Boston’s Joona Koppanen, 45, and Tyler Lewington, 55, try to block New York’s Greg McKegg in the first period Tuesday night at New York. Corey Sipkin/Associated Press
HOCKEY
The New York Rangers scored three goals in the second period, the last the go-ahead goal by Artemi Panarin, as they beat the Boston Bruins 3-2 Tuesday night in an NHL exhibition game at New York.
The Rangers took a two-goal lead on goals by Anthony Bitetto and Kaapo Kakko. Boston tied the game later in the period on goals by Jack Studnicka and Urho Vaakanainen.
Linus Ullmark started in goal for Boston, stopping 11 of 13 shots. Kyle Keyser played the second half of the game and stopped 6 of 7 shots.
The Bruins, who won their exhibition opener Sunday night in a shootout against the Washington Capitals, play at home on Thursday night against the Philadelphia Flyers.
BASKETBALL
Three-time All-Star guard Ben Simmons was absent Tuesday from training camp as expected as he tries to persuade the Philadelphia 76ers to trade him, even with $147 million and four years left on his contract.
The only trace of the former franchise guard was an oversized framed photo of Simmons on the cover of “Slam” magazine with the headline “Kingdom Come.”
Coach Doc Rivers clings to the belief, however improbable, that Simmons may show up at training camp at some point this season to try to lead the Sixers back to the top of the Eastern Conference.
“I do believe at some point he will be,” Rivers said Tuesday. “Right now, I’m going to focus on the guys that are on the floor. I think that’s more important.”
• While about 10% of NBA players have not been vaccinated, including outspoken stars such as Kyrie Irving and Andrew Wiggins, the Los Angeles Lakers are expected to be 100% vaccinated, Anthony Davis affirmed as the first player to speak at media day.
LeBron James, who was next, said he was skeptical of the COVID-19 vaccination but did research and decided it was the right choice “not only for my family and for my friends, that’s why I decided to do it.”
Davis, who has family members who work in the healthcare industry, said of getting vaccinated, “I personally did it for my family. I think everybody on this team is vaccinated, if I’m not mistaken.”
WNBA: Jonquel Jones led a sweep of three major WNBA awards for Connecticut, earning MVP honors hours before the Sun opened their best-of-five playoff series against Chicago on Tuesday.
She averaged 19.4 points, 11.2 rebounds and 1.3 blocked shots to earn her first MVP award. Jones received all but one of the 49 first-place votes from a national media panel. Phoenix center Brittney Griner garnered the other first-place ballot and finished a distant second. Breanna Stewart of Seattle was third, followed by Minnesota’s Sylvia Fowles and Washington’s Tina Charles.
Connecticut’s Curt Miller was chosen as the league’s coach of the year. It’s the second time he’s won the award, also receiving it in 2017. Miller, who became the sixth coach to win the award at least twice, had 41 of the 49 votes, with Minnesota’s Cheryl Reeve second with six votes. Bill Laimbeer of Las Vegas and Noelle Quinn of Seattle each received one vote to finish in a tie for third.
Miller is in his sixth season with Connecticut and guided the team to the best record in the league (26-6) and the top seed in the playoffs. Connecticut won its final 14 games of the regular season – the fourth-longest streak in league history.
A big part of the Sun’s success was due to the league’s Most Improved Player – Brionna Jones. She received 38 of the the 49 votes. She averaged career highs of 14.7 points, 7.3 rebounds and 1.8 assists for the Sun this season.
Las Vegas Aces’ guard Kelsey Plum finished second with eight votes. Dallas guard Marina Mabrey was third with last season’s winner Betnijah Laney also garnering a vote.
• Courtney Vandersloot had the second triple-double in WNBA playoff history with 12 points, a league playoff-record 18 assists and 10 rebounds to help the Chicago Sky beat the host Connecticut Sun 101-95 in two overtimes in the opener of their best-of-five semifinal series.
With the game tied at 93, Candace Parker scored on a layup off a neat pass from Vandersloot for her record-breaking assist. Vandersloot, who broke Sue Bird’s mark of 16 set last postseason, then threw a beautiful pass to Stefanie Dolson to give the Sky a four-point lead with 1:29 left.
Connecticut couldn’t recover, scoring only its second basket of the second OT on Brionna Jones’ jumper with 13.7 seconds left that made it 98-95. Vandersloot got her 10th rebound with 7.9 seconds left. Sheryl Swoopes had the only other triple-double in WNBA playoff history, which she did in 2005.
Game 2 is Thursday in Connecticut before the series shifts to Chicago for potentially the next two games.
SOCCER
OBIT: Roger Hunt, a striker in the only England team to win the World Cup and Liverpool’s all-time record league scorer, has died. He was 83.
Liverpool, where Hunt spent most of his playing career, said he died on Monday after a long illness.
Hunt’s three goals at the 1966 World Cup helped England to advance from the group stage. He went on to feature in all six games at the tournament, culminating in the 4-2 victory over West Germany in the final at Wembley Stadium when he partnered hat-trick scorer Geoff Hurst up front. It remains England’s only major football title.
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: Manchester United captain Harry Maguire could be sidelined for “a few weeks” with a calf injury, Manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said.
The center back was injured in a 1-0 loss to Aston Villa on Saturday and will miss United’s match against Spanish team Villarreal in the Champions League group stage on Wednesday.
United hosts Everton in a Premier League game on Saturday before the international break.
TENNIS
ASTANA OPEN: Yulia Putintseva and Kristina Mladenovic were among the winners in the first-round matches on a day of few surprises at Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.
Top-seeded Putintseva started her bid to win the WTA’s only event in her home nation with little fuss as she beat Ekaterine Gorgodze 6-1, 6-2. She will meet Vera Lapko in the second round.
Seeded third, French player Mladenovic had a tougher time as she needed nearly three hours to defeat local wild card Anna Danilina 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-4. She’s up against Anastasia Potapova in the second round.
The only one of the six seeded players in action to lose was fourth-seeded Greet Minnen, beaten 2-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4 by Kaja Juvan.
Ana Konjuh beat Urszula Radwanska 7-6 (6), 6-1, Rebecca Peterson won 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 against Stefanie Voegele and Clara Burel was leading 5-2 in the first set when her opponent Mandy Minella retired.
OLYMPICS
TOKYO: Toshiro Muto, the chief executive officer of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee, said he was not ready to say if the cost of the Games would go higher than the official budget figure of $15.4 billion.
The Olympics ended on Aug. 8, followed by the closing of the Paralympics just over three weeks ago.
Muto said it would likely be early next year before the official cost of the Games is published. He said preliminary figures might be made available in December.
Organizers hoped for income of $800 million from ticket sales. This was lost entirely when spectators were barred from the Olympics and Paralympics because of the pandemic.
Any shortfall from ticket sales or elsewhere is likely to be made up by Japanese government entities.
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