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Twins open with 2 shutouts for 1st time, beat Royals 2-0

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 18:52:25 GMT

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Sonny Gray and four relievers combined on a four-hitter, and the Minnesota Twins beat the Kansas City Royals 2-0 on Saturday to open with consecutive shutouts for the first time in franchise history.Jose Miranda had an early RBI single, and pinch-hitter Kyle Farmer added a sacrifice fly. Byron Buxton scored twice.Gray (1-0) allowed three hits and had a strikeout and four walks, all of which came in full-count situations. Jorge Alcalá, Griffin Jax, Caleb Thielbar and Jorge López also held the Royals scoreless. Thielbar struck out three, and López got his first save of the year.The Twins and original Washington Senators had never opened with consecutive shutouts.“How can you not be pleased with not giving up any runs, pitching and defense?” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “I couldn’t be happier with all the guys we’ve brought into the game and how they have been pitching. Combine that with the plays the guys are making behind them and it has looked goo...

Lightning beat Islanders 5-0, earn playoff berth

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 18:52:25 GMT

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Andrei Vasilevskiy made 38 saves, Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos scored 1:48 apart midway through the second period, and the Tampa Bay Lightning earned their sixth straight playoff berth with a 5-0 win over the New York Islanders on Saturday night.Tampa Bay will play Toronto in the first round of the postseason. The Maple Leafs hold a four-point advantage, with two games at-hand, over Tampa Bay for home-ice advantage.“Obviously it gives us peace of mind,” Vasilevskiy said of making the playoffs. “It gives us some more confidence moving forward.”The Lightning, who have appeared in the Stanley Cup Final each of the past three years and won back to back in 2020 and 2021, have reached the playoffs in nine of coach Jon Cooper’s 10 full-seasons with the team.“You have no chance to win the Stanley Cup unless you make the playoffs,” Cooper said. Mikhail Sergachev, Tanner Jeannot and Brayden Point also scored for the Lightning.Sergachev left in the third after hurting ...

Tuch’s hat trick leads Sabres to 6-3 win over Flyers

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 18:52:25 GMT

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Alex Tuch had his second career hat trick, Jeff Skinner had a goal and an assist, and the Buffalo Sabres beat the Philadelphia Flyers 6-3 on Saturday night.Jordan Greenway and Kyle Okposo also scored, and Casey Mittelstadt added three assists for Buffalo in its fourth win in five games. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 39 saves. “Good team win all around,” Tuch said. Morgan Frost scored twice for Philadelphia, and Travis Konecny also had a goal in his return to the lineup after a 16-game absence due to an upper-body injury. Felix Sandstrom had 23 saves.The loss officially eliminated the Flyers from the playoffs. They entered with the seventh-fewest points in the NHL.The Sabres turned the contest with four goals in under four minutes over the first and second periods.“It was fun to watch,” Buffalo coach Don Granato said. Okposo finished a 2-on-1 with a shot over Sandstrom’s glove side to tie the score at 1-all with 9.3 seconds left in the first period.The Sabres then eru...

Picault, Mukhtar lead Nashville over Orlando City 2-0

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 18:52:25 GMT

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Fafà Picault scored in the first half, reigning MVP Hany Mukhtar added some second-half insurance and Nashville SC defeated Orlando City 2-0 on Saturday night.Picault took a pass from Mukhtar and scored in the 28th minute to give Nashville (3-2-1) a 1-0 lead at halftime.Mukhtar picked up his first goal of the season, scoring in the 74th minute with assists from Shaq Moore and Dax McCarty.Orlando City (2-2-2) had an 18-7 advantage in shots and a 6-3 edge in shots on goal.Joe Willis totaled six saves to earn the clean sheet for Nashville. Pedro Gallese turned away one shot for Orlando City.Six of the nine previous meetings between the clubs ended in draws. Orlando City, which snapped a five-match winless streak with a 2-1 victory over the Philadelphia Union last week, won the first meeting with Nashville and hasn’t won since. Nashville returns home to host Toronto on Saturday. Orlando City is idle.___AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitt...

Verhaeghe scores 4 goals, Panthers beat Blue Jackets 7-0

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 18:52:25 GMT

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Carter Verhaeghe scored four goals to reach 40 for the season, Alex Lyon made 21 saves for his first shutout and the Florida Panthers beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 7-0 on Saturday night to move into the final Eastern Conference playoff spot.Sam Reinhart added a goal and two assists, Nick Cousins and Eric Staal also scored and Anthony Duclair and Aleksander Barkov each had three assists in the Panthers’ third straight road victory. Florida moved a point ahead of Pittsburgh for eighth place in the conference, with five games left on the Panthers’ schedule. “The resiliency is the most important part of this journey we’ve been on since January,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “We’re able to bounce back out after tough losses or tough injuries. We’ll have to keep grinding.” Michael Hutchinson stopped 42 shots for Columbus, which was shut out for the fifth time this season and has lost four straight. The Blue Jackets are tied with Chicago for the worst reco...

UConn puts Final Four beatdown on Miami 72-59

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 18:52:25 GMT

HOUSTON (AP) — UConn doled out another drama-free basketball beatdown Saturday, getting 21 points and 10 rebounds from Adama Sanogo to dispatch Miami 72-59 and move one win from the school’s fifth national title.Jordan Hawkins overcame his stomach bug and scored 13 for the Huskies, who came into this most unexpected Final Four as the only team with any experience on college basketball’s final weekend and with the best seeding of the four teams in Houston — at No. 4.Against fifth-seeded Miami, they were the best team on the court from beginning to end. Starting with three straight 3s — one jumper from Hawkins and two set shots from Sanogo — UConn took a quick 9-0 lead and never trailed.On Monday in the title game, the Huskies will face San Diego State, which became the first team to hit a buzzer-beater while trailing in a Final Four game for a 72-71 victory over Florida Atlantic.That was an all-timer. This one — more of the same from the Huskies (30-8). The double-digit victory over ...

Local teachers decry DeSantis’ school policies at downtown Miami protest

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 18:52:25 GMT

South Florida teachers voiced their outrage against Gov. Ron DeSantis’ policies that affect the classroom at a protest held in downtown Miami.Educators on Saturday morning were joined by parents, students and other community groups to rally at the Stephen P. Clark Government Center.Demonstrators pushed back on legislation restricting what they can teach, like the Parental Rights in Education Act, referred to by critics as “Don’t Say Gay” law, as well as the Stop Woke Act.“Laws [are] being passed to ban books and not allow teachers to teach a complete and true history of this country, so we are beating back those laws,” said Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, “not only by coming out and lifting up our voices, but by activism and legal action.”On Saturday, DeSantis was in Pennsylvania to attend a conference. He threw his support behind former President Donald Trump in the wake of his recent indictment.

15 families given keys to new homes in Rick Case Habitat Community in Pompano Beach

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 18:52:25 GMT

It was a record-breaking feat for Habitat for Humanity, as more than a dozen families received the keys to their new homes in Pompano Beach.7News cameras captured homeowner Lashicia Harris as she showed off her brand-new kitchen, Saturday morning.“This is my home,” she said.They’re four little words that mean the world to the Harris family.During a ceremony held earlier in the day, the family of eight walked up to receive the keys to their home.“The Harris family has totaled, banked over 500 hours of sweat equity into this neighborhood,” said the speaker who introduced them, as the audience erupted in cheers.Lashicia, her husband and six children are moving from a cramped two-bedroom apartment into a two-story home of their own.During her speech, she said this is a moment to celebrate.“Since coming into the Habitat Broward program, not only have I gained wisdom, knowledge and growth, but confidence within myself doing things that I never imagined ...

Vancouver radio personality Red Robinson has died at age 86, family says

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 18:52:25 GMT

VANCOUVER — The family of Vancouver radio personality Red Robinson says he has died after a brief illness.In a statement posted online, Robinson’s family says he passed away on Saturday shortly after 8 a.m. He was 86.Robinson began his radio career in 1954 at Vancouver’s CJOR, and his website credits him as the first DJ in Canada to play rock ’n’ roll music on a regular basis.It says Red jumped to Vancouver CKWX station in 1957, where he met American singer Buddy Holly and Elvis Presley.His website says he was elected into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, the Canadian Broadcast Hall of Fame in 1997 and the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in 2000, retiring from radio in 2007.He received the Order of British Columbia in 2016, and was also the recipient of the Canada 125 award and the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal.“We’re so glad we got to spend his final moments with him, and having his brother Bill there made it extra special,” said his family in the s...

2 dead in hot air balloon accident outside of Mexico City

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 18:52:25 GMT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Two people died and a girl was injured after the hot air balloon they were riding in caught fire near Mexico City, authorities said Saturday.Officials in the state of Mexico, which borders the capital, said the girl suffered burns and a broken arm. According to a video of the incident posted on social media, the occupants of the balloon appeared to have fallen or jumped from the craft.The dead were listed as a male, 50, and a woman, 38.The accident occurred near the pre-Hispanic ruin site of Teotihuacan, just north of Mexico City. The area is a popular location for balloon rides.The cause of the accident was under investigation.Teotihuacan, best known for its twin Temples of the Sun and Moon, was once a large city that housed over 100,000 inhabitants and covered around 8 square miles (20 square kilometers). The still-mysterious city was one of the largest in the world at its apex between 100 B.C. and A.D. 750. But it was abandoned before the rise of the Aztecs in ...