Wednesday Sports: Warriors Into League Final

WHL PLAYOFFS

Lynden Lakovic scored 36 seconds into overtime to lift the Moose Jaw Warriors past the Saskatoon Blades 3-2 and into the Western Hockey League finals on Tuesday.

It’s the first time in 18 years that the Warriors will play for the Ed Chynoweth Cup and they will face the Portland Winterhawks, with Game 1 set for Friday.

Ethan Semeniuk and Jagger Firkus also scored for Moose Jaw, which came back from a 3-2 deficit in the best-of-seven third-round series. Jackson Unger made 37 saves.

Easton Armstrong and Vaughn Watterodt replied for Saskatoon, which got 22 stops from Evan Gardner in net.

Firkus initially broke a 1-1 tie at 10:13 of the third period before Watterodt knotted the contest with 3:07 remaining in the frame, eventually sending the contest to extra time.

The series went to overtime six times across its seven games, including the last two in which Moose Jaw needed to win the series.

STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS

RANGERS 4 HURRICANES 3 OT

NEW YORK (AP) — Vincent Trocheck scored a power-play goal off a rebound at 7:24 of the second overtime to give the New York Rangers a 4-3 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night and a 2-0 lead in their second-round playoff series.

Alexis Lafreniere scored twice, Chris Kreider also had a power-play goal and Artemi Panarin added two assists for the Rangers. Igor Shesterkin stopped a season-high 54 shots.

The Rangers won their sixth straight in the postseason, and eighth straight dating to the regular season.

Jake Guentzel scored twice, Dmitry Orlov also scored and Sebastian Aho had three assists for the Hurricanes. Frederik Andersen finished with 35 saves.

AVALANCHE 4, STARS 3, OT

DALLAS (AP) — Miles Wood scored on a backhander 11:03 into overtime and Colorado, after trailing by three goals in the first period, beat top-seeded Dallas in the opener of their second-round Western Conference series.

After getting the puck on a rush, Wood stayed ahead of defenseman Miro Heiskanen and got the puck past Jake Oettinger to wrap up only the Avalanche’s third three-goal comeback to win a playoff game in their history.

Cale Makar had a goal and two assists for Colorado, while Valerie Nichushkin had a goal and an assist. Nathan MacKinnon had the tying goal only 39 seconds into the third period when left open just to the left of the net, and Mikko Rantanen had a shot off the post midway through the third period.

Alexander Georgiev had 19 saves while winning his fifth consecutive start in goal for the Avalanche. But the Stars, after nine shots on net in the first period, had only seven combined the rest of regulation, and six in overtime.

The Vancouver Canucks are set to host the Edmonton Oilers for Game 1 of their second-round series in the NHL playoffs. The Canucks got past Nashville in six games to set up the all-Canadian clash against the Oilers, who put away Los Angeles in five games to advance. It will mark the first playoff game between Edmonton and Vancouver since 1992, when the Oilers bested the Canucks in a six-game set.

MLB

Bryce Harper hit a grand slam and had three hits, Cristopher Sánchez pitched seven strong innings and the red-hot Philadelphia Phillies routed the Toronto Blue Jays 10-1. Philadelphia is leading baseball with 26 victories. Danny Jansen and Alejandro Kirk each doubled for Toronto. The Blue Jays have lost six of seven.

NBA

BOSTON (AP) — Jaylen Brown scored 32 points, Derrick White made seven 3-pointers and added 25, and the Boston Celtics powered past the Cleveland Cavaliers 120-95 on Tuesday night in Game 1 of their second-round playoff series.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 29 points, nine rebounds and nine assists to help top-seeded Oklahoma City beat Dallas 117-95 in Game 1 of their Western Conference semifinal series.

DENVER (AP) — Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray has been fined $100,000 by the NBA but avoided a suspension for what the league described as “throwing multiple objects in the direction of a game official during live play.” Murray threw a towel and a heat pack onto the court from the bench late in the second quarter of Denver’s 108-80 loss to the Wolves.

CFL

TORONTO (AP) — The CFL suspended Toronto Argonauts quarterback Chad Kelly for at least nine regular-season games Tuesday following its investigation into a lawsuit filed by a former strength and conditioning coach against both the player and club.

Kelly is also suspended for Toronto’s two preseason games for violating its gender-based violence policy, the league announced.

Kelly will be required to undergo confidential assessments by an independent expert and attend mandatory counselling sessions conducted by a gender-based violence expert.

(Canadian Press)