Sports
Rangers' struggling defense could be tested vs. Senators
Oct 29, 2024; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; New York Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin (31) makes a save on Washington Capitals left wing Jakub Vrana (13) as Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba (8) defends in the first period at Capital One Arena. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images New York Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette was left shaking his head after his team found itself on the wrong end of a one-sided affair.
Sure, the scoreboard showed only a two-goal defeat. However, the final score was not indicative of how his team fared en route to losing for the second time in three games.
The Rangers will look to clean up loose ends on Friday night when they host the Ottawa Senators.
“There’s definitely detail to defense, but defense is attitude,” Laviolette said after New York’s 5-3 setback to the Washington Capitals on Tuesday. “There’s a lot of compete that goes into defense and the battles that have to take place.
“For me, they’ve been off for a couple of games out of the last three. And I think any good team starts with good defense and the way that they defend and their purpose defensively. It leads to getting pucks out of your end, and it leads to playing offense. When you don’t play defense well, you end up spending too much time in your end.”
That was the fate of the Rangers, who were outshot 46-19 by the Capitals. Twenty giveaways did New York no favors, either.
There were bright spots for the Rangers, however.
Will Cuylle scored a goal in his second straight game and linemate Filip Chytil also tallied to boost his point total to five (three goals, two assists) in his last four contests.
Chris Kreider scored his sixth goal of the season to pull even with Artemi Panarin for the team lead. Panarin, however, saw his season-opening eight-game point streak (six goals, nine assists) come to a halt.
Panarin collected seven points (three goals, four assists) to help New York defeat Ottawa in two of the three meetings last season.
Former Vezina Trophy recipient Igor Shesterkin turned aside all 25 shots he faced in a 4-0 victory over the Senators on April 15, improving his career mark versus the club to 3-1-1 with a 1.98 goals-against average and a .933 save percentage.
Shesterkin could be put to the test against Ottawa, which has erupted for 34 goals over its last seven games (4-3-0). The Senators have bookended that stretch with eight-goal performances, with captain Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stutzle and since-demoted Adam Gaudette each tallying twice in a lopsided romp over the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday.
“We’re hard on ourselves and we want to make a difference every night, and some nights you have it, some nights you don’t,” Stutzle said, per the Ottawa Citizen. “But (Tuesday) was a do-or-die for us. We just worked hard.
“We try to do that every night, and sometimes the puck goes in for you, sometimes not, but I think (Tuesday) we were supporting each other well in all three zones and we didn’t give up a lot.”
Stutzle and Claude Giroux also set up a pair of goals, with the former extending his assist streak to a career-high five games while the latter pushed his point streak to seven games (five goals, six assists).
–Field Level Media
Sports
Saint Mary’s star F Paulius Murauskas follows coach to Arizona State
Mar 19, 2026; Oklahoma City, OK, USA; Saint Mary’s (CA) Gaels forward Paulius Murauskas (23) dribbles the ball during a first round game of the men’s 2026 NCAA Tournament at Paycom Center. Mandatory Credit: Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images Former Saint Mary’s star forward Paulius Murauskas said Wednesday that he’s transferring to Arizona State to once again play for coach Randy Bennett.
Murauskas blossomed in two seasons under Bennett and was one of the best players in the West Coast Conference this past season when he averaged 18.4 points, 7.6 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 33 games (32 starts). The Gaels made the NCAA Tournament for the fifth straight season.
Bennett departed Saint Mary’s after the season to take over the Sun Devils.
“I followed my heart and chose the place where I trust the people and feel valued not just as a player, but as a person,” Murauskas said in an Instagram post. “I want to finish my college journey with the people who made the last two years so amazing and helped me become who I am now as a person and a player.”
Murauskas averaged 15.1 points and 7.6 rebounds in 68 games (67 starts) in his two seasons at Moraga, Calif. The lone time he didn’t start came in last month’s first-round NCAA Tournament loss to Texas A&M when he was battling an illness and came in off the bench and played 23 minutes.
“Money is important, but the people in your life matter more,” Murauskas said. “Let’s finish where everything started.”
The 6-foot-8 Murauskas, from Lithuania, began his college career at Arizona and saw limited action during the 2023-24 season before moving on to Saint Mary’s.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Coby Mayo's 3-run blast leads Orioles past Royals
Apr 22, 2026; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Baltimore Orioles first baseman Pete Alonso (25) hits a two run home run against against the Kansas City Royals during the first inning at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-Imagn Images Coby Mayo belted a three-run homer to highlight a sixth-run sixth inning, fueling the visiting Baltimore Orioles to an 8-6 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday afternoon.
Leody Taveras’ RBI single forged a 3-3 tie in the sixth inning before Jeremiah Jackson’s two-run single gave Baltimore a lead it would not relinquish.
Pete Alonso launched a two-run homer in the first inning for the Orioles, who avenged a 6-5 setback on Tuesday to win the rubber match of the three-game series.
Chris Bassitt (1-2) allowed five runs on eight hits in 5 1/3 innings. Yennier Cano and Tyler Wells bridged the gap to rookie Anthony Nunez, who struck out two batters in the ninth inning to secure his first career save.
Kansas City’s Kyle Isbel crushed a two-run homer and Vinnie Pasquantino and Carter Jansen also went deep.
Jansen and Lane Thomas each had an RBI single for the reeling Royals, who have lost nine of their last 10 games.
Kansas City was nursing a 3-2 lead before Baltimore ignited an offensive surge to chase starter Michael Wacha (2-1) from the game.
Alonso worked a one-out walk and Samuel Basallo hit the first of three straight singles by the Orioles. Taveras’ single to right field plated Alonso, while Jackson’s single to left scored both Basallo and Taveras to give Baltimore a 5-3 lead.
Eli Morgan relieved Wacha and promptly surrendered a single to Colton Cowser before Mayo sent a 0-1 slider over the wall in left-center field. The homer was Mayo’s second in as many days.
That closed the book on Wacha, who permitted six runs on seven hits in 5 1/3 innings. He entered the game having yielded just three runs on 13 hits in his previous four starts.
Bassitt saw a 2-2 sinker sent over the wall in center field by Jansen to trim Baltimore’s lead to 8-4, Cano relieved Bassitt and served up a two-run homer to Isbel just inside the right-field foul pole.
Alonso gave Baltimore a 2-0 lead after depositing a 1-0 sinker from Wacha over the wall in right-center field. Alonso’s homer was his third of the season and first since April 13.
Pasquantino halved the deficit after sending a 2-0 sinker from Bassitt over the wall in right field. The homer was his third of the season, with all three coming in his last seven games.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Daria Snigur wins marathon 3rd-set tiebreaker in clay debut at Madrid
Jan 13, 2025; Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; Daria Snigur of Ukraine hits a forehand during her match against Danielle Collins of United States of America in the first round of the men’s singles at the 2025 Australian Open at Melbourne Park. Mandatory Credit: Mike Frey-Imagn Images In the first tour-level clay-court match of her career, Ukraine’s Daria Snigur came away with a thrilling 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (13) victory over Australia’s Daria Kasatkina in first-round action of the Mutua Madrid Open on Thursday.
Snigur, ranked 98th in the world, saved four match points before winning the marathon finish, which goes down as the longest first-to-seven, tour-level third-set tiebreaker in eight years and the sixth-longest in a WTA match this century.
Kasatkina, a 2022 French Open semifinalist, saved 17 of 24 break-point chances. Each competitor won 50% of both their service and return points. Snigur will next face No. 4 seed Iga Swiatek of Poland.
Seven Americans were in action during an extensive 22-match day of action in the Spanish capital. All 32 seeded competitors earned first-round byes in the 96-person event.
Alycia Parks won her opening-round match over Italy’s Elisabetta Coccioretto 6-3, 6-2, setting up a second-round clash with fellow American and No. 31 seed Ann Li.
Parks finished off her opening match in just 74 minutes. She hit just 52% of her first serves but won 71.4% of her service points, saving all three break points she faced while converting 3 of 7 on Coccioretto’s serve.
Two other Americans fell, with Taylor Townsend losing 6-4, 6-2 to Great Britain’s Katie Boulter while Elvina Kalieva took a 6-3, 6-4 defeat against Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic.
Boulter will next face fifth-seeded American Jessica Pegula. No. 3 seed Coco Gauff will open against France’s Leolia Jeanjean, who blew past Russia’s Oksana Selekhmeteva for a 6-4, 6-1 victory.
There were also two battles between U.S. players on Thursday. Caty McNally bested Katie Volynets 6-1, 6-2 in 94 minutes and will face No. 10 Victoria Mboko of Canada in the second round. Sofia Kenin, who won the 2020 Australian Open, defeated Ashlyn Krueger 7-6 (2), 6-4 to book a matchup against No. 32 Qinwen Zheng of China.
Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania beat Croatia’s Antonia Ruzic 6-3, 4-6, 6-0 and will face No. 2 seed Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan in the Round of 64.
That was one of seven matches contested on the day which went to a third set. However, one of the more thrilling matches was Argentina’s Solana Sierra holding off Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska 7-6 (10), 7-6 (8) in a match which lasted nearly 2 1/2 hours despite only going two sets.
In other two-set matches, Italy’s Tyra Caterina Grant defeated France’s Elsa Jacquemot 6-1, 6-2, Switzerland’s Simona Waltert beat Oleksandra Oliynikova of Ukraine 7-5, 6-0, Indonesia’s Janice Tjen swept Russia’s Alina Charaeva 6-4, 6-2, Colombia’s Emiliana Arango beat Australia’s Talia Gibson 6-3, 6-2, Alexandra Eala of the Philippines defeated Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-3, 6-3, Hungary’s Dalma Galfi bested Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic 7-6 (7), 6-4, Turkey’s Zeynep Sonmez beat Spaniard Carlota Martinez Cirez 7-5, 6-2 and China’s Shuia Zhang overcame Germany’s Eva Lys for a 6-4, 6-3 victory.
In three-set territory, Czech Karolina Pliskova bested Austria’s Sinja Kraus 2-6, 6-1, 6-4, Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan outlasted Tereza Valentova of the Czech Republic 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, Ukraine’s Anhelina Kalinina beat Uzbekistan’s Kamilla Rakhimova 6-2, 5-7, 6-2, Yuliia Starodubtseva of Ukraine beat Japan’s Moyuka Uchijima 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 and Hungary’s Panna Udvardy took care of Australia’s Kimberly Birrell in a 6-4, 1-6, 6-1 triumph.
–Field Level Media
Saint Mary’s star F Paulius Murauskas follows coach to Arizona State
Beaches: A New Musical review: Jessica Vosk gives her all to a disastrous Broadway adaptation
