Shesterkin makes 27 saves in Rangers' 3-1 victory over Panthers

NEW YORK (AP) — Adam Sykora broke a scoreless tie early in the third period and Igor Shesterkin made 27 saves and the New York Rangers defeated the Florida Panthers 3-1 on Sunday.

Sykora, a rookie who was a second-round pick in 2022, scored his second goal of the season at 5:10, tipping Adam Fox’s shot past Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky.

Conor Sheary then scored his fifth of the season — on a short-handed breakaway — at 11:14 before Fox added an empty-netter at 16:06.

Sykora also scored in the Rangers’ 6-1 win against Chicago on Friday. The Rangers are just 11-18-7 at home this season.

Florida’s Mackie Samoskevich scored with 40.2 seconds left to end Shesterkin’s shutout bid.

New York nearly scored late in the second when Mika Zibanejad’s shot with 1:35 left skittered along the goal line before Panthers defenseman Gustav Forsling cleared it out.

Florida appeared to take the lead at 3:22 of the third when Matthew Tkachuk scored on a breakaway, but the Rangers challenged and the play was ruled offside.

Florida was coming off a 5-2 loss at the New York Islanders on Saturday in which Tkachuk scored both goals.

Up next

Panthers: host Ottawa on Tuesday.

Rangers: host New Jersey on Tuesday.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Lightning deal the Senators a blow in the playoff race by beating them 4-2

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Defenseman Emil Lilleberg scored the go-ahead goal and had a career-high three points, and the Tampa Bay Lightning rallied to defeat the Ottawa Senators 4-2 on Saturday.

Brandon Hagel and Charle-Edouard D’Astous each had a goal and an assist, while Jake Guentzel scored for a third consecutive game. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 26 saves for Tampa Bay, which played without leading scorer Nikita Kucherov and others.

Nick Paul and Kucherov, who entered the weekend tied with Connor McDavid for the most points in the NHL, were both out because of illness. Despite not having them and captain Victor Hedman, who is on a leave of absence for personal reasons, the Lightning improved to 5-0-2 in the past seven games.

Dylan Cozens and Jordan Spence scored for Ottawa, and James Reimer allowed four goals on 27 shots. The Senators, in the middle of a fierce playoff race in the Eastern Conference, lost in regulation for the first time since March 18 and are on the outside looking in with nine games remaining.

With the score tied at 2, Lilleberg took a pass from Hagel and chipped a backhand shot past Reimer with a little more than 11 minutes left in regulation. Guentzel scored on a breakaway later to provide some breathing room.

Ottawa had taken a 2-0 lead on goals by Cozens and Spence. This was the fourth game in a row the Lightning fell behind by multiple goals, and just like in the previous three, they got back into it in the second period.

Up next

Senators: Visit the Florida Panthers on Tuesday night.

Lightning: Host the Nashville Predators on Sunday.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Dubois scores twice in final period to rally Victoire past Sirens 3-1 in Takeover Tour stop

DETROIT (AP) — Catherine Dubois scored twice in a three-goal third period to rally the Montreal Victoire to a 3-1 victory over the New York Sirens on Saturday in a Takeover Tour stop at Little Caesars Arena.

Montreal (12-4-2-5) pulled within two points of the front-running Boston Fleet with three weeks left in the regular season.

New York (8-0-3-12) took a 1-0 lead when Casey O’Brien was in the right spot to knock in a rebound on a shot by Jaime Bourbonnais that goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens blocked but couldn’t corral at 9:09.

Bourbonnais notched her ninth assist and Anne Cherkowski collected her sixth O’Brien’s sixth goal of the season.

Dubois pulled Montreal even 1:54 into the third period and gave the Victoire a 2-1 lead less than five minutes later with her fourth goal of the campaign. Natálie Mlýnková earned her fifth assist on Dubois’ first netter. Shiann Darkangelo and Kaitlin Willoughby both notched their third assists on the go-ahead score.

Laura Stacey scored for the sixth time this season, adding an insurance goal at 7:29. Kati Tabin tallied her ninth assist and Hayley Scamurra collected her eighth.

Desbiens had 23 saves for Montreal.

Kayle Osborne stopped 26 shots in goal for New York.

Montreal outshot New York 29-24 after the Sirens had an 11-2 advantage in the first period.

New York had not shut out an opponent through the first two periods since Jan. 6 in a 2-0 victory over the Toronto Sceptres.

Up next

New York: Hosts the Minnesota Frost on Wednesday.

Montreal: Hosts the Vancouver Goldeneyes on Wednesday.

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AP women’s hockey: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-hockey

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Notre Dame's Hannah Hidalgo breaks NCAA single-season steals record in March Madness game

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Notre Dame guard Hannah Hidalgo broke the NCAA’s single-season record for steals after getting seven in the first half of a Sweet 16 game against Vanderbilt on Friday.

Hidalgo needed four steals to break Chastadie Barrs’ mark of 192 set with Lamar in 2018-19. The Fighting Irish junior got that in the first quarter of the March Madness meeting with the Commodores.

Hidalgo was already just the second player to have at least eight steals in multiple NCAA Tournament games. She had eight in each of Notre Dame’s first two tourney wins, over Fairfield and Ohio State.

Three of Hidalgo’s steals came quickly against Vanderbilt midway through the second quarter.

She grabbed the ball out of Sacha Washington’s hands and went in alone for a layup, then stole a bad pass near midcourt. Her seventh steal soon after led to another easy layup for a 23-11 lead.

Hidalgo, the third-leading scorer in the country, had 16 points at halftime as the sixth-seeded Irish led No. 2 seed Vanderbilt 31-26.

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

Mauricio Pochettino says US can win World Cup: 'Why not us? … We need to dream'

MARIETTA, Ga. (AP) — Mauricio Pochettino told American soccer players they can achieve what almost no one thinks is possible: win the World Cup.

“Why not us? Why not us? Why not us?” he said Friday. “We need to really believe that we can be there. We need to dream.”

Ahead of friendlies against Belgium on Saturday and Portugal on Tuesday, Pochettino publicly repeated a message he delivered directly to players when they reported to camp this week.

“Dreams,” he added, “inspire reality.”

The U.S. hasn’t reached the World Cup semifinals since the initial tournament in 1930 and hasn’t advanced to the quarterfinals since 2002. Since then, the Americans were knocked out in the round of 16 in 2010, 2014 and 2022, were eliminated in the group stage in 2006 and failed to qualify in 2018.

Only eight nations have won a World Cup: Brazil (five titles), Germany and Italy (four each), Argentina (three), France and Uruguay (two apiece), and England and Spain (one each).

Pochettino, a former Argentina national team defender who replaced Gregg Berhalter as U.S. coach in late 2024, cited American mentality as cause for optimism.

“I hear another day a press conference from some coaching staff in another national team and (they) say, `OK, if we say we are going to win, we are showing too much arrogance,'” he explained. “If we say, well, it is going to be difficult to win. It’s negative. It’s not optimistic. It’s creating negative things. What I am saying: I am here because I believe that we can win and what I can tell to the people is really believe.”

At the World Cup, the 15th-ranked U.S. opens against No. 41 Paraguay on June 12 at Inglewood, California, faces 27th-ranked Australia one week later at Seattle and closes the group stage against No. 23 Turkey or No. 78 Kosovo in Inglewood on June 25. As co-hosts, the U.S., Mexico and Canada are seeded and avoid facing top nations in the first round.

With the expansion of the World Cup to 48 nations from 32, the top two teams in each of 12 groups advance to a new round of 32 along with the best eight third-place teams.

The last time third-place teams reached the knockout round was the also the last time the United States hosted the World Cup, a 24-team tournament in 1994. And the Americans advanced as one of them, but then lost to eventual champion Brazil in the round of 16.

“We need to send the right energy and good emotion to the people, for the people to really believe in us and to support us, for sure,” Pochettino said.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Tiger Woods involved in rollover car crash in Florida, according to reports

JUPITER ISLAND, Fla. (AP) — Tiger Woods was involved in a rollover car crash on Friday, the Martin County Sheriff’s Office told media outlets.

Authorities said the crash occurred just after 2 p.m. not far from where Woods lives in Jupiter Island. Martin County Fire Rescue said there were no serious injuries, CBS 12 reported.

Woods’ manager at Excel Sports did not immediately respond to a text message seeking information.

It was the third time Woods has been involved in a car crash, most recently in February 2021 when his SUV ran off a coastal road in Los Angeles at a high rate of speed that led to multiple leg and ankle injuries. Woods said later doctors considered amputation.

He also was arrested on a DUI charge in 2017 when south Florida police found him asleep behind the wheel of his car that was parked awkwardly with damage to the driver’s side. Woods said later he had taken a bad mix of painkillers.

Woods had been working his way back to golf from a seventh back surgery last September. He had not decided whether he could play in the Masters on April 9-12.

His last official tournament was the British Open in 2024. Woods ruptured his Achilles tendon in March 2025 and that kept him off the course all season, and then he had another back surgery in September. He managed to play in his indoor TGL golf league on Tuesday night.

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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf