Tuesday’s Sports in Brief
HOCKEY
WASHINGTON (AP) — Alex Ovechkin scored his 767th goal to pass Jaromir Jagr for third on the NHL career list in the Washington Capitals’ 4-3 shootout victory against the New York Islanders.
Ovechkin’s goal with 4:58 left in the third period gave the Capitals the lead and made him the top European goal-scorer in league history. The longtime Russian captain was surrounded by teammates while he was given a standing ovation by the crowd in the U.S capital that has cheered Ovechkin for almost two decades.
Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe are the only players with more NHL goals than Ovechkin. He needs 35 to pass Howe and 128 to break Gretzky’s record — long thought to be unapproachable in modern hockey.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The Colorado Avalanche acquired Nico Sturm from the Minnesota Wild for Tyson Jost in a swap of centers.
The 26-year-old Sturm has nine goals and eight assists with a minus-5 rating in 53 games this season for the Wild, mostly on the fourth line. The 24-year-old Jost has six goals, eight assists and a plus-1 rating in 59 games.
PRO BASKETBALL
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Kyrie Irving scored a career-high 60 points, most in the Nets’ NBA history, to lead Brooklyn to a 150-108 victory over the Orlando Magic.
Irving shot 20 for 31, including 8 of 12 on 3-pointers, in 35 minutes. He made 12 of 13 free throws in matching the highest-scoring game in the NBA this season, done just a night earlier by Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns against San Antonio.
Irving scored 41 points in the first half, the most in the first two quarters since Kobe Bryant had 42 against Washington on March 28, 2003.
The guard left the game after hitting a long 3-pointer with 8:33 remaining and Brooklyn leading 128-94. He gave the Nets consecutive 50-point performances, after Kevin Durant had 53 on Sunday against the Knicks.
Irving and Durant became the first teammates in NBA history to post 50-point performances in consecutive games.
PRO FOOTBALL
A month after Andrew Whitworth reached the pinnacle of his long football career, he decided to go out on top.
The 40-year-old left tackle announced his retirement after a 16-season NFL career capped by his first Super Bowl championship last month with the Los Angeles Rams.
Whitworth made his long-anticipated decision official 30 days after after the Rams beat his former team, the Cincinnati Bengals, to win his first ring. He tried to keep his farewell news conference a secret, but several appreciative teammates still found out about it and showed up at the Rams’ training complex, including Matthew Stafford and Super Bowl MVP Cooper Kupp.
Whitworth became the oldest player to start at left tackle in the modern NFL after he turned 40 last December. The two-time All-Pro selection then protected Stafford’s blind side all the way to a 23-20 victory in the Super Bowl at the Rams’ own SoFi Stadium.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Keegan Murray gave Iowa a first-team Associated Press All-American for the third straight year, and Kofi Cockburn made it two in a row for Illinois — not bad for a couple programs that haven’t had a whole lot of them.
The Fighting Illini never had a first-team pick until Ayo Dosunmu made it last season when Cockburn was voted to the second team. And the Hawkeyes had not had a first-team selection since the 1952 season until Luka Garza, last year’s AP player of the year, made his second consecutive appearance on the five-man team.
Throw in Wisconsin’s Johnny Davis and the Big Ten was well represented on the AP’s first team, which also included Kentucky big man Oscar Tshiebwe — this year’s player of the year favorite — and Kansas guard Ochai Agbaji.
BASEBALL
ATLANTA (AP) — One day after cutting ties with Freddie Freeman, the Atlanta Braves signed new first baseman Matt Olson to a $168 million, eight-year contract.
Olson was not eligible for free agency until after the 2023 season, but the World Series champions quickly locked up the 27-year-old slugger through at least 2029. The deal also includes a $20 million club option for 2030 with no buyout.
The Braves also added former Tampa Bay right-hander Collin McHugh with a $10 million, two-year deal.
The Braves dealt four top prospects to the Oakland Athletics for Olson, a 2021 All-Star coming off a season in which he had 39 homers and 111 RBIs while batting .271.
The payout is the largest in Braves history, surpassing the $135 million, eight-year deal Freeman signed after the 2013 season.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Right-handed reliever Jeurys Familia and left-handed reliever Brad Hand finalized one-year contracts with the Philadelphia Phillies.
MESA, Ariz. (AP) — The Chicago Cubs finalized a $4 million, one-year contract with slick-fielding shortstop Andrelton Simmons.
GOLF
Henrik Stenson accepted the job as Ryder Cup captain and pledged his allegiance to Europe and his attention to do everything possible to win back the gold trophy.
Stenson is the first Swede and the fifth player from continental Europe to be captain, chosen by a five-member panel that included three previous captains.
Europe has not lost on home soil since 1993.
The 2023 matches will be at Marco Simone in Italy, and Europe faces a tough task. The Americans are coming off the largest rout ever over Europe, 19-9 at Whistling Straits.
Zach Johnson will be the U.S. captain.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Michigan hired Milan Bolden-Morris to be the first female graduate assistant football coach in the Big Ten.
The former college basketball player, who started for Georgetown this past season, will start June 1 and work with quarterbacks.
She is believed to be the first woman to be a graduate assistant football coach at a Power Five school since Carol White worked with the kickers at Georgia Tech in the late 1980s.
TENNIS
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. (AP) — Taylor Fritz defeated Spanish qualifier Jaume Munar 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (2) in the third round of the BNP Paribas Open, making him one of four American men still alive in the desert tournament.
John Isner beat 14th-seeded Diego Schwartzman 7-5, 6-3 to reach the fourth round. Two other Americans, Tommy Paul and wild-card Steve Johnson, got beat. Paul lost to 29th-seeded Alex de Minaur 7-6 (2), 6-4. Johnson dropped a 7-6 (7), 6-3 decision to 11th-seeded Hubert Hurkacz.
___
More AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports