Associated Press
PITTSBURGH ó Thomas Vanek’s go-ahead goal, his NHL-best 20th of the season, completed a rally from two goals down and gave the Buffalo Sabres a 4-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday night.
Derek Roy, Ales Kotalik and Daniel Paille also scored for the Sabres, who have won two in a row after snapping out of a stretch of losing eight of 10.
Ruslan Fedotenko had two goals and Evgeni Malkin two assists for Pittsburgh, which has lost consecutive games for the first time since Oct. 28-30.
Panthers 4, Senators 3, OT
OTTAWA ó Stephen Weiss scored with 9.1 seconds left in overtime to help Florida improve to 5-1-2 in its last eight games.
Panthers goalie Craig Anderson slid across to his right to deny Mike Fisher with a sensational save moments earlier. Anderson finished with 34 saves.
Jay Bouwmeester drew Florida even for the third straight time with a power-play goal midway through the second period.
Maple Leafs 4, Islanders 2
TORONTO ó Jason Blake scored the go-ahead goal late in the second period and set up two others as Toronto ended a three-game losing streak.
Ian White and Nikolai Kulemin also scored for the Maple Leafs, who dominated play but were forced to protect slim leads most of the night because of the strong play of Islanders goalie Joey McDonald and two fluky goals against Vesa Toskala.
Bruins 5, Lightning 3
BOSTON ó Milan Lucic, Phil Kessel and Michael Ryder scored in the opening 10:46 and Boston coasted to its 14th win in 16 games.
Zdeno Chara had a power-play goal in the second period and P.J. Axelsson added an empty-netter to help the Bruins win their fifth straight.
Blues 6, Predators 3
ST. LOUIS ó B.J. Crombeen scored three goals, including the game-winner with 3:43 to play for St, Louis.
Alexander Steen, Patrik Berglund and Brad Boyes also scored for the Blues, who are 3-0 against the Predators this season.
Nashville, which had won six of its previous seven road games, got goals from Antti Pihlstrom, Kevin Klein and J.P. Dumont.
The Blues broke a 3-3 tie when Crombeen, whose father Mike played for the Blues from 1978-83, took a feed from Steen in the slot and beat Pekka Rinne. Boyes scored his team-leading 14th goal of the season.
FIRED
MINNEAPOLIS ó The Minnesota Timberwolves have fired coach Randy Wittman, two days after a 23-point loss at home to the Los Angeles Clippers. General manager Kevin McHale will take over as coach.
The change was confirmed Monday by a person familiar with the decision. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because an announcement was not yet made.
The team is off to a 4-15 start. McHale picked Wittman to preside over the team’s rebuilding following the trade of Kevin Garnett.
Wittman went 22-60 last year.
SWIMMING
AUSTIN, Texas ó University of Texas swimmer Dave Walters set an American record in the 200-yard freestyle at the Texas Invitational swim meet in Austin, breaking the record set by Michael Phelps.
Walters finished the event Friday with a time of 1 minute, 31.83 seconds.
Texas said Phelps set the record on March 3, 2006, with a time of 1:32.08 at the same pool.
BASEBALL
LAS VEGAS ó After 355 wins and 23 major league seasons, Greg Maddux held a 30-minute news conference to announce his retirement on the opening day of the winter meetings Monday ó only minutes from his Las Vegas home.
“I really just came out here today to say thank you,” he said in a ballroom at the swanky Bellagio hotel. “I appreciate everything this game has given me. It’s going to be hard to walk away obviously, but it’s time. I have a family now that I need to spend some more time with. I still think I can play the game, but not as well as I would like to, so it’s time to say goodbye.”
Next stop, the Hall of Fame.
Maddux leaves the game with four NL Cy Young Awards (1992-95) and a 3.16 ERA, especially impressive in the steroid era. The right-hander ranks eighth on the career wins list, with one more victory than Roger Clemens.
“I never changed,” said Maddux, who turns 43 in April. “I think, hey, you locate your fastball and you change speeds no matter who is hitting.”
– LAS VEGAS ó When it comes to CC Sabathia, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman sounded as if he were a high-roller battling the odds.
Sabathia met with the Yankees for the second straight day, and New York still wasn’t sure what chance it had to land the top starting pitcher on the free-agent market.
– ARLINGTON, Texas ó The Texas Rangers traded catcher Gerald Laird to the Detroit Tigers on Monday for right-handed pitching prospects Guillermo Moscoso and Carlos Melo.
– NEW YORK ó Joe Gordon joined former teammates Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig and Bob Feller in the Hall of Fame.
For the likes of Joe Torre, Jim Kaat and Ron Santo, it was another shutout.