replaced by Karel Vejmelka, who had 12 saves in the third.

WHL

WILD 7 THUNDERBIRDS 4

SEATTLE – Graham Sward scored twice as Wenatchee Wild defeated Seattle Thunderbirds.

Evan Friesen, Briley Wood, Jonas Woo, Karter Prosofsky and Rodzers Bukarts all scored once for Wenatchee.

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BRONCOS 4 HURRICANES 1

SWIFT CURRENT – Mathew Ward had a goal and two assists as the Swift Current Broncos downed the Lethbridge Hurricanes.

Connor Hvidston, Owen Pickering and Clarke Caswell scored for Swift Current. Broncos netminder Reid Dyck stopped 21 of 22 shots.

Brayden Edwards scored once for Lethbridge. Hurricanes goaltender Harrison Meneghin saved 30 shots.

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GIANTS 5 ROYALS 1

VICTORIA – Kyren Gronick scored twice as the Vancouver Giants topped the Victoria Royals.

Cameron Schmidt, Aaron Obobaifo and Tomis Marinkovic scored for Vancouver. Giants goaltender Brett Mirwald saved 31 of 32 shots.

NFL

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — The San Francisco 49ers fired defensive coordinator Steve Wilks on Wednesday, three days after losing the Super Bowl to the Kansas City Chiefs.

Coach Kyle Shanahan announced the decision to move on after one season with Wilksin charge of the defense. Shanahan called it a “really tough decision” but said he wants to find a coordinator who was a better scheme fit for the talent on San Francisco’s defense.

“We felt pretty strongly that this was the decision that was best for our organization,” he said. “Even though it was one I didn’t want to make, it was something that once I realized that a different direction was what’s best for our organization, it’s something that I have to do.”

SUPER BOWL

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Kansas City Chiefs said all their players, coaches and staffers and their families were “safe and accounted for” after a deadly shooting Wednesday at the end of the Super Bowl championship parade.

“We are truly saddened by the senseless act of violence that occurred outside of Union Station at the conclusion of today’s parade and rally,” the Chiefs said in a statement. “Our hearts go out to the victims, their families and all of Kansas City.”

Police said one person was killed and more than 20 were injured in the shooting that occurred at the end of the parade to celebrate the Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory. Eight children were among those shot, authorities said.

CURLING

Three former Canadian Under-21 champion skips will lead their teams into the opening draw of the 2024 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, which gets underway Friday at the WinSport Event Centre in Calgary.

And two of them — Alberta’s Selena Sturmay (Edmonton), who won the New Holland Canadian Under-21 Championship in 2019, and Manitoba’s Kaitlyn Lawes (Winnipeg), who won back-to-back national U21 titles in 2008 and 2009 — will go head to head in the opening draw at 6 p.m. (all times Mountain).

Jennifer Jones, who announced Tuesday that she will retiring from four-player curling at the conclusion of this season, will play her first game in her final Scotties Tournament of Hearts appearance Saturday at 1 p.m. when her team from Winnipeg and Altona, Man., takes on Nova Scotia’s Team Heather Smith.

All four sheets will be in play on opening night, with the other first-night matchups featuring four-time defending champs Team Canada, Team Kerri Einarson (Gimli, Man.) playing Quebec’s Team Laurie St-Georges (Dollard-des-Ormeaux/Laval); 2013 Canadian Under-21 champ Corryn Brown and her team from Kamloops, B.C., plays 2023 Scotties bronze-medallists Team Northern Ontario, skipped by Krista McCarville (Thunder Bay); and Saskatchewan’s Team Skylar Ackerman (Saskatoon) is up against Prince Edward Island’s Team Jane DiCarlo (Crapaud) in a battle of Scotties rookie skips.

(Canadian Press, Curling Canada)