Associated Press
PITTSBURGH ó Three broken teeth and a fat lip didn’t prevent Martin St. Louis from helping the Tampa Bay Lightning bite back to even the first-round Eastern Conference series with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
St. Louis had a goal and assist, Eric Brewer scored and added two assists and the Lightning rebounded to beat the Penguins 5-1 on Friday night.
For St. Louis, the performance was payback after the diminutive forward was livid that no penalty was called after he was cracked across the face by Zbynek Michalek’s errant stick in the second period of Tampa Bay’s 3-0 loss in Game 1 on Wednesday night.
Vincent Lecavalier, Nate Thompson and Mattias Ohlund ó into an empty net ó also scored. Simon Gagne had three assists and Tampa Bay rediscovered its high-powered offense to blow the game open with a three-goal first period. Craig Adams scored for the Penguins.
Game 3 is Monday night at Tampa Bay.
Capitals 2, Rangers 0
WASHINGTON ó Jason Chimera and Jason Arnott scored in a 1:57 span in the second period, Michal Neuvirth made 22 saves and Washington beat New York to take a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference series.
After playing a scoreless and somewhat jittery first period, the Capitals dominated the Rangers the rest of the way. Chimera scored 2:11 into the second period off a feed from Marcus Johansson, and Arnott added to the lead at the 4:08 mark with a power-play goal from the left circle.
The 23-year-old Neuvirth has stopped 46 of 47 shots so far in the series for the Capitals, the conference’s No. 1 seed. Henrik Lundqvist made 16 saves for the eighth-seeded Rangers.
Game 3 is Sunday in New York.
NBA
NEW YORK ó The NBA says its three national TV partners all had their most viewers ever this season, topped by a 42 percent increase for TNT.
ABC was up 38 percent and ESPN had a 28 percent jump, the league says Friday.
Turner Sports also says its 1.6 rating was its highest in 27 years of NBA coverage and that it televised three of the five most-watched NBA regular-season games ever on cable this season.
NEW YORK ó The NBA has granted the owners of the Sacramento Kings another extension until May 2 to file paperwork requesting a relocation to Anaheim.
Joe and Gavin Maloof were supposed to submit the documents by Monday, but the league’s owners decided to delay that after hearing from Anaheim and Sacramento officials during two days of meetings that ended Friday.
NFL
MINNEAPOLIS ó Negotiators for the NFL and its locked-out players wrapped up a second day of court-ordered talks Friday with no signs of significant progress. They plan to sit down again next week.
The two sides left the federal courthouse in Minneapolis after about four hours of talks, following nine hours of meetings on Thursday. They will meet again Tuesday.
Hall of Famer Carl Eller, who is representing retired players in the antitrust lawsuit against the league, said he thinks the two sides are “moving forward” but the process “slowed a little bit” Friday.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
PHOENIX ó Arizona legislators who took cross-country trips and accepted free game tickets from the Fiesta Bowl soon will get reimbursement invoices.
Bowl attorneys said theyíre conducting an investigation to determine the Fiestaís total outlay on lawmaker gifts and travel so they can seek reimbursement for those expenses. The Arizona Republic says some legislators could be asked to repay the bowl for a range of expenses, including airfare, lodging and meals. In some cases, invoices could be in the thousands of dollars.
two fines come a day after the league fined Lakers star Kobe Bryant $100,000 for using a derogatory gay term in frustration over a refereeís call.
INSTANT REPLAY
NEW YORK ó More replay could be coming for Major League Baseball next season.
MLB is leaning toward expanding replay for 2012 to include trapped balls and fair-or-foul rulings down the lines, a person familiar with the talks told The Associated Press.
Commissioner Bud Selig and a group of umpires discussed the extra video review at spring training and were in agreement.
TENNIS
MONACO ó Roger Federer lost to Jurgen Melzer 6-4, 6-4 in swirling wind in the Monte Carlo Masters quarterfinals Friday, his earliest tournament exit since Wimbledon last year.
GOLF
SAN ANTONIO ó PGA Tour rookie Brendan Steele wrangled the winds and nearly emerged at the Texas Open solely atop the leaderboard.
But on the tour’s toughest day in years, no one got off that easy.
Steele carried the lead before double-bogeying on the par-4 15th, then blew a chance to reclaim it by missing a 6-footer for birdie on the final hole, keeping him in a rare seven-way tie atop the leaderboard at 3 under Friday.