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Washington Capitals forward Tom Wilson has been suspended six games by the NHL Department of Player Safety for a high stick to the head of Toronto Maple Leafs forward Noah Gregor on Wednesday night.

This is the sixth suspension of Wilson’s career and his first since 2021.

Gregor was skating into the Capitals zone when Wilson, who was backchecking, checked Gregor against the boards to force a turnover. After the hit, Gregor and Wilson were separating when Wilson’s stick struck Gregor in the face. Wilson immediately turned back to Gregor to check on him while appearing to show contrition for the incident before receiving a double minor at 12:15 of the third period.

“Wilson draws his stick back and then swings it forward in an extremely reckless fashion, making direct and forceful contact with Gregor’s face,” NHL Player Safety said in its ruling Friday.

NHL Player Safety also said in its ruling that Wilson was “solely in control of his actions” throughout the play. NHL Player Safety also acknowledged that while Wilson didn’t mean to strike Gregor in the face, Wilson’s stick was drawn behind him before it was “swung forcefully and recklessly into his opponent.”

“Wilson’s actions on this play are fully under his own control, irresponsible and not related to any sort of legitimate hockey action,” NHL Player Safety said in the ruling. “He is accountable for the dangerous result of the play which is a direct and forceful blow to an opponent’s head by a player with a substantial track record of supplemental discipline.”

His most recent suspension in 2021 was seven games for boarding Boston Bruins defenseman Brandon Carlo. It was the second-longest suspension of Wilson’s career, with the longest having come in the 2018-19 preseason when Wilson received 20 games for an illegal hit to the head of Oskar Sundqvist. At the time, it was Wilson’s fourth suspension in 105 games.

Wilson’s suspension means the Capitals will be without one of the most important players as they seek to remain in the Eastern Conference wild-card race. Wilson has scored 17 goals and 32 points in 66 games for the Capitals (33-26-9), who entered Friday just three points behind the Detroit Red Wings for the final wild-card spot in the East.

The Capitals, who will play the Red Wings on Tuesday, have played two fewer games than the Red Wings while also facing competition for the spot from the New York Islanders, New Jersey Devils and Buffalo Sabres. The game against the Red Wings will be the third game of Wilson’s suspension, which could see him return April 4 against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

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Wisconsin QB O’Neil carted off with leg injury

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Wisconsin QB O'Neil carted off with leg injury

MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin quarterback Danny O’Neil was carted off the field and into the locker room after injuring his leg in the first quarter of the Badgers’ game against No. 24 Washington (No. 23 College Football Playoff) on Saturday.

O’Neil got up at the end of a 21-yard keeper, limped and then went back down and clutched his right leg. Wisconsin announced in the second quarter that O’Neil would miss the rest of the game with what was officially ruled a lower-body injury.

The San Diego State transfer was making his first start since a Sept. 13 loss to Alabama, though he had played in a reserve role Sept. 20 against Maryland and Oct. 18 against Ohio State.

Freshman Carter Smith took over for O’Neil and made his college debut Saturday.

Quarterback issues have hindered Wisconsin throughout the season. Billy Edwards Jr. was Wisconsin’s first-team quarterback at the start of the year, but he sprained his knee in the second quarter of the Badgers’ season opener and has played only one full series since.

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Ohio St. WR Tate sits out with undisclosed injury

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Ohio St. WR Tate sits out with undisclosed injury

Ohio State standout receiver Carnell Tate sat out Saturday’s game against Purdue after suffering a minor undisclosed injury during pregame warmups.

Coach Ryan Day said the Buckeyes held Tate out just as a precaution.

“[Tate] wanted to play,” Day said, “but we’ve got a lot of football ahead us.”

The top-ranked Buckeyes (9-0, 6-0 Big Ten) still defeated Purdue 34-10 to remain unbeaten. Jeremiah Smith led Ohio State with a career-high 10 receptions for 137 yards and a touchdown.

This season, Tate has 39 receptions for 711 receiving yards and 7 touchdowns.

The Buckeyes play UCLA next weekend.

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Texas Tech hands BYU 1st loss, improves to 9-1

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Texas Tech hands BYU 1st loss, improves to 9-1

LUBBOCK, Texas — Stone Harrington kicked a school-record five field goals and standout Texas Tech linebacker Jacob Rodriguez had two takeaways as the No. 9 Red Raiders defeated No. 8 BYU 29-7 on Saturday, holding the previously undefeated Cougars to a season-low 255 total yards in a game with Big 12 and playoff implications.

Behren Morton passed for 216 yards and threw a 9-yard touchdown to Caleb Douglas while Cameron Dickey ran for 121 yards and a 1-yard score for Texas Tech (9-1, 6-1 Big 12, No. 8 CFP), which played in its first top-10 matchup since 2008.

“I told the team we have another gear,” Tech coach Joey McGuire said. “We can play better.”

BYU (8-1, 5-1, No. 7 CFP) had never played in such a game, though the teams could meet again in the Big 12 championship game in four weeks in Arlington, Texas.

Harrington kicked field goals of 47, 39, 34, 29 and 27 yards.

Rodriguez, the FBS leader with seven forced fumbles, had an interception midway through the third period leading to Harrington’s fourth field goal. He recovered a backward pass late in the fourth quarter that set up Harrington’s final kick.

Tech has gone from ranking 121st last season in the FBS allowing 34.8 points per game to fifth at 13.2 going into Saturday and lowering that to 12.6.

“Yeah, we are a better [defensive] team than we were last year,” Rodriguez said. “But … we’ve still got a lot of things to clean up.”

BYU snapped a 10-game winning streak dating back to last season. The Cougars avoided their first shutout since 2017 when Bear Bachmeier threw a 6-yard touchdown pass to Chase Roberts midway through the fourth quarter.

The Cougars went into the game third in the FBS in turnover margin at plus-1.25. They lost two fumbles, threw an interception and muffed a punt.

Bachmeier was 23-of-38 passing for 188 yards. The true freshman also had two turnovers, an interception and a backward pass for a fumble.

“A couple of passes and a muffed punt cost us, I think, 13 points,” BYU coach Kalani Sitake said. “Even after that, I thought we were going to be able to respond and make a game of it in the second half, but we weren’t able to do that.”

The Cougars went into play averaging 36.3 points and 434 yards per game. Their previous low offensive output this season was 332 yards in the 27-3 win over Stanford on Sept. 6.

Both teams have home games remaining against UCF, while the Cougars also play at No. 25 Cincinnati — the only other Big 12 team with one league loss — after hosting TCU next week. The Red Raiders host UCF next week before an open date and then their regular-season finale at West Virginia.

The Red Raiders, charter members of the Big 12 in 1996, are in position to play in the conference championship for the first time. Their remaining two opponents are a combined 3-10 in conference play.

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