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Pirates’ power play woes show in loss against Utica

Blair Jones scored the winning goal late in the second period, Joe Cannata made 25 saves and the Utica Comets held on for a 3-2 win over the Portland Pirates on Wednesday night at Utica, New York.

Jones broke a 2-2 tie on a centering pass that deflected off a Portland skate with 1:11 left in the second.

Portland converted just one of nine power-play chances, including a 5-on-3 advantage late in the third. Rob Schremp’s power-play goal in the second ended an 0-for-15 drought for the Pirates.

Vinny Saponari scored in the first period for Portland.

AUTO RACING

TRUCK SERIES: Austin Theriault of Fort Kent will miss at least the next two races, but Brad Keselowski Racing hopes Theriault will be able to return for the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Nov. 20.

The ownership group said Wednesday that Ryan Blaney will drive the No. 29 in the Nov. 6 and Nov. 13 races.

Theriault, 21, has been out since sustaining a back injury in an Oct. 3 crash at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

SPRINT CUP: Matt Kenseth will have his appeal of NASCAR’s two-race suspension heard on Thursday. Kenseth was suspended for the next two races for intentionally wrecking Joey Logano in Sunday’s race at Martinsville.

COLLEGES

MEN’S BASKETBALL: Top-ranked North Carolina will be without top scorer Marcus Paige for three to four weeks because of a broken hand sustained in practice Tuesday.

FOOTBALL: Atlanta, Santa Clara, California, and New Orleans were selected to host the College Football Playoff championship games in 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively.

FIELD HOCKEY: Hannah Buckley scored in the first half and Vonde Saunders added a second-half goal to give the top-seeded University of New England (15-6) a 2-0 win over fourth-seeded Roger Williams (8-13) in a Commonwealth Coast Conference semifinal at Biddeford. Holly Smith needed just one save for the win.

n Kelsey Dumond and Michalia Parent each had a goal and an assist, helping second-seeded St. Joseph’s (12-6) to a 3-1 win against No. 3 Anna Maria (13-7) in a GNAC semifinal at Deering High.

Parent set up Kara Kelly in the third minute, then put in a feed from Dumond with 2:49 left in the first half. Dumond added an unassisted goal in the second.

TENNIS

PARIS MASTERS: Roger Federer raced into the third round with an exhilarating display of attacking tennis, thrashing Italian Andreas Seppi of Italy 6-1, 6-1 in just 47 minutes.

Federer next faces 13th-seeded American John Isner, who had 21 aces in a 6-3, 7-6 (3) win against qualifier Aljaz Bedene.

Earlier, second-seeded Andy Murray and the seventh-seeded Rafael Nadal also advanced in straight sets.

WTA ELITE TROPHY: U.S. Open finalist Roberta Vinci won her first match at Zhuhai, China, beating Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4, 6-4.

In the other singles match, third-seeded Karolina Pliskova beat Jelena Jankovic 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.

TRACK AND FIELD

IAAF INVESTIGATION: Former IAAF President Lamine Diack was placed under investigation on corruption and money-laundering charges by French prosecutors.

Diack, who stepped down in August after 16 years in charge of track and field’s governing body, is suspected of taking money from Russia to hide positive doping tests.

– From staff and news services

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