NHL

The NHL has stripped the Vegas Golden Knights of their second-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft and fined head coach John Tortorella $100,000 after what the league described as “flagrant violations” of postseason media access rules following the club’s Western Conference semifinal victory over the Anaheim Ducks. The punishment stems from Vegas’ actions after its 5-1 win in Game 6 on Thursday night, when the organization declined to open the locker room to reporters and Tortore

DENVER — The Colorado Avalanche looked finished midway through Game 5 after falling behind by three goals against the Minnesota Wild. Instead, they delivered one of the franchise’s most dramatic playoff comebacks in recent memory. Defenseman Brett Kulak scored 3:52 into overtime Wednesday night, lifting Colorado to a 4-3 victory at Ball Arena and sending the Avalanche to the Western Conference final for the eighth time since the franchise moved to Denver. Kulak buried a feed

DENVER — What looked like a matchup defined by defense quickly turned into something nobody expected. Cale Makar returned from an early injury scare and scored twice in the third period as the Colorado Avalanche survived a chaotic, high-scoring battle to defeat the Minnesota Wild 9–6 in Game 1 of their second-round playoff series Sunday night. “I don’t think you could draw that one up,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “There’s no real explanation for a game like that.” Aft

In a tightly contested regular-season finale in Nashville, the Anaheim Ducks defeated the Nashville Predators 5–4 after Troy Terry scored a late power-play goal with 2:54 remaining. The win secured Anaheim the third seed in the Pacific Division and set up a first-round playoff matchup against the Edmonton Oilers, following Edmonton’s win over Vancouver. Anaheim opened the scoring early when Cutter Gauthier netted his 41st goal of the season just 96 seconds into the game. Nash

St. Louis — Logan Mailloux scored the decisive goal with 2:57 remaining, and Robert Thomas recorded a hat trick to lead the St. Louis Blues to a 5–3 victory over the Utah Mammoth in the regular-season finale for both teams on Thursday night in Salt Lake City. Mailloux broke a 3–3 tie with an unassisted backhand shot from roughly 20 feet out, giving St. Louis the lead late in a tightly contested game. Thomas sealed the win with an empty-net goal in the final minute, completing

Florida Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov will represent Finland at the upcoming Ice Hockey World Championship after missing the entire NHL season due to recovery from surgery on a torn ACL and MCL in his right knee. Despite being sidelined all year, Barkov received full medical clearance from team doctors following his end-of-season evaluation. Barkov said he remained hopeful throughout his rehabilitation that he could return to play sooner than initially expected. Although