May 14, 2026; Portland, Oregon, USA; Portland Fire forward Bridget Carleton (6) drives to the basket during the first half against New York Liberty forward Breanna Stewart (30) at Moda Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Wayrynen-Imagn Images
Breanna Stewart scored a game-high 22 points Thursday night and the visiting New York Liberty blew open a tight game in the second half to earn a 100-82 victory over the Portland Fire for a split of their two-game series.
Pauline Astier added 20 as New York improved to 3-1. Rebekah Gardner and Alex Fowler came off the bench for 14 and 12 points, respectively, while Marine Johannes dished out 11 assists while committing only one turnover.
The Liberty shrugged off a slow start to sink 34 of 67 shots from the field, including 15 of 38 from the 3-point line, and finished with a whopping 32 assists. They also got 41 points off the bench after getting outscored 32-11 off the pine Tuesday night.
Megan Gustafson scored 14 points in a reserve role for Portland (1-2). Nyadiew Puoch added 13, while Emily Engstler and Bridget Carleton tallied 11 each. But the Fire hit only 30 of 68 from the field, including a measly 9 of 31 on 3-pointers.
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New York used a 31-16 third-quarter burst to expand a two-point halftime lead to 70-53. Stewart scored 10 points in the period, canning two free throws to cap a 10-0 burst that put the lead in double figures for good.
After scoring a 98-96 decision Tuesday night for its first win in its second iteration, Portland controlled most of the first half behind accurate shooting and solid defense.
The Fire established a 20-12 lead late in the first quarter when Engstler canned a free throw to cap a 9-0 run. They held the Liberty scoreless for a 4:24 stretch during that spurt, then upped the margin to 27-18 when Sug Sutton fed Gustafson for a layup.
At that juncture, New York finally found traction on both ends of the floor. It rattled off 11 straight points as Stewart made a 3-pointer and converted a layup to key the run. Betnijah Laney-Hamilton sank a driving layup with 2.4 seconds left before halftime for a 39-37 edge at the break.
With the Mumbai Indians enduring a disappointing IPL 2026 campaign, former India all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin has come to the defence of captain Hardik Pandya, stating that the team’s poor performances should not be pinned on him alone. MI, who have won just four of their 12 matches this season, were the second team to be eliminated from playoff contention, with their captain struggling with form and injury. “I wouldn’t review his captaincy this year at all. Honestly, when you have seasons like this, to pin the blame on the captain is quite unfair. Nobody has turned up. The team has failed to turn up and for Hardik to take the blame on himself is… you’re asking him to do a little too much,” Ashwin told ESPNcricinfo.
Ashwin highlighted the context of Pandya’s return to MI in 2024 after a successful stint with the Gujarat Titans, where he led the franchise to a title and a runners-up finish.
“He was there at Gujarat Titans. Had two fabulous seasons (one title and one runners-up finish). So clearly, as a leader, he did something right there. And when he returned to Mumbai Indians, he had to deal with quite a bit. It’s not easy to replace an incumbent Indian captain, white-ball captain, such as Rohit Sharma. Five (six) titles in the IPL. He’s won a T20 World Cup. And Hardik comes and replaces him. You’ve got a lot of fandom going around in the country. You should have a thick skin to survive the social media these days,” Ashwin added.
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Ashwin also stressed that captaincy is not solely responsible for a team’s failures as he said, “I wouldn’t judge his captaincy much because the bowling has also leaked (runs in) every direction. Every single time an over is bowled for six or seven runs, in comes a 15-run over. So what do you do as a captain? And sure, he’s made some calls that have been debatable. (But) captaincy is the result of how your team is making you look. So which is why I believe when you have a good season, don’t give too much credit to a captain. When you have a bad season, don’t pin it on him. And similar with the coach; the coach sends the players out. So you can’t blame him too much.”
This season, Pandya’s struggles have been stark. Since returning to MI as captain in 2024, he has yet to win a trophy for the franchise. In IPL 2026, he scored just 146 runs from eight innings at a strike rate of 136.44, with a best of 40, and took only four wickets at an economy of 11.90.
Beyond leadership, Ashwin expressed concern about Pandya’s batting, noting unusual timing issues, stating, “With his (Hardik’s) batting, I found something quite interesting and strange, which is how late he’s been on the ball. Is he going through something physically? We wouldn’t be able to know that if there is something, then maybe that physical aspect will bring him back. And if he gets better, he’ll come back to it. But he’s been late on the hard-length deliveries.”
“He’s not someone who’s going to miss hard-length deliveries. He hits it 15 rows back. That’s a bit of a concern for me, whether he’s suffering something physically from a back issue or hands, or does he have a tennis elbow? Is his bat heavier (than it should be)? Does he need to recalibrate that? Those are things that I would want to know,” he added.
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The team has also struggled collectively, with other stars like Suryakumar Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah having similarly modest campaigns. Pandya has additionally been sidelined due to a reported back issue, missing three games, with Suryakumar and Bumrah stepping in as stand-in captains. Despite the struggles, Ashwin reaffirmed Pandya’s value.
“Hardik is a once-in-a-generation player. You don’t find such players. And if India finds itself in a certain T20 mastery now, Hardik’s been a linchpin in that. And to me, Hardik, the player, you can have a bad season. It’s digestible for me. Especially after you had a (T20) World Cup like that. Hardik likes a bit of space. He kind of stays in his own zone. So the only thing I’d be worried about is how late he’s been on the ball when he’s batting. Apart from that, it’s okay. I wouldn’t judge any of the other aspects of his game,” the former India spinner mentioned.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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Tushar Deshpande’s Brilliant Final Act Ensures Thrilling Win For RR Over Gujarat Titans
Back to full fitness after an uninterrupted winter, Pattison, the second-fastest British 800m runner in history, is desperate to clinch more major silverware on home soil this summer.
The 24-year-old announced himself on the global stage by claiming a surprise 800m bronze in his first world final in Budapest in 2023, and moved behind only Sebastian Coe on the British all-time list the following season.
But, after illness disrupted his Olympic preparations and his 2025 plans were ruined by a stress fracture, Pattison is targeting European and Commonwealth medals in Birmingham and Glasgow respectively.
Speaking to BBC Sport before competing in China, Pattison said: “The plan is to do both and my goal is to get two medals. It’s been three years now since I’ve got a medal at a major championship, so I feel like it’s been far too long.
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“I was asked at the world indoors: ‘Do you feel like you need to get a medal again?’ And I was thinking, hang on, I’m still quite young – but it does almost feel like that.
“I don’t like the fact that people still reference Budapest. That was good, and if you had told me when I was younger that I’d retire with a world and a Commonwealth bronze medal, I’d have definitely taken that.
“But to achieve that by the age of 21, I’d like to think by the end of my career I’ll definitely be able to get more medals – and that’s what really gets me going.”
Ronda Rousey worked with WWE from 2017 to 2019, and then again from 2022 to 2023. She made quite the impact during her two runs with the company.
In 2019, WWE had the first-ever main event with female superstars. Rousey vs. Charlotte Flair vs. Becky Lynch at WrestleMania 35 in a Winner Takes All match. Both the then-RAW Women’s Championship and then-SmackDown Women’s Championship were on the line at the match. Lynch won that match to become Becky Two Belts, and Rousey disappeared from WWE TV.
Thanks for the submission!
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While speaking to Zack Heydorn of SI’s The Takedown, Rousey revealed that before taking time off for her pregnancy, Rousey had pitched a singles feud against Becky Lynch to WWE, which Vince McMahon absolutely loved.
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“After WrestleMania, I literally printed out a whole presentation for them, for me and Becky — the singles match,” Rousey said. “How we would do it, how we would plan it out and rehearse these things and have them woven throughout the show. To do something really exceptional and new, and then Vince and them were like, ‘oh yeah, this is a great idea, this is great.’ Then I went and had my baby, I came back, and they were like, well, we talked about that a year ago”, said Ronda Rousey.
However, when she returned in 2022, it never came to fruition. She feuded with Charlotte Flair in 2022, but not with Becky Lynch, even though it was teased.
“They said, ‘We love this plan, it’s an epic showdown with you and Becky that’s going to build all year.’ I wanted to make basically a final showdown of me and Becky woven throughout the entirety of the show. It would summarize the entire rivalry for anyone watching it for the first time. Someone could watch it and not need to watch everything that came beforehand. It would sum it up and then deliver the ending. I thought it was fucking incredible and it was why I came back,” she added. [H/t: The Takedown]
Ronda Rousey opened up about working with Vince McMahon
Just weeks from the start of the 2026 World Cup, India is without a broadcasting deal. Talks are reportedly ongoing, with time zones and cost expectations clear stumbling blocks, but there is also a feeling that FIFA has misunderstood its two biggest markets.
“The Indian market is a sort of a brute force market,” Nandan Kamath, one of India’s leading sports lawyers and a key figure in the country’s sports policy, told DW. “It’s the numbers rather than the willingness.”
Broadcasters in India rely far more on advertising revenue than subscriptions. Viewing numbers for the tournament in Qatar were good, but they did not lead to a profit for Viacom18, the Indian media giant who owned the rights. On top of that, the premium subscriber base for most services is just too small to generate a major profit. In order for FIFA to reach the scale it wants, it will likely have to reduce its expectations.
“Everyone has had to rationalize subscriptions to get scale,” Kamath said, before referencing Netflix and Formula One. Both had to change their original ideas to reach the desired audience. For example, a Netflix subscription can now cost 199 rupees a month (roughly $2.50), while F1 offers a season pass for 899 rupees ($10).
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The Indian Premier League is the biggest cricket league in the world and is the top focus for broadcasters in IndiaImage: Rafiq Maqbool/AP Photo/picture alliance
Not a competitive market
“I don’t know if we’ve really seen the broadcast meet the market. Normally these rights are sold where there’s highly competitive people dealing with FOMO [fear of missing out], and that isn’t here right now,” Kamath said.
With only JioStar (which absorbed Viacom18 after the Reliance-Disney merger in 2024) and Sony in the running, a competitive market for rights isn’t there. And then there’s cricket.
“India is a sports market that has grown up on cricket,” said Kamath. “Without question, the FIFA World Cup would not be in the top two rights that would get sold in India; those would be IPL and ICC rights. And it’s a very unique thing for any market to not even be in the top two.”
If FIFA wants to break into the top two, it must look harder at the landscape.
“Cricket is the perfect advertising-supported sport, where it breaks every three or four minutes. And that is just so different from football,” Kamath explained. “I don’t think there’s enough breaks in play to really build a convincing advertising market.”
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Time and place a factor
Time zones are also a factor. Most the games will kick off when India is asleep. Four years ago in Qatar, the time difference to India was just two and a half hours. There’s also the country’s clear desire to host the Olympics, which pushes football further down the priority list. It also doesn’t help that India’s men’s football team have never played at a World Cup before, and were knocked out in the second round of qualifying for this edition.
“There is this notion that cricket is king, the Olympics is the next aspiration, and FIFA is very much an entertainment product,” Kamath said. “The bridge between participatory football, hosting ambition and viewing has too many barriers at this point in time.”
Ultimately, Kamath feels a deal will follow, but that FIFA will have to be more innovative in the future if they are to really flourish in the Indian market.
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“It could be virtual advertising, or better integration of Indian sponsors,” Kamath said. “You might need to find new models to meet this, but I don’t see the willingness to subscribe and pay a huge amount more changing in four years or eight.”
China have only participated at one men’s World Cup before, in 2002Image: Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP
FIFA greed a problem in China?
After weeks of doubt and negotiation, national media in China reported on May 15 that a broadcasting deal for the next two World Cups (men’s and women’s) had been agreed.
“China, basically, has always been obsessed with the game,” Xu Guoqi, a professor at the University of Hong Kong, told DW. “So in the past, even if the Chinese men had not qualified, the Chinese Central TV (CCTV) was always broadcasting.”
Guoqi, who is an expert in the role of sports in China and has authored books about the importance of sport in the country, feels that part of the problem is FIFA’s inability to understand the region.
“Time difference is not really an issue because historically speaking, with the exception of Qatar recently, it’s always in another place, so we all have to stay up very late,” Guoqi said. “I think FIFA got greedy. It’s a business deal, right? For FIFA, if Chinese men don’t watch the game that’s a big loss to them.”
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Given that, according to FIFA, almost 20% of linear TV reach in Qatar came from CCTV, it is understandable why football’s governing body is so keen to be present in the Chinese market.
The absence of the men’s team — who fell in the third round of qualifying and have only been at one previous World Cup, in 2002 — looks less decisive for the Chinese market currently. This is in part because there are still four Chinese companies who are sponsoring the tournament, but also because watching a World Cup remains a source of joy for many.
“In 1999 when NATO bombed a Chinese embassy, the Chinese government decided to cancel the broadcasting of NBA games,” said Guoqi, referencing work from his book “Olympic Dreams: China and Sports.”
“The Chinese youngsters denounced Americans in front of the embassy during the daytime, and in the evening, they denounced CCTV with the argument, ‘We hate American imperialism, but we love the NBA.’ The NBA belongs to the world. That tells you something about that new Chinese mindset, because it’s pure joy for them, basketball or football.”
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This article was updated shortly after publishing to reflect the news that China had secured a broadcasting deal for the 2026 and 2030 World Cups.
The 2026 PGA Championship’s second round has begun at Aronimink Golf Club. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler leads the way among Friday’s early wave. Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau will tee off in the afternoon for Round 2. GOLF’s writers and editors are providing live updates on the PGA Championship first round all day long, from on-site at Aronimink and beyond.
PGA Round 2: What you need to know
Friday’s second round starts with a whopping seven players tied for the lead… and another seven pros tied for second. But Scheffler’s name stands tallest among them. The four-time major winner is the defending PGA champion, and his repeat bid is off to a hot start. But plenty of other stars are in the mix, such as Spieth, Patrick Reed, Jon Rahm and Shane Lowry, to name just a few.
Meanwhile, McIlroy and DeChambeau will be fighting to make the cut on Friday and earn tee times for the weekend.
Notable Round 2 tee times: Martin Kaymer (7:29 a.m. ET); Patrick Reed (8:02 a.m. ET); Scottie Scheffler (8:40 a.m. ET); Bryson DeChambeau (1:43 p.m. ET); Rory McIlroy (2:05 p.m. ET); Jon Rahm (2:05 p.m. ET); Jordan Spieth (2:05 p.m. ET)
Aside from the Dubois defeat, which was stopped on cuts in the eighth round, Hrgovic has looked close to losing on two occasions – a controversial points win over Zhilei Zhang, and a dramatic eighth round against Adeleye in which the Brit was dropped but recovered to put ‘El Animal’ on seriously shaky legs.
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Speaking to DAZN ahead of his return, Hrgovic reflected on the ‘toughest round of his career’ against Adeleye, confirming that the Brit is the hardest hitter he has faced so far.
“He gave me the hardest punch that I ever received in my career. He punches harder than Zhang, Dubois, than anyone I faced … He’s got power. He doesn’t throw a lot, but he definitely has a strong punch.”
Most predict that Hrgovic’s durability will pose problems for Allen, who also believes he possesses an ‘iron chin’. If the Croatian comes through with the win and is injury-free, it is this resilience that may well land him a fight with young sensation Moses Itauma.
Itauma has made no secret that he wants to face Hrgovic, and it would be the clear toughest assignment of his impressive career so far. Talk of the match-up has intensified this week, seemingly leaving ‘The White Rhino’ Allen as the only man who can upset the plans.
As for Adeleye, he does not currently have his next fight booked but is consistently pushing for a high-level return, even calling out the new WBO champion, Dubois.
Different Gravy’s path to the Queensland Derby hangs in the balance as he prepares to race at Flemington.
Trainer Henry Dwyer aimed for the Derby up north after Different Gravy’s Listed victory spanning 1800m at Flemington on Melbourne Cup Day the previous year.
An alternate preparation was first envisioned by Dwyer for the Group 1 Queensland Derby (2400m) on Eagle Farm come May 30, omitting the Saturday Trevor Clarke Handicap (2000m) at Flemington.
Plans called for Different Gravy to enter the Rough Habit Plate (2000m) at Doomben on Saturday following Sydney, but March’s subpar 1600m comeback at Caulfield halted progress.
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“Admittedly we knew he was underdone but I thought he would go better at Caulfield,” Dwyer said.
“I didn’t want to send him up to Sydney off the back of that as I needed him to do something, so Adelaide was an easier option.
“He improved somewhat but still wasn’t as good as he can be, so we’ve left him down here to give ourselves another chance before we pull the trigger and send him to Queensland.
“He needs to improve again, which I think he can and I think he will, but I don’t think we’ve seen the best of him this prep.”
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Building on a fourth placing in the Port Adelaide Guineas (1800m) at Morphettville April 11, Different Gravy dominated a Caulfield Heath trial with blinkers on, set to use them Saturday.
Dwyer believes the Flemington venue and extended 2000m trip are spot-on for Different Gravy, needing only a competitive performance to confirm the northern voyage.
“I want to see him back at Flemington, a nice big track,” Dwyer said.
“A wide barrier is not a bad thing for him as it will give him a bit of space and room to move, so that will give him every chance.
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“He’s carrying 7-½ kilos more than Matt Cumani’s horse (Brave Danza) that was on level weights when he beat him at Flemington in the spring.
“It’s always a challenge going through benchmark races against progressive horses that have a lot less weight than you.
“He doesn’t necessarily have to win, and I’m not saying he can’t, but as long as he finished in the top three or four, I would be confident enough that that would be a good enough run to go to Queensland.”
Blessed Stars Academy have confirmed a friendly match against Akwa United FC following their impressive outing in the recently concluded Nationwide League One (NLO) season.
The academy side narrowly missed out on a place in the promotion playoffs after a strong campaign.
In a post shared on social media on Friday morning, Blessed Stars announced details of the friendly encounter.
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The match will take place at the Uyo Township Stadium on Friday, May 15, 2026, with kick-off scheduled for 4pm.
Akwa United are using the game as part of preparations for the 2026 President Federation Cup. The draw for the Round of 64 is expected to hold today, while matches will begin on Wednesday, May 20.
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The Promise Keepers, coached by Paul Offor, will hope the friendly helps the team sharpen up ahead of the competition as they chase a third Federation Cup title after their previous successes in 2015 and 2017.
Blessed Stars, led by coach Ubong Vincent, are also expected to use the game to test their squad against one of the country’s experienced sides.
Much has been made of the former Toronto Maple Leaf flipping the script and becoming a post-season stud for his new club. The Vegas Golden Knights winger came into Thursday night’s Game 6 meeting with the Anaheim Ducks leading the post-season in scoring, and sitting tied with Team Canada teammate Nathan MacKinnon for the scoring lead in Round 2, too.
One minute into Game 6, Marner made clear he has no intention of slowing down, the smooth-skating winger breaking in all alone on Ducks netminder Lukas Dostal, and pulling a filthy move to draw first blood for the Golden Knights.
Seven minutes later, he was on the board again, setting up Brett Howden for a short-handed tally that wound up as the night’s game-winning goal, and series-clinching goal.
The Ducks weren’t able to close the gap, falling 5-1 in the end, bringing their meteoric campaign of progress to a close. For Vegas, the second-round win sends them back to the conference final for the first time since their Cup-winning run in 2023. The organization has reached the conference final five times since joining the league in 2017-18, the most of any club in that span.
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Marner was no doubt essential in getting them there. It was an up-and-down regular season for the winger in his first campaign as a Knight — he posted 80 points in Vegas after a career-best 102-point season to close out his tenure in Toronto. But this Golden Knights run has seen Marner play the best hockey of his playoff career. His seven goals rank as the second-most tallied by a Golden Knights player in their first post-season with the franchise, one behind Jonathan Marchessault’s eight in 2018, and Marner became the second Golden Knight to record multi-point games in two straight series-clinching tilts after posting two goals and an assist in Vegas’s series-ender against Utah.
The Markham, Ont., product finishes Round 2 with a league-leading 18 points through 12 games in these playoffs — a career-best mark in the post-season. More importantly for him and his Golden Knights, he now heads into territory his former club could never reach: the third round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
“He’s a game-breaker,” teammate Jack Eichel said on the broadcast after the final buzzer sounded on Vegas’s series-clinching win. “You saw it in that series — he was the best player in that series. I mean, he comes out here in the beginning of the first period, makes two incredible plays, and all of a sudden you’re playing with a lead.
“He’s on a pretty special run right now. It’s been a lot of fun to watch. I’m so happy for him — I feel like he’s had a lot of critics, and I feel like he’s shutting a lot of people up right now.”
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Golden Knights’ special-teams dominance continues in series-clincher
The Golden Knights came into Game 6 vastly outperforming their young opponent on the special-teams front.
Through five games in this series, Vegas’s power play was humming at 30.8 per cent, the second-best mark of all Round 2 participants, while Anaheim’s man-advantage unit struggled to a 17.6-per cent success rate. The same went for the penalty kill — Vegas came into Game 6 with their kill operating at 83.4 per cent, again among the best in Round 2, compared to Anaheim’s 69.2 per cent.
In Game 6, that trend continued. A dominant first period saw Vegas build a 3-0 lead on the back of some sterling special-teams play. After Marner’s opening-minute display, the Knights collected a short-handed goal and a power-play tally to put the Ducks on their heels early.
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Anaheim managed one power-play marker in the second period — a Mikael Granlund snipe that wound up as the Ducks’ only goal of the night — but overall left plenty of opportunities to get back in the game on the table. The Ducks finished the night 1-for-5 on the power play, and 4-for-22 in the series overall — a stark drop-off from their league-leading 8-for-16 success rate in Round 1.
Dorofeyev, Howden stay hot, take over top of playoffs goal-scoring race
Pavel Dorofeyev’s banner year continued Thursday night. The 25-year-old put up a career-best 37 goals during the regular season, besting the career-best 35 he potted a year prior. And through two rounds of this post-season, the Russian winger has kept that elite pace alive.
He added two more goals in Game 6, scoring the final two tallies of Vegas’s 5-1 win, to take his 2026 post-season total to a league-leading nine goals in 12 games. Dorofeyev now has goals in three straight, putting up five tallies in Games 4, 5 and 6 to help close out the Ducks.
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Earlier in the night, it was teammate Howden who briefly took over that top spot in the playoff goal-scoring race when he tallied his eighth goal of the post-season. The 28-year-old had just 12 goals during the regular season, and has already set a career high in the playoff goals category, sitting just a handful away from equalling that regular-season sum.
Howden’s short-handed tally Thursday night was his third of this Golden Knights’ run, leaving him tied for the most in a single post-season.
Sennecke, Ducks’ young stars held off the board in pivotal Game 6
Anaheim’s 20-year-old phenom, Beckett Sennecke, came into Thursday night’s tilt on fire — the winger had goals in four straight games heading into Game 6, including tallies in both of Anaheim’s wins in this series.
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Thursday night, the run came to an end as the veteran Knights held Sennecke and the rest of Anaheim’s young stars — 22-year-old Cutter Gauthier, 21-year-old Leo Carlsson, and 25-year-old Jackson LaCombe — off the board. Sennecke, who finishes tied for the team lead in goals during this playoff run, got his chances, throwing a team-leading five shots on net, but was unable to break through.
Still, though their 2026 run comes to an end, the Ducks no doubt sent a message this season in what was an immense step forward for the organization. After missing the playoffs for much of the past decade, the club’s young core turned their potential into performance in these playoffs, and put the rest of the West on notice.
Next up: Vegas meets Colorado in the Western Conference Final
Now, the path gets far more difficult for the Golden Knights.
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After taking down two younger, more inexperienced squads in Utah and Anaheim through the first two rounds, Vegas now gets the opposite challenge in Round 3: an incredibly experienced Colorado Avalanche team that’s looked far and away the best in the league all season.
Colorado enters Round 3 having swept the Los Angeles Kings in Round 1, followed up by taking down another bona fide contender, the Minnesota Wild, in Round 2. In the regular season, the Avs took two of three meetings with Vegas, winning once in regulation and once in a shootout, while the Knights claimed one win themselves in overtime.
In what will be a series of seasoned vets, the Golden Knights and Avs will head into their third-round battle with 23 Cup winners dotted among both squads (12 for Vegas, 11 for Colorado), marking the first time in more than a decade that a conference final match-up will feature two clubs with double-digit Cup winners on their rosters.
Spanish media have questioned Marcus Rashford’s impact at Barcelona and compared him to another loan star
Marcus Rashford’s Barcelona stint has come under scrutiny following the explosive form of a player linked to Manchester United.
Rashford has enjoyed a largely positive campaign since joining Barca from United, having spent the latter half of last season on loan at Villa. While Rashford has made clear his desire to remain in Catalonia – and cut ties with United permanently – Barca have reservations over whether to activate the £26m option they hold to sign him outright.
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Reports suggest they may postpone a decision by extending his loan, though United are pushing for a summer sale. It’s evident the La Liga champions aren’t wholly convinced about Rashford’s long-term prospects, given he hasn’t consistently featured in the starting XI this term.
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His situation has naturally dominated discussion in Spanish media, with one publication, SPORT, highlighting the superior influence of Donyell Malen, who has been outstanding for Roma since joining on loan from Villa in January, leading him to be linked with a shock move to Old Trafford.
After struggling for consistency at Villa, the Dutchman has emerged as a talismanic figure for Roma with 14 goals and three assists across 18 matches. He even has an outside chance of finishing the campaign as Serie A’s leading scorer, which would be extraordinary for someone who’s spent merely four months in the division.
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Unsurprisingly, Roma are thrilled to have activated his permanent transfer for £21m, ruling out a switch to United. SPORT suggests that Malen’s performances put Rashford’s form in the shade.
Highlighting the parallels between the duo’s paths to their respective clubs, they write: “Malen’s impact has been much more immediate and decisive. The Dutchman has become Roma’s attacking leader and one of the key figures in the Italian league, while Rashford has yet to dispel all the doubts.”
They continue: “His influence goes far beyond statistics. Roma has gone from an inconsistent season to reaching the decisive stretch fighting for a top-four finish in Serie A. What seemed like a risky gamble is now one of the biggest stories of the season in Italian football.”
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Rashford’s impact, albeit within a more illustrious squad, hasn’t been quite as pronounced, leaving the verdict on his Barcelona future anything but straightforward. That said, he demonstrated his quality to Barcelona with a goal as they secured the La Liga title by defeating arch-rivals Real Madrid.
Following the match, Rashford addressed his future, saying: “I don’t know. I am not a magician, but if I was, I would stay. So we will see.
“I’m very happy, I just want to enjoy today. I live in the moment. At the end of the season, we will see. I came here to win and we do this so I’m very happy.
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“It’s an incredible feeling. Over the season we deserved it, we were the best team. We had some bad moments but we always come back and fight to improve.”
Sky Sports, HBO Max, Netflix and Disney+ with Ultimate TV package
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Sky has upgraded its Ultimate TV and Sky Sports bundle to now include HBO Max, Netflix, Disney+, discovery+ and Hayu, as well as 135 channels and full Sky coverage of the Premier League and EFL.
Sky broadcasts more than 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more with at least 215 live from the top flight alongside Formula 1, darts and golf.
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