HOCKEY

After finally getting David Pastrnak and Ondrej Kase on the ice Wednesday, the two Bruins’ forwards were unexpectedly missing from practice Thursday.

NHL rules limit how much teams can reveal about players’ health so Coach Bruce Cassidy was required to be vague, but admitted he’d expected to have them.

“That was the plan. They’re ‘unfit to participate.’ Hopefully that changes in the near future,” he said using the NHL’s preferred designation.

Pastrnak and Kase both made debuts at restart practice Wednesday in a small group workout after a missing the first two days. Upon returning from the Czech Republic, they each had to go through protocols for re-entering the United States before they could participate in practice. But their participation Wednesday appeared to signal they were fully back in the fold before Thursday’s surprise absence.
Cassidy wasn’t planning too far ahead.

GOLF

LPGA: The LPGA Tour will not have spectators for the opening two events in Ohio (The Drive On Championship in Toledo on July 31-Aug. 2 and the Marathon Classic in Sylvania on Aug. 6-9.

SOCCER

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: The race to secure the final two qualification spots from the Premier League is going to the last day of the season.

And two of the three teams still in contention will be going head to head.

Leicester and Manchester United both won on Thursday to ensure their meeting in the final round of matches on July 26 will have plenty riding on it – notably tens of millions of dollars in potential Champions League prize money next season.

Leicester’s 2-0 home victory over Sheffield United was followed hours later by a 2-0 win for United at Crystal Palace. It left the two teams tied on points with two games remaining, with fourth-place Leicester only ahead by virtue of a superior goal difference.

SPANISH LEAGUE: Real Madrid clinched its first Spanish league title in three years.

Madrid secured its record 34th league title with a 2-1 win over Villarreal, opening a seven-point gap to second-place Barcelona with one round to go. Barcelona lost to 10-man Osasuna at the Camp Nou Stadium.

BOXING

DEATH: Promising young boxer Travell “Black Magic” Mazion was killed when his car slammed head-on into an oncoming car on a highway near Austin, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

The crash happened about 9:40 p.m. Wednesday when a car Mazion, 24, was driving veered crossed the median on Farm-to-Market Road 1431 near the Austin suburb of Cedar Park, according to a DPS statement. Mazion’s car slammed head-on into a car driven by Richard Salter.

Mazion was killed instantly, while Salter, 61, of the Austin suburb of Lago Vista, died later at a hospital in nearby Round Rock.

Mazion, a junior middleweight prospect, had an undefeated 17-0 record with 13 knockouts. His last fight was a win at the San Antonio Alamodome in January. He was nine days shy of his 25th birthday.

BASKETBALL

WNBA: The WNBA commissioner says the league has no plans to insist that Atlanta Dream co-owner Kelly Loeffler sell her stake in the team.

Loeffler, a Republican U.S. senator running for re-election in Georgia, objected to the league’s initiatives to honor the Black Lives Matter movement, asking the league commissioner to scrap plans for players to wear warm-up jerseys with “Black Lives Matter” and “Say Her Name” and instead put an American flag on all uniforms and apparel.

COLLEGES

AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE: The American Athletic Conference will require all its schools to test football players for COVID-19 at least 72 hours before competition.

The Atlantic Coast, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and Southeastern conferences have been working together on a minimum standard for testing in their leagues that could be used throughout major college football.

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