First Period

UTICA, N.Y. -- The Utica Devils and the Baltimore Skipjacks weren't spreading any holiday cheer last night.Beginning with main event between Baltimore's Richie Walcott and Utica's Bill Huard, the teams scrapped and clawed and yapped their way through a first period that included seven fights and 114 penalty minutes.The Devils eventually overcame Reggie Savage's two first-period goals behind two newcomers -- right wing Kevin Kerr and goaltender Doug Dadswell -- for a 3-2 AHL victory at the Utica Memorial Auditorium before 1,931.

Maryland wrestler Jimmy Sheptock moved on to the quarterfinal round with two wins on the opening day of the NCAA wrestling championships at the Chesapeake Energy Arena on Thursday. Five Terps started the day and four will continue on to today's action. Christian Boley and Shyheim Brown rebounded from first-round losses with wins in their wrestlebacks while Spencer Myers won in the opening round and dropped his second match. Sheptock, the top seed at 184 pounds, began his day against unseeded Ben Stroh of Wyoming and used a takedown and 2-point near fall in the third period to seal a 10-3 decision victory.

WASHINGTON -- Against a normal goalie, the Washington Capitals would have jumped to an early lead with the way Adam Oates was setting up his teammates in the first period last night.But the Buffalo Sabres' Dominik Hasek isn't your normal goalie, especially in the pressure-packed Eastern Conference finals of the Stanley Cup playoffs.After having a trio of golden scoring opportunities swallowed by Hasek in the first period, the Caps lapsed badly in the first two minutes of the middle period, allowing the Sabres two goals and a 2-0 victory in the first game of the best-of-seven series.

The Howard County Scholastic Hockey Association continued its winter season last week. Glenelg faced off against Mt. Hebron in an exciting fast-paced game, with the Gladiators earning a 5-3 victory. The goal horn remained silent for the first 10 minutes of the first period as the two teams battled it out. With about three minutes left before the first intermission, Glenelg's Johnny Lyons put an unassisted score on the board. Less than two minutes later, Mt. Hebron's Joseph Petti answered back on a power play goal that was assisted by Morgan Martin.

Patterson wrestlers pinned seven opponents, five of them in the first period, and overcame two forfeits in yesterday's 46-27 Baltimore City dual-meet victory over visiting Poly.Ed Kempa (140) had the fastest pin, improving to 17-4 after flattening Lucas Seip-Williams with a headlock in 36 seconds. City champion Thorn Brown (103, a 21-2 record), Angelo DePasquale (119), Jimmy Walker (135, 15-3) and Kennard Wheeler (189) also had first-period pins.First-year wrestler Caleb Moore (152) and third-ranked Leonard Bridgeforth (171, 23-1)

LANDOVER -- The Washington Capitals made it easy for the Minnesota North Stars last night.Capitals mistakes, combined with a lethargic effort, resulted in a 3-1 loss to the North Stars.Washington did very little right on a night on which starting goaltender Don Beaupre was pulled by coach Terry Murray 15 minutes into the game, after the Capitals fell behind, 3-0.Beaupre wasn't all to blame, as Capitals defensemen made several mistakes, and the North Stars got goals from Gaetan Duchesne, Mike Modano and Steve Maltais.

Branden Albert was nearly unstoppable inside, scoring 13 of his team-high 25 points in the first period to propel No. 8 Glen Burnie to a 14-point lead en route to a 73-44 romp at Arundel High in Gambrills last night. By the end of the first half, the 6-foot-7, 315-pound Albert had 19 points, four rebounds and four blocked shots. And the visitors had a 37-18 lead and the game in hand. Arundel's Cory Henderson finished with 25 points, but no other Wildcat had more than four points. The victory left the Gophers 13-2 overall and 9-1 atop the Anne Arundel County boys basketball league, with Arundel slipping to 9-6 and 5-4. "It was over early," said Arundel coach Sam Golder, whose Wildcats had won seven of their previous eight.

Senators: Alexei Yashin had three goals and two assists in Ottawa's 7-1 victory over St. Louis Tuesday night. The Senators, who scored five goals in the first period, set team records for the quickest three, four and five goals in a game.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- The anxiety attack continued for the Skipjacks last night.In need of a few lucky breaks to break out of their three-week tailspin, all the Skipjacks got was another excuse to feel sorry for themselves. This time, Baltimore outshot the New Haven Nighthawks 41-19 but lost, 5-3, before 4,682 at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum."Right now, we're a team that has to overcome everything," said Baltimore coach Rob Laird. "We have to fight off bad calls, bad bounces and hot goaltenders."

DETROIT -- The Washington Capitals scored the first two times they shot, but gave up two third-period goals as the Detroit Red Wings gained a 2-2 tie before a standing-room crowd of 19,875 at Joe Louis Arena last night.The game ended with a brawl with only 4.2 second remaining to play in overtime.Sylvain Cote and Kelly Miller scored in the first period, and Don Beaupre stopped the Red Wings for 50 minutes.The Red Wings finally got to Beaupre midway through the third period. Ray Sheppard scored his 49th goal on a power play at 10:27 to cut the Capitals lead to 2-1. The shot beat Beaupre low on the glove side.

The The New York Rangers arrived in Washington a road-weary and wayward bunch, allowing an NHL-high five goals per game and unable to establish any consistency under their new head coach. But some habits, like rendering the Capitals ineffective, appear as intact as ever. The Capitals spent most of Wednesday night's contest committing turnovers and chasing New York around the defensive zone, as they followed up their first regulation win with a dud. Washington fell, 2-0, at Verizon Center received a harsh reminder there is still much to improve upon as they were thwarted, again, by the Rangers.

Erik Etherly had 12 points and seven rebounds to lead visiting Loyola to a 51-41 men's basketball victory over Manhattan in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference game Friday night at Draddy Gymnasium. Anthony Winbush added nine points and eight rebounds for the Greyhounds (15-6, 7-2 MAAC), who have won three in a row and six of seven. Emmy Andujar came off the bench to score 12 points and grab 16 rebounds for the Jaspers (5-14, 3-6), who have lost three in a row and nine of 11. Loyola slowly built a lead as both teams struggled to score early in the opening half.

The senior dominated the 170-pound class at the Mount Mat Madness tournament at UMBC this weekend, pinning all five of his opponents in the first period to become the Dons' first-ever individual champion at the prestigious event. Schuster, who is ranked No. 2 in the weight class by the Maryland State Wrestling Association, closed out the impressive outing with a 57-second fall against Huntingtown's No. 7-ranked Colton Rowe in Saturday's title bout. He is 14-0 on the season with all of his wins coming by pins - 13 in the first period.

Maryland's lacrosse game against Villanova lasted nearly two hours, but it took about 15 minutes to determine the winner. No. 11 Maryland jumped out to a six-goallead in the first 12 minutes asthe Terps easily defeated No. 9 Villanova, 11-5, before a crowd of nearly 2,000 at Byrd Stadium on Saturday . Maryland junior attackman Owen Blye had four goals, while midfielder Michael Shakespeare and attackman Billy Gribbin each had two to pace...

Seventh-seeded Josh Asper (Hereford) picked up three victories at 165 pounds to advance to Friday's quarterfinals at the 2012 NCAA championships at the Scottrade Center on Thursday. Asper is one win away from securing All-America status for the second consecutive season. The Terps are in 31st place after the first day with Penn State in first with 38.5 points. Asper earned a 5-0 decision over Buffalo's Mark Lewandowski in the 165-pound pigtail match to open the tournament. Approximately 90 minutes later, Asper picked up a 6-4 decision over Virginia's Nicholas Sulzer.

Boys' Latin wrestled St. Mary's-Ryken to a 42-42 tie and won on criteria H, the most points scored in the first period, at the Capital Duals at St. John's (D.C.) on Saturday. The Lakers (11-4) tied the score at 30 with a pin by Colton Haugh (106). The Knights answered with a pin at 113 and Boys' Latin won the next two weight classes by forfeit, 120 and 126, but Ryken won the last match, 132, by forfeit to tie the score at 42. It took the eighth criteria, H, to decide a winner.

LANDOVER -- A flat Washington Capitals team ran into the streaking Pittsburgh Penguins and never had much of a chance at the Capital Centre last night.The Penguins burned starting Washington goaltender Mike Liut for four goals in the first 8 minutes, 23 seconds and coasted to a 7-3 Patrick Division victory.It was the seventh triumph in the past eight games for Pittsburgh, and the Capitals remained winless in the past six (0-5-1).Paul Coffey began the assault on Liut at 6:07 of the first period when he took a pass from Phil Bourque and skated in for a point-blank shot and a 1-0 lead.

Arden Smith is a soft-spoken sophomore forward playing in her first year of varsity for the Broadneck girls soccer team. But her right foot boomed loudly Thursday at South River. Smith cleanly struck a shot from 18 yards that quickly found the top-right corner of the Seahawks' net, providing the overtime golden goal that gave the No. 15 Bruins a 2-1 upset win over No. 10 South River in Anne Arundel County play. Sophomore Caitlyn Shea sent a long ball from midfield to junior Emily Lord, who settled and then nudged a short pass across to Smith.

This hasn't been an easy Stanley Cup finals for goalies. The wide-open play has led to 40 goals, most through the first five games of the finals since the Islanders and North Stars combined for 42 in 1981 and most in a finals series of any length since the Rangers and Canucks had 40 in seven games in 1994. "I don't think we envisioned scoring at the rate we're scoring at," said Hawks coach Joel Quenneville, whose team has 21 goals to 19 for the Flyers. While Quenneville has stuck with Antti Niemi despite the occasional soft goal, Flyers coach Peter Laviolette has yanked starter Michael Leighton in Games 1 and 5. It is the first time a goalie has been pulled twice in the finals since North Stars coach Bob Gainey did it to Jon Casey during the last two games in 1991.