Sports News
September 25, 2008Here are the sports results from Wednesday:
SINGAPORE - Formula One leader Lewis Hamilton believes qualification will hold the key for Sunday's first ever night race at the Singapore Grand Prix due to a lack of overtaking opportunities.
The McLaren driver's first impression of the street circuit is that passing will be at a premium, meaning much will hinge on Saturday night's qualifying, due to begin at 10 p.m. local time.
PARIS - Lance Armstrong can try for an eighth Tour de France title - if his team is clean in the run-up to cycling's premier race.
A day after Armstrong confirmed his comeback with the Astana squad, Tour director Christian Prudhomme cleared up any doubts over whether the team would be allowed to race next year. Astana was barred from the 2008 Tour because of past doping violations.
BALTIMORE - Returning to the Baltimore pool where he honed his swimming skills, Michael Phelps accepted a US$250,000 donation Thursday from Kellogg's for his charitable foundation.
Phelps was home after a whirlwind journey that began with his record-setting performance winning eight gold medals in the Beijing Olympics.
DETROIT - The Montreal Canadiens left Detroit with a win and a scare.
Andrei Markov scored the only goal of the shootout to lift the Canadiens to a 3-2 exhibition win over the Red Wings on Wednesday night, a game marred by a frightening collision that left defenceman Mathieu Carle briefly unconscious on the ice. Carle was carried off the ice on a stretcher 5:25 into the game after a hit by Detroit forward Tomas Kopecky at the Red Wings' blue-line.
WINNIPEG - Head coach Mike Keenan saw some encouraging signs from his Flames in Calgary's 3-2 pre-season win over the Phoenix Coyotes on Wednesday night.
It wasn't the win that Keenan was impressed by, it was his team's ability to recover from their mistakes. Coyotes winger Enver Lisin scored his first of two goals against Flames goalie Matt Keetley 41 seconds into the first after Calgary defenceman Dion Phaneuf turned the puck over in his own end.
OTTAWA - Chris Neil was often singled out during the Ottawa Senators' disappointing season a year ago for spending too much time in the penalty box and too little contributing on the ice.
If Wednesday night is any indication, Neil won't be making the same mistake this year under new coach Craig Hartsburg. The Senators' tough guy scored a pair of goals and Ottawa went on to beat the Philadelphia Flyers 3-1 in NHL exhibition play.
EDMONTON - The muddled goaltending picture hasn't become any clearer for the Edmonton Oilers.
Rookie Oilers goalie Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers made a positive impression despite losing 3-2 in shootout to the Florida Panthers on Bryan McCabe's goal in pre-season play on Wednesday night. Drouin-Deslauriers was named first star of the contest with a 27-save performance, including lifting his team during a dreadful first-period stint where Edmonton was outshot 16-1.
PITTSBURGH - Evgeni Malkin had a goal and an assist and the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 in a pre-season game Wednesday night.
The Penguins, playing without star centre Sidney Crosby, got two power-play goals and a short-handed marker. Crosby sat out with a sore groin that isn't considered serious. Most of the other Penguins regulars did play, with the exception of top defencemen Sergei Gonchar and Ryan Whitney, who are out with injuries. Starting goalie Marc-Andre Fleury also was given the night off as Dany Sabourin played.
TORONTO - A.J. Burnett's 11-strikeout performance will likely do nothing but fan the flames in terms of speculation about his future. As for Toronto Blue Jays fans, they left no doubt as to how they want things to unfold.
Gunning for his 19th win of the season, Burnett got a no-decision in a 6-2 extra-innings win by the New York Yankees over his Jays (83-75) on Wednesday night.
The clubhouse was quiet, eerily like last year. The New York Mets kept trying to comprehend another brutal loss, one that left them tumbling toward another September collapse.
"When tomorrow comes, hopefully the sun comes up," manager Jerry Manuel said. "It might not." In the type of game that could mean lights out for the season, the score alone didn't detail the agony of the Mets' 9-6 loss to the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday night.
TORONTO - Montreal Alouettes quarterback Anthony Calvillo was named CFL offensive player of the week Wednesday after leading to his team to a 40-4 rout of the Edmonton Eskimos.
Calvillo completed 31-of-38 passes for a CFL-high 414 yards and two touchdowns in last week's victory. Calvillo, a unanimous choice for the honour, leads the league in several passing categories.
David Heath and Aron (The Poster Boy) Lofton both headed north of the border with mayhem on their mind. Scheduled on the same flight, they nevertheless travelled different routes to Edmonton for MFC 18: Famous.
The Tulsa light-heavyweights shared a 7 a.m. flight Wednesday for separate fights on Friday night's mixed martial arts card at the River Cree Resort and Casino in Enoch, Alta.
ATLANTA - Chad Campbell tipped over a small bucket of balls Wednesday and hit five-irons across the pond on the practice green at East Lake, none quite as true as the one he struck five days ago at Valhalla that earned a crucial point in the Ryder Cup.
Campbell, the last player to qualify for the 30-man field at the Tour Championship, will be the first to tee off Thursday. He'll understand if his game doesn't arrive until sometime later in the week.
MONTREAL - They had settle for a 0-0 draw with Atlante, the top team in their group in the CONCACAF Champions League, but the Montreal Impact feel they could have had more.
The Impact defence was airtight and their attack wasted the best chances of the night as they played the 2007 Mexican league champions to an entertaining draw Wednesday before 12,187 fans, including a knot of flag-waving Atlante supporters.
BANGKOK, Thailand - Forget their inexperience with night racing and the strong possibility of rain. The main concern for Formula One drivers ahead of Sunday's Singapore Grand Prix is how they'll sleep.
As the F1 show rolls into its newest town this week with McLaren's Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari's Felipe Massa staging a late-season fight for the championship, drivers on the circuit are also preparing for its first-ever night race.
VARESE, Italy - Amber Neben of the United States was the surprise winner of the women's time trial world championship on Wednesday, as Olympic champion Kristin Armstrong only managed a disappointing fifth.
Neben was not even picked to race the time trial at the Beijing Games and put the effort of a whole season into the 21.5-kilometre ride through the sun-dappled hills surrounding the lakeside resort of Varese, finishing in 33 minutes 51.35 seconds.
BEIJING - Jelena Jankovic and Zheng Jie are adding a bit of tension to the China Open.
The top-seeded Jankovic beat Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak 6-3, 7-5 in the second round Wednesday, leaving her on course to threaten Serena Williams' hold on the top spot in women's tennis.
