HOCKEY

The Adirondack Thunder scored two goals late in the third period and beat the Maine Mariners 5-3 in an ECHL game on Saturday night in Glenn Falls, New York.

Maine trailed 3-1 before Keltie Jeri-Leon and Nate Kallen scored in the first five minutes of the third period to tie the game. Sebastian Vidmar scored on the power-play later in the third to put Adirondack ahead and Nick Rivera added a goal in the final minute.

Vidmar had two goals, while Tyler Irvine and Ryan Smith each added one for Adirondack.

BASKETBALL

NBA G LEAGUE: Marko Simonovic had 23 points and 15 rebounds as the Windy City Bulls cruised to a 127-94 win over the Maine Celtics in Hoffman Estates, Illinois.

Devon Dotson also scored 23 points and grabbed nine rebounds for the Bulls. Tyler Cook added 21 points and 10 rebounds, and Scott Lindsey had 19 points and 10 rebounds.

Eric Demers and Wayne Blackshear each had 15 points for Maine. Deonte Burton chipped in 13 points, while Asante Gist and Chris Clemons added 12 points each.

SOCCER

MLS: Yimmi Chara scored on a bicycle kick goal in the 78th minute to pull the Portland Timbers into a 2-2 draw with the New England Revolution in the Major League Soccer opener for both teams, in Portland, Oregon.

Dairon Asprilla also scored for the Timbers to help deny the Revolution their first victory at Providence Park.

New England got goals from Brandon Bye and newcomer Sebastian Lletget, traded to New England by the LA Galaxy in the offseason.

Revolution Coach Bruce Arena remained tied with the late Sigi Schmid for the most regular-season victories in MLS with 240. Arena was the MLS Coach of the Year last season.

FIFA: Poland’s refusal to play its World Cup qualifier against Russia next month in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine gained wider support when Sweden followed with its own plans to protest to FIFA on Saturday.

Polish soccer federation president Cezary Kulesza announced Poland’s decision and said it was in talks with other federations to present a unified position to FIFA, which is responsible for the March 24 game in Moscow.

“No more words, time to act!” Kulesza wrote on Twitter, adding the move was prompted by the “escalation of the aggression.”

Poland captain Robert Lewandowski and goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny were among those supporting its federation’s decision, with the Bayern Munich striker saying “we can’t pretend that nothing is happening.”

Sweden, a potential opponent of Russia in next month’s playoffs, later joined Poland in declaring its national team would not play a match against the Russians regardless of where it takes place.

BASEBALL

MLB: The Boston Red Sox cut former third-round pick Brett Netzer following a series of racist, homophobic and anti-semetic posts on Twitter, according to Chad Jennings of the Athletic.

Netzer last played in the Red Sox organization when he played 130 games for the Portland Sea Dogs in 2019.

AUTO RACING

NASCAR: Austin Cindric followed up his Daytona 500 victory by earning his first career pole in the NASCAR Cup Series Saturday at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California during a tumultuous debut for the new practice and qualifying format at intermediate tracks.

Cindric posted the fastest average lap speed in his Team Penske Ford at 174.647 mph, holding off Erik Jones (174.157 mph) and capping an eventful morning for NASCAR’s first practice and qualifying session on a 2-mile oval with its Next Gen cars. Several drivers spun and several others crashed while learning how to control the Next Gen car on new tires amid gusty winds.

XFINITY: Cole Custer persevered through four late restarts to win a protracted NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Fontana, claiming the title at his home track for the second time.

Custer comfortably held off Noah Gragson and Trevor Bayne in triple overtime after the final restart. Custer earned his 10th Xfinity Series victory in his SS-Green Light Racing Ford on the same track where he earned his third in 2019.

INDYCAR: Scott McLaughlin circled qualifying as the area he had to improve upon in his second season of IndyCar. He nailed it in his first session of the year.

McLaughlin beat Team Penske teammate Will Power, one of the best qualifiers in series history, to win the pole for the season-opening race through the downtown streets of St. Petersburg.

The pole is the first for McLaughlin, who moved from racing supercars in Australia to IndyCar last season, but never got the results he expected. His issues were tied to his qualifying performance and McLaughlin only cracked the top-10 twice. His best starting position was fifth on the road course at Indianapolis.

TENNIS

MEXICAN OPEN: In a rematch of an epic five-set Australian Open final, Rafael Nadal defeated Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 6-3 early on Saturday and qualified for the Mexican Open final, where he will play Cameron Norrie.

A month ago in Australia, the 35-year-old Nadal came from two sets down to beat Medvedev and win his record 21st Grand Slam singles title. Nadal is now 14-0 in the season and will try to capture his fourth title in Acapulco.

Earlier, Norrie extended his hot streak in February by upsetting Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 6-4.

SKIING

MEN’S WORLD CUP: Henrik Kristoffersen ended a year-long wait for his 20th career slalom win Saturday, triumphing in the first men’s World Cup race after the Beijing Olympics.

Kristoffersen benefited from a mistake by first-run leader Tanguy Nef. The unheralded Swiss, who started 25th and whose best career result is a sixth place, led a World Cup race for the first time. Nef had been 0.07 faster than Kristoffersen in the first leg and he managed to maintain that advantage in his final run until straddling a gate just before going into the steep finish section.

Switzerland’s Loic Meillard, who trailed Kristoffersen by one-hundredth of a second after the first run, finished 0.14 behind in second.

WOMEN’S WORLD CUP: Czech skier Ester Ledecka shrugged off her Olympic disappointment Saturday by winning the first women’s World Cup downhill after the Olympics.

Ledecka had an attacking run down the Mont Lachaux course in perfect sunny conditions to earn her third career win and second in downhill, more than two years after her maiden triumph in Lake Louise, Alberta. Ledecka beat Ragnhild Mowinckel by 0.21 seconds. It was the Norwegian racer’s eighth career podium but first in downhill. Cornelia Hütter of Austria came 0.42 behind in third.

Mikaela Shiffrin sat out the race to prepare for upcoming events. The American remained in the overall World Cup lead, 15 points ahead of Petra Vlhová.

OLYMPICS

MEDAL CHANGE: Nine days after the race at the Beijing Olympics, the bronze medal in women’s skicross was changed on appeal.

Fanny Smith of Switzerland will now be awarded the bronze medal after she was wrongly demoted to fourth in China, the International Ski Federation (FIS) said in a statement. Smith was blamed for causing contact with other skiers during the Feb. 17 race and lost her third-place finish by a ruling of the FIS race jury. Daniela Maier of Germany was upgraded from fourth to get the bronze that she now loses.

That jury decision was wrong, FIS said after an appeal by Smith and the Swiss ski federation.

GOLF

PGA TOUR: Daniel Berger started with a three-shot lead and ended with a five-shot advantage at the PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, after his round of 1-under 69 moved him 18 holes away from winning a tournament a 15-minute drive from his home.

Shane Lowry (67), Chris Kirk (71), Sepp Straka (69) and first-round leader Kurt Kitayama (71) were tied for second at 6 under.

PGA CHAMPIONS TOUR: Miguel Angel Jimenez overcame errant drives on the final two holes to shoot a 5-under 67 in Tucson, Arizona and take a two-shot lead into the final round of the Cologuard Classic.

Jimenez shared the first-round lead with Jeff Sluman after a 66 and had a three-shot lead as he headed to the 17th tee. The 58-year-old Spaniard managed to save par after hitting into the water on the par-5 hole, but closed with a bogey after nearly hitting into the water on the par-4 18th. He was 11 under.

Sluman shot 69 to reach 9 under in his bid to win on the senior circuit for the first time since 2014. Jerry Kelly also was two shots back after a 67, with Gene Sauers (68) and Woody Austin (69) at 8 under.