HOCKEY
Mathieu Roy broke a tie with 1:45 remaining and Brian Bowen completed a hat trick with an empty-net goal as the Norfolk Admirals earned a 6-4 win Friday night against the Maine Mariners in an ECHL game at Cross Insurance Arena.
The Mariners trailed 3-1 entering the third but tied the game at 4-4 on goals by Reid Stefanson, Tyler Hinam and Grant Gabriele. Gabriele’s goal was on a power play with 2:41 left.
Fedor Gordeev also scored for Maine, which had a three-game winning streak snapped.
NHL: The Philadelphia Flyers fired General Manager Chuck Fletcher and promoted franchise great Danny Briere to the interim job, the latest front-office shakeup for an organization that has not won a Stanley Cup since 1975.
Fletcher, who was also president of hockey operations, was fired a week after he failed to make any major moves at the trade deadline.
The Flyers, who had just one playoff berth during Fletcher’s 4 1/2 years on the job, are 24-30-11 under first-year coach John Tortorella and well out of the playoff race.
Briere, who helped the Flyers to their last Stanley Cup Final appearance in 2010 when they lost to the Chicago Blackhawks, is considered a rising star in the organization’s front office and was promoted last year from his player development role to special assistant to the GM. He previously was president of the Maine Mariners.
BASKETBALL
NBA: Dallas Mavericks star Kyrie Irving did not practice with the team Friday for personal reasons, Coach Jason Kidd said after the workout.
“Excused absence,” Kidd said, “so hopefully he’ll be able to join us in Memphis.”
The Mavericks have ruled out Luka Doncic for Saturday’s game at Memphis because of a left thigh strain that has bothered him for more than a week and forced him to leave Wednesday’s loss to the Pelicans late in the third quarter.
Kidd classified Doncic as “day-to-day” to return after he underwent an MRI on Thursday that came back clean.
SOCCER
FRANCE: Neymar underwent season-ending surgery on his damaged right ankle on Friday, Paris Saint-Germain said.
The 31-year-old Brazilian forward is expected to be sidelined for up to four months.
Neymar was injured on Feb. 19 in a 4-3 win over Lille. He also injured his right ankle in Brazil’s opening match at the World Cup in Qatar but was able to return later in the tournament.
FENCING
RUSSIA BAN LIFTED: The International Fencing Federation has voted to allow athletes from Russia and its ally Belarus to resume competing in international events after an exclusion lasting more than a year, four national federations said.
The decision appears to allow Russians and Belarusians to compete for qualifying spots for next year’s Paris Olympics.
It puts Ukrainian athletes in the position of either competing against Russians – likely including members of the Russian military – or boycotting key events entirely.
The FIE has not published the decision on its website following a federation congress held on Friday, and it did not immediately respond to a request for comment. However, four national federations issued statements that Russia and Belarus would be allowed to return after they were suspended because of the invasion of Ukraine.
British Fencing said Russian and Belarusian fencers would be cleared to return from mid-April and they would compete as neutral athletes without national symbols. That is in line with efforts from the International Olympic Committee to create a pathway for them to return to competition.
Almost all Olympic sports have excluded Russian and Belarusian athletes and teams since shortly after the invasion, when the IOC recommended exclusion on safety grounds. The IOC now argues that to keep that exclusion in place would amount to discrimination based on citizenship.
Ukraine’s governing body said it was “deeply shocked” at the decision and would hold talks on how to respond. Ukrainian sports leaders have previously threatened to boycott next year’s Olympics in Paris if Russians and Belarusians are allowed to compete.
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