Penguins stop Devils

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Connor Clifton and Egor Chinakhov scored 50 seconds apart in the third period and the Pittsburgh Penguins surged past Jack Hughes and the reeling New Jersey Devils 4-1 on Thursday night.

Tommy Novak, serving as the first-line center while captain Sidney Crosby recovers from a lower-body injury sustained at the Milan Cortina Olympics, picked up his 12th goal of the season. Blake Lizotte added an empty-netter late for Pittsburgh, which has won eight of 10 to move into second place in the crowded Metropolitan Division.

Arturs Silovs stopped 28 shots to win for the fourth time in five starts.

Paul Cotter scored his sixth goal of the season for the Devils but couldn’t halt New Jersey’s slide. The Devils have dropped seven of eight to fall off the pace in the race for one of the Eastern Conference’s two wild-card spots.

Hughes, who carved out a piece of U.S. Olympic history when he scored the winning goal in the gold medal game against Canada, received an extended ovation on the road — replete with chants of “Huuuughes” and “USA! USA!” — during a brief pregame ceremony in which the Penguins acknowledged the gold-medal winning U.S. men’s and women’s teams, as well as members of Team Canada.

The Penguins have pledged to stay in the playoff mix without Crosby. They began a busy stretch without him by using solid goaltending from Silovs and timely playmaking to keep it going.

Clifton’s blast past Jacob Markstrom 6:30 into the third period gave Pittsburgh a 2-1 lead. Chinakhov doubled the Penguins’ advantage less than a minute later when he collected a stretch pass from Evgeni Malkin then slipped the puck between Markstrom’s legs for his ninth goal in 19 games since being acquired from Columbus in December.

Up next

Devils: At St. Louis on Saturday.

Penguins: At the New York Rangers on Saturday.

Boys wrestling sectionals coming up

The local boys wrestling sectional tournaments will be held Saturday.

In Division II, Salem and West Branch will be at West Branch; Beaver Local and Edison will be at Steubenville; and East Liverpool at Minerva will be at Urichsville Claymont.

In Division III, United, Southern and Leetonia will be at Rootstown and Columbiana, East Palestine and Wellsville will be at Beachwood.

The top four finishers in each weight class advance to the district tournament.

Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for students. Children 5 and under are free.

Girls wrestling is on Sunday

The local girls wrestling sectional tournaments will be held on Sunday.

The girls wrestle in one division with East Palestine, Leetonia, Southern and West Branch at Austintown Fitch; East Liverpool, Edison and Minerva at Urichsville Claymont; United at Canal Fulton Northwest; and Salem at Avon Lake.

The top four finishers in each weight class advance to the district tournament.

Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for students. Children 5 and under are free.

McKinstry named state’s top official

COLUMBUS — Kevin McKinstry of East Palestine was named the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s volleyball official of the year on Thursday.

McKinstry will be recognized along with 20 other current officials as well as 14 OHSAA Officials Hall of Fame inductees at the Celebration of Officiating banquet set for June 20 at the Hilton Columbus/Polaris in Columbus.

Kevin McKinstry is the brother of East Liverpool volleyball coach Dan McKinstry.

Bruce Froemming, record setting ump, dies at 86

Bruce Froemming, a major league umpire for 37 consecutive years who worked the third-most games in big league history and a record 11 no-hitters, died Wednesday, his son said. He was 86.

Froemming fell just after midnight Tuesday and hit his head on the hardwood floor at his home in Mequon, Wisconsin, and was taken to Ascension Columbia St. Mary’s Hospital in Milwaukee, according to Froemming’s son, Steven.

He had brain bleeding that medical personnel could not stop because Froemming was on blood thinners, leading to his death.

Froemming was a semipro baseball player and started his umpiring career in the minor leagues in 1958 at age 18. He worked his way up and joined the National League staff in 1971. He shifted to the unified major league staff in 2000 and retired in 2007 having worked 5,163 games, second at the time to Bill Klem’s 5,373. They were both surpassed by Joe West, who worked 5,460 games before retiring in 2021.

NCAA might tweak targeting ejection rules

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Division I football rules makers have proposed a one-year trial rule allowing a player disqualified for targeting for the first time to play in his team’s next game regardless of which half the penalty was assessed, the NCAA announced Thursday.

Currently, players disqualified for targeting must miss the rest of the game and, if the penalty occurs in the second half, sit out the first half of the next game.

Under the Division I Football Rules Subcommittee’s proposal, a player disqualified for targeting a second time during the season would miss the first half of the next game. A third targeting ejection in the same season would cause the offending player to miss the entire next game.

Targeting is forcible contact with an opponent’s head or neck area where the offending player often uses the crown of his helmet to make contact or launches his body into the opposing player above the shoulders.

Oversight committees for the Bowl Subdivision and Championship Subdivision must approve proposals before they become official. Those committees meet next month.

“This continues the evolution of our targeting rule and balances the important safety impact with an appropriate penalty structure,” said A.J. Edds, rules subcommittee chair and vice president of football administration for the Big Ten. “We will closely monitor this one-year adjustment, and the committee believes it is important to enhance the progressive penalty to ensure proper coaching and player education.”

Dress code

The rules subcommittee proposed that players wear leg coverings from the top of their shoes to the bottom of their pants. Players would have to wear the same covering style and colors for that particular game.

Players out of compliance with the rule would have to leave the game for at least one down and correct the issue. A team would receive a warning for the first offense.

If a team has a second offense under this proposal, the offending team would be given a 5-yard penalty. Any subsequent violations of the rule would result in a 15-yard penalty.

“The current look of the uniform is clearly not meeting the expectations of the college football community,” Edds said. “This will take a collective effort by administrators, coaches and officials to communicate expectations to players and equipment managers. This proposal, we believe, is definitive and gives us a chance for consistent enforcement across Division I football.”

Fair catch kick

Under a proposal, a team could choose to attempt a fair catch kick after a completed or awarded fair catch. The kick would be a field goal place kick with a holder or a drop kick from the spot where the returner caught the ball.