HOCKEY
The Reading Royals broke a scoreless game by scoring six times in the second period Wednesday night to drub the Maine Mariners 8-0 at Reading, Pennsylvania.
Goaltender Tom McCollum recorded his first shutout by making 21 saves.
Hayden Hodgson, Max Willman, Garrett Cockerill, Thomas Ebbing, Corey Mackin and Matthew Strome scored second-period goals. Lewis Zerter-Gossage and Pascal Laberge tacked on goals in the third period.
Connor LaCouvee started in goal for Maine and allowed four goals on 17 shots. Francois Brassard relieved and gave up four goals on 16 shots.
The Mariners, who have lost two straight, play at Wheeling on Friday night.
UNITED STATES MEN: Peter Laviolette is returning to the bench after being selected as the coach of the United States men’s national team competing at the world hockey championships in May.
The move comes seven weeks after Laviolette was fired by the Nashville Predators.
Laviolette ranks 16th in NHL wins with 637 covering four teams over 18 seasons, including the 2006 Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes. He also coached the New York Islanders and Philadelphia Flyers.
SOCCER
U.S. MEN: Gio Reyna is following his father to the U.S. national team.
The 17-year-old Borussia Dortmund midfielder will be invited to the American training camp ahead of exhibitions on March 26 at the Netherlands and four days later at Wales.
Reyna turned 17 in November and made his senior team debut for Dortmund on Jan. 18 in the Bundesliga at Augsburg. He scored his first goal Feb. 4 in a German Cup match at Werder Bremen and on Feb. 18 became the youngest American to appear in a European Champions League match when he entered in the second half against Paris Saint-Germain.
He has appeared in eight games for Dortmund, all as a substitute.
Reyna was part of the U.S. team at last year’s Under-17 World Cup. Berhalter said it would not be possible to have Dortmund release Reyna to play for the U.S. Under-23 team in Olympic qualifying next month.
Reyna’s father, Claudio, scored eight goals in 112 appearances for the U.S. from 1994 to 2006, appearing in three World Cups. Gio Reyna’s mother, Danielle Egan Reyna, scored one goal in six appearances for the U.S. in 2003.
U.S. WOMEN: Forward Mallory Pugh and defender Tierna Davidson are back with the U.S. women’s national team for the upcoming SheBelieves tournament at Chicago.
Both players, who were on the team’s World Cup-winning squad last year, were not included on the smaller roster that took part in CONCACAF Olympic qualifying earlier this month.
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: Manchester City scored two late goals five minutes apart to beat host Real Madrid 2-1 in the first leg of their Round-of-16 game.
Francisco “Isco” Alarcon put Madrid ahead in the 60th minute after a mistake by Man City midfielder Rodri, but Gabriel Jesus evened the match with a header in the 78th and Kevin De Bruyne scored the winner by converting an 83rd-minute penalty after a foul by Dani Carvajal on substitute Raheem Sterling.
Madrid played the final minutes without defender Sergio Ramos after he was shown a red card for a foul to stop an 86th-minute breakaway by Jesus.
The return match in England will be on March 17.
• A rare goal from combative midfielder Lucas Tousart gave hard-working Lyon a 1-0 home win against Juventus in the first leg of their Round-of-16 game.
Tousart, who was sold to German side Hertha Berlin last month but loaned back for the rest of the season, scored in the 31st minute with a neat volley from a cross by midfielder Houssem Aouar.
The return leg is scheduled for March 17.
FIGURE SKATING
RETIREMENT: Chris Knierim, one half of the husband-and-wife duo that helped the U.S. win a team bronze medal at the PyeongChang Olympics, announced his retirement while Alexa Knierim said she will continue skating with a new partner.
TENNIS
QATAR OPEN: Former No. 1 Garbine Muguruza beat Ukrainian teenager Dayana Yastremska 6-2, 6-4 to reach the quarterfinals.
Muguruza, the former French Open and Wimbledon champion who lost in this year’s Australian Open final, has reached the quarterfinals of all five tournaments she has played in 2020. She will next face current No. 1 Ash Barty, who advanced when Elena Rybakina had to withdraw from the tournament with an injury after her second-round win on Tuesday.
Third-seeded Karolina Pliskova lost 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 to Ons Jabeur, a rising talent who reached the Australian Open quarterfinals.
Jabeur will next face Petra Kvitova, who defeated Jelena Ostapenko 6-2, 4-6, 6-1.
Fourth-seeded Belinda Bencic also advanced by beating Yulia Putintseva 6-4, 6-3.
DUBAI CHAMPIONSHIPS: Top-ranked Novak Djokovic beat German veteran Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3, 6-1 to reach the quarterfinals and remain unbeaten in 2020.
Djokovic broke for a 4-2 lead in the first set and went 4-0 up in the second before wrapping up the win in 59 minutes. He is 15-0 this year, including six wins at the ATP Cup and his run to the Australian Open title.
Djokovic will next face seventh-seeded Karen Khachanov of Russia, who beat Austrian qualifier Dennis Novak 6-3, 6-4.
Second-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas defeated Alexander Bublik 7-6 (1), 6-4 to set up a meeting with Jan-Lennard Struff, who needed just 39 minutes to ease past Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-1, 6-0.
Third-seeded Gael Monfils of France took his winning streak to 11 matches by ousting qualifier Yasutaka Uchiyama 6-1, 6-2. Monfils is coming off victories at Rotterdam and Montpellier.
He will face fellow Frenchman Richard Gasquet, who ousted No. 8 Benoit Paire 6-4, 6-4.
HORSE RACING
OBIT: Ray York, who won the 1954 Kentucky Derby aboard Determine at age 20 and rode in a record seven consecutive decades, has died. He was 86.
Michael McKay, his longtime girlfriend, said he died Sunday after a year-long struggle with pneumonia at an extended care facility near Bakersfield, California.
GOLF
EUROPEAN TOUR: Italian golfers Lorenzo Gagli and Edoardo Molinari have withdrawn from the Oman Open amid reports they are being isolated to determine if they have the virus spreading in Europe.
Gagli told Italian newspaper La Nazione that a European Tour doctor told him at breakfast to return to his room. Molinari, his roommate for the week in Oman, was moved to another room.
Gagli said he was given a test and told the result would be available in two days, but that he would have to remain in the room until next Wednesday, meaning he also would have to withdraw from the Qatar Masters the following week.
BASEBALL
MINORS: The Worcester City Council approved a revised financing plan to address about $30 million in increased costs for a new baseball stadium being built in the city for the Boston Red Sox Triple-A affiliate.
The plan addresses an additional $9.4 million in construction costs and about $20 in increased costs associated with the redevelopment of the neighborhood where the park will be located.
The team, currently based in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and known as the Pawtucket Red Sox, will play one more season in Rhode Island before relocating to Worcester in 2021.
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