HOCKEY
Cameron Askew scored the only goal of the third period to give the Maine Mariners a 3-2 ECHL win over Trois-Rivieres on Wednesday night in Quebec.
Each team scored twice in the second period. The Mariners took leads of 1-0 and 2-1 on goals by Keltie Jeri-Leon and Brendan Robbins. The Lions tied the game twice on goals by Charles-David Beaudoin and Anthony Nellis.
Mainers goalie Jeremy Brodeur made 35 saves, 15 in the first period.
The Mariners play the Lions on Friday night and Saturday afternoon.
OLYMPICS
Bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor was chosen Wednesday to be a flag bearer for the U.S. Olympic team but will not be able to attend the Winter Games opening ceremony because she’s in isolation after a positive COVID-19 test.
Speed skater Brittany Bowe will take Meyers Taylor’s place in Friday’s ceremony, and will be joined by curler John Shuster.
“Being voted by my peers as the flag bearer is the biggest honor of my career,” Meyers Taylor said. “While I cannot carry the flag and walk in with the rest of Team USA, Brittany is very deserving of the opportunity to lead our delegation on my behalf.”
On Tuesday, Meyers Taylor said on social media that she arrived in Beijing on Jan. 27 and tested positive two days later. She said she was asymptomatic and in isolation. Bobsled doesn’t begin until Feb. 13, and USA Bobsled and Skeleton is hopeful that Meyers Taylor will be able to compete.
She has two silver medals and one bronze, and is the the only woman to win three Olympic bobsled medals for the U.S.
TORCH RELAY: The three-day torch relay for the Beijing Olympics, shortened considerably because of concerns about the coronavirus, started with an 80-year-old former speedskater carrying the flame.
The relay opened at the Olympic Forest Park. Luo Zhihuan, the country’s first internationally competitive speedskater, ran the first leg. The torch will be carried through the three Olympics zones, starting with downtown Beijing before heading to Yanqing district and finally Zhangjiakou in neighboring Hebei Province.
The Beijing Games have already been impacted on a scale similar to that experienced by Tokyo during last year’s Summer Olympics. China says only selected spectators will be allowed to attend events, and Olympic athletes, officials, staff and journalists are required to stay within a bubble that keeps them from contact with the general public.
COVID-19: Denmark’s men’s hockey team held its first pre-Olympic practice Wednesday without six players after a spate of positive COVID-19 test results upon arriving in China.
The Danish Olympic federation announced that forwards Matthias Asperup and Nick Olesen tested positive for the coronavirus and went into isolation. Former NHL forward Mikkel Boedker, veteran defenseman Markus Lauridsen and two taxi squad players also missed practice after testing positive, though the team believed the results to be inaccurate and expected them back on the ice soon.
• Italian Olympic Committee president Giovanni Malagò is at least the second IOC member who has tested positive for COVID-19 and been placed in isolation at the Beijing Games. Two-time Olympic hockey medalist Emma Terho, the IOC’s most senior athlete representative, is also in an isolation hotel after testing positive on arrival.
CURLING: Competition began with four curling stones sliding down sheets of ice in the venue where Michael Phelps won a record eight swimming gold medals at the Summer Olympics 14 years ago.
The clanking of granite stones slamming into each other and the shouting and sweeping of the curlers were more pronounced than normal in the mostly empty arena. There were only a few hundred spectators in the 3,759-capacity venue due to COVID-19 protocols.
Curling is being held on four sheets of ice at the Ice Cube, which was converted from the Water Cube, the swimming and diving venue for the 2008 Summer Games. The venue can be transformed back to a swimming pool.
Among the opening games was Olympic newcomer Australia, featuring Tahli Gill and Dean Hewitt, against Americans Chris Plys and Vicky Persinger.
TENNIS
DJOKOVIC TESTS QUESTIONED: Serbia’s state prosecutors rejected suggestions that Novak Djokovic used a fake positive test for COVID-19 to try to enter Australia and compete in the Australian Open. The prosecution office said in a statement that it had received a request for criminal proceedings against unnamed individuals who allegedly forged two PCR certificates, which were later used by Djokovic to apply for a medical exemption from vaccination when entering Australia.
“The prosecution acted according to the regulations, checks were performed, and it was determined that Novak Djokovic was tested several times and that the certificates on the test results from December 16, 2021 and December 22, 2021 are valid,” the statement said.
Foreign media, including Der Spiegel and the BBC, have reported discrepancies in the serial numbers of the tests Serbian authorities administered to the top-ranked Djokovic ahead of his trip to Australia, suggesting possible irregularities in the way they were issued.
Djokovic’s media team and Serbian health authorities did not respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press. Senior Serbian health officials have previously said that Djokovic’s test was valid.
SOCCER
SIX NATIONS: The Welsh Rugby Union will sell weaker beer and order bars to be closed during the second half of matches during the Six Nations tournament in an effort to curb alcohol-related disorder by spectators at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.
The moves come after incidents of poor behavior by fans at Wales’ 74,000-seat national stadium during international games in October and November, including intrusions onto the field in consecutive games.
Beers with a lower alcohol percentage will be phased into bars on the concourses at the stadium, the WRU said, and outlets selling food and drinks will close after halftime of the matches against Scotland, France and Italy. The WRU said the measures will be run on a trial basis and “will be subject to an ongoing review.”
The Six Nations starts on Saturday, with Wales playing Ireland in its first game.
MLS: American defender DeAndre Yedlin is returning to Major League Soccer, agreeing to a four-year contract with David Beckham’s Miami team.
The deal includes a club option for 2026. Yedlin, whose contract with Turkey’s Galatasaray was terminated on Jan. 26, was signed by Miami with the league’s No. 1 allocation ranking.
The 28-year-old right back is with the U.S. national team in St. Paul, Minnesota, for a World Cup qualifier against Honduras and will report to Miami later this week.
NWSL: The Washington Spirit signed Trinity Rodman to the richest contract in the history of the National Women’s Soccer League.
The extension with the 19-year-old daughter of NBA great Dennis Rodman is worth at least $1.1 million over four years, according to the Washington Post.
Octagon Soccer, which represents Rodman, announced that the deal makes Rodman the league’s highest-paid player.
Rodman was the No. 2 overall pick in the 2021 NWSL draft by the Spirit, which went on to win the league championship. She scored seven goals and had seven assists, and was named the league’s Rookie of the Year.
AFRICAN CUP: Sadio Mane set up one goal and scored the last one himself as Senegal beat Burkina Faso 3-1 to reach its second successive final.
Now, Senegal hopes to finally win a title.
Mane scored on a breakaway in the 87th minute to seal the win in Yaounde after Senegal went 2-0 up before seeing Burkina Faso pull a goal back with eight minutes to go.
Senegal will play for the African title against either Egypt or host Cameroon, who meet in the second semifinal on Thursday.
BASKETBALL
WNBA: Angel McCoughtry is heading to Minnesota and Briann January is going to Seattle for her final season in the WNBA.
McCoughtry spent the past two seasons in Las Vegas after playing in Atlanta since the Dream drafted her first in 2009. She missed last year while dealing with an ACL injury in her right knee, except for a token one-game appearance when the Aces played in Atlanta. In 2020 she averaged 14.4 points, 5.1 rebounds and 2.5 assists for the Aces.
January is heading back west after spending two years in Connecticut.
• The Las Vegas Aces re-signed A’ja Wilson, locking up the 2020 WNBA MVP at the start of free agency.
BASEBALL
MAJORS: Former Mets general manager Omar Minaya was hired by Major League Baseball as a consultant for amateur scouting.
He will advise the baseball operations department on both domestic and international scouting initiatives. Minaya will report to Morgan Sword, the executive vice president of baseball operations.
• David Green, an outfielder on the St. Louis Cardinals’ 1982 World Series champions, has died. He was 61.
Green had been hospitalized in suburban St. Louis after choking at his home about a week ago and died Saturday of respiratory failure, his family told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The Cardinals confirmed the death Tuesday on Twitter.
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