HOCKEY
Peter Abbandonato completed a hat trick with 47 seconds remaining in overtime, and the Trois-Rivières Lions earned an 8-7 win Friday night against the Maine Mariners at Cross Insurance Arena despite a five-goal game by Maine’s Lewis Zerter-Gossage.
Zerter-Gossage finished one goal shy of the ECHL single-game record. He scored four in a row after Maine fell behind 6-3 early in the second period, getting three goals in a span of 3:30 to tie the game before the midway point of the second period. His fifth goal put the Mariners ahead 4:02 into the third, but Olivier Archambault tied it again with 27 seconds remaining in regulation.
Justin Brazeau and Pascal Laberge each finished with a goal and four assists for the Mariners. Zerter-Gossage assisted on Laberge’s goal.
SOCCER
WORLD CUP QUALIFYING: Christian Pulisic scored on a glancing header with his first touch of the game in the 74th minute, Weston McKennie added a goal in the 85th and the United States beat Mexico 2-0 in Cincinnati.
Still regaining fitness after spraining his left ankle on Sept. 8 at Honduras, the 23-year-old Pulisic entered in place of Brenden Aaronson in the 69th minute and lifted the U.S. into first place as the 14-game final round of qualifying reached the halfway point.
Yunus Musah, an 18-year-old emerging as a key American midfielder, passed to 21-year-old Tim Weah on the right flank. Weah, the son of Liberia president and former FIFA Player of the Year George Weah, sent in a cross for Pulisic, who got in front of Johan Vásquez and headed the ball past goalkeeper David Ochoa for his 17th international goal.
• Harry Kane completed a hat trick with a right-footed scissor kick and England all but secured a place at next year’s World Cup with a 5-0 win in London against Albania.
England needs only a draw in the final qualifier Monday at San Marino – the world’s lowest-ranked team.
• Jorginho’s failure to convert a 90th-minute penalty against Switzerland delayed Italy’s qualification bid as the teams played to a 1-1 draw in Rome that kept Italy atop Group C entering the final round of qualifiers – but only on goal difference.
Italy and Switzerland each have 15 points, but Italy leads 11-9 on goal difference. Italy plays at Northern Ireland on Monday, while Switzerland hosts Bulgaria.
• Scotland advanced to the European playoffs by winning 2-0 at Moldova to clinch second place in Group F behind Denmark.
SOUTH AMERICA: Argentina closed in on a World Cup spot with a 1-0 win at Uruguay, despite the absence of Lionel Messi for most of the match as he recovers from a left knee injury.
SPAIN: Veteran full back Dani Alves is returning to Barcelona at age 38, the Spanish club said.
Playing as an attack-minded right back, Alves formed part of Barcelona’s greatest era from 2008 to 2016. The Brazilian helped the team win 23 titles, including three Champions League trophies and six Spanish League titles.
GOLF
PGA: Martin Trainer holed a pair of long birdie putts and three short ones in a bogey-free round for a 5-under 65 and a one-shot lead over Kevin Tway in the weather-delayed Houston Open.
The second round will be completed Saturday morning as the tournament tries to catch up from a long weather delay at the start of the tournament. Jason Kokrak was two shots behind Trainer, at 8 under overall, with seven holes remaining in his second round.
CHAMPIONS TOUR: Kirk Triplett shot a 7-under 64 to move into the lead and Jim Furyk remained in contention for the season title with a 67 in the second round of the Charles Schwab Cup Championship in Phoenix.
Playing in the final group with Phil Mickelson, Triplett finished with seven birdies and no bogeys. He was at 13 under, two ahead of Steven Alker, who shot a 65.
Furyk is tied with Mickelson at 10 under after reeling off six birdies. Mickelson finished off a 67 with a two-putt birdie on the par-5 18th hole.
LPGA: Lexi Thompson birdied four of her last five holes for a 6-under 64 to share the lead with Jennifer Kupcho going into the weekend of the Pelican Women’s Championship in Belleair, Florida.
Thompson and Kupcho were each at 11 under, one stroke ahead of Leona Maguire (68) and Wei-Ling Hsu (64).
EUROPEAN TOUR: Antoine Rozner took a one-stroke lead after two rounds of his title defense at the Dubai Championship in the United Arab Emirates, rolling in a right-to-left birdie putt from eight feet at No. 18 to shoot 8-under 64.
Holing a sixth birdie in his final eight holes allowed the French golfer to break away from a three-way tie for the lead with Francesco Laporta (64) and first-round leader JB Hansen (67).
TENNIS
STOCKHOLM OPEN: Tommy Paul reached his first ATP Tour final by outlasting fellow American Francis Tiafoe, 5-7, 7-6 (5), 6-4.
To claim his first title, Paul will have to get past defending champion Denis Shapovalov, who won an all-Canadian semifinal against Felix Auger-Aliassime, 6-4, 7-5.
UPPER AUSTRIA LADIES LINZ: Alison Riske of the U.S. rallied to beat Jaqueline Cristian of Romania 2-6, 6-2, 7-5 in the final, earning her third career WTA title.
It was the 73rd-ranked Riske’s first tournament win since recovering from foot injuries last year that kept her out of competition for nine months.
WTA FINALS: Anett Kontaveit stretched her winning streak to 12 matches by beating Karolina Pliskova 6-4, 6-0 to secure a spot in the semifinals at Guadalajara, Mexico.
AUTO RACING
FORMULA ONE: Lewis Hamilton beat rival Max Verstappen in qualifying to take pole position for Saturday’s sprint race ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix in Sao Paulo, although an engine change means the British driver is facing a five-place grid penalty on Sunday.
Hamilton was more than 0.4 seconds ahead of his Red Bull rival in Friday’s qualifying at Interlagos, having also set the fastest time in the morning’s practice session. That means he’ll start first in the sprint race on Saturday, which will determine the starting grid for Sunday’s Grand Prix.
However, the decision by Mercedes to change the engine of his car means the British driver will not start higher than sixth in Sunday’s race, even if he wins the sprint.
SPEEDSKATING
WORLD CUP: Erin Jackson became the first Black American woman to win a World Cup speedskating race, winning the 500 meters at the season opener in Poland with a time of 37.613 seconds.
Jackson’s previous best World Cup finish was ninth.
OLYMPICS
2012 GAMES: American high jumper Erik Kynard will finally get a gold medal from the 2012 London Olympics after the International Olympic Committee approved reallocating some results from those games because of doping cases.
Kynard placed second in London behind Ivan Ukhov, who was proven years later to have taken part in the Russian state-backed steroid doping program.
The IOC executive board signed off on reallocating the medals and final results for five events from the London Olympics, including men’s and women’s high jump.
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