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USA Routs Slovakia; Canada is Up Next

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MILAN  – (Wire Service Report) – The United States made light work of Slovakia with a 6-2 victory on Friday to set up the eagerly awaited Olympic men’s ice hockey final with Canada. Team U.S. was on cruise control heading into the final period, up 5-0 through Dylan Larkin, Tage Thompson, Jack Eichel and a double from Jack Hughes, before Brady Tkachuk scored between a pair of Slovakian consolation goals.

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NHL players returned to the Olympic Games following a 12-year absence and expectations had been high that the North American rivals would reap the benefits and face off in the decider.

The U.S. obliged with ease after Canada’s tense 3-2 semifinal win over defending champions Finland, and the sides will meet in Sunday’s gold-medal decider at Santagiulia Arena.

Slovakia will take on Finland in Saturday’s bronze-medal game at the same venue.

–Reuters, special to Field Level Media and Digital Sports Desk

Canada’s Crosby Might Play vs. USA

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MILAN – (Wire Service Report) – Captain Sidney Crosby missed Canada’s semifinal victory over Finland on Friday but has a chance to play in Sunday’s gold-medal game of the Milan Cortina Olympics, according to head coach Jon Cooper. Crosby, who is nursing an apparent right leg injury, watched from the wings as Canada scored a late winner to overcome a two-goal deficit and down the Finns 3-2 in Friday’s early semifinal at the Milan Cortina Olympics.

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“We have 48 hours to decide that, but I will tell you he’s got a better chance of playing in the gold-medal game than he had playing in tonight’s game,” Cooper told reporters postgame Friday.

The United States faced Slovakia in Friday’s second semifinal. The losing team will oppose Finland in the bronze-medal game Saturday.

Connor McDavid served as captain in Crosby’s absence for the semifinal and assisted Nathan MacKinnon’s game-winning power-play goal with 36 seconds remaining.

Sam Reinhart tipped in an earlier power-play goal and defenseman Shea Theodore tied the score midway through the third, helping Canada remain perfect in the tournament.

“We’re putting our country through it. A lot of stressful mornings for everyone back home,” McDavid said in a postgame interview with CBC. “But you know what? It’s been fun. It’s a best-on-best tournament. I keep on saying that. We’re playing the best teams in the world, the best players in the world, and they’re going at it and giving everything they have. The margins are razor thin.”

McDavid added he was “keeping the ‘C’ warm” for Crosby, who spoke to teammates in the locker room between periods. MacKinnon and Cale Makar were alternate captains against Finland.

Crosby was injured in Wednesday’s quarterfinal round as Canada rallied to defeat Czechia 4-3 in overtime.

“With what he’s done for the game, for our team, for all of Canada, we want to show up for him,” forward Brad Marchand said.

With six points in four appearances, Crosby is Canada’s fourth-leading scorer in Milan, trailing McDavid (13 points), Macklin Celebrini (10) and MacKinnon (seven).

One of the NHL’s most decorated players, the 38-year-old Crosby has 1,746 career points in 1,408 games over 21 seasons with the Pittsburgh Penguins. He is a three-time Stanley Cup champion and led Canada to Olympic gold at Vancouver in 2010 and Sochi in 2014.

–Field Level Media

Canada to Go for the Gold

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MILAN –  (Wire Service Report) – NHL All-Star Nathan MacKinnon capped Canada’s extraordinary fightback to beat defending champions Finland 3-2 in a men’s Olympic ice hockey semifinal, firing in the kill shot with 35.2 seconds left on the clock in another nerve-searing game on Friday.

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The NHL’s leading goal-scorer, MacKinnon made magic happen at Santagiulia Arena with just one second left on a power play after Canada clawed its way back from a two-goal deficit in the second period.

Forward Sam Reinhart scored to spark the comeback, while defenseman Shea Theodore got the third-period equalizer for Canada.

Canada will face the United States for the gold, as the USA was significant winners over Slovakia on Friday. Finland will play in Saturday’s bronze-medal game. The gold-medal game is set for Sunday.

‘IT’S A CHESS MATCH’

The favored Canadians, with their roster packed with top-flight National Hockey League talent, had looked nearly untouchable early in the tournament, but have been made to work in their last two games. Canada needed an overtime nail-biter to get past the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.

Their charismatic captain and former Olympic hero Sidney Crosby left that game injured and Canada were lacking some of their usual firepower as he sat out Friday’s game.

Canada had just three shots on goal through the first half of the opening period, and Finland got the chance it was waiting for when Sam Bennett was sent to the penalty box for goalie interference.

Mikko Rantanen scored three seconds into the power play and Finland piled on more pain early in the second period, when Erik Haula sent in a short-handed goal with a backhand shot.

“The start of the game, everybody’s so excited to play, and so amped up, so much adrenaline, it’s just kind of natural, you get a little bit of a feel out process,” said Canada forward Brad Marchand. “Some of these teams you haven’t played before. It’s kind of a chess match.”

The Canadians moved the right pieces around on the next power play, with defenseman Cale Makar blasting the puck through traffic toward the net, where Reinhart deflected it in to trim the lead. Theodore rocketed in a slapshot from the point to tie it midway through the third.

The Canadian joy overflowed with MacKinnon’s mighty shot in the waning moments of the game off an assist from Connor McDavid to avoid overtime. But the fans were made to hold their breath as officials weighed a challenge from the Finland bench for offside that ultimately proved unsuccessful.

The win kept alive North American fans’ hopes for a gold-medal showdown between the two preeminent ice hockey powerhouse nations, with the NHL allowing their players to compete at the Games for the first time since 2014.

–Reuters, special to Field Level Media

Keller Wins Gold, Flies Like an Eagle

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MILAN – United States’ defender Megan Keller, of Boston College,  took an outlet pass to the net and beat Canada goalie Ann-Renee Desbiens for the gold-medal winning goal at 4:07 into overtime to give Team USA a 2-1 come-from-behind victory on Thursday.

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The 3-on-3 overtime ending capped a tense finish of another epic game for the in women’s hockey finale between the neighboring North American countries.

US Captain Hilary Knight scored her 15th career Olympic goal to force overtime for the United States in the final, which featured overtime between the two countries for the third time in the past four Winter Games.

Knight knotted the score at 1 with 2:04 remaining on the goal that made her the USA women’s hockey leader in Olympic goals. Off of a face-off win, Knight caught a blue-line pass standing with her back to the goal just in front of the net and tipped it past Desbiens.

Canada took a 1-0 lead on Kristin O’Neill’s shorthanded goal in the second period with an assist from Laura Stacey.

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–Field Level Media

USA Women’s Hockey Takes the Gold

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MILAN – (Wire Service Report) -United States women’s ice hockey tasted revenge sweeter than maple syrup as they came from behind to beat defending champions Canada 2-1 to win gold in an overtime thriller at the Milan Cortina Olympics on Thursday.

Former Boston College skater Megan Keller netted the winner to dethrone their archrivals in an instant classic, sealing a spine-tingling affair and bringing a roar of American joy that echoed throughout Santagiulia Arena.

The U.S. looked headed for more disappointment after losing to their hated foes four years ago, as they were kept off the scoreboard and trailing late in the third period.

But captain Hilary Knight played the hero one more time in her fifth Olympics, tying it to take the tight-checking Games decider to three-on-three sudden death hockey, where Keller went around defender Claire Thompson and slipped the puck past Canadian goalie Ann-Renee Desbiens to clinch a third Olympic gold for the U.S. women.

The game gave fans yet another classic chapter in the sport’s greatest rivalry, and the packed stands offered dueling chants of “Canada!” and “USA!” from puck drop.

ROOK-TO-KNIGHT SENDS GAME TO OT

The Americans were the favorites after handing Canada their first-ever Olympic shutout 5-0 in the group stage, but fears of a one-sided final were soon dispelled as Desbiens put on a lights-out performance through the first period.

The U.S. had a prime chance to break the impasse with a power play at the start of the second. Instead, the crafty Canadian squad flexed its muscle as Laura Stacey gathered the puck in the neutral zone, charged forward and sent it across for Kristin O’Neill, who made a nifty backhand move to score the short-handed goal.

Behind for the first time in the tournament, the U.S. could not find a way past Desbiens until they pulled their goalie for an extra skater with just over two minutes left in regulation.

Knight redirected a shot from Olympic rookie Laila Edwards for their desperation first goal, breaking the all-time U.S. women’s goals record at the Winter Olympics in the process.

“She’s been a part of every historic moment since she’s been a part of this team. For her to get that goal was obviously most important for our team but also just a huge honor for her to break that record,” said Kelly Pannek, Knight’s teammate on their 2018 gold medal-winning group.

“It’s something we all want for her.”

This was the third time in the last four Games that the two sides have battled into overtime in an Olympic final, and the crowd held its breath before Keller finished off the Canadians with just over four minutes gone in overtime.

“Everything happened fast,” Desbiens said of the score that just squeaked over the line. “I’ll see that one for a long time.”

U.S. goalie Aerin Frankel also proved up to the test, ultimately turning aside 30 of 31 shots the Canadians sent her way.

With their coach John Wroblewski weeping tears of joy behind the bench, the American team erupted in celebration, and the Canadian side could only stand by grimly ahead of the medal ceremony, as fans danced to Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the USA.”

It marked the once-dominant Canadians’ eighth successive loss to the Americans.

RED, WHITE AND THE BLUE

The Canadians had long had the upper hand on the United States, with five Olympic golds. But cracks in the ice beneath their feet were beginning to show before they even stepped into the rink in Milan.

The United States won the world championship last year before sweeping the Canadians in the four-game Rivalry Series in November and December, leaving Canada fans with a queasy feeling just weeks before the Games were set to begin.

As American youth triumphed over Canadian experience on Thursday, U.S. fans can allow themselves to dream of more hardware to come, with several collegiate players on the team having yet to reach the professional ranks.

The U.S. was playing in its seventh Olympic championship game, having missed just one since the women were added to the program in 1998.

Switzerland took the bronze medal earlier on Thursday with a 2-1 overtime win over Sweden.

–Reuters, Special to Field Level Media and Digital Sports Desk

 

Celtics vs. Porzingis, But No Steph

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SAN FRANCISCO – (Wire Service Report) – Former Celtics center Kristaps Porzingis could make his debut with the Golden State Warriors when they host Boston on Thursday night.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr said he’s hoping two-time MVP Stephen Curry will also be on the court. Curry, who leads Golden State with 27.2 points per game, has missed the last five games because of a sore knee.

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Porzingis was acquired by the Warriors from Atlanta at the trade deadline but hasn’t played since Jan. 7 due to issues with his left Achilles tendon. He said at the time of the trade that Thursday’s game was his target date for returning to the court.

“I look forward to really having a surprisingly good post All-Star break,” he said.

Porzingis has played in 17 games this season (12 starts). He’s averaging 17.1 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.3 blocked shots per contest.

Porzingis played for Boston last season, but was limited to 42 games with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. The Celtics traded him to the Hawks in July. He did not play against Boston while with Atlanta.

“He’s an easy fit,” Kerr said. “You don’t have to change a whole lot. The biggest difference I guess that he provides is post-ups. He’s a pretty good post-up player, especially against switches. You throw him the ball at the foul line, the elbows, even the low block, he can score in those spots. That was one of the things we did today, we worked on our spacing.”

Kerr said he wanted to watch Porzingis in a scrimmage Wednesday before deciding whether he will play Thursday night.

“Kristaps has been here the last handful of days and practiced today with the team,” Kerr said. “Looked good. He’s feeling good. We won’t make a determination until after (Wednesday). When we practice (Wednesday) afternoon we’ll get up and down the floor and scrimmage, which we didn’t do (Tuesday). We did more skill work and went over some things.”

The Warriors, who lost four of their last six games before the All-Star break, occupy eighth place in the Western Conference standings. Boston will enter Thursday’s game as the No. 2 team in the Eastern Conference, 5 1/2 games behind Detroit.

Speculation has ramped up regarding the possibility of injured forward Jayson Tatum suiting up for the Celtics in the second half of the season. Tatum, who is recovering from a torn Achilles, began practicing with some of his teammates this week. He had surgery in May.

“He looked like Jayson Tatum, I’ll say that much,” Ron Harper Jr. said. “We’re really excited for the potential of him coming back. We don’t know for sure if he’s going to come back. We’re just really excited to see him progress during his rehab.”

Tatum averaged 26.8 points, 8.7 rebounds and a career-high 6.0 assists per game in 2024-25. The six-time All-Star has averaged 23.6 points, 7.3 rebounds and 3.8 assists during his 585-game NBA career.

Thursday night’s matchup will be the first of two for these teams this season and should feature plenty of perimeter scoring. The Warriors lead the NBA in made 3-point field goals (897), while Boston is third (831).

–Field Level Media

NBA All-Star Ratings Up

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LOS ANGELES – The NBA’s midseason showcase finally got the bounce it’s been chasing. The first All-Star broadcast on NBC since 2002 averaged 8.8 million viewers across broadcast and streaming, marking the event’s biggest audience since 2011, according to preliminary Nielsen data and Adobe Analytics. The number combined NBC, Peacock and NBC’s Telemundo.

That number nearly doubled last year’s total of 4.7 million viewers (up 87%), a surge tied to the new “USA vs. the World” format that gave Sunday night an actual hook beyond highlights and handshakes.

The audience topped out at 9.8 million in the 7-7:15 p.m. ET window, as USA Stripes squeezed past the World team 48-45 in the tightest, highest-leverage stretch of the tournament.

On the floor, Anthony Edwards picked up MVP honors with a 32-point, nine-rebound and three-assist line for the USA Stars (across three 12-minute games), while Victor Wembanyama powered the World side with 33 points, eight boards and two blocks.

It wasn’t perfect, but the format delivered what the league has been pleading for in recent years.

The TV window helped, too. The game followed a full day of coverage of the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics and fed directly into NBC’s prime-time programming.

–Field Level Media

Beverly Hills Slop

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LOS ANGELES – When Boston Celtics All-Star Jaylen Brown spoke with reporters after Sunday’s All-Star Game in Inglewood, Calif., the topic quickly went from basketball to an incident between Brown and the Beverly Hills Police Department a night earlier.

And Brown’s account of events stands in stark contrast to those of the Beverly Hills PD.

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On Saturday night, police were called to a home where Brown was hosting what he called a “panel” — an event for his personal brand, 741, and Oakley, of which Brown says he is a brand partner.

But when police showed up, they said the event had to end because a permit for the event was previously denied.

“On Saturday, February 14, the Beverly Hills Police Department (BHPD) responded to an event taking place at a private residence in the Trousdale neighborhood of (Beverly Hills),” the BHPD told The Boston Globe in statement Sunday. “An event permit had been applied for and denied by the City due to previous violations associated with events at the address.

“Despite the fact that the permit was denied, organizers still chose to proceed with inviting hundreds of guests knowing that it was not allowed to occur. BHPD responded and shut down the unpermitted event.”

The claim about the permit was one of the issues that angered Brown.

“That was not true,” Brown told reporters. “We didn’t need a permit because the owner of the house, that was his space. We were family friends. He opened up the festivities to us so we didn’t have to. We never applied for one. … I didn’t have to pay for the house or anything. They just opened it up. I had to pay for the build-out, but it was hundreds of thousands of dollars wasted for an event that was supposed to be positive.”

Saturday night, a video showing Brown speaking with a police officer at the house was posted to social media. In the video, Brown is seen repeatedly asking why the event was being shut down, with the officer said “the City” was shutting down the event.

“(I’m) in LA, we’re just trying to have an event, a panel, talking about culture, talking about future, talking about leadership, and for whatever reason I feel like we’re being targeted,” Brown told the camera.

Back at the All-Star Game, Brown said the house belonged to Jim Jannard, the founder of Oakley, and that he did not have to pay to use the house for the event.

“I’m offended by Beverly Hills, by the statement they put out, like we applied for something and didn’t get it and we did it anyway,” Brown added. “Like we were insubordinate. I know how to follow the rules. … It just seemed like somebody, you know, didn’t want whatever we had going on, to go on. Because out of everyone to be doing something (in the neighborhood), I was the only one that gets shut down.”

During the interview, Brown repeated that several hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent setting up the event, and that the owner of the house is considering filing a lawsuit.

“It just leaves a bad taste in your mouth,” he added. “I don’t think the BPDH made the right call here. The statement they put out was not accurate.”

–Field Level Media

Seton Hall Tops Butler

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INDIANAPOLIS – (Staff Report from Official news Release) – The Hall’s AJ Staton-McCray scored a team-high 19 points as the Seton Hall Pirates captured a 63-56 win at Butler.  The win was the Pirates’ fifth true victory of the season.
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Seton Hall 63, Butler 56 – Box Score
Of Note:
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Looking Ahead: The BIG EAST returns to action on Tuesday, Feb. 17 when Villanova heads to Xavier.  Tipoff is set for 6:30 p.m. on FS1.

NBA All-Star Game: We Are the World

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INGLEWOOD – Philadelphia’s Tyrese Maxey scored nine points and Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards added eight as USA Stars came out on top during the All-Star Game on Sunday with an easy 47-21 mini-tournament victory over USA Stripes. The three-team round-robin tournament of short 12-minute games also included Team World, made up of international stars, and was the latest incarnation of the ever-changing All-Star Game format that went with four teams in a tournament-style bracket last year.

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Chet Holmgren of the Oklahoma City Thunder also scored eight points and Jalen Duren of the Detroit Pistons added six as the younger USA Stars avenged an earlier 42-40 defeat to the veteran USA Stripes in the three-game round robin.

The Philadelphia 76ers’ Maxey went 4 of 8 from the floor in the 12-minute title game and the Minnesota Timberwolves’ Edwards went 3 of 5 with a pair of 3-pointers. Edwards scored 32 total points in his teams’ three games and was named MVP.

The Cleveland Cavaliers’ Donovan Mitchell scored six points and the Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James added five for USA Stripes.

USA Stars took control early in the title game by grabbing an early 12-1 lead, with Maxey scoring seven of the points. Team Stripes was within 18-9 with 7:03 remaining after consecutive 3-pointers from James and Jalen Brunson of the New York Knicks, but USA Stars dominated from there.

A 15-0 run eliminated any potential drama as USA Stars led 33-9 with 4:19 remaining.

The Los Angeles Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard scored just one point in the title game, while going 0 of 4 from the floor. It came after he dominated the final round-robin game with 31 points in 12 minutes of a 48-45 victory over Team World to advance his side to the final.

In the opening game of the three-team round robin, USA Stars defeated Team World 37-35 in extra time on a 3-pointer from the Toronto Raptors’ Scottie Barnes.

–Field Level Media