THURSDAY SPORTS PAGE: PREDS UPSET JETS

NHL

PREDATORS 4 JETS 2

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — Gustav Nyquist had a goal and an assist and the Nashville Predators extended their points streak to 13 games with a 4-2 win over the Winnipeg Jets.

Jason Zucker, Filip Forsberg and Kiefer Sherwood also scored for the Predators, who have gone 11-0-2 in their last 13 contests. Roman Josi had two assists and Juuse Saros made 27 saves.

Alex Iafallo and Mason Appleton scored for the Jets. Connor Hellebuyck stopped 34 of 38 shots for Winnipeg.

OILERS 7 CAPITALS 2

EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Zach Hyman had a natural hat trick and the Oilers rolled to a 7-2 victory over the Capitals.

Leon Draisaitl had a power-play goal and three assists for the Oilers, who have won two in a row and are 7-1-1 in their last nine games.

Connor McDavid had a power-play goal and two assists for Edmonton, while Warren Foegele and Connor Brown also scored. Stuart Skinner made 23 saves.

Ivan Miroshnichenko and Connor McMichael scored for the Capitals and Darcy Kuemper stopped 30 shots.

AVALANCHE 4, CANUCKS 3, OT

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Valeri Nichushkin scored 30 seconds into overtime and the Avalanche erased a three-goal deficit for a 4-3 victory over the Canucks.

Mikko Rantanen and Nathan MacKinnon each had a goal and an assist for the Avalanche, who have won five straight. Ross Colton also scored and Alexandar Georgiev made 18 saves.

Nikita Zadorov and J.T. Miller each had a goal and an assist for the Canucks, whose four-game winning streak was snapped. Ilya Mikheyev also had a goal and Casey DeSmith stopped 30 of 34 shots for Vancouver filling in for the injured Thatcher Demko.

BLUES 3 KINGS 1

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Jordan Binnington made 40 saves and the St. Louis Blues beat the Los Angeles Kings 3-1 on Wednesday night in a key game in the race for the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference.

Alexey Toropchenko, Jake Neighbours and Brandon Saad scored for the Blues, who kicked off a four-game home stand.

Adrian Kempe scored the Kings’ goal and Cam Talbot made 27 saves as Los Angeles lost for the third time in five games.

WHL

COUGARS 6 ROCKETS 5

Hudson Thornton scored 4:14 into overtime as the Prince George Cougars edged the Kelowna Rockets 6-5 on Wednesday in Western Hockey League action. Oren Shtrom, Borya Valis, Terik Parascak, Hudson Thornton, Matteo Danis and Zac Funk all scored in regulation time for Prince George (43-15-4).

Max Graham, Andrew Cristall, Tij Iginla, Hiroki Gojsic and Michael Cicek supplied the offence for Kelowna (31-28-4).

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OIL KINGS 6 HURRICANES 1

LETHBRIDGE, Alta. – Adam Jecho scored twice as Edmonton downed the Hurricanes 6-1.

Marc Lajoie, Smyth Rebman, John Szabo and Cole Miller all scored for the Oil Kings (23-36-4).

Brayden Edwards replied for Lethbridge (30-27-5).

MLB

Justin Turner kicked things off with a three-run homer in the opening inning and the Toronto Blue Jays cruised to their third straight victory, topping the Pittsburgh Pirates 10-3 in pre-season action on Wednesday.

Eduardo Escobar added another three-run shot in the seventh inning, with Rafael Lantigua scoring another two runners with a single in the same frame. Chris Bassitt (1-1) struck out nine batters, walked one and surrendered one hit and one run in 5 1/3 innings of work starting on the mound for Toronto (8-9).

NBA

Jalen Duren had a career-high 23 rebounds along with 24 points and five assists as the Detroit Pistons won three of four games for the first time in nearly two years, beating the Toronto Raptors 113-104. Detroit hadn’t won three of four since late in the 2021-22 season — a stretch of 145 games.

NFL

The Las Vegas Raiders kicked off the start of the new league year by releasing quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo and receiver Hunter Renfrow to give the new regime more room to operate under the salary cap. The Raiders also released backup quarterback Brian Hoyer and defensive tackle Jerry Tillery just minutes after the start of the 2024 league year. The moves create significant salary cap space for the Raiders to use this offseason as a new regime led by general manager Tom Telesco and coach Antonio Pierce looks to build the team into a contender.
The Kansas City Chiefs have restructured quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ contract. The restructuring frees up more than $21 million in salary cap space that the Chiefs can use elsewhere. That could include a much-publicized pursuit of help at wide receiver, their need for a new left tackle to protect Mahomes’ blind side, or in re-signing their own free agents.
The Indianapolis Colts are proposing a rule change that would allow for challenges of penalty calls in the last two minutes of the half. The NFL released a list of several rule change proposals on Wednesday made by teams that included an option to run a fourth-and-20 play in lieu of an onside kick, the moving of the trade deadline and giving teams an additional challenge if they are successful on one of their first two tries. The competition committee will make its own rule change proposals next week and owners are scheduled to vote on them at the league meetings later this month with 24 votes needed for approval.

NCAA

The NCAA says athletes who have transferred multiple times can compete in the next academic year. The NCAA issued the updated guidance Wednesday, with college basketball’s portal season about to tip off. In December, multiple-transfer athletes who were denied the chance to compete immediately were allowed by a court to play through the remainder of this academic year.