April 7, 2025 4:48 am
Wayne Gretzky’s NHL goal-scoring record is no longer considered unbreakable — because Alex Ovechkin just broke it. Ovechkin scored his 895th goal for the Washington Capitals on Sunday in a game against the New York Islanders. That gives the 39-year-old Russian winger one more goal than Gretzky scored before retiring in 1999. There are other marks in various sports that are thought to be unsurpassable. That includes Cy Young’s 511 pitching wins and the 762 home runs Barry Bonds hit in Major League Baseball, Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game in the NBA, and American swimmer Michael Phelps’ 23 Olympic gold medals.
April 7, 2025 4:55 am
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — UConn is back on top of women’s basketball, winning its 12th national championship by routing defending champion South Carolina 82-59 behind Azzi Fudd’s 24 points. Sarah Strong added 24 points and 15 rebounds while Paige Bueckers had 17 points in her final game at UConn. She capped her stellar career with the Huskies’ first championship since 2016, ending a nine-year title drought for the team. That was longest for coach Geno Auriemma and his Huskies since the team won its first championship in 1995. Dawn Staley’s South Carolina team was trying for a third title in four years and fourth overall
April 6, 2025 5:52 am
DALLAS (AP) — Sidney Crosby had three goals and an assist, and the Pittsburgh Penguins rallied to beat the Dallas Stars 5-3. Bryan Rust and Blake Lizotte also scored to help the Penguins get their second win in three games. Tristan Jarry stopped 21 shots. Evgenii Dadonov scored three goals for his second hat trick, and Casey DeSmith finished with 35 saves as Dallas snapped a seven-game win streak and 10-game point streak (8-0-2).
April 6, 2025 5:55 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Trent Grisham homered twice, including a three-run shot to fuel a six-run fifth-inning rally, and the New York Yankees beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 10-4. Grisham went deep against Bailey Falter (0-1) leading off the third, then did it again in the fifth on a towering fly ball that just scraped over the left-field fence as the Yankees won their third straight. Paul Goldschmidt had three hits for New York, which has a record 25 home runs through eight games. Aaron Judge had a single in his 1,001st career game.
April 6, 2025 6:03 am
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Houston’s suffocating defense wiped away a 14-point deficit over the final eight minutes and erased Cooper Flagg and Duke’s title hopes Saturday in a 70-67 stunner over the Blue Devils at the Final Four. Duke made a grand total of one field goal over the last 10:30 of this game. The second-to-last attempt was a step-back jumper in the lane by Flagg that J’Wan Roberts disrupted. The last was a desperation heave by Tyrese Proctor that caught nothing at the buzzer. The Cougars, who have never won a title, not even in the days of Phi Slama Jama, will play Florida on Monday night for the championship.
April 5, 2025 4:49 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Aaron Judge marked his 1,000th game by hitting his sixth homer of the season and the New York Yankees beat Pittsburgh 9-4 in the Pirates’ home opener. Judge’s shot to the seats in right-center in the seventh off Tim Mayza — who surrendered Judge’s 61st home run during Judge’s record-breaking 2022 season — boosted his career total to 321, the most by a player through his first 1,000 games. Those 321 homers also matched the number hit by Babe Ruth during his first 1,000 games with the Yankees. Judge has 17 RBIs in seven games.
April 5, 2025 4:53 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) — The baseball season is a week old. Some fans in Pittsburgh, however, have already seen enough. A plane carrying a banner urging Pirates owner Bob Nutting to sell the team flew over PNC Park ahead of Pittsburgh’s home opener against the New York Yankees. The banner also included a link to a website urging fans to find ways to protest Nutting’s stewardship. The Pirates have not reached the postseason in a decade. Nutting says he understands and appreciates the fans’ frustrations and that his focus is on helping the team finding a way to win.
April 4, 2025 4:27 am
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Robert Thomas scored a power-play goal in overtime and the St. Louis Blues tied a franchise record with their 11th consecutive win, 5-4 over the Pittsburgh Penguins. Jake Neighbours scored twice and Pavel Buchnevich and Jordan Kyrou also scored for the Blues. Joel Hofer made 24 saves as St. Louis set a franchise record with its 10th straight home win. Bryan Rust, Rickard Rakell and Rutger McGroarty each had a goal and an assist and Connor Dewar also scored for the Penguins. Tristan Jarry made 14 saves as Pittsburgh lost its fourth straight road contest.
April 4, 2025 4:31 am
KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa. (AP) — Torpedo bats drew attention over the weekend when the New York Yankees hit a team-record nine homers in one game. Using a strikingly different model in which wood is moved lower down the barrel after the label and shapes the end a little like a bowling pin, the bat has become baseball’s latest fad. All-Star and even amateur hardball players all want to take their swings with the bat. The torpedo bat took the league by storm in only 24 hours, and days later, the calls and orders, and test drives — from big leaguers to rec leaguers — are humming inside Victus Sports. The company is the official bat of MLB and has seen sales and interest spike in the bat.
April 4, 2025 4:33 am
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — JuJu Watkins, the sensational sophomore who led Southern California to its best season in nearly 40 years, is The Associated Press women’s college basketball Player of the Year. Watkins, whose Trojans won the Big Ten regular-season title for their first conference crown in 31 years, received 29 votes and Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo got the other two. Watkins is the first USC player to win the award and just the fourth to do it as a sophomore, joining Oklahoma’s Courtney Paris and UConn stars Maya Moore and Breanna Stewart.
