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| AP Photo | Chris Park San Diego Chargers running back Darren Sproles, right, scores past Indianapolis Colts safety Bob Sanders, left, and safety Antoine Bethea during the second quarter of an NFL AFC wild-card playoff football game Saturday in San Diego. |
From The Associated Press
Chargers sprint past Colts 23-17 in OT
SAN DIEGO—Peyton Manning has his MVP award and nothing more, outdone again in January by the San Diego Chargers.
Speedy little Darren Sproles scooted 22 yards for the winning score 6:20 into overtime and the Chargers beat the Colts 23-17 in an AFC wild-card game Saturday night, ending Indianapolis’ nine-game winning streak a day after Manning won his third Associated Press NFL MVP award.
Sproles came up big on a night when the Chargers played the final 2 1/2 quarters without LaDainian Tomlinson, who stood on the sideline in obvious discomfort from a groin injury.
Fifty years after the Baltimore Colts won the first overtime game in league history by the same score over the New York Giants for the NFL title, Indianapolis wasn’t so fortunate. It was victimized by Sproles, who rushed 23 times for 105 yards, caught five passes for 45 yards, had 106 yards on four kickoff returns and 72 on three punt runbacks.
The Chargers (9-8) won the overtime toss. Indy’s Darrell Reid called heads, but referee Ron Winter’s flip came up tails. Sproles sent the Chargers into the second round of the playoffs, either at Tennessee or Pittsburgh, by finishing off the only series of overtime with his TD run around left end against an exhausted defense for the Colts (12-5).
4 Canadiens elected for NHL East stars
NEW YORK—Only Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin prevented the Montreal Canadiens from an All-Star sweep.
The NHL announced the starting lineups Saturday for the midseason classic, and the host Canadiens filled four of the six slots for the Eastern Conference.
Crosby and Malkin, teammates and linemates with the defending East champion Pittsburgh Penguins, both broke the record for the most votes and claimed two forward positions. They will be joined up front by Montreal’s Alex Kovalev.
Washington’s Alex Ovechkin, the league’s reigning MVP and second this season in goals and points entering Saturday, finished only sixth among Eastern Conference forwards in the voting — which mystified his coach.
“It’s dumb,” Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau said, adding: “It’s not right the best player in the game is not a starter.”
Jaromir Jagr, a former Penguins star, had held the record for votes, but his mark was broken by 11 players — including all six East starters — in this year’s fan balloting conducted online and via text messaging.
Crosby, elected as a starter for the third time, garnered 1,713,021 votes — shattering Jagr’s 2000 total of 1,020,736. Malkin was second with more than 1.5 million votes.
UConn’s Brown commits to NFL
TORONTO—Connecticut’s Donald Brown showed he has nothing left to prove at the college level.
Brown ran for a career-best 261 yards in his final college game, helping the fumble-prone Huskies overcome a mistake-filled first half and defeat Buffalo 38-20 in the International Bowl on Saturday.
After becoming the 14th player in major college history to run for 2,000 yards in a season, the junior running back broke the bad news to UConn fans.
“OK, tell them, bud,” coach Randy Edsall said, slapping Brown on the back at the postgame interview table.
“I’m not coming back,” Brown said. “I’m going to pursue the NFL.”
He then apologized for saying three weeks ago that he planned to return to Connecticut for his senior season.
No. 3 Pitt muscles past No. 11 Georgetown
WASHINGTON—DeJuan Blair knew that he was not the main focus of the two dozen or so NBA scouts or the national television audience. The featured attraction was supposed to be college basketball’s latest flavor-of-the-month, Georgetown freshman Greg Monroe.
In the second half, however, it was Blair who was thumping his chest while chants of “Let’s Go, Pitt!” came from the thousands of upper-deck fans who made the trip to the nation’s capital. Blair and the No. 3 Panthers were muscling their way to a 70-54 win Saturday over the No. 11 Hoyas, ending Georgetown’s 29-game home winning streak.
“I played with something on my back saying, ‘They’re picking this young cat against me, and I’m not going to take it,’” Blair said. “I was always an underdog throughout my whole life. I think I showed a lot of people.”
Blair had 20 points and 17 rebounds, and the Panthers (14-0, 2-0 Big East) never trailed as they dominated the Hoyas on the boards, in the paint and with their depth.
Vikings’ ticket sales avoid local blackout
EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn.—Fans purchased more than 20,000 tickets to Minnesota’s playoff game over six days, assuring there will be no local TV blackout when the Vikings host Philadelphia at the Metrodome on Sunday.
The Vikings announced the sales results Saturday afternoon for their wild-card playoff game with the Eagles after moving the remaining 3,100 seats that were still unsold the day before. There were a limited number of tickets remaining for the game, including some returned by the Eagles.
The NFL gave the Vikings two extensions, the second until Saturday — 24 hours before kickoff — after they sold about 5,000 seats from Thursday to Friday.
Only about 55 percent of the 55,000 season-ticket holders chose to buy playoff tickets, leaving the large supply. This extended the team’s sellout streak to a rather tenuous 115 games. The last blackout was for the Vikings’ last game of the 1997 regular season.
Murray beats Nadal in Abu Dhabi final
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates—In a strong statement leading to the Australian Open, Andy Murray has beaten Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal on consecutive days.
The Scotsman defeated the top-ranked Nadal 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 Saturday to capture the Capitala World Tennis Championship exhibition and $250,000 winner-take-all prize. A day earlier in the semifinals, he topped the No. 2-ranked Federer 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (6).
The tournament, not part of the ATP Tour, included six of the world’s top 10 players.
Murray, who put on more muscle during the offseason, is ranked No. 4 and has yet to win a Grand Slam. He has a chance to change that at the Australian Open, which starts starts Jan. 19.
“This victory was good before I go to Australia,” said Murray, who will first defend his Qatar Open title in Doha. “I have never been past the fourth round there. I trained hard over the break and the victories over the past three days have given me confidence.”
Sabres snap Boston’s 10-game win streak
BOSTON—A little-known player and few big misses put an end to Boston’s longest winning streak in nearly 26 years.
Recent call-up Matt Ellis scored his second and third goals of the season to lead the Buffalo Sabres to a 4-2 win over Boston on Saturday, snapping the Bruins’ 10-game winning streak and handing them their first home loss since late October.
“I guess all good things come to an end and unfortunately it was finally ours,” Boston coach Claude Julien said.
It was the Bruins’ longest winning streak since March 1973, and just their third home loss of the season. Boston’s last loss at the TD Banknorth Garden was a 4-2 setback to Toronto on Oct. 23. The other was a 2-1 shootout loss against Pittsburgh in the home opener.
“We were having a lot of fun on this 10-game stretch and we wanted to keep it going,” said Boston center Marc Savard, who missed a pair of open nets in the first period — two of three glaring chances the Bruins failed on.
Thomas Vanek had his team-leading 26th goal and Paul Gaustad also scored for the Sabres, who had lost four of their previous six — two in overtime.
Chargers sprint past Colts 23-17 in OT
SAN DIEGO—Peyton Manning has his MVP award and nothing more, outdone again in January by the San Diego Chargers.
Speedy little Darren Sproles scooted 22 yards for the winning score 6:20 into overtime and the Chargers beat the Colts 23-17 in an AFC wild-card game Saturday night, ending Indianapolis’ nine-game winning streak a day after Manning won his third Associated Press NFL MVP award.
Sproles came up big on a night when the Chargers played the final 2 1/2 quarters without LaDainian Tomlinson, who stood on the sideline in obvious discomfort from a groin injury.
Fifty years after the Baltimore Colts won the first overtime game in league history by the same score over the New York Giants for the NFL title, Indianapolis wasn’t so fortunate. It was victimized by Sproles, who rushed 23 times for 105 yards, caught five passes for 45 yards, had 106 yards on four kickoff returns and 72 on three punt runbacks.
The Chargers (9-8) won the overtime toss. Indy’s Darrell Reid called heads, but referee Ron Winter’s flip came up tails. Sproles sent the Chargers into the second round of the playoffs, either at Tennessee or Pittsburgh, by finishing off the only series of overtime with his TD run around left end against an exhausted defense for the Colts (12-5).
4 Canadiens elected for NHL East stars
NEW YORK—Only Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin prevented the Montreal Canadiens from an All-Star sweep.
The NHL announced the starting lineups Saturday for the midseason classic, and the host Canadiens filled four of the six slots for the Eastern Conference.
Crosby and Malkin, teammates and linemates with the defending East champion Pittsburgh Penguins, both broke the record for the most votes and claimed two forward positions. They will be joined up front by Montreal’s Alex Kovalev.
Washington’s Alex Ovechkin, the league’s reigning MVP and second this season in goals and points entering Saturday, finished only sixth among Eastern Conference forwards in the voting — which mystified his coach.
“It’s dumb,” Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau said, adding: “It’s not right the best player in the game is not a starter.”
Jaromir Jagr, a former Penguins star, had held the record for votes, but his mark was broken by 11 players — including all six East starters — in this year’s fan balloting conducted online and via text messaging.
Crosby, elected as a starter for the third time, garnered 1,713,021 votes — shattering Jagr’s 2000 total of 1,020,736. Malkin was second with more than 1.5 million votes.
UConn’s Brown commits to NFL
TORONTO—Connecticut’s Donald Brown showed he has nothing left to prove at the college level.
Brown ran for a career-best 261 yards in his final college game, helping the fumble-prone Huskies overcome a mistake-filled first half and defeat Buffalo 38-20 in the International Bowl on Saturday.
After becoming the 14th player in major college history to run for 2,000 yards in a season, the junior running back broke the bad news to UConn fans.
“OK, tell them, bud,” coach Randy Edsall said, slapping Brown on the back at the postgame interview table.
“I’m not coming back,” Brown said. “I’m going to pursue the NFL.”
He then apologized for saying three weeks ago that he planned to return to Connecticut for his senior season.
No. 3 Pitt muscles past No. 11 Georgetown
WASHINGTON—DeJuan Blair knew that he was not the main focus of the two dozen or so NBA scouts or the national television audience. The featured attraction was supposed to be college basketball’s latest flavor-of-the-month, Georgetown freshman Greg Monroe.
In the second half, however, it was Blair who was thumping his chest while chants of “Let’s Go, Pitt!” came from the thousands of upper-deck fans who made the trip to the nation’s capital. Blair and the No. 3 Panthers were muscling their way to a 70-54 win Saturday over the No. 11 Hoyas, ending Georgetown’s 29-game home winning streak.
“I played with something on my back saying, ‘They’re picking this young cat against me, and I’m not going to take it,’” Blair said. “I was always an underdog throughout my whole life. I think I showed a lot of people.”
Blair had 20 points and 17 rebounds, and the Panthers (14-0, 2-0 Big East) never trailed as they dominated the Hoyas on the boards, in the paint and with their depth.
Vikings’ ticket sales avoid local blackout
EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn.—Fans purchased more than 20,000 tickets to Minnesota’s playoff game over six days, assuring there will be no local TV blackout when the Vikings host Philadelphia at the Metrodome on Sunday.
The Vikings announced the sales results Saturday afternoon for their wild-card playoff game with the Eagles after moving the remaining 3,100 seats that were still unsold the day before. There were a limited number of tickets remaining for the game, including some returned by the Eagles.
The NFL gave the Vikings two extensions, the second until Saturday — 24 hours before kickoff — after they sold about 5,000 seats from Thursday to Friday.
Only about 55 percent of the 55,000 season-ticket holders chose to buy playoff tickets, leaving the large supply. This extended the team’s sellout streak to a rather tenuous 115 games. The last blackout was for the Vikings’ last game of the 1997 regular season.
Murray beats Nadal in Abu Dhabi final
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates—In a strong statement leading to the Australian Open, Andy Murray has beaten Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal on consecutive days.
The Scotsman defeated the top-ranked Nadal 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 Saturday to capture the Capitala World Tennis Championship exhibition and $250,000 winner-take-all prize. A day earlier in the semifinals, he topped the No. 2-ranked Federer 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (6).
The tournament, not part of the ATP Tour, included six of the world’s top 10 players.
Murray, who put on more muscle during the offseason, is ranked No. 4 and has yet to win a Grand Slam. He has a chance to change that at the Australian Open, which starts starts Jan. 19.
“This victory was good before I go to Australia,” said Murray, who will first defend his Qatar Open title in Doha. “I have never been past the fourth round there. I trained hard over the break and the victories over the past three days have given me confidence.”
Sabres snap Boston’s 10-game win streak
BOSTON—A little-known player and few big misses put an end to Boston’s longest winning streak in nearly 26 years.
Recent call-up Matt Ellis scored his second and third goals of the season to lead the Buffalo Sabres to a 4-2 win over Boston on Saturday, snapping the Bruins’ 10-game winning streak and handing them their first home loss since late October.
“I guess all good things come to an end and unfortunately it was finally ours,” Boston coach Claude Julien said.
It was the Bruins’ longest winning streak since March 1973, and just their third home loss of the season. Boston’s last loss at the TD Banknorth Garden was a 4-2 setback to Toronto on Oct. 23. The other was a 2-1 shootout loss against Pittsburgh in the home opener.
“We were having a lot of fun on this 10-game stretch and we wanted to keep it going,” said Boston center Marc Savard, who missed a pair of open nets in the first period — two of three glaring chances the Bruins failed on.
Thomas Vanek had his team-leading 26th goal and Paul Gaustad also scored for the Sabres, who had lost four of their previous six — two in overtime.
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