Sports category, Page 1097
Penguins expected to start goaltender Casey DeSmith against Sharks
The Penguins are expected to start goaltender Casey DeSmith in Saturday’s home game against the San Jose Sharks at PPG Paints Arena. His status was announced by coach Mike Sullivan following Saturday’s morning skate. In 21 games this season, DeSmith has a 7-9-4 record, a 3.26 goals against average and...
Hampton grad Kayla Hoehler hits ground running for Pitt-Greensburg women’s hoops
The unexpected news rattled Hampton’s Kayla Hoehler. Four months after signing a national letter of intent to play basketball at Pitt-Greensburg, Hoehler learned then-Bobcats coach Kelsey Oddis was stepping down after one season. “Honestly, it threw me off,” Hoehler said. “She was definitely one of the main reasons why I...
Aryna Sabalenka wins 1st Grand Slam title at Australian Open
MELBOURNE, Australia — One point away from her first Grand Slam title, Aryna Sabalenka faulted. And then she faulted again. She grimaced. She yelled and turned her back to the court. She wiggled her shoulders and exhaled. Clearly, this business of winning the Australian Open was not bound to happen...
Minor league report: Penguins, Nailers both lose on the roadVideo
Goaltender Filip Lindberg made 14 saves on 18 shots for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in a 4-2 road loss to the rival Lehigh Valley Phantoms at the PPL Center in Allentown on Friday. Forwards Corey Andonovski and forward Tyler Sikura each scored goals for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (19-16-2-3) which has lost four out...
Rahm 2 back of Ryder at Torrey in bid for 3rd straight winVideo
SAN DIEGO — Jon Rahm made an impressive charge up the leaderboard on his favorite course with a 6-under-par 66 on Friday, which is now moving day at Torrey Pines, to pull within two shots of leader Sam Ryder after the third round of the Farmers Insurance Open. Rahm, ranked...
Robert Morris men get past Detroit Mercy, Antoine Davis to record 1st win in series
The marquee moments have been few since the Robert Morris men’s basketball team joined the Horizon League three years ago. The Colonials are a combined 13-34 since ending their long union with the Northeast Conference, where they won nine tournament championships, the last in 2019, their final year in the...
Bold trades keyed offensive jolts for 49ers, EaglesVideo
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The San Francisco 49ers got a jolt offensively when they made the bold decision in October to trade four draft picks to add Christian McCaffrey to an already deep group of playmakers. The Philadelphia Eagles made an aggressive trade of their own to supercharge their offense...
4 of NFL’s best tight ends on display in conference title games
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — When Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes headed up the tunnel inside Arrowhead Stadium to have X-rays taken on his sprained right ankle, and Chad Henne trotted onto the field in the second quarter of their divisional playoff game against Jacksonville, it was obvious who the backup quarterback...
Pirates manager Derek Shelton calls signing Andrew McCutchen ‘a move we needed to make’
When Derek Shelton learned of the possibility that Andrew McCutchen could return to the Pittsburgh Pirates, his first thought was about how the 36-year-old veteran outfielder would fit with the young ballclub. As he considered it, Shelton saw only positives. “I thought it was a move we needed to make,”...
Inside the most dysfunctional Patriots season under Bill Belichick: ‘I’ve never seen anything like it’
BOSTON — Light rain cut through a thick, gray fog choking Foxboro when Bill O’Brien walked into Patriots headquarters Monday to end the team’s search for its next offensive coordinator. O’Brien’s second interview was his final step toward a long-awaited reunion with the franchise that launched his NFL career. Soon,...
Robert Morris’ Brady Ferguson named to Atlantic Hockey Hall of Honor
Former Robert Morris forward Brady Ferguson has been named to the inaugural class of the Atlantic Hockey Hall of Honor. Ferguson, who played at Robert Morris from 2014-18, is the Colonials’ all-time leading scorer with 167 points (66 goals, 101 assists). He was nominated for the Hobey Baker Award as...
Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews out at least 3 weeks with knee injury
Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews will miss at least three weeks with a sprained knee. The team announced the reigning MVP’s anticipated absence Friday, two days after Matthews was injured in Toronto’s victory against the New York Rangers. Matthews is expected to miss at least six games and could...
Mark Madden: Stuck in salary cap purgatory, Penguins have to play better to keep playoff spot
It’s difficult to draw a bead on the Penguins. The Penguins mostly look like excrement on skates lately, but have points in each of their last six games (3-0-3). They’re in the Eastern Conference’s second and last wild-card berth, but only two points ahead of hard-charging Buffalo, which has five...
Steelers’ T.J. Watt withdraws from Pro Bowl to recover from lingering injuries
T.J. Watt won’t participate in this year’s Pro Bowl games so he can recover from injuries that nagged him during the 2022 season. Buffalo Bills linebacker Matt Milano will replace the Steelers outside linebacker, who missed most of the first half of the season with a torn pectoral muscle. He...
Drew O’Connor and the Penguins’ 4th line are generating goalsVideo
Drew O’Connor was able to laugh. After all, when you win, miscues are easier to accept. But in the moment, things were a bit anxious for the young Pittsburgh Penguins power forward. During the third period of a wild 7-6 overtime home win against the Florida Panthers on Tuesday, O’Connor...
Novak Djokovic tops Tommy Paul, faces Stefanos Tsitsipas in Australian Open final
MELBOURNE, Australia — Of all of his considerable talents, Novak Djokovic’s ability to cast aside whatever appears to stand in his way might be the most valuable. So forget about the potential distraction of his father’s decision to stay away from Rod Laver Arena for Djokovic’s semifinal against unseeded American...
Friday Football Footnotes: Art Rooney II says Steelers will keep Mitch Trubisky, pursue NFL Draft
This week’s “Friday Football Footnotes” looks at Mitch Trubisky’s future with the Pittsburgh Steelers. We also discuss the prospects of the city hosting the NFL draft, and potentially keeping the prospect of AFC Championship home games. Speaking of AFC Championship games, we also have an update on Patrick Mahomes’ injury...
3 takeaways: Penguins give up another power-play goal to Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin
During Thursday’s 3-2 shootout win against the Pittsburgh Penguins, Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin opened the scoring with a power-play goal exactly six minutes into regulation. That was Ovechkin’s 18th power-play goal against the Penguins in 71 career games. Only forward Mike Gartner, a member of the Hockey Hall of...
Tim Benz: Ranking the Steelers’ 6 wins, 5 losses in home AFC Championship games
On Thursday, Pittsburgh Steelers owner Art Rooney II came out against the idea of having neutral site AFC and NFC Championship games. “I hate the idea,” Rooney said. “I don’t like that at all. My sense is that if you put that up for a vote it wouldn’t pass today,...
Termarr Johnson ranks highest among Pirates prospects in MLB Pipeline’s updated top 100
Termarr Johnson hasn’t played a full season in the minor leagues, but MLB Pipeline already ranks the Pittsburgh Pirates’ 2022 first-round pick as the No. 1 second-base prospect and among its top 30 players overall. Ranked 26th, Johnson is the only Pirates player to crack the front half of MLB...
Pitt Take 5: Miami game starts 10-game stretch that will define Panthers’ season
Pitt embarks on a crucial 10-game stretch Saturday when it attempts to rise above third place in the ACC with a game against No. 20 Miami at Petersen Events Center. Both teams are 7-3 in the conference. A victory probably adds another brick to Pitt’s status as an NCAA Tournament...
College basketball broadcaster Billy Packer dies at 82
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Billy Packer, an Emmy award-winning college basketball broadcaster who covered 34 Final Fours for NBC and CBS, died Thursday. He was 82. Packer’s son, Mark, told The Associated Press that his father had been hospitalized in Charlotte for the past three weeks and had several medical issues,...
Eagles, 49ers ride Jalen Hurts, Brock Purdy to brink of Super Bowl
PHILADELPHIA — The late-game meltdowns stick in San Francisco. Take the Super Bowl against Kansas City following the 2019 season. The 49ers became the third team in Super Bowl history to cough up a 10-point lead in the second half and lost to the Chiefs. Or last season’s NFC title...
Penguins give ground to Capitals with shootout loss
With more than three decades of history as heated combatants dating to their days as members of the Patrick Division, the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals are firmly established as rivals. Both squads have ended the other’s season in the playoffs going back to the early 1990s. So something like...
Ryder extends Farmers lead to 3, Rahm gets hot on windy dayVideo
SAN DIEGO — Sam Ryder extended his lead to three shots in the Farmers Insurance Open with a 4-under-par 68 in challenging wind in the second round Thursday on Torrey Pines’ South Course, while Jon Rahm had an eagle and three straight birdies late in his 5-under 67 on the...
