Corey Perry scored 2 goals and added an assist, and Ryan Getzlaf had a goal and 2 assists as the Ducks took care of the Capitals 5-2 at Honda Center on Sunday.
Ryan Kessler also had a goal and two assist for the Ducks who have won three of their last four games. Anaheim also moved ahead of Calgary for 2nd place in the Pacific Division with the win. Richard Rakell contributed his 29th goal, and Jonathan Bernier had 25 saves.
The Capitals got goals from John Carlson and Marcus Johansson, as they lost their season high fourth consecutive game.
Alex Ovechkin didn’t score for the 10th straight game, which is the longest scoring drought of his career.
The Ducks held a pregame ceremony to mark the 10-year anniversary of the their Stanley Cup Championship. Perry and Getzlaf were two of the youngest players on the team then, and Randy Carlyle is behind the Ducks bench once again.
The Capitals played without defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk, who was serving the first of his two-game suspension for charging at Kings defenseman Kevin Gravel on Saturday night.
Anaheim will return to action on Wednesday night against the Blues, at the Honda Center.
Adrian Kempe scored his 1st NHL goal midway through the 3rd period, which helped give the Kings get a critical 2 points on Saturday vs the Capitals. The Kings kept pace with the St. Louis Blues, and remained 3 points behind them in the race for the final playoff spot in the West.
Anze Kopitar also scored a goal and had an assist for LA, and Jonathan Quick made 17 saves to help the Kings win their 3rd game in the last 4 tries. Marian Gaborik also scored, and Jeff Carter had an empty-netter.
This was the first time the Kings won back-to-back games since early February. Kempe was excited to finally find the back of the net for LA. “There was a lot of time left in the game,” he said, “[but] I think it was an important goal and it was a really great feeling to finally put it in.”
The Kings fell behind 1-0 and 2-1, but tied it at 2-2 heading into the 3rd period on the goal by Kopitar. It was the Kings fifth straight game with a power play goal, and the 3rd in the last 4 games for LA captain. Then Kempe put the Kings ahead for good by spinning away from Capitals forward Marcus Johansson, and beating Philipp Grubauer,
Jonathan Quick started for the 2nd straight game, but Darryl Sutter reassured everyone that Ben Bishop will still see some action.
“Quite honest, we are in a position where we’re fighting for a playoff spot because our goaltending, in February, hit the wall,” Sutter said.
The Kings will have a huge game against the Blues on Monday night at Staples Center, as both teams continue to fight for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
Chris Paul and DeAndre Jordan came up big on Saturday afternoon at Staples Center, and the Clippers took down the 76ers 112-110.
Paul scored 30 points and had 7 assists, while Jordan had 19 points and 20 rebounds to help LA win their fourth game in the last five tries.
The Clipps were somewhat sluggish for the first three quarter of this one, trailing at halftime 57-56, and then trailing heading into the 4th quarter 79-75. However, a 10-0 run to start the final 12 minutes of the game was the spark they needed to secure the win.
Blake Griffin also had a nice game for LA with 15 points and 10 rebounds. The win was the Clippers 10th in the last 11 games against Philadelphia.
The 76ers were led by Richaun Holmes, who scored 24 points off the bench. Rookie Dario Saric scored 16 points, and Jahlil Okafor had 14.
The Clippers got some help from Oklahoma City, who defeated Utah on Saturday afternoon as well. That means LA is just 1 game back in the loss column from 4th place Utah in the Western Conference.
That couldn’t have come at a better time because the Clippers will travel to Utah on Monday to take on the Jazz in the next game. There’s just 16 games left and these two teams look like they are on a collision course to meet in the 1st round, so they’ll be fighting to secure home court advantage over the next month.
UCLA lost much of the momentum it built the last few weeks with Friday’s 86-75 loss to Arizona in Las Vegas. The loss eliminated the Bruins from the Pac-12 tournament, and sent Wildcats to the finals of tournament on Saturday against Oregon.
Lauri Markkanen scored 29 points, Allonzo Trier added 20 to lead Arizona. The Bruins shot just 40% from the field and 16% from 3.
Isaac Hamilton led UCLA with 20 points and TJ Leaf had 15 before fouling out.
The first half was a back and forth game, but the Wildcats had a late burst to take a 41-35 lead.
In the 2nd half, Arizona would extend the lead to 63-48, and had much of the crowd behind them. The Bruins tried to make several runs, but couldn’t recover.
Lonzo Ball had an off night for the Bruins. He had just 8 points on 2-7 shooting. He also injured his thumb in the 1st half, which appeared to bother him for the rest of the game. Ball thought he would be fine though, especially after X-rays were negative. “Nah, I’ll be all right,” he said.
It was also a tough night for both Steve and Bryce Alford. Bryce had just 5 points on 2-12 shooting.
As for Steve, Arizona coach Sean Miller got some revenge on him from the last time the two team met. Miller called an unnecessary timeout with one second left, and the game decided. Miller was getting back at Alford for doing the same thing to him in Arizona last month.
“I guess they’re upset I called a timeout at their place,” Alford said, referring to the end of UCLA’s 77-72 victory in Tucson two weeks ago when he wanted to set his defense with the Bruins ahead by five points. “I didn’t mean disrespect at all.”
Miller felt otherwise. “When UCLA played us at McKale, I thought they did a great job, they called a timeout with one second left just to make sure they had poise, and I felt like I wanted to make sure our guys had poise at one second left in this game.”
UCLA will find out Sunday what seed and region they end up in for the NCAA tournament next week. However, their hopes of being a #1 seed in the West Region are gone after the loss.
Bryce Alford was disappointed but remained focused on what’s ahead. “Our goal all year is to get to Phoenix and to compete for a national title,” he said. “So we’ve got a lot of work left to do and we have some time to figure out what we need to work on from this tournament.
The Ducks didn’t do the LA Kings any favora on Friday night in St. Louis. Joel Edmundon scored with 20 seconds left to give the Blues a 4-3 win, as St. Louis moved 3 points ahead of the Kings for the final playoff spot in the West.
Jake Allen made 23 saves for St Louis. They also got goals from Paul Stastny, Vladimir Tarasenko and Ryan Reaves. It was their their third straight win.
Jakob Silfverberg, Chris Wagner and Rickard Rakell scored for the Ducks. Anaheim had their two game win streak snapped.
Anaheim goalie John Gibson was making his first start after missing six games in a row with a lower-body injury.
Stastny snapped a 2-2 tie in the first minute of the third with a blast from the slot.
Silfverberg tied it at 3-3 on the power play with 10:36 left.
Then Edmundson would win it late. That gave the Blues a win against a Ducks team they’ll be facing again on Wednesday in Anaheim.
The Ducks return to action on Sunday against the Capitals. It will be the first of three straight home games.
The Chargers signed free agent offensive lineman Russell Okung on Thursday to a 4 year $ 53 million deal. The deal includes a $ 25 million guaranteed.
However, Okung represented himself during the negotiations, which might have resulted in the Bolts violating the leagues tampering rules.
League rules stipulate that teams cannot speak to players before 4 pm EST on March 9th. They can speak to agents in the 48 hours before then, something that Okung may not have been aware of.
In March of 2016 the Chiefs were fined $ 350,000 and docked two draft picks for tampering during their negotiations with Jeremy Maclin.
Okung signed a 4 year deal with the Broncos last year, but it had an option after the first year that Denver didn’t pick up.
The Bolts are hoping Okung can help the team protect Philip Rivers, after their offensive line struggled last year.
The Rams parted ways with four players on Friday, headlined by trading defensive end William Hayes to the Dolphins.
Hayes goes to Miami along with a 2017 7th round pick. In return the Rams get a 2017 6th round pick.
In addition to moving Hayes, the Rams released defensive end Eugene Sims, tight end Lance Kendricks and center Tim Barnes. After signing Robert Woods and Andrew Whitworth on Thursday, and saying goodbye to four players today, the Rams have $17 million left in salary cap space.
Hayes is 31 years old, and coming off a season in which he had 5 sacks. He was due $ 5.5 million in 2017. He’s played 10 years in the NFL.
Sims is 30 years old, and has played 7 seasons with the Rams. He had 2.5 sacks last season, and would have been owed $ 3.25 million this coming season.
Kendricks is 29, and played 6 seasons with the Rams. He had 50 catches for 499 yards and two touchdowns last season. He was going to make $4.25 million.
Barnes is 28, and is a 5- year veteran. He started every game in 2015 and 2016, and was due to earn $3.35 million if he hit all his incentives.
The Bruins came into the Pac-12 tournament as one of the hottest teams in the country, winning 9 straight games. However, they looked nothing like that team, despite barely getting by the Trojans 76-74 in their quarterfinal matchup.
UCLA shot just 41% from the floor, and lacked the consistent energy on the defensive end that they had shown in the last month. Isaac Hamilton scored 22 points to lead the way for the Bruins, who stepped up when Lonzo Ball got into foul trouble.
Ball had 12 points, 7 assists, and 4 rebounds, but TJ Leaf helped do some damage in the paint in his return. Leaf had 14 points and 5 rebounds.
UCLA will now play Arizona on Friday night in the Pac-12 tournament semifinal. “We know we’re going to have to be better [Friday] night than we were tonight,” said UCLA Coach Steve Alford. The Bruins can expect the Wildcats to have quite a few fans in attendance based on Friday’s turnout.
The Trojans only shot 38% from the field, and Chimezie Metu was held to just 8 points, although he did have 14 rebounds. Bennie Boatwright scored 11 points, but was only 3 for 11 from the field.
“Even in a game where we were a little bit off, you look at the numbers and it was still pretty convincing that way,” Alford said. “It was only a two-point win, but it was tied for 20 seconds and we led the rest, so I’m really proud of our guys. We’ve had very, very few nights where we haven’t shot it well or scored in the 80s-plus and this was one of those nights and yet we find a way to get a win.”
The Bruins tried to pull away with a 12-0 run in the 2nd half, but the Trojans slowly fought back. They even got within 71-69 with 4:23 left.
In the end, USC had their chances but failed to capitalize. Boatwright missed a three-pointer that could have tied it with 37 seconds left. Jordan McLaughlin and Elijah Stewart later missed layups that could have made it a one-point game.
Despite the loss, USC should still be in good shape for an at-large bid in the NCAA tournament next week. “You don’t get 24 wins if you’re not a good team,” USC Coach Andy Enfield said. “And I’m going to remind you, Bennie Boatwright was out 18 games. If we were on the East Coast, that’s all we’d be talking about. But because we’re on the West Coast, no one even mentions that.”
The Kings are desperate for every win they can get right now, and they got a big 3-2 overtime win against Nashville on Thursday night. Jerome Iginla scored his first two goals as a King, including the game-winner in overtime.
“It was a hard-fought game for sure. Lots on the line,” Iginla said. “It feels good to be able to get that win as a group. “New team, to be able to find some way to contribute, it’s exciting to be out there at the end in a key situation.”
Nashville would strike first in this one. Callie Jarnkrok beat Jonathan Quick in the slot, after Roman Josi knocked the puck off of Marian Gaborik’s stick while battling along the boards. That was only the Predator’s 3rd shot of the game.
The Kings would strike back in the 2nd, when Iginla took a pass from Gaborik, and manuevered his way around Pekka Rinne for a power play goal.
Just 91 seconds into the 3rd period, the Predators would go ahead on a goal by Kevin Fiala. He knocked in a rebound after a big scramble in front of the Kings net.
However 10 minutes later, Gaborik tied the game after knocking down a shot from Alec Martinez, and tucking it underneath Rinne. It was Gaborik’s 8th goal of the season.
That’s when Iginla would send the Kings home as winners. The win pulls LA within 1 points of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference, which is held by the St. Louis Blues. The Kings are coming off a 5 day break, and have played 1 more game than the Blues.
LA has its work cut out for them just to make the playoffs, but Iginla likes the Kings chances. “I’m positive. I’m very optimistic,” he said. “I know we’ve got a lot of work to do. But these guys, they’re winners. It’s a very tight-knit group. This time of year, they find ways. “It’s going to be a last fun month of the regular season. Everyone believes we can get in.”
The Kings continue their home stand on Saturday night against the Washington Capitals. Then they’ll have a big showdown on Monday night against St. Louis.
The Lakers beat the Phoenix Suns on Thursday night, but it’s debatable whether or not the 122- 110 win on the road was a good thing.
Both the Lakers and Suns are in contention for the 2nd and 3rd worst records in this summer’s NBA draft, which gives both teams a high probability of getting a top 3 pick in the 2017 draft. That’s imperative for the Lakers, who only keep their pick this year if it lands in the top 3.
After beating the Suns, the Lakers are now just 1 game worse than Phoenix in the standings. If the Lakers finish with the 2nd worst record, they have a 56% chance of keeping this years draft pick. However, if they finish 3rd, their chances fall to 46%.
“That’s going to play itself out in the end,” Lakers Coach Luke Walton said. “No matter what happens, it’s still going to come down to the luck of the balls type of thing. My job is to coach these guys to get better. We’re going to continue to do that and try to win every time we play.”
D’Angelo Russell continued his scoring tear on Thursday night, scoring 28 points, which included six 3-pointers. Jordan Clarkson also added 19 points, as the Lakers snapped an 8-game losing streak.
The last time the Lakers played in Phoenix was on February 15th, when they lost by 36 points. That was the most one-sided Suns win in the history of the Suns-Lakers matchups.
Phoenix was led by Devin Booker’s 23 points, along with 18 from Marquese Chriss, and 17 from T.J. Warren.
The Lakers will play another team in the lottery on Sunday night…..the Philadelphia 76ers. Interestingly enough, if the Lakers pick doesn’t land in the top 3, it goes to Philadelphia.
