HOCKEY

ECHL: The Maine Mariners scored three goals in less than three minutes in the second period, erasing a two-goal deficit on the way to a 4-2 ECHL win over the Worcester Railers on Thursday at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts.

After a scoreless first period, Worcester took a 2-0 lead on power-play goals by Nolan Vesey and Anthony Repaci before Maine stormed back with goals from Austin Albrecht, Tyler Hinam and Reid Stefanson for a 3-2 lead that carried into intermission.

Tim Doherty added an insurance goal with 4:32 left in the third.

Maine goalie Michael DiPietro made 33 saves.

WOMEN’S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: Alex Carpenter scored twice and the United States beat Japan 7-1 to open group play in Brampton, Ontario.

Aerin Frankel made 12 saves for the Americans, who face Finland on Friday.

TENNIS

WTA: Top-seeded Jessica Pegula and past champion Madison Keys easily won second-round matches at the Charleston Open in South Carolina on Wednesday.

Pegula, ranked third in the world, needed less than 65 minutes to beat Anna Blinkova of Russia, 6-2, 6-0, in the season’s opening clay-court tournament.

Keys, the 2019 champion defeated countrywoman Hailey Baptiste 6-1, 6-2 in a match that lasted only 69 minutes.

SOCCER

ENGLAND: Marcus Rashford continued his prolific post-World Cup scoring spree for Manchester United to get the team back on course for Champions League qualification.

The England forward’s 28th-minute goal secured a 1-0 win over Brentford in pouring rain at Old Trafford as United moved back into the Premier League’s top four.

United is tied on points with third-place Newcastle, which was helped by some woeful defending by relegation-threatened West Ham in a 5-1 thrashing at London Stadium.

SPAIN: With another hat trick by Karim Benzema, Real Madrid overturned Barcelona’s advantage in the Copa del Rey semifinals with a resounding 4-0 win in Barcelona to reach the final for the first time in nearly a decade.

Vinícius Júnior also scored as Madrid advanced 4-1 on aggregate after having lost the first leg 1-0 at home. Benzema also had a hat trick in Madrid’s 6-0 rout of Valladolid in the Spanish league on Sunday.

Madrid will face Osasuna in the May 6 final in Seville.

GERMANY: Defending champion Leipzig knocked Borussia Dortmund out of the German Cup with a 2-0 win in their quarterfinal.

Leipzig joined Freiburg, Eintracht Frankfurt and Stuttgart in the semifinals, thanks to a first-half strike from Timo Werner and injury-time goal on a counterattack from Willi Orbán. Leipzig defeated Freiburg in last year’s final for its first major trophy.

SWIMMING

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: No Russian or Belarusian athletes are expected to compete at this year’s swimming world championships in Japan because the sport’s governing body isn’t expected to rule on their eligibility until it’s too late for them to enter.

World Aquatics said it will create a task force to look at how Russia and Belarus could return to swimming, diving and water polo as neutral athletes. The update is expected in July, the same month of the world championships in Fukuoka.

Swimming is one of the three biggest sports on the Olympic program. Track and field has already excluded Russia and Belarus from its world championships in August in Budapest, Hungary. The gymnastics world championships are scheduled for October in Antwerp, Belgium, with a decision on Russian and Belarusian participation still undecided.

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