The American Hockey League’s Board of Governors is expected to vote within two weeks on the sale of the Portland Pirates and relocation of the team to Springfield, Massachusetts, for next season.

The governors met Tuesday in Chicago and granted conditional approval of the transfer of ownership of the Springfield Falcons to the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes. Should all conditions of the transaction be met, the Coyotes’ AHL franchise will begin play this fall in Tucson, Arizona.

The Pirates announced last week that “a letter of intent has been signed with an outside buyer to purchase and relocate” the franchise, leaving Portland without an AHL team for the first time in 24 years. Springfield Mayor Dominic J. Sarno said “a broad-based local investor group” has purchased the team.

• Germany moved into fourth place in Group B at the hockey world championships in St. Petersburg, Russia, by beating Slovakia, 5-1.

It was Germany’s first tourney victory but it still advanced them ahead of the United States in the eight-team standings.

Slovakia remains in third place despite the loss, behind Canada and Finland.

The top four teams in each group advance to the playoffs.

TENNIS

ITALIAN OPEN: Eugenie Bouchard piled more misery on Jelena Jankovic by winning the first-round matchup of former top-10 players 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 in Rome.

Jankovic has gone three months without reaching a quarterfinal.

• Andy Murray hopes his split with Amelie Mauresmo isn’t seen as a failure for women coaching top players.

In Rome, Murray said “in my opinion it’s nothing to do with Amelie being a woman. … It takes a lot of time to do the job well and properly. It’s not easy to do that for four, five years in a row.”

Mauresmo gave birth to her first child in August and took six months off from coaching.

BASKETBALL

WNBA: The Indiana Fever traded point guard Layshia Clarendon to the Atlanta Dream for a second-round pick in next year’s draft.

Clarendon averaged 6.7 points and 2 assists on a team that lost in the title round.

HORSE RACING

KENTUCKY DERBY: NBC’s audience for Nyquist’s victory fell by a half-million viewers a year after American Pharoah became the first Triple Crown winner since 1978.

Although racing was hoping for a rise in popularity on the heels of a Triple Crown, NBC said that Saturday’s Derby averaged 15.5 million viewers with a 9.0 rating and 21 share. The 2015 Derby drew 16 million viewers and a 9.6/23.

GOLF

OLYMPICS: PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem said he doesn’t believe that five players skipping the Olympics will hurt golf’s chances for staying on the program beyond 2020.

Adam Scott and Marc Leishman of Australia, Charl Schwartzel and Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa, and Vijay Singh of Fiji have said they will not compete, mostly citing a busy summer schedule of major events.

SOCCER

WORLD CUP: The 2026 World Cup hosts will be decided in a FIFA vote in 2020 after bidding countries undergo stringent new checks on their suitability.

The governing body pledged to beef up the rules after the tainted dual votes in 2010 for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups set off years of scandals.

– From staff and news services