GIRLS HOCKEY: Ariella Swett of Scarborough, Eve Martineau of Edward Little/Leavitt/Poland and Leah Landry of Lewiston were named the three finalists for the fifth annual Becky Schaffer Award, given to Maine’s best girls’ hockey player.
The winner will be named at the conclusion of the Maine High School Girls Hockey Senior All-Star game, scheduled for Monday, Feb. 28 at 6:10 p.m. at Family Ice Center in Falmouth.
Previous winners were Courtney Sullivan of Greely/Gray-New Gloucester in 2018, Avery Lutrzykowski of St. Dominic in 2019, Maranda Guimond of Edward Little/Leavitt/Poland in 2020 and Lucia Pompeo of Cheverus in 2021.
HOCKEY
Conner Bleackley scored his sixth goal of the season 3:28 into overtime and the Maine Mariners broke a six-game winless streak with a 2-1 ECHL win over the Trois-Rivieres Lions on Sunday at Cross Insurance Arena.
Cedric Montminy scored for the Lions 2:53 into the game, and Maine’s Cameron Askew answered with his 12th goal on a power play with 5:33 left in the first.
Callum Booth stopped 23 shots for the Mariners.
SOCCER
SHEBELIVES CUP: Ashley Hatch and Mallory Pugh scored second-half goals for the United States and three own goals in the first half by New Zealand’s Meikayla Moore propelled the Americans to a 5-0 victory in the SheBelieves Cup in Carson, California.
The U.S. played to a scoreless draw against the Czech Republic on Thursday night but bounced back against the Football Ferns. The three own goals by Moore is the first time that has happened in a U.S. women’s national team match.
Coach Vlatko Andonovski is evaluating younger players during the four-team round-robin tournament with stars Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, Christen Press and Tobin Heath not on the roster.
PREMIER LEAGUE: Daniel Podence helped Wolverhampton’s push for European qualification by clinching a 2-1 win over Leicester in the Premier League.
Podence received the ball 20 yards out and, as Leicester’s defense backed off, he struck into the bottom corner in the 66th minute.
• Manchester United conceded twice in 24 seconds at Leeds to throw away the lead before goals from substitutes Fred and Anthony Elanga secured a 4-2 victory in the Premier League.
SERIE A: Inter Milan was upset 2-0 at home by midtable Sassuolo, wasting a chance to leapfrog city rival Milan and go top of the Italian league.
Leader Milan stumbled Saturday with a 2-2 draw at last-place Salernitana. Inter remains two points behind in second but with a game in hand.
TENNIS
NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic said that despite weeks away from competition and emotional distress over his recent detention and deportation, he feels he’s at his “peak” as he returns to tour.
The world’s top male tennis player sounded an upbeat note in a press conference a day before the start of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis championship, Djokovic’s first tournament since being ejected from Australia and missing the year’s first Grand Slam event over his vaccination status.
“It wasn’t really difficult for me to pick up a racket and go out and practice the sport and just play,” he told reporters. “I’m as well prepared as I possibly can be.”
Djokovic’s presence brings an unusual amount of scrutiny to the annual tournament near Dubai International Airport and authorities also apparently took extraordinary steps of their own.
AUTO RACING
NASCAR: Chase Elliott skipped free agency and signed a five-year contract extension that Hendrick Motorsports announced mere hours before the season-opening Daytona 500.
Elliott’s current contract ran through the end of this season. Hendrick Motorsports said in its Sunday announcement that the extension was signed one day earlier at Daytona International Speedway.
Elliott, the 2020 Cup champion and four-time reigning winner of the fan-voted most popular driver award, is locked into the No. 9 Chevrolet through 2027.
GOLF
PGA TOUR: Joaquinn Niemann survived a few nervous moments at Riviera in Los Angeles and polished off a big week when he closed with an even-par 71 to become the first wire-to-wire winner of the Genesis Invitational in 53 years.
Staked to a three-shot lead, Niemann’s margin was down to one when he made a 7-foot birdie on the eighth hole and PGA Tour rookie Cameron Young sailed the green and made bogey.
The 23-year-old from Chile chipped in for eagle on the par-5 11th to stretch his lead to five, and he held on for a two-shot victory over British Open champion Collin Morikawa (65) and Young, whose last hopes ended with a bogey from the bunker on the 16th. Young shot 70.
CHAMPIONS TOUR: Already the oldest winner in PGA Tour Champions history, Bernhard Langer completed a wire-to-wire victory Sunday for his record fourth Chubb Classic title in Naples, Florida.
Langer won at 64 years, 5 months, 23 days to push his victory total to 43 on the 50-and-over tour, two behind Hale Irwin for the record, and win for the 16th straight season. The German star became the oldest tour winner in October at the Dominion Energy Charity Classic in Virginia.
Langer closed with his second straight 4-under 68, birdieing the par-5 18th on Tiburon Golf Club’s Black Course for the third day in a row, to finish at 16-under 200. He beat Tim Petrovic by three strokes after taking a two-stroke lead into the final round.
PGA TOUR OF AUSTRALASIA: Former Women’s PGA champion Hannah Green became the first woman to win a mix-gender golf tournament over 72 holes when she closed with a 5-under 66 for a four-shot victory in the TPS Murray River in Barooga, Australia.
Green, coming off a victory in the Vic Open last week, began the final round at Cobram Barooga in a four-way tie for the lead. She chipped in for eagle on the par-5 10th hole to seize control and had a comfortable lead on the home stretch.
She finished at 20-under 264 for a four-shot win over amateur Hayden Hopewell (65) and Andrew Evans (70).
Send questions/comments to the editors.
