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ELMONT, N.Y. — The New York Islanders defeated the Montreal Canadiens 4-2 on Wednesday night to clinch the final Stanley Cup playoff berth and eliminate the Pittsburgh Penguins, ending their streak of 16 straight playoff appearances.

Brock Nelson had two goals, while goalie Ilya Sorokin made 17 saves.

“It’s exciting. Going from looking pretty dark for 24 hours to clinching a spot at home, it’s awesome,” Islanders winger Zach Parise said.

The last time Pittsburgh didn’t take part in an NHL postseason was 2005-06, Sidney Crosby‘s rookie season. Their 16-year streak — the longest active run in the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB — included a qualification-round loss in 2020, when the NHL expanded the playoffs to 24 teams because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The victory ended a roller-coaster 48 hours for the Islanders. On Monday, they were stunned on the road by the short-handed Washington Capitals 5-2, which gave the Penguins control of their own playoff fate. But Pittsburgh squandered that control Tuesday night with a loss at home to the lowly Chicago Blackhawks 5-2. The Islanders needed only to earn a point against the Canadiens to clinch a postseason berth.

“You go from being in the absolute dumps to watching the Blackhawks win that game last night [and] you get some life,” Parise said. “You just had that feeling of, ‘OK, we’re back.’ It was exciting coming to the rink this morning.”

Islanders captain Anders Lee said the team had to get into the right frame of mind after the loss in D.C.

“You name the emotion and we felt it on Monday night. We were pissed off, disappointed in ourselves. You can’t do much about it until something else happens. Obviously, last night, that stuff changed,” Lee said. “We came to the rink Tuesday morning and regrouped. We started that mental process of putting ourselves in the right headspace to play this game.”

With the win, the Islanders (93 points) moved one point ahead of the idle Florida Panthers (92 points). Florida concludes its regular season on Thursday night at home against the Carolina Hurricanes.

If the Panthers win that game in regulation, overtime or a shootout, they will face the first-place team in the Metropolitan Division and the Islanders will face the Boston Bruins, who this week set NHL single-season records for wins and points.

If the Panthers lose to Carolina in overtime or a shootout to earn one point, they’ll face the Bruins. While the Islanders and Panthers would each have 93 points, New York would own the second tiebreaker, which is combined regulation and overtime wins. The Islanders would have 41, while Florida would have 40.

Parise said the next few days for the Islanders will be spent resting up and preparing for their first-round opponent.

“Now it gets fun, when you zero in on a team. Focus in on their strengths and weaknesses. It turns into a chess match,” he said.

The Islanders took a 1-0 lead with 9:33 left in the first period Wednesday as Nelson snapped a shot past Montreal goalie Sam Montembeault. It was Nelson’s 35th goal of the season.

The Canadiens equaled the score on a one-timer from forward Rem Pitlick, but the Islanders recaptured the lead 1:19 later. After Parise’s shot ricocheted off the crossbar, Hudson Fasching tucked home the rebound for his 10th goal of the season.

Nelson scored again at 10:20 of the second period to make it 3-1, but the Canadiens weren’t done. Nick Suzuki scored a spectacular short-handed goal at 16:38, sliding to the ice on one knee and whacking the puck with one hand on his stick over Sorokin’s glove.

Lee iced it with a power-play goal late in the third period.

The Islanders finish their regular season with a 42-31-9 record and 93 points, nine better than last season when they failed to qualify for the playoffs. They made a coaching change in the offseason, firing Barry Trotz and replacing him with assistant coach Lane Lambert.

New York managed to make the playoffs despite missing star center Mathew Barzal since Feb. 18 because of a lower-body injury. Lambert said Barzal is day-to-day and would not confirm if he’d be available for Game 1 of the playoffs.

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Journalism rallies in $1M Haskell Invitational win

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Journalism rallies in M Haskell Invitational win

OCEANPORT, N.J. — Journalism launched a dramatic rally to win the $1 million Haskell Invitational on Saturday at Monmouth Park.

It was Journalism’s first race since the Triple Crown. He was the only colt to contest all three legs, winning the Preakness while finishing second to Sovereignty in the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes.

Heavily favored at 2-5 odds, Journalism broke poorly under jockey Umberto Rispoli and wound up trailing the early leaders. He kicked into gear rounding the final turn to find Gosger and Goal Oriented locked in a dogfight for the lead. It appeared one of them would be the winner until Journalism roared down the center of the track to win by a half-length.

“You feel like you’re on a diesel,” Rispoli said. “He’s motoring and motoring. You never know when he’s going to take off. To do what he did today again, it’s unbelievable.”

Gosger held on for second, a neck ahead of Goal Oriented.

The Haskell victory was Journalism’s sixth in nine starts for Southern California-based trainer Michael McCarthy, and earned the colt a berth in the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar on Nov. 1.

Journalism paid $2.80, $2.20 and $2.10.

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Heavy rain helps Elliott to pole for Dover Cup race

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Heavy rain helps Elliott to pole for Dover Cup race

DOVER, Del. — Chase Elliott took advantage of heavy rain at Dover Motor Speedway to earn the pole for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race.

Elliott and the rest of the field never got to turn a scheduled practice or qualifying lap on Saturday because of rain that pounded the concrete mile track. Dover is scheduled to hold its first July race since the track’s first one in 1969.

Elliott has two wins and 10 top-five finishes in 14 career races at Dover.

Chase Briscoe starts second, followed by Christopher Bell, Tyler Reddick and William Byron. Shane van Gisbergen, last week’s winner at Sonoma Raceway, Michael McDowell, Joey Logano, Ty Gibbs and Kyle Busch complete the top 10.

Logano is set to become the youngest driver in NASCAR history with 600 career starts.

Logano will be 35 years, 1 month, 26 days old when he hits No. 600 on Sunday at Dover Motor Speedway. He will top seven-time NASCAR champion and Hall of Famer Richard Petty by six months.

The midseason tournament that pays $1 million to the winner pits Ty Dillon vs. John Hunter Nemechek and Reddick vs. Gibbs in the head-to-head challenge at Dover.

The winners face off next week at Indianapolis. Reddick is the betting favorite to win it all, according to Sportsbook.

All four drivers are winless this season.

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Hamlin on 23XI trial: ‘All will be exposed’

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Hamlin on 23XI trial: 'All will be exposed'

DOVER, Del. — NASCAR race team owner Denny Hamlin remained undeterred in the wake of another setback in court, vowing “all will be exposed” in the scheduled December trial as part of 23XI Racing’s federal antitrust suit against the auto racing series.

A federal judge on Thursday rejected a request from 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports to continue racing with charters while they battle NASCAR in court, meaning their six cars will race as open entries this weekend at Dover, next week at Indianapolis and perhaps longer than that in a move the teams say would put them at risk of going out of business.

U.S. District Judge Kenneth Bell denied the teams’ bid for a temporary restraining order, saying they will make races over the next couple of weeks and they won’t lose their drivers or sponsors before his decision on a preliminary injunction.

Bell left open the possibility of reconsidering his decision if things change over the next two weeks.

After this weekend, the cars affected may need to qualify on speed if 41 entries are listed – a possibility now that starting spots have opened.

The case has a Dec. 1 trial date, but the two teams are fighting to be recognized as chartered for the current season, which has 16 races left. A charter guarantees one of the 40 spots in the field each week, but also a base amount of money paid out each week.

“If you want answers, you want to understand why all this is happening, come Dec. 1, you’ll get the answers that you’re looking for,” Hamlin said Saturday at Dover Motor Speedway. “All will be exposed.”

23XI, which is co-owned by retired NBA great Michael Jordan, and FRM filed their federal suit against NASCAR last year after they were the only two organizations out of 15 to reject NASCAR’s extension offer on charters.

Jordan and FRM owner Bob Jenkins won an injunction to recognize 23XI and FRM as chartered for the season, but the ruling was overturned on appeal earlier this month, sending the case back to Bell.

Hamlin, a three-time Daytona 500 winner driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, co-owns 23XI with Jordan and said they were prepared to send Tyler Reddick, Bubba Wallace and Riley Herbst to the track each week as open teams. They sought the restraining order Monday, claiming that through discovery they learned NASCAR planned to immediately begin the process of selling the six charters which would put “plaintiffs in irreparable jeopardy of never getting their charters back and going out of business.”

Hamlin said none of the setbacks have made him second-guess the decision to file the lawsuit.

“Dec. 1 is all that matters. Mark your calendar,” Hamlin said. “I’d love to be doing other things. I’ve got a lot going on. When I get in the car (today), nothing else is going to matter other than that. I always give my team 100%. I always prepare whether I have side jobs, side hustles, more kids, that all matters, but I always give my team all the time that they need to make sure that when I step in, I’m 100% committed.”

Reddick, who has a clause that allows him to become a free agent if the team loses its charter, declined comment Saturday on all questions connected to his future and the lawsuit. Hamlin also declined to comment on Reddick’s future with 23XI Racing.

Reddick, one of four drivers left in NASCAR’s $1 million In-season Challenge, was last year’s regular-season champion and raced for the Cup Series championship in the season finale. But none of the six drivers affected by the court ruling are locked into this year’s playoffs.

Making the field won’t be an issue this weekend at Dover as fewer than the maximum 40 cars are entered. But should 41 cars show up anywhere this season, someone slow will be sent home and that means lost revenue and a lost chance to win points in the standings.

“Nothing changes from my end, obviously, and nothing changes from inside the shop,” Front Row Motorsports driver Zane Smith said. “There’s not typically even enough cars to worry about transferring in.”

Smith, 24th in the standings and someone who would likely need a win to qualify for NASCAR’s playoffs, said he stood behind Jenkins in his acrimonious legal fight that has loomed over the stock car series for months.

“I leave all that up to them,” Smith said, “but my job is to go get the 38 the best finish I can.”

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