HOCKEY

The New York Rangers have agreed to terms with restricted free-agent defenseman K’Andre Miller on a two-year, $7.7 million contract extension.

General Manager Chris Drury announced the deal on Tuesday that will keep the 23-year-old with the Rangers through the 2024-25 season. He has been a mainstay in the lineup since joining the team for the start of the 2020-21 season.

Miller established career highs in goals (9), assists (34) and points (43) in 2022-23, ranking second among Rangers defensemen in all three categories. He also played a role on special teams, being on the ice for 149 minutes of shorthanded time.

• The Anaheim Ducks have added veteran American Hockey League head coach Brent Thompson to Greg Cronin‘s staff.

The Ducks announced the hiring a little more than a month after hiring Cronin to replace Dallas Eakins. It will be his first NHL head coaching job and it follows a five-year run as the head coach at Colorado (AHL), the Avalanche’s top farm team.

Thompson has 20 years of coaching experience, including the past nine as the head coach of Bridgeport (AHL), the Islanders’ top farm team. The 52-year-old also served as an Islanders assistant coach in 2012-13 and 13-14.

Cronin played at Colby College from 1982-1986. He later served as an assistant coach at the University of Maine, serving as the interim coach during Shawn Walsh’s suspension for NCAA violations from Dec. 1995 to Dec. 1996.

•  The Montreal Canadiens signed forward Alex Newhook to a four-year, $11.6 million contract extension.

The deal carries an annual average value of $2.9 million. Newhook was acquired June 27 from the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for 31st and 37th picks in the 2023 draft and defenseman Gianni Fairbrother.

BASEBALL

NECBL: The Keene Swamp Bats won a doubleheader from the Sanford Mainers 6-5 and 11-4 at Keene Memorial Field in Keene, New Hampshire.

In the first game, the Swamp Bats spotted the Mainers a 3-0 lead in the first inning but came back to win.

Logan Poteet was 2 for 2 with a run scored, a homer and four RBI for the Mainers.

Aidan Corn and Greg Bozzo homered for Keene.

In the second game, Keene scored six runs in the second inning to pull away.

Anthony Livermore was 3 for 5 with an RBI and Blake DeLamielleure was 1 for 3 with a homer and two RBI.

Kevin Skagerlind hit his first homer for Sanford.

BASKETBALL

NBA: The NBA’s Board of Governors approved two rule changes for the coming season — one to give coaches a second challenge if their first one is successful, the other being a technical foul for flopping.

Players who flop — or are called for committing “a physical act that reasonably appears to be intended to cause the officials to call a foul on another player,” the league said — will be given a nonunsportsmanlike technical, which will not count as a personal foul or lead to ejection. But it will give the opposing team a free throw and could lead to a possession change, depending on when it is called.

Officials can choose to stop live play to call a flopping violation, or can wait until the next “neutral opportunity” to do so.

Floppers will be fined $2,000, with fines rising incrementally for repeat offenders. The flopping rule will be on a one-year experiment.

WNBA: Brittney Sykes scored 26 points and the Washington Mystics beat the visiting Seattle Storm 93-86 despite a record-tying nine 3-pointers from Jewell Loyd.

The Mystics, who won two games in Seattle by seven and six points, led by 25 late in the third quarter and 84-67 near the midpoint of the fourth.

Loyd finished with 39 points.

AUTO RACING

INDYCAR: Two-time defending Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona winner Tom Blomqvist will make his IndyCar debut this weekend in Toronto, where he will replace the injured Simon Pagenaud in the No. 60 car for Meyer Shank Racing.

Pagenaud was hurt just over a week ago during practice at Mid-Ohio, where his brakes failed and he was forced to send his car into a spin in a desperate attempt to scrub some speed. The car hit a gravel trap on the exit of a corner and rolled seven times as pieces flew into the air before finally coming to rest on its side against a barrier.

Pagenaud was examined and released from the track care center but was not approved the following day to drive in the race, and IndyCar veteran Conor Daly was drafted as a last-minute replacement. Daly completed every lap and finished 20th.

Pagenaud hoped to return in Toronto, but IndyCar’s medical staff still had not cleared him to compete.

FORMULA ONE: Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo will make a shock return to Formula One at the upcoming Hungarian Grand Prix.

The eight-time Grand Prix winner, who was axed by McLaren at the end of last year, will replace Nyck de Vries at Red Bull’s junior team AlphaTauri for the rest of the year.

The Hungarian GP is on July 23.

BOXING

HEAVYWEIGHTS: Boxing heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and ex-UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou will fight Oct. 28 in Saudi Arabia, promoters announced.

The latest high-profile crossover boxing match between a mixed martial artist and a professional boxer will take place in a regulation ring, with three ringside judges using the 10-point scoring system. The fight announcement by promoter Top Rank didn’t specify whether the bout will count on the fighters’ professional boxing records or whether Fury’s WBC heavyweight title will be on the line.

CYCLING

TOUR DE FRANCE: It was an emotional — and costly — first win at the Tour de France for Pello Bilbao.

The Spanish cyclist sprinted to victory at the end of the tricky 10th stage and also gained significant time in the overall standings, which are still led by Jonas Vingegaard.

Bilbao raised his arms above his head in celebration at the end of one of the hardest stages of the Tour so far, finishing the undulating 104-mile route from Vulcania to Issoire just ahead of Georg Zimmermann and Ben O’Connor in the sweltering heat of central France.

The Bahrain-Victorious rider immediately dedicated his win to former teammate and friend Gino Mäder, who died last month from injuries suffered in a crash at the Tour de Suisse.

Bilbao had announced pre-Tour that he would be following in the actions of Mäder, by donating one Euro for every rider he beats on each stage toward funding to replant trees in areas of deforestation.

He beat 168 riders on Tuesday.

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