WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013
S P ORTS
Blackhawks’ streak at 19 after OT win over Oilers
NHL results/standings Toronto 4, Philadelphia 2; Ottawa 2, Montreal 1 (SO); Nashville 5, Dallas 4 (OT); Chicago 3, Edmonton 2 (OT); Los Angeles 5, Anaheim 2. Eastern Conference Atlantic Division W L OTL GF GA Pittsburgh 13 6 0 65 48 New Jersey 10 5 4 48 49 Philadelphia 9 11 1 60 66 NY Rangers 8 7 2 41 44 NY Islanders 8 10 1 56 64
PTS 26 24 19 18 17
Northeast Division Montreal 12 4 3 53 Ottawa 12 6 2 48 Boston 11 2 2 45 Toronto 12 8 0 57 Buffalo 6 12 1 48
41 37 34 46 63
27 26 24 24 13
Southeast Division Carolina 9 7 1 50 Tampa Bay 9 8 1 69 Winnipeg 8 9 1 48 Florida 5 9 4 42 Washington 6 10 1 48
51 58 57 65 55
19 19 17 14 13
Western Conference Central Division Chicago 16 0 3 61 37 Nashville 9 6 5 44 47 St. Louis 10 6 2 55 52 Detroit 9 7 3 57 54 Columbus 5 12 2 40 56
35 23 22 21 12
Northwest Division Vancouver 10 4 4 52 48 Minnesota 8 7 2 37 42 Edmonton 7 7 4 42 49 Calgary 7 7 3 48 59 Colorado 7 8 2 42 51
24 18 18 17 16
Pacific Division Anaheim 13 3 1 59 47 27 Los Angeles 9 6 2 45 41 20 Dallas 9 8 2 51 53 20 San Jose 8 6 3 41 39 19 Phoenix 8 7 3 50 49 19 Note: Overtime losses (OTL) are worth one point in the standings and are not included in the loss column (L)
DUBAI: Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko returns the ball to Serbia’s Janko Tipsarevic during their ATP Dubai Open tennis match in the Gulf emirate yesterday.— AFP
Davydenko upset makes possible a fine farewell DUBAI: Nikolay Davydenko, who hopes to return to the top 20 as part of his farewell year, brought comedy as well as an upset to the seedings as he reached the second round of the Dubai Open here yesterday. The former world number three from Russia beat Janko Tipsarevic, the sixthseeded Serbian, 6-0, 7-5 but it took him half an hour to take the first two games, and fully 50 minutes to win the love set. It was in many ways a bizarre match, matched to some extent by the amusingly crazy comments which Davydenko afterwards proffered. “After two games I was thinking ‘match just starting - and I’m already tired’, he said, creating a haggard expression. Davydenko also had a comic explanation for the sharp twist in the second set of a match which, having dominated, he suddenly found himself trailing by two breaks of serve before recovering. “Before the second set he, like, go to toilet and come back and start to play better. I don’t know what he did there,” he said, causing the press conference to rock with mirth. “He start to make no mistakes, played three, four, five, six balls and have control already. I just surprised.” Davydenko, currently down at 46 but still capable of significantly higher on the evidence of his enduringly excellent, earlytaken ground strokes, was not apparently convinced that he is on his way back to a ranking which his best tennis would seem to justify. “One day I play good. Next day I coming and I play like 300 year old,” he said. “Sometimes I feel good, and sometimes
like I say after one hour I’m so tired and just start to thinking why maybe I’m so old. “Maybe something I eat today not so good. We are tennis players, a little bit crazy.” Davydenko does though want to see if he can beat another top ten player, as he did David Ferrer, the world number four, en route to the final in Doha last month. He may get the chance. He next plays Victor Hanescu, the world number 58 from Rumania, who got past Bernard Tomic when the promising Australian retired with a “general illness” after only five games, and if Davydenko survives that he should meet Roger Federer in the last eight. Later there was almost another upset when Juan Martin del Potro, the fourthseeded former US Open champion from Argentina, saved three match points to beat Marcos Baghdatis, the former Australian Open finalist from Cyprus, by 46, 6-4, 7-6 (7/4). Baghdatis, ranked 36, got his big chances when Del Potro was serving at 4-5 in the final set, when he went 15-40 and then advantage point down. On the first two match points Baghdatis was a little passive, allowing Del Potro to work his way out of difficulty, and on the third Del Potro launched a good first serve and a fine follow up forehand. Both men had patches of fine groundstroking but were prone to unexpected lapses. Del Potro survived because his most solid play came in the crises. “Marcos also deserved to win,” he said almost diffidently on court afterwards. “But the luck came for me. Perhaps I played better in the important moments.” — AFP
CHICAGO: The streak is just a number now. The NHL record is in the rearview mirror, so each additional game just means another giddy opponent eager to stop the Chicago Blackhawks. So far, the skaters in red and black have responded to each challenge. “Without sounding arrogant, it’s just business as usual,” forward Patrick Sharp said. Thing is, there’s nothing routine about it. Certainly not after Chicago beat the Edmonton Oilers 3-2 in overtime on Monday night, stretching its opening points streak to 19 games. The record went down days ago, when the Blackhawks beat San Jose 2-1 on Friday night to make it 17 in a row. Now the questions are how long can it go on, and which team will stop the streak. The Oilers gave it a good run, but eventually succumbed to the waves of pressure from the Blackhawks. “They are an amazingly powerful team,” Edmonton coach Ralph Krueger said. “They are very strong on the puck and they never, never let up, at all.” Sharp set up the winning goal with a quick turn along the boards and a drive to the goal that led to two stops by Nikolai Khabibulin. Marian Hossa picked up the second rebound and was again stuffed by Khabibulin before he poked it in 1:44 into overtime for his ninth goal of the season. “It is a great feeling, obviously,” Hossa said. “It doesn’t matter who’s scoring and lately we have a lot of different guys scoring. We try to enjoy the streak, keep playing a simple game and try to find a way to win.” Patrick Kane and Viktor Stalberg also scored for Chicago (16-0-3), which has won six straight and nine of 10. Ray Emery made 17 saves to remain unbeaten in eight starts this season. The Blackhawks have earned 35 of 38 possible points so far this season. “It was a great third period,” Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said. “We had the puck in overtime, too. Great pay by Sharpie going to the net; great patience and presence with Hossa to finish.” Nail Yakupov and Jeff Petr y scored for Edmonton, which carried a 2-1 lead into the third period but couldn’t hold on for what would have been its fourth consecutive victor y over the Blackhawks.
CHICAGO: Viktor Stalberg #25 of the Chicago Blackhawks controls the puck in front of Ryan NugentHopkins #93 of the Edmonton Oilers at the United Center on Monday, in Chicago, Illinois. The Blackhawks defeated the Oilers 3-2 in overtime. — AFP Khabibulin had 31 stops in the opener of the Oilers’ franchiserecord, nine-game road trip. “Of course you feel pain, having the lead going into the third period,” Krueger said. “It’s definitely something you dream and believe you can close it.” Edmonton grabbed the lead for the last time in the second, taking advantage when Brandon Saad was sent off for high sticking. Yakupov, the No. 1 overall pick in last year’s draft, one-timed a pass from Sam Gagner into the right side of the net at 14:17 for his fourth powerplay goal and sixth overall. Chicago looked listless for much of the second, but rebounded quickly in the third. Michal Rozsival was behind the net when he sent a pass in front to Stalberg, who poked the puck into the goal mouth as Khabibulin went to his knees to try for the stop. The call on the ice was no goal, but replays showed the puck crossed the line before Khabibulin could make the play and Stalberg
was awarded his fifth goal of the season after a short review. The pace picked up after the tying goal, and each team had a couple of solid chances to move in front. Yakupov shot off the post on one power-play opportunity, and Khabibulin stopped Hossa on a short-handed chance. “I think for us it would have been a big statement game if we were able to break the streak,” Gagner said. “But at the same time, once we didn’t do that, we wanted to find a way to get it in overtime and were unable to do that as well. So it was unfortunate we kind of squandered the lead there.” Edmonton moved in front in the first period after Duncan Keith lost his footing and coughed up the puck deep in Chicago’s end. Lennart Petrell picked it up and skated in all alone on Emery, who stopped his backhand attempt. The rebound went out to Petry, who sent it over the prone goalie at 4:28. Just over a minute later, Kane skated to the middle of the ice and
beat Khabibulin with a slick backhander for his 10th goal of the season. It was his first goal since Feb. 10 at Nashville, ending a six -game drought. “We keep finding ways to win,” said Sharp, who picked up his 400th career point on the assist in overtime. “That’s important at any time of the year. Those one-goal games, we’re on the right side of them. We were thankful to pull it out today.” NOTES: Chicago closed out a 60-1 homestand. ... Edmonton F Taylor Hall served the second of a two-game suspension for his hit on Minnesota’s Cal Clutterbuck on Thursday. ... Blackhawks C Dave Bolland missed his second straight game with an upper-body injury. Chicago also scratched D Sheldon Brookbank and LW Brandon Bollig for the second straight night. ... Ds Ryan Whitney and Theo Peckham were the other scratches for the Oilers. ... The Black hawks improved to 10-0-3 in one-goal games. — AP
Djokovic, Del Potro go through in Dubai DUBAI: Novak Djokovic trounced fellow Serb Viktor Troicki 6-1 6-4 in the Dubai Championships first round yesterday as the world number one extended his unbeaten run to 14 matches. Djokovic, whose winning streak stretches back to October and includes claiming a third straight Australian Open title, was broken once in the second set but was otherwise untroubled in his first match since Davis Cup duty in early February. “I had three or four weeks of no tennis, so I was extremely focused to start well and I did really well in the first set,” Djokovic, 25, said in a courtside interview. “I was right behind his serve and I’m very satisfied with my performance and hopefully I can continue.” Few would bet against the top seed meeting Roger Federer in Saturday’s final, with the pair having won eight of the past 10 Dubai titles, although the Swiss did need three sets to get past wild card Malek Jaziri on Monday. Also into the second round is former U.S. Open champion Juan Martin Del Potro, who saved three match points on his way to beating Marcos Baghdatis 4-6 6-4 7-6. Fourth seed Del Potro recovered from 4-1 down in the deciding set, the Argentine’s superior ground strokes ultimately wearing down his Cypriot opponent as dusk fell. “Marcos also deserved to win but the luck was behind me and I played better in the big moments,” Del Potro said in a courtside interview. “In the tiebreak I was solid.” The opening two sets were decided by a service break as both players opted for a serve and
volley approach, Del Potro losing the first with a double-fault. In the deciding set, Del Potro misjudged a Baghdatis lob that drifted in after the 24-year-old pulled his racket away at the last moment to allow the Cypriot to break. The 2006 Australian Open finalist then held for a 4-1 lead, but Del Potro was not finished, storming back to level at 4-4 with Baghdatis
unable to live with the precision and venom of the world number seven’s ground strokes. Del Potro had been guilty of making too many unforced errors but was nerveless in saving successive match points, then a third, to hold for 5-5 as some brutal serving helped him survive. In the tiebreak, Baghdatis wilted by clubbing shots wide and long. —Reuters
DUBAI: Serbia’s Novak Djokovic returns the ball to his compatriot Viktor Troicki during their ATP Dubai Open tennis match in the Gulf emirate yesterday. — AFP
NFL draft prospect from Utah has heart ailment INDIANAPOLIS: Top draft prospect Star Lotulelei will undergo more extensive heart tests when he returns to Utah. Doctors at the NFL’s annual scouting combine in Indianapolis found the star defensive tackle and likely high pick has a heart condition, Lotulelei’s agent, Bruce Tollner, confirmed in a series of emails with The Associated Press on Monday. Tollner said Lotulelei would not take questions regarding the diagnosis yet. But the 6-foot-2, 311-pound defensive tackle still plans to do a full workout in front of scouts at his regularly scheduled Pro Day on March 20. The Tonga native was scheduled to fly to Utah on Monday night, Tollner said. ESPN first reported Lotulelei has a left ventricle that is not operating at maximum capacity. Lotulelei’s professional future could depend heavily on what doctors find. The Utah standout is con-
sidered one of the best prospects in this year’s draft. He is trying to join Alex Smith as the only players from the University of Utah to go No. 1 overall; San Francisco took Smith with the top pick in 2005. “You’re going to have to get all kinds of second and third opinions,” Arizona Cardinals coach Bruce Arians said. When asked whether the Cardinals would remove Lotulelei from their draft board if those doctors confirmed the diagnosis, Arians said: “That’s exactly what would happen.” Uncovering information like this is the reason the combine actually began in the late 1980s. Coaches and general managers have said for years that medical checks are a crucial component of the combine, perhaps the most important data they get all week so they can make informed decisions on draft weekend.
“The No. 1 reason that this started was for medical reasons, and you bring everybody here and have a chance to look at 300-plus guys, X-rays, MRIs, and get your hands on those guys,” Lions coach Jim Schwartz said Thursday. “Each step along the way it added a little bit more, whether it was physical testing, or mental testing, or interview process. Nothing stands alone. You’re not going to draft a guy based on a 15-minute interview at the combine, or based on one attempt at a broad jump at the combine. It’s all just part of the big picture.” This is not the first time a big-name player has been diagnosed with an illness or injury at the combine. In 2009, doctors found a small stress fracture in the left foot of receiver Michael Crabtree. Crabtree was still chosen No. 10 overall by San Francisco and had a breakout season in 2012. It’s also not unusual for doctors to send players
with medical questions from Lucas Oil Stadium, where the combine is held, to a nearby hospital for more extensive examination. The shuttles certainly have been full this week. Among those hoping to prove they will be healthy enough to play this season are running back Marcus Lattimore, trying to return from last fall’s gruesome knee injury, and top-rated cornerback Dee Milliner, who said he will undergo surgery next month for a torn labrum in his right shoulder. The NFL future of three players defensive lineman Walter Stewart, linebacker Jarvis Jones and defensive back D.J. Hayden - will depend heavily on what doctors tell teams. Stewart and Jones were both diagnosed with congenital spinal conditions and were told to give up football. Both were later cleared to return to the sport. Hayden said he tore the main artery to his heart
in a practice collision in November. But teams already knew about those conditions before coming to the combine. Lotulelei’s situation came as a major surprise. Arians said he was “shocked” that the problem had not been detected before now. Finding a potential ailment in a player with aspirations of going No. 1 is certainly not the norm, though it is not unprecedented. In 2011, defensive end Da’Quan Bowers came to the combine projected to go No. 1, but during a medical recheck, doctors found signs of potential long-term arthritis and some weakness in his surgically repaired right knee. Bowers wound up sliding out of the first round and wasn’t selected until No. 51 overall by Tampa Bay. This time, though, it’s different. “We’re talking about a heart,” Arians said. “That’s huge. We’re not talking about a knee or a shoulder.” — AP