RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Carolina Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour said Thursday he feels "really good" that he will reach a new contract with the team, mirroring optimism from president and general manager Don Waddell a day earlier. Brind'Amour - considered by many the face of the franchise with his long-running...

EDMONTON - During what they hope is a deep run through the gruelling Stanley Cup playoffs this spring, the Edmonton Oilers will take all the time off they can get. "Rest is always a good thing," captain Connor McDavid said. "Rest is a weapon this time of year." The Oilers defeated the Los Angeles Ki...

TORONTO - Daulton Varsho loves to go all out when tracking down a fly ball but the new smaller foul areas at Rogers Centre have him being a little more cautious. The Toronto Blue Jays completed the second phase of $400 million renovations to their downtown ballpark in the off-season, with the changes designed to improv...

NEW YORK (AP) - The average time of a nine-inning game is 2 hours, 36 minutes through the first full month of the major league season, down 1 minute from 2023 in the second year of the pitch clock. Over objections from the players' association, MLB lowered the timer to 18 seconds from 20 with runners on base while keep...

VANTAA, Finland - Carter George made 23 saves for his second shutout of the tournament as Canada defeated Latvia 4-0 in quarterfinal action Thursday at the world men's under-18 hockey championship. Team captain Porter Martone scored and 16-year-old Gavin McKenna had an assist. McKenna is second in tournament scoring wi...

The Prince Albert Pikes Artistic Swimming Club wrapped up another year in the pool last weekend, closing out a season full of highlights and memories with their annual year-end Watershow and fun swim. Among the many successful moments for the club this season was seeing nearly double the enrollment from a year ago, gro...

Home sweet home ice? For Vegas, maybe. Nashville, not so much lately. The defending Stanley Cup champion Golden Knights return home to their "Fortress" on the Strip looking to avoid being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs after losing three in a row to Dallas. The Predators are back in "Smash...

Off the goaltender's mask, off a defenseman's back, nothing but net. Well, at least in the net. That is how Colorado's Casey Mittelstadt got his first goal of the NHL playoffs this year, and it is not the only one. Several players have scored by ricocheting the puck in off a goalie's head, including Dallas' Evgenii Dad...

A gold medal at the Esso Cup was an impressive ending to an impressive hockey season for Prince Albert's Stryker Zablocki.The 17-year-old forward won gold at the tournament with the Regina Rebels as they beat Ontario's North York Storm 2-1 in the final on Saturday in Vernon, BC."It's amazing...all the adversity we...

TORONTO - Auston Matthews will miss the Maple Leafs' must-win Game 6 against the Boston Bruins. Head coach Sheldon Keefe said following today's morning skate the star sniper would be unavailable with Toronto down 3-2 in its first-round playoff series. Matthews was pulled from Game 4 with an illness and didn't play in T...

NEW YORK - Calgary Flames defenceman Oliver Kylington, Carolina Hurricanes goaltender Frederik Andersen and Arizona Coyotes goaltender Connor Ingram are the finalists for this season's Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy. The trophy is handed out annually to the NHL player "who best exemplifies the qualities of perseve...

NEW YORK (AP) - The final cost of the New York Mets' sorry 2023 season has been totaled: $420 million. Major League Baseball finalized its payroll figures for last year, and the Mets finished at a record $319.5 million. In addition to the payroll, New York paid a record luxury tax of $100.8 million after finishing four...

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The Philadelphia 76ers off-court strategy heading into Game 6 of their NBA playoff series is to keep New York Knicks fans out of Wells Fargo Arena on Thursday night. Team owners Josh Harris, David Blitzer and David Adelman and former minority owner Michael Rubin joined forces Wednesday to buy more t...

TORONTO - A judo athlete who trains in Toronto has been named to the Olympic refugee team for the Paris Games. Nigara Shaheen was among 36 athletes from 11 different countries introduced by the International Olympic Committee on Thursday. The IOC first entered a refugee team in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio to represen...

DALLAS (AP) - Dallas Stars forward Tyler Seguin was briefly down on the ice with a bloody nose and a bit dazed after taking a shot to the face from Alex Pietrangelo. That big backhanded swing from Pietrangelo while the two were together against the board was certainly retaliation for the Vegas Golden Knights against Se...

The Edmonton Oilers are, so far, the only Canadian team to punch their ticket to the second round of the NHL playoffs. The Vancouver Canucks can make it two teams with a victory Friday in Nashville, or Sunday in Vancouver. The only game in the NHL tonight is in Toronto, where the Boston Bruins can finish off the Maple ...

EDMONTON - Leon Draisaitl scored twice, Evan Bouchard had three assists, and the Edmonton Oilers defeated the Los Angeles Kings 4-3 Wednesday to win their first-round, best-of-seven NHL playoff series in five games. Edmonton eliminated Los Angeles in the opening round for the third year in a row after coming out on top...

EDMONTON - The Edmonton Oilers have advanced to the second round of the NHL playoffs with a 4-3 win over the Los Angeles Kings in Game 5 of their first-round series. Leon Draisaitl scored twice for the Oilers who, for the third straight year, eliminated the Kings from the playoff picture. Evan Bouchard added three assi...

DALLAS (AP) - Jason Robertson scored a power-play goal to put Dallas ahead late in the second period after Tyler Seguin took a shot to the face and the Stars beat the Vegas Golden Knights 3-2 in Game 5 on Wednesday night, becoming the first home team to win in this opening-round series that they now lead. Evgenii Dadon...

TORONTO - Natalie Spooner scored twice in leading Toronto to clinching first place in the Professional Women's Hockey League with a 4-1 win over Minnesota on Wednesday. Toronto (12-4-0-7) moved ahead of Montreal (10-3-5-5) in the standings with 44 points, while holding the tiebreaker in case of a tie by regular season'...

Forge FC and Atletico Ottawa, the top two teams in the Canadian Premier League, posted convincing victories in Canadian Championship preliminary-round play Wednesday. Forge, which tops the CPL standings at 3-0-0, dispatched York United FC 3-1 in a game that was decided in the first half, while Atletico Ottawa, second ...

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - Steven Stamkos wants to hoist the Stanley Cup again with the Tampa Bay Lightning. The 34-year-old captain, who can become a free agent this summer, reiterated Wednesday that he'd like to remain with the only franchise he's played for in a stellar 16-season career. And, general manager Julien BriseBoi...

VICTORIA - Rowing Canada chief executive officer Terry Dillon will step down next month ahead of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris. Dillon has been CEO of the country's governing body of the sport for the past seven years. His resignation is effective June 30, Rowing Canada said Wednesday in a statement p...

TORONTO - Michael Massey hit a three-run homer and drove in another run with a groundout as the Kansas City Royals earned a 6-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday afternoon. Bobby Witt Jr. and Salvador Perez both had RBI singles in the sixth as Kansas City (19-13) won for the second time in a row for the serie...

DORTMUND, Germany (AP) - Borussia Dortmund forward Niclas Füllkrug scored in a 1-0 win over Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of their Champions League semifinal on Wednesday. Dortmund defender Nico Schlotterbeck sent a long pass over the top for Füllkrug to control brilliantly with his first touch before ...

VANCOUVER - Christian Covington is coming home. The veteran defensive lineman signed with the B.C. Lions on Wednesday. The CFL club originally drafted Covington, a Vancouver native, in the fifth round, No. 43 overall, in the 2015 CFL draft. The six-foot-two, 300-pound Covington joins the Lions after playing in 102 NFL ...

Back-to-back wins by Canadians have added a bit of maple flavour to the top of the PGA Tour Americas points list. Vancouver's Stuart Macdonald shot a 1-under 71 to finish 17-under overall for a two-stroke victory at the Diners Club Peru Open on Sunday and rocket up to third on the Fortinet Cup standings. He's 83 points...

Joel Dublanko is looking forward to calling Edmonton home. The Edmonton Elks took the rugged linebacker first overall in the CFL draft Tuesday night. There was karma with the selection, as the American-born Dublanko was able to declare for the draft because his father is from Edmonton. And the burly six-foot-three, 240...