Sports
Stars blow 3rd-period lead, still nip Golden Knights in shootout
Jan 29, 2026; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Dallas Stars center Mavrik Bourque (22) celebrates after scoring a goal against the Vegas Golden Knights during the second period at T-Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images Mavrik Bourque scored two goals and Jason Robertson and Mikko Rantanen tallied in the shootout as the Dallas Stars overcame a three-goal third-period comeback by the Vegas Golden Knights to pull out a 5-4 victory on Thursday in Las Vegas.
It was the first multi-goal game of Bourque’s career. Matt Duchene and Wyatt Johnston also scored for the Stars, who won their third straight game.
Dallas’ Sam Steel and Jamie Benn each collected two assists. Stars goalie Jake Oettinger made 17 saves and also stopped shootout tries by Pavel Dorofeyev and Jack Eichel to pick up his 21st win, tied for fourth in the NHL.
Mitch Marner and Keegan Kolesar each had a goal and an assist, Reilly Smith scored a short-handed goal and Ivan Barbashev also found the net for Vegas, which took its fifth loss in the past six games (1-3-2) and fell into a tie for first-place tie with the Edmonton Oilers in the Pacific Division.
Adin Hill finished with 23 saves for the Golden Knights, who dropped to 1-6 in shootouts.
Vegas, trailing 4-1 entering the third period, pulled closer on Smith’s short-handed goal at 4:04. Smith scored at the end of a 2-on-1 rush with Kolesar, who had poked the puck away from Jason Robertson at the right point to start the break.
Barbashev scored his first goal in 17 games with 6:06 remaining to cut the deficit to one. The Stars then twice had chances to seal it when Rantanen hit the post on a breakaway and Duchene missed a long empty-net try with 52.8 seconds left.
Marner tied it with a 6-on-5 goal, ripping a shot from the left point shot through traffic off the crossbar and in with 49 seconds left, sending the game into overtime.
Dallas jumped out to a 1-0 lead at the 1:37 mark of the first period on Duchene’s fourth goal in three games, a sharp-angled shot from near the right goal line into the top far corner.
Vegas tied it early in the second period when Kolesar converted a Marner pass from the left corner with a shot over Oettinger’s left pad.
The Stars regained the lead midway through the middle period after Robertson knocked the puck away from Kolesar along the end boards to Roope Hintz, who then whipped a pass to Bourque in the low slot. Bourque snapped a shot inside the left post.
Dallas scored twice in the span of 2:27 to increase its lead to 4-1. Bourque connected on a one-timer from the slot past a stickless Hill off a Benn pass. Johnston followed with the Stars’ third goal on five shots, roofing his own rebound from the slot at 16:43.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Yankees' Giancarlo Stanton feels right at home vs. Red Sox at Fenway
Apr 21, 2026; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; New York Yankees designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton (27) reacts with teammates after hitting a home run against the Boston Red Sox in the second inning at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-Imagn Images Teams at opposite ends of the American League East standings will meet Wednesday when the visiting New York Yankees take on the Boston Red Sox in the second game of a three-game series.
The Yankees have a five-game lead over the last-place Red Sox following Tuesday night’s 4-0 victory. It was the first time the Red Sox failed to score against the Yankees since 2022, and the first time the Yankees shut out the Red Sox at Fenway Park since 2020.
Boston was limited to four hits in the loss, one of which was an infield single in the ninth inning. It was the fifth time the Red Sox have had four hits or fewer in a game this season.
“Willson (Contreras) in the first inning, Narvy (Carlos Narvaez), the line drive to right-center, but besides that I don’t think we hit the ball hard at all,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “We swung a lot.
“It was fast in the middle innings for him, for Gil (Yankees starting pitcher Luis Gil). That’s it. We didn’t put pressure on him. He threw strikes, probably more than usual, but you still have to play the game and trust the fact that he’s not a strike thrower. We got some pitches to hit.”
Boston is averaging 3.87 runs per game this season.
Giancarlo Stanton was the offensive catalyst for the Yankees on Tuesday. He hit a solo home run, had a two-run double and also hit a ball hard to center field that was caught by Ceddanne Rafaela.
“Some really good at-bats by (Stanton) tonight,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “That last one might have been his hardest one where Rafaela made an unbelievable play on a cold night. … Just some really good at-bats obviously to get us going with kind of a G-esque moonshot and then a big, long at-bat where he gets to 3-2 and is able to get a big extra-base hit for us. Obviously the difference for us tonight.”
The Yankees will enter Wednesday’s matchup having won four in a row and five of their past six.
For his career, Stanton is hitting .318 with eight home runs and 27 RBIs in 40 games at Fenway Park.
“I grew up seeing this place on TV, seeing the rivalry on TV as a kid and you kind of want to be a part of that,” Stanton said. “It’s always a fun rivalry game no matter where each team is in the standings, and so it’s just a good experience. Pure baseball place to play and you gotta raise your game in those situations.”
Wednesday’s probable pitchers are a pair of left-handers:Ranger Suarez (1-1, 3.22 ERA) for Boston and Max Fried (2-1, 2.97) for New York. Suarez is 1-1 with a 2.35 ERA in three career appearances (one start) against the Yankees. Fried is 3-1 with a 2.37 ERA in five career starts against the Red Sox.
New York’s Cody Bellinger extended his hitting streak to nine games with an eighth-inning single Tuesday.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Surging Cubs turn to Matthew Boyd vs. frustrated Phillies
Apr 1, 2026; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Chicago Cubs pitcher Matthew Boyd (16) delivers during the first inning against the Los Angeles Angels at Wrigley Field. Mandatory Credit: Matt Marton-Imagn Images Owners of the longest current winning streak in the majors, the Chicago Cubs will look to continue their dominant starting pitching when they face the reeling Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday night.
Chicago recorded its seventh straight win with a 7-4 decision Tuesday over Philadelphia, which has lost seven games in a row.
Since Chicago’s 13-7 loss to the Phillies on April 13, the Cubs’ starters have allowed an average of 1.6 runs per outing, helping manager Craig Counsell’s club post its longest winning streak since an eight-game run in July 2023.
“The starting pitching has been the key to this,” Counsell said. “When you’re getting that deep into a game with your starters and consistently going 6 2/3, seven innings, one run each night, you’re putting your team in a really good position. You’re not making the offense do everything.”
Shota Imanaga’s seven innings of one-run ball prolonged that trend on Tuesday, and fellow left-hander Matthew Boyd (1-1, 6.75 ERA) will get his chance in the third contest of a four-game set on Wednesday.
Boyd allowed eight runs in 9 2/3 innings in a pair of starts to open the year before serving a stint on the 15-day injured list due to a left bicep strain. Making his return after one start with the Triple-A Iowa Cubs, Boyd is eager to continue the club’s momentum.
“It’s been good,” he said of his time away from the big-league club. “Obviously I would have loved to be up here that whole time, but we’ve used it to clean up some mechanical stuff. After that lingering soreness passed, we dove into the mechanics and continued to work down that path. Excited to go out there tomorrow and excited to compete and help our team get a win.”
Boyd, 35, has faced the Phillies twice in his career, compiling a 2.25 ERA in a pair of no-decisions.
Philadelphia, meanwhile, is riding its worst stretch in seven years. The franchise last lost seven straight games in June 2019. The Phillies’ four runs on Tuesday matched their most across the current slide.
Slugger Kyle Schwarber was one of Philadelphia’s lone bright spots in Tuesday’s loss, connecting on his eighth home run — tied for most in the National League.
Schwarber knows the team’s season is far from over in April, but halting the extended losing streak is a necessity.
“Obviously on both sides of the ball, we’re really struggling to find our stride,” said Schwarber, who’s hitting .217. “It’s our job to keep going out there, batting, working, figuring out what we have to do. … This isn’t the start that we wanted by any means, but we have to come in and focus on the controllables.”
Left-hander Kyle Backhus (0-0, 5.40 ERA) will serve as the opener and make the first start of his career in his 40th appearance in the majors. The 28-year-old faced the Cubs twice last week, allowing one run across 2 1/3 innings.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Knicks and Nuggets Blow Big Leads: What Went Wrong in Game 2?
Roughly 5,000 feet of elevation separate Denver and New York City.
Still, gravity works the same regardless of where one stands. Just ask the NBA teams in both towns.
“You get too high, and you get, I don’t want to say cocky, but feeling yourself,” Nuggets guard Tim Hardaway Jr. said.
That sensation went south on either side of the country Monday night.
After squandering sizable leads that would have cemented commanding 2-0 advantages in their respective first-round playoff series, the Nuggets and Knicks now find themselves bracing for a fight.
Should their opponents ultimately have their number, Denver and New York will look back with disdain on 19 and 14. Those were the Game 2 cushions the teams coughed up as the No. 3 seeds in the Eastern and Western Conference.
“It’s a game we should’ve won,” Knicks guard Josh Hart said. “In the playoffs, we can’t give away games.”
Be that as it may, the Knicks did just that against the Atlanta Hawks. They controlled the outcome for much of the night and took a 12-point edge into the fourth quarter after leading by as many as 14.
Then New York shot 5-for-22 from the floor in the final 12 minutes compared to 10-for-15 for Atlanta. Fighting through vulgar chants from the Madison Square Garden faithful, Hawks star CJ McCullom scored six straight points down the stretch during one key sequence on the way to a game-high 32.
“In that fourth quarter, you could tell [the Hawks] were playing with a level of desperation,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said. “There were four 50-50 balls, and they got three of the four. We always use that stat to gauge the level of aggression in a game. In that fourth quarter, their aggression stepped up.”
New York’s melted at the same time. How many late possessions saw the Knicks pass or hold the ball around the perimeter before settling for subpar looks from 3-point range? The Knicks went 3-for-11 from deep as part of their flop.
Denver led the Minnesota Timberwolves by 19 points early in the second quarter before crumbling. The Nuggets still were ahead by three points to start the fourth quarter but a combined 2-for-12 shooting effort from pillars Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray in the final 12 minutes took a toll.
“I feel like we had the game in hand, and then we just didn’t make our shots,” Murray said.
As with the Knicks and Hawks, the reversal of fortunes stemmed both from the hosts’ miscues and an outstanding effort from a visiting player, as Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards had 30 points.
“Great leadership, positive,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said. “He recognized he needed to get into attack mode and get downhill a little bit more. He did that.”
The Knicks and Nuggets no doubt sensed the need to amp up their own urgency as things started slipping away Monday.
That neither could act upon it didn’t signal the end for either New York or Denver, of course. But now there’s unnecessary added weight for the climb back to the top.
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Yankees' Giancarlo Stanton feels right at home vs. Red Sox at Fenway
