WJPA Sports

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Charlie Coyle scored the deciding goal in the shootout and the Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3 on Saturday night. Kirill Marchenko, Danton Heinen and Zach Aston-Reese scored for the Blue Jackets. Zach Werenski continued his four-game point streak with an assist. Elvis Merzlikins made 29 saves for the Blue Jackets. Sidney Crosby had a goal and an assist for the Penguins. He recorded his 511th multipoint game, tying Gordie Howe for fifth place in NHL history. Connor Clifton and Rickard Rakell also scored for the Penguins, and Arturs Silovs stopped 22 shots.

SEATTLE (AP) — Rashid Shaheed returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown, Kenneth Walker III rushed for three scores and the Seattle Seahawks advanced to the NFC championship game with a dominant 41-6 victory over the San Francisco 49ers. Sam Darnold threw a touchdown pass and got his first career playoff win in his first season with the Seahawks, who will host either Chicago or the Los Angeles Rams next Sunday with a trip to the Super Bowl at stake. The Seahawks led 7-0 13 seconds into the game thanks to Shaheed, who fielded the opening kick and took it 95 yards to the end zone.

DENVER (AP) — The Denver Broncos wrangled their biggest win in a decade from Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills but suffered an enormous loss in the process. About an hour after second-year quarterback Bo Nix led the Broncos to a 33-30 win on Wil Lutz’s 23-yard field goal in overtime, Denver coach Sean Payton returned to the postgame lectern to deliver the stunning news. He said Nix broke his right ankle a few plays before Lutz’s kick sent the top-seeded Broncos to the AFC championship game against either New England or Houston. Nix will have season-ending surgery Tuesday in Birmingham, Alabama.

NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Giants have hired John Harbaugh as coach. Harbaugh joins the Giants 11 days after he was fired by the Baltimore Ravens. He is a Super Bowl champion who guided Baltimore to the playoffs in 12 of his 18 seasons there. He and the Ravens won it all a year after the Giants’ most recent championship in the 2011 season. Harbaugh is now tasked with turning around a beleaguered franchise that has just two playoff appearances over the past decade. He gives New York a proven winner after seven coaches since Tom Coughlin failed to get past the divisional round.