HOCKEY
Connor LaCouvee made 30 saves Wednesday night as the Maine Mariners shut out the Adirondack Thunder 3-0 at Glens Falls, New York.
The Mariners, who moved into a fourth-place tie with Adirondack for the final ECHL North Division playoff spot, scored twice in the first period.
Ted Hart scored off a rebound on a power play at 8:35 and Morgan Adams-Moisan scored on a breakaway at 15:52. Sean Day added a third-period goal.
The Mariners, who have played four fewer games than Adirondack, play at the Thunder again Friday night before meeting them at home Saturday.
NHL: Buffalo Sabres starting goalie Linus Ullmark will miss between three and four weeks with an injury to his right leg.
• Ryan Johansen tied the game after a giveaway by Washington goalie Braden Holtby, and Yannick Weber scored the go-ahead goal with 4:37 left in the third period as the Nashville Predators topped the host Washington Capitals, 5-4.
• Mitchell Marner set up the first two goals and the Toronto Maple Leafs kept up their high-scoring ways on the road to beat the Dallas Stars 5-3 .
BASEBALL
MAJORS: Dusty Baker has been hired to replace AJ Hinch as the manager of the Houston Astros.
The team announced the hiring on Wednesday and said Baker will be introduced in Houston on Thursday.
The 70-year-old became the oldest manager in the big leagues. Hinch was fired Jan. 13 just an hour after he was suspended for the season by Major League Baseball for his role in Houston’s sign-stealing scandal.
• Kris Bryant has lost his service-time grievance against the Chicago Cubs, providing some clarity for the team and the All-Star third baseman with spring training on the horizon.
Two people with direct knowledge of the situation confirmed the decision. They spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because arbitrator Mark Irvings had not announced his ruling.
The grievance had hovered over Chicago throughout its quiet offseason. The decision means the 28-year-old Bryant has two years left before he is eligible for free agency, instead of becoming a free agent after the 2020 season.
• Reliever Greg Holland is back with the Kansas City Royals, agreeing to a minor league contract.
The 34-year-old right-hander would get a $1.25 million, one-year deal if added to the 40-man roster plus the chance to earn performance bonuses.
Holland was 1-2 with a 4.54 ERA last year in 40 relief appearances with Arizona, which released him on Aug. 9. He signed with Washington and pitched in eight games at Double-A but did not get called up.
A three-time All-Star, he pitched for Kansas City from 2010-15, helping the Royals win consecutive AL pennants in his final two seasons. He injured his pitching elbow in September 2015, had Tommy John surgery and missed the World Series victory over the New York Mets. He saved 47 games in 2013, 46 the following year and 32 in 2015.
He returned from surgery and signed with Colorado. Despite a drop in average fastball velocity from 96.5 mph to 94 mph, he led the NL with 41 saves.
• The Giants reportedly agreed to a minor league deal with infielder Pablo Sandoval, who is recovering from Tommy John surgery in September. He has expressed optimism he could be ready to play early in the 2020 season.
SOCCER
ENGLISH LEAGUE CUP: Manchester City will get the chance to win the English League Cup for a third straight season after advancing to the final despite losing 1-0 to Manchester United in the second leg of their semifinal. City won 3-2 on aggregate.
Manchester City will play Aston Villa in the title match at Wembley Stadium on March 1, and will be big favorite having won a Premier League game between the teams 6-1 this month.
BRAZIL: World Cup and Champions League winner Lucio announced his retirement at the age of 41.
The Brazilian defender spent the last two years playing for Brasiliense, a small team in his hometown Brasilia.
Lucio was a starter and a leader in Brazil’s 2002 World Cup-winning team. Eight years later he helped lead Inter Milan to the club’s first European Cup title since 1965.
He started his career at Internacional of Porto Alegre in 1997.
OLYMPICS:
PENTATHLON: Olympic modern pentathlon champion Chloe Esposito of Australia is pregnant and won’t defend her title in Tokyo this year.
The Tokyo Olympics begin in July and Espositio is expecting her first child in August, she said.
Esposito said on social media she is not planning to retire from the sport in which she won gold at the 2016 Rio de Janiero Olympics.
TRACK
INDOOR WORLDS: The indoor world athletics championships in Nanjing, China, have been postponed by a year because of the dangerous virus outbreak in the country, the sport’s governing body announced.
World Athletics said in a statement that the event will now be held in March 2021 instead of March 13-15 this year.
BAN: Sports authorities heightened the possibility of completely excluding Russian track athletes from this year’s Olympics in the wake of a spate of doping scandals that have engulfed the country.
The Athletics Integrity Unit, which handles doping-related matters for World Athletics, called to maintain the suspension of a system designed to allow clean Russian athletes to compete as neutrals in international events.
The AIU said it made the recommendation after not getting appropriate responses from Russia’s track and field federation (RusAF) regarding a case involving forged documents for high jumper Danil Lysenko. RusAF has been suspended by World Athletics since 2015 due to the Russian doping scheme that also led the IOC to officially ban Russia from the 2018 and now the 2020 Olympics.
TENNIS
BNP PARIBAS OPEN: Coco Gauff, the 15-year-old rising American star, will make her first appearance at the Indian Wells, California, tourney, joining all the top 75-ranked men’s and women’s players in the world.
Gauff reached the fourth round at the Australian Open last week. Last year, she made the fourth round at Wimbledon and the third round at the U.S. Open.
Nine former champions are among the field for the tournament that runs March 9-22.
BASKETBALL
WNBA: The WNBA champion Washington Mystics say reigning MVP Elena Delle Donne is expected to be ready for the start of the season after undergoing back surgery.
The Mystics said Delle Donne had minor surgery Friday in Dallas to repair an injury she suffered during the playoffs.
The team says an update will be provided at the start of training camp this spring. The 2020 regular season starts in May. The Mystics open the season May 16 against Los Angeles.
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