41SPORTSARAB TIMES, SUNDAY, APRIL 24, 2016

Stephen Johns #28 of the Dallas Stars skates the puck against Jordan Schroeder #10 of the Minnesota Wild in the second period in Game Five of the Western Conference First Round during the 2016 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at American Airlines Center

on April 22 in Dallas, Texas. (AFP)

Los Angeles Kings right wing Kris Versteeg celebrates his goal as San Jose Sharks defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic skates in the back-ground during the second period of Game 5 in an NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoffs first-round series, April

22, in Los Angeles. (AP)

David seeks worldtitle on ‘home soil’KUALA LUMPUR, April 23, (AFP): Squash legend Nicol David defends her world title on Malaysian home soil beginning on Monday, but this time in the unfa-miliar position of underdog.

The eight-time world champion dominated the sport for the past decade but has seen her aura of invincibility fade.

She has won just one tournament in the past year and surrendered the sport’s top rank last September after a historic nine-year run.

As a result, one of the more competitive fields in years is expected for the PSA Women’s World Championships, led by cur-rent world number one Laura Massaro of England.

David, the second seed in Malaysia and fifth-ranked player in the world, admits she has had to adjust her expectations.

After losing her top rank, the 32-year-old vowed to win it back,

but now says she is focussing sim-ply on keeping her game sharp.

“It was an amazing achievement for me to be the world number one for nine years, but now for me it’s more about personal develop-ment,” she said on Saturday.

“People will want me to chase the top spot, but the better I under-stand myself, the better I will play.”

“It’s wonderful to have the tour-nament in Malaysia again and I’m just looking for a strong start and to feel good right away.”

David, known simply as “Nicol” in Malaysia, where she is a nation-al heroine, is yet to win the title on home turf despite two previous attempts.

Her last tour victory came in December when she secured her 10th consecutive Hong Kong Open title.

Massaro, however, won the last time Malaysia hosted the worlds, in 2013.

Isles eye series win, Sharks eliminate KingsFlyers, Wild stay alive

SUNRISE, Florida, April 23, (AP): Alan Quine’s power-play goal at exactly 16 minutes of the second overtime gave the New York Islanders a 2-1 victory over the Florida Panthers early Saturday in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference quarter-final series.

Thomas Greiss stopped 47 shots for the Islanders. They lead the series 3-2 and can wrap it up with a win in Game 6 in New York on Sunday.

Roberto Luongo made 40 saves for Florida, which missed a penalty shot in the first overtime and was whistled for two penalties in the second overtime. The game ended at 12:16 am.

The Islanders’ second overtime power play came when Derek Mackenzie was called for slashing at 14:31, and that would be the break New York finally needed. Quine’s blast from the right side beat Luongo, and the Islanders swarmed the ice in celebration.

Frans Nielsen scored in the first period for the Islanders, and Aleksander Barkov tied it early in the third for the Panthers. The Islanders’ Calvin De Haan was called for closing his hand on the puck in the crease 7:19 into overtime, giving Barkov a chance to win it on a penalty shot just the third in NHL playoff histo-ry. But his backhander was easily han-dled by Greiss.

It was the seventh consecutive playoff overtime loss for Florida, a streak begin-ning with the final game of the 1996 Stanley Cup final against Colorado.

Sharks 6, Kings 3In Los Angeles, Joonas Donskoi broke

a tie with his second goal early in the third period, and the San Jose Sharks blew a three-goal lead before rallying to wrap up their first-round playoff series.

Chris Tierney and Matt Nieto scored early goals and Joe Pavelski got another late score for the Sharks, who stared down the demons of their past playoff failures against Los Angeles and advanced to the second round for just the second time since 2011.

San Jose led 3-0 early in the second period before the Kings scored three goals in nine electric minutes. But after Donskoi broke the tie with the second playoff goal of his rookie season, Pavelski added his fifth goal of the series.

Martin Jones made 19 saves and Melker Karlsson added an empty-net goal for the Sharks, who will next face

the winner of the Anaheim Ducks’ series with the Nashville Predators. The clubs are even heading to Game 5 in Anaheim on Saturday.

Flyers 2, Capitals 0In Washington, Michal Neuvirth made

a playoff career-high 44 saves and Philadelphia beat Washington Capitals in Game 5 to stay alive in the first-round series.

Neuvirth was dominant, carrying the team on his shoulders and blunting Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals’ every charge to cut the series deficit to 3-2 and send it back to Philadelphia for Game 6 on Sunday.

Ryan White scored the lone goal for the Flyers against Braden Holtby, with the puck deflecting in off Washington defenseman Taylor Chorney and past the goalie.

Chris VandeVelde added an empty-netter.

Holtby was barely tested in making 10 saves, while Neuvirth set a franchise records for saves in a playoff shutout and saves in a regulation playoff game. It’s the first time a team won a Stanley Cup playoff game with 11 shots since the Capitals beat Ottawa in 1998, and that total is the fewest shots for the Flyers history in the regular season and playoffs.

The pressure is now on the Presidents’ T r o p h y - w i n n i n g Capitals, who led the series 3-0 before Neuvirth replaced Steve Mason in goal for Philadelphia. Washington lost back-to-back games in regulation for the first time all season.

Wild 5, Stars 4, OTIn Dallas, Mikko Koivu redirected

Ryan Suter’s shot from the left point 4:55 into overtime and Minnesota beat Dallas in Game 5 to stay alive in the first-round series. Koivu also forced the overtime, going top shelf for the tying goal with 3:09 left in regulation.

The Wild cut their series deficit to 3-2. Game 6 is Sunday in Minnesota.

Jason Spezza and Alex Goligoski scored 28 seconds apart almost midway through the third period to give the Stars their first lead of the game.

Devan Dubnyk made 37 saves for Minnesota. Antti Niemi stopped 19 of 24 shots in his second consecutive start in the series for Dallas after Kari Lehtonen was in goal for the first three games.

Nino Niederreiter, Mikael Granlund and Jordon Schroeder also scored for Minnesota. Jamie Benn and Johnny Oduya added goals for Dallas.

U-14 runners up U-12 runners up Spectators

U-14 winners

CCC Juniors and CCC Seniors win titles

FOCC rolls on with ‘ABK CRYcket 2016’KUWAIT CITY, April 23: Friends of CRY Club, Kuwait (FOCC), con-ducted the 19th “ABK CRYcket 2016” tournament at the Al-Sahel Sports Club on the 8th of April. Coupled with the grass ground, the event had all the ingredients to make it a memorable day — full of fun, enthusiasm and stiff competition. “CRYcket” is an annual softball cricket tournament, for children under 12 & 14, played in 7-over match format, and completed in a single day. The teams are formed by bringing together children irrespec-tive of which school, nationality or locality they belong to. The Under-14 trophy was bagged by “CCC Seniors” and “Pace XI Seniors” took the runners-up place. In the Under-12 Category, “CCC Juniors” clinched the winner’s trophy and the “DPS Siachin Warriors” came in second place.

Ahli Bank of Kuwait (ABK) were the event sponsor and hence the tour-nament was named as “ABK CRYcket”. DNV–GL continued their support for FOCC as our Gold spon-sor and Hussein & Qaisar Int. Co. as Bronze sponsors.

Our co-sponsors were Al-Soor Clinic and German Press Company, while other sponsors included Al-Mailem Tires, BEC Online, Career Hunters, Dar Al-Saha Poly Clinic, Morad Behbehani Co, Payal Jewelers and Well Wishers. The raffle draw prizes were provided by Pizza Inn. We are grateful to HE the Ambassador of India, Shri Sunil Jain who has been supporting us over the years, through his encouraging messages. Our thanks to Arab Times, IndiansinKuwait.com, Goa-world.com, Mangalorean.com, Canaraworld.com, Abroadindians.com, daijiworld.com and others for covering us in the media. Kuwait Cricket, the apex body of controlling cricket in Kuwait as usual came for-ward with their support by providing us with professional umpires and scorers and Al-Sahel Spots Club for providing us the venue for the tourna-ment.

Most importantly, we highly appreciate the parents, coaches and team officials, our un-sung back-ground heroes. Lastly we thank CRY India for being our invisible strength, year after year.

The CRYbuddies, Kynara Fernandes, Nandita Venkataraman, Sukaina Ghasia, Nafisa Basrai, Miransh Sharma and Balakannan M. were in full steam to keep the KID’S CORNER, running and entertaining the children between their matches.

Toys, books and other interesting items donated by good Samaritans were available in “Buy for Cry” stall at amazing bargain prices. The Raffle draw, another integral feature had 9 fabulous prizes to be won. Balwant Bains and Shankar Dahima from Ahli Bank of Kuwait, Mohammed Osama Owais from DNV-GL and Hassan Merchant from Hussein & Qaisar Int graced the occasion as our Chief Guests and presented the tro-phies, medals and certificates from

CRY India to the winning teams and participating children.

The FOCC’s Souvenir was also released which included a message from Susan Varghese, Head of CRY Global Operations which was highly motivating and gave a brief on the FOCC supported project “Manav Ashrita Sansthan (MAS)” in India.

The participating teams in the Under-12 Category were 664 Hitter’s, Cricket Coaching Club (CCC) Juniors, DPS Siachin Warriors, Pace-XI Juniors and Young Stars Cricket Academy. In the Pool A, after the league matches, all the three teams remained tied with a win each, but CCC Juniors and DPS Siachin Warriors secured their place in the semifinals on the basis of net run rate.

From Pool B, Young Star Cricket and 664 Hitters entered the semifinals. After the finals, “CCC Juniors” clinched the winner’s trophy and the “DPS Siachin Warriors” came in sec-ond place. Teams in the Under-14 Category were All Children Cricket Academy, Cricket Coaching Club (CCC) Seniors, DPS Indus Frontiers, Jabriya Giants, MACE Tigers, MG Kids Cricket Coaching and PACE-XI Seniors. After starting the matches early in the morning, from Pool A “Pace XI Seniors” and “ACC Academy” made it to the semifinals, whereas from Pool B the “Cricket Coaching Club (CCC) Seniors” and “DPS Indus Frontiers” qualified.

The semifinal between CCC Seniors and “Pace XI Seniors”

remained tied requiring a super over for finding the finalist. In the final the “CCC Seniors” were victorious and “Pace XI Seniors” took the runners-up place.

The best player awards went to Meet Bhavsar (CCC Juniors) in the U12 category and Ajith Suresh (CCC Seniors) in the U-14 category. The special Trophy for the youngest play-er was awarded to Shourya P. Sharma of Young Star Cricket Academy.

FOCC is proud to be partners with CRY — in our joint mission to help the underprivileged children. Those interested in joining hands with FOCC may please visit www.focck-wt.org, or contact any of the volun-teers. With CRY, everybody wins — www.focckwt.org

U-12 winners

Officials of the tournament

ICE HOCKEY

SQUASH

Koivu