HOCKEY

Former Toronto Maple Leafs assistant coach D.J. Smith is the new head coach of the Ottawa Senators.

Smith signed a three-year contract with the club on Thursday. He replaces interim head coach Marc Crawford, who also interviewed for the position.

Guy Boucher was fired as Ottawa’s head coach last season, a year in which the Senators finished last in the NHL standings.

Smith, 42, spent the past four seasons as an assistant on Mike Babcock’s staff in Toronto.

• An arbitrator has upheld Slava Voynov’s one-season NHL suspension but is giving him credit for serving half of it in 2018-19.

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Commissioner Gary Bettman suspended the former Los Angeles Kings defenseman for the upcoming season and the 2020 playoffs after determining he committed acts of domestic violence. The NHL Players Association appealed the ruling.

Arbitrator Shyam Das upheld Bettman’s decision that Voynov should be suspended for the equivalent of one NHL season but found he should be credited with having already served 41 games of the suspension last season. So Voynov will now be eligible to return midway through next season.

• The Pittsburgh Penguins re-signed defenseman Chad Ruhwedel to a two-year deal that carries an average value of $700,000 a season.

The 29-year-old Ruhwedel played in 18 games for the Penguins in 2018-19, scoring one goal and one assist, averaging 16:17 of ice time.

• Hall of Fame center Mike Modano was named as the executive adviser to Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold and President Matt Majka, a newly created position that Modano will assume on Sept. 1. Leipold and Modano often communicated by text message during Wild games this past season, sowing seeds for his hire.

• Less than a year after losing John Tavares, the New York Islanders re-signed star center Brock Nelson before he could even test free agency.

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Nelson agreed to terms on a $36 million, six-year contract through the 2024-25 season. Nelson scored 25 goals and set career highs with 28 assists and 53 points last season to help the Islanders make the playoffs.

WORLD HOCKEY: Damon Severson and Mark Stone helped Canada escape to the semifinals while the United States and defending champion Sweden dropped out.

Canada beat Switzerland 3-2 in overtime. Severson tied it with 0.4 seconds left on a goal confirmed by video review. Stone ended it at 5:07 of the three-on-three overtime at Kosice, Slovakia.

In the semifinals Saturday, Canada will face the Czech Republic, and Russia will play Finland.

In Bratislava, Nikita Gusev and Mikhail Sergachyov each had a goal and two assists in Russia’s 4-3 victory over the United States. Kirill Kaprizov and Mikhail Grigorenko also scored. Brady Skjei, Noah Hanifin and Alex DeBrincat scored for the Americans.

Finland beat Sweden 5-4 in overtime in Kosice. Marko Anttila tied it for Finland with 1:29 left and Sakari Manninen won it in overtime.

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The Czech Republic topped Germany 5-1 in Bratislava. Jan Kovar scored twice for the Czechs.

WOMEN: The National Women’s Hockey League is increasing salaries, offering a 50-50 split of sponsor-related revenues and improved benefits in an agreement reached with its players’ association.
The union did not release any specific monetary figures It’s a one-year deal with the five-team NWHL holding the option to renew it the following season.

COLLEGES

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: Guard Marta Sniezek announced her transfer from Stanford and is immediately eligible to play for national runner-up Notre Dame next season.

The 5-foot-8 Sniezek, from McLean, Virginia, was injured and didn’t play last season for the Cardinal, who were ousted from the NCAA tournament by the Irish in the Chicago Regional title game.

• North Carolina State has given Coach Wes Moore a new six-year contract.

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FOOTBALL: The bowl season will begin on a Friday this season and several minor bowls have been pushed back on the calendar to fill 15 days between the playoff semifinals and national championship.

ESPN released a schedule for 35 bowl games to appear on its networks in December and January.

In recent years, the bowl season has begun on a Saturday before Christmas with several games. This season, bowls begin Friday, Dec. 20 with the Bahamas Bowl at 2 p.m. The Frisco Bowl is later that day.

The College Football Playoff semifinals are scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 28. The championship game is set for Jan. 13. Fifteen games will be played in between, including the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl on Jan. 3 and Mobile Alabama Bowl on Jan. 6.

•  Tom Herman’s Texas Longhorns won 10 games for the first time in a decade. Now the school is giving him a guaranteed contract extension worth an extra $13 million.

University of Texas System regents approved a two-year extension that runs through the 2023 season. The last two years are will pay Herman $6.5 million in 2022 and $6.75 million in 2023.

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TRACK AND FIELD: Sophia Slovenski of Bowdoin and Adela Kalilwa of the University of Southern Maine earned All-America honors with top-five finishes on the opening day of the NCAA Division III championships at Geneva, Ohio.

Slovenski, a sophomore from Cape Neddick, placed third in the javelin with a best throw of 144 feet, 9 inches. Kalilwa, a junior from Lewiston, broke her school record in the long jump, finishing fifth at 19-2 3/4.

USM junior C.J. Moody of Old Town was in fifth place midway through the decathlon with 3,613 points after setting personal bests in four of his first five events. Also, Bates senior Ayden Eickhoff ran a time of 4:34.96 in the women’s 1,500 prelims to advance to Saturday’s final.

FOOTBALL

NFL: Jacksonville Jaguars rookie defensive end Josh Allen, the seventh overall pick in the draft, sat out practice after bruising his right knee during the team’s first practice of organized team activities.

Coach Doug Marrone made the announcement two days after Allen got hurt and said there’s “zero” concern for his long-term health. But Marrone added that team doctors plan to be cautious with his return.

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• Free-agent defensive tackle Gerald McCoy will visit the Cleveland Browns, who may sign the six-time Pro Bowler.

McCoy was released earlier this week by Tampa Bay in a cost-cutting move.

• The NFL has suspended Cincinnati Bengals guard Alex Redmond for the first four games of the 2019 regular season for violating the league’s policy on performance-enhancing substances.

SOCCER

COLOMBIA: Police say Colombian soccer player Leidy Asprilla, 22, has been found dead, several days after she was reported missing.

Police said the striker’s body was found Wednesday on a road next to a motorcycle in Valle del Cauca region in southwestern Colombia.

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Prosecutors said the cause of death had yet to be determined.

TENNIS

FRENCH OPEN: Rafael Nadal will start his campaign for a record-extending 12th title at the French Open against a qualifier. And if he makes it to the second round of the clay-court Grand Slam, another qualifier will be waiting.

The defending champion was handed what looked like quite an easy draw.

Nadal won his first title of the season last week at the Italian Open, where he looked close to his best after some uncharacteristic struggles on clay.

The tournament starts on Sunday.

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GOLF

EUROPEAN TOUR: Coming off his best finish at a major, Matt Wallace shot a 4-under 67 and was one stroke off the first-round lead at the start of his defense of the Made In Denmark event at Farso, Denmark.

Edoardo Molinari, Alejandro Canizares, Tom Murray, Matthew Southgate and Paul Waring shared the lead.

PGA: Tony Finau shot a 6-under 64 to take a one-shot lead over local favorite Jordan Spieth and Roger Sloan at Colonial at Fort Worth, Texas.

Defending champion Justin Rose, the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 3, shot 74 as all five of the top 10s playing Hogan’s Alley finished over par.

• Tiger Woods has decided to play in the Memorial next week ahead of his next chance in a major.

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CHAMPIONS: Scott Parel took advantage of ideal scoring conditions in the morning to shoot a 4-under 66 and take the first-round lead in the weather-delayed Senior PGA Championship at Pittsford, New York.

The gusting afternoon wind, which buffeted flags and shook hospitality tents across Oak Hill Country Club’s East Course, hadn’t yet fully arrived when Parel closed with birdies on the par-4 17th and 18th. Retief Goosen, Marco Dawson and Ken Tanigawa were a stroke back.

The round was completed just before 9 p.m., about a half-hour after the sun set, and 14 hours after the first group teed off. The long day was the result of late-morning thunderstorms that caused a delay of 2 hours, 15 minutes.

LPGA: Bronte Law chipped in for eagle on the par-5 third hole and shot a 6-under 65 for a share of the lead in the Pure Silk Championship with Anna Nordqvist and Jennifer Song at Williamsburg, Virginia.

Law added a birdie on the par-4 seventh – her 16th hole in a bogey-free round at windy Kingsmill Resort.

Song birdied all three par 5s in her bogey-free round in the final event before the U.S. Women’s Open next week at the Country Club of Charleston in South Carolina.

Nordqvist rallied after bogeying No. 3. The Swede birdied Nos. 7, 9 and 10 and 13-16.


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