Ducks Take 8th Straight Home Win Against Canucks

Injured shin and all, Vonn fastest in training run

(NEWSER) - Seth Wescott pulled a huge comeback this afternoon in snowboardcross, overtaking Canadian Mike Robertson to score the second US gold medal of the Vancouver Olympics and defend the title he won In 2006. The 33-year-old Maine native had been injured and racing poorly, but turned it on down the stretch at Cypress Mountain. In other Olympics news: More»

(NEWSER) - Pittsburgh celebrated its Stanley Cup-winning Penguins today with a parade that may have drawn upward of 350,000, the Post-Gazette reports. Revelers began arriving at the parade route in center-city at 4:30am, and by 10:15 there were already 185,000 happy fans. At a downtown Starbucks with lines out the door, an employee said they had run out of pastries: “That usually doesn’t happen.” More»

Alex Ovechkin faces Sidney Crosby in 'nail-biting playoff'... but no one's watching

(NEWSER) - The Capitals-Penguins playoff series, with its two budding superstars, is what the beleaguered NHL has been waiting for, writes Reed Albergotti in the Wall Street Journal. In contrast to the disciplined play of Sidney "Wayne Gretzky" Crosby, Russian phenom Alex Ovechkin is both a firebrand and a goofball. But the matchup, which is only being shown on the Versus cable network, may slip by relatively unseen. More»

Unretired hockey star makes solid start to comeback at 43

(NEWSER) - Four-time Stanley Cup winner Claude Lemieux took to the ice for the San Jose Sharks yesterday after nearly 6 years in retirement, and Mark Purdy of the Mercury News is cautiously optimistic. The 43-year-old, who's been a pro for longer than several of his new teammates have been alive, "was solid. That's one of the finest compliments you can pay a professional athlete," Purdy writes. More»

(AP) - Turns out the NHL has a bigger bite than Ottawa's Jarkko Ruutu. The league suspended Ruutu two games without pay for biting the gloved hand of Buffalo's Andrew Peters in a game Tuesday. "It's weird to even think that that goes on in hockey," said Peters, known more for his fists than his skill. "Even in my role, I would never think of doing something like that." More»