Sports briefs
By NewsPress Now
Nebraska steals Caitlin Clark’s thunder with victory over No. 2 Iowa
LINCOLN, Neb. | Nebraska and Iowa fans alike came to Pinnacle Bank Arena hoping to see Caitlin Clark set the NCAA women’s career scoring record on a nationally televised celebration of women’s basketball.
What they saw instead Sunday was a huge performance by the Cornhuskers, who rallied from a 14-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat No. 2 Iowa 82-79.
Nebraska (16-8, 8-5 Big Ten) earned its first win over a Top 25 opponent this season and its first over Iowa in 10 tries. A student-led court storming punctuated the afternoon.
Jaz Shelley’s 3-pointer with 30 seconds left gave Nebraska its first lead, and she made all four of her free throws to close out the Hawkeyes (22-3, 11-2).
“On a day like today, I’m just so proud to be the head coach at Nebraska and proud of this team and the way they showed great response throughout the fourth quarter and found a way to win,” Cornhuskers coach Amy Williams said.
Clark, who finished with 31 points, was held scoreless over the final 12 1/2 minutes. She missed her last six shots, including a 3 just ahead of the buzzer.
“Just didn’t execute down the stretch. It stinks,” Clark said.
Clark now has 3,520 career points and needs eight more to pass Kelsey Plum’s record of 3,527 for Washington from 2013-17. She likely will break the record Thursday at home against Michigan.
Hannah Stuelke’s layup with 9:22 left gave Iowa its biggest lead, at 71-57. The Hawkeyes were outscored 25-8 to end the game.
Shelley, who finished with 23 points including five 3-pointers, gave the Huskers the lead when she launched a 3 from the right corner as the shot clock was winding down.
Clark’s 3-point try nicked off the front of the rim before Shelley made two free throws with 18.1 seconds left. Stuelke scored to make it 80-79, but Shelley hit two more shots from the stripe, and Clark and Kate Martin missed 3s at the end.
“Everybody’s going to give us their best shot. If you don’t know that at this point of the season …,” Clark said.
The crowd was split evenly between Nebraska and Iowa fans. “Let’s Go Hawks!” chants started before tipoff.
“Coming out and seeing more yellow at first kind of scary when you’re at home,” Nebraska’s Alexis Markowski said. “Husker fans really showed out. We took it as a challenge. We knew we were the underdogs in this situation. We gave it our all and came out on top.”
Nebraska kept it close in the first half and trailed just 39-35 at the break. Shelley made three 3-pointers, including two straight late in the second quarter to keep Iowa from pulling away.
Clark had 17 points in the first half, but her contributions on defense and as a facilitator were just as important. She ratcheted up her scoring in the third quarter, accounting for 14 points.
Nebraska switched Shelley and two other players on Clark defensively. The Huskers also double-teamed her up high and then went to a gimmick defense, the box-and-one, to shut her down late.
“It’s something we prepare for throughout the season, but we hadn’t necessarily prepared for it the last couple practices,” Clark said. “We should have been ready for it.”
BLUDER BLUSTER
An upset Iowa coach Lisa Bluder, standing outside the interview room, caused a brief pause in the postgame news conference with Nebraska players. She was angry because Nebraska players went into the interview room ahead of Iowa. Bluder took questions in an adjacent hallway while Caitlin Clark and Kate Martin addressed the media.
“We got a flight to catch!” Bluder yelled, prompting Nebraska’s Alexis Markowski to stop talking and look over her shoulder. “This is (expletive). This is not Big Ten protocol.”
She fired one more salvo, an apparent complaint about game presentation in the arena. “They play music while you shoot free throws.”
BIG PICTURE
Nebraska: The game was the first women’s basketball sellout in program history. A few sellers on the secondary ticket market were asking as much as $2,000 for a seat in the lower bowl. The highest seats on one end of the arena were unfilled, though.
Iowa: The Hawkeyes dropped out of a tie for first place in the Big Ten with Ohio State.
UP NEXT
Nebraska: At Ohio State on Wednesday.
Iowa: Hosts Michigan on Thursday.
Kyrou scores twice, Krug has 5 assists as Blues
surge past Canadiens
MONTREAL | Jordan Kyrou scored twice and Torey Krug had five assists and the St. Louis Blues earned a 7-2 victory at the Montreal Canadiens on Super Bowl Sunday.
Robert Thomas had a goal and three assists, Jake Neighbours added a goal and one assist, while Colton Parayko, Alexey Toropchenko and Nathan Walker also scored for St. Louis. Jordan Binnington made 30 saves for the Blues.
“Pretty funny how that worked out,” Thomas said. “It’s our second time this year getting seven, so it’s always fun and everyone’s always happy leaving the rink.”
St. Louis has won seven of its past eight games.
“We’re really coming together on the ice as a group,” Kyrou said. “We kind of just all got a little swagger going on.”
Nick Suzuki and Joel Armia scored for Montreal, while Jake Allen stopped 29 shots. Suzuki extended his point streak to seven games while linemate Cole Caufield’s streak of 11 games came to an end.
The Canadiens lost their second in a row after a 3-2 loss to Dallas on Saturday and fell to 1-9-0 in the second game of back-to-backs this season.
“It’s never fun to get run out of the building, especially yours,” defenseman Jayden Struble said. “I thought there were a lot of bad bounces too that went against us but it’s not an excuse.”
Krug said he can’t remember ever getting five assists in a game, be it in the NHL, college or minor hockey.
“It’s a game that I’ll remember,” he said. “I love playing in this building, it’s my favorite building to play in the league.”
The Blues went 3-for-5 on the power play. The Canadiens were 0-for-3.
St. Louis took the lead early and never looked back.
Just 25 seconds into the game, Toropchenko cruised around Struble down the right wing with a deke between his legs before cutting to the net and beating Allen for a highlight-reel goal.
Parayko gave the Blues a 2-0 lead 5:05 into the first period with a point shot off the post and into the net.
Seconds later, Blues forward Sammy Blais had a hard hit on defenseman Jordan Harris while the latter was already falling along the end boards, appearing to connect near his head.
Harris also hit his head on the ice and couldn’t stand up after the incident, needing help to get off the ice. The Canadiens said he would not return because of an upper-body injury.
Blais, meanwhile, received a five-minute major for boarding and a game misconduct.
The Canadiens were unable to make the Blues pay until just after the five-minute power play expired, when Juraj Slafkovsky set Suzuki up with an open net after a cross-ice pass to cut the lead in half at 10:23.
Montreal’s 5-on-4 advantage was extended a few seconds, however, as St. Louis didn’t have anyone in the penalty box to take out.
Blues coach Drew Bannister explained he wanted to put someone in the box later in the penalty, but didn’t get a whistle.
“The guys were yelling to get a whistle, but I didn’t know why,” Binnington said. “Then I found out that we didn’t have a guy in the box. I’ve never seen that before.”
Kyrou scored a power-play goal at 15:20 of the first to give St. Louis a 3-1 lead heading into the break. Walker scored with 2:11 left in the period to put the Blues up by three.
Thomas added to that advantage with a power-play goal just 31 seconds into the third.
Armia got one back for Montreal at 3:06 with a deflection, but Neighbours regained the four-goal St. Louis lead with yet another power-play score at 7:14.
“We just gotta be more careful,” Suzuki said of Montreal’s penalties. “We can’t give that power play that many looks.”
Kyrou made it 7-2 with a shot that ricocheted off the end board and in off Allen.
INJURIES
The Canadiens said that forward Rafael Harvey-Pinard is out four to six weeks. Harvey-Pinard left Saturday’s game against the Dallas Stars after appearing to buckle his knee in a neutral zone collision with Armia early in the second period.
Harris is day to day with an upper-body injury.
Montreal defenseman Kaiden Guhle also appeared to hurt his left arm in the final minutes after a hit from Marco Scandella. The Canadiens said he was still being evaluated.
“Just scenario-wise, what was it, 6-2 at that point?” defenseman Mike Matheson said. “With a minute and some left, does this guy really need to drive him into the boards like that? I don’t know.”
UP NEXT
Blues: at Toronto on Tuesday.
Canadiens: host Anaheim on Tuesday.
Canada routs U.S.,
sweeps final four games
ST. PAUL, Minn. | Natalie Spooner and Emma Maltais each scored twice, Ann-Renée Desbiens made 24 saves and Canada routed the United States 6-1 on Sunday in the decisive seventh game of the Rivalry Series.
Marie-Philip Poulin and Ashton Bell also scored for Canada and Sarah Nurse added three assists. It’s the second straight Rivalry Series in which the United States won the first three games, only to see Canada storm back and win four straight.
“I think it speaks volumes to how much we’re sticking to our game, even when we’re down and facing adversity,” Maltais said. “I think today it showed a lot of character and we’re just going to keep moving forward.”
The series kicked off in November with two U.S. victories in Tempe, Arizona, and Los Angeles. The teams split a pair of games in Ontario in December, with Canada winning the fourth game in a shootout. Then, Canada won two straight last week in Saskatchewan.
“The Canada-U.S. games are always exciting games and the games you get up for,” Spooner said. “Obviously, knowing that we were down in the series, every game was do-or-die for us. Game 7, this was like our gold-medal game, our Super Bowl, so we were just excited for the game.”
Grace Zumwinkle scored for the Americans. Nicole Hensley stopped 10 of 13 shots before being replaced midway thorough the game by Abbey Levy, who made six saves.
“It didn’t feel like the momentum ever once swung our way. But we have to earn that momentum swing and I don’t think we did that,” U.S. veteran Kendall Coyne Schofield said. “Any time you put on that red, white, and blue you’ve got to execute better.”
Canada opened the scoring on its first power play. Hensley stopped Spooner’s shot and made a sprawling save at the left post to deny Brianne Jenner on the rebound. But Hensley failed to cover the puck and Spooner, in a scrum in front of the net, poked it home at 12:06 of the first period. It was the second goal in two games for Spooner, who leads the PWHL with seven goals.
The Americans suffered a big loss in the first period when star forward Taylor Heise was knocked out of the game with an upper body injury sustained while breaking up a Canadian scoring chance. Heise was able to skate off the ice but did not return.
“That’s going to be a tough one,” U.S. head coach John Wroblewski said. “You lose your (first-line center), your power-play catalyst for our first unit. It certainly had a factor in our special teams.”
Poulin made it 2-0 less than a minute into the second as the Canadians converted their second straight power play. Canada’s captain took a pass at the top of the left circle and sent a wrist shot over Hensley’s shoulder for her first goal of the series.
Midway through the second, Maltais caught up to a loose puck in the U.S. zone and found Bell trailing the play in the high slot. Bell scored off the pass, making it 3-0.
Zumwinkle took advantage of Desbiens’ only mistake, scoring a short-handed goal. Desbiens skated out of her net to attempt to clear the puck, but Zumwinkle blocked the pass and won the race to the empty net.
Spooner pushed the lead back to three goals shortly after a power play expired, beating Levy with a wrist shot from the slot to make it 4-1 late in the second. Maltais scored her goals in the third period.
The teams will meet next at the IIHF Women’s World Championship, scheduled for April 3-14 in Utica, New York. The U.S. will be defending its title, which it won last year after blowing a 3–0 lead in the Rivalry Series. Zumwinkle noted the similarity and expressed hope the pattern would repeat itself.
“Having the same outcome last year, and then winning gold in the World Championships last year,” Zumwinkle said, “it’s writing on the wall, hopefully, for a better outcome next time.”
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AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports
Jimmy Butler goes on personal leave, misses Heat’s game against Celtics
MIAMI | Heat star forward Jimmy Butler missed Miami’s game against the Boston Celtics on Sunday because of personal reasons.
The club has granted Butler a leave of absence after the death of a family member. It has not been determined how long Butler will be away from the team, which has games at Milwaukee and Philadelphia this week before the All-Star break.
“Jimmy and his family ask for privacy at this point in time as they navigate this loss,” said a statement released by the Heat from his agent, Bernie Lee.
Injuries have limited the 34-year-old Butler, who leads the Heat in scoring at 21 points per game, to 37 games this season.
—From AP reports
