Weekend sports in brief | Hilton Head Island Package

NHL

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Steven Stamkos scored two goals and the two-time defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning heads to the Stanley Cup Finals for the third straight year after beating the New York Rangers 2-1 in the game 6 Eastern Conference Final Saturday night.

Stamkos put the Lightning ahead for good in the third period just 21 seconds after New York’s Frank Vatrano scored on the power play with the Lightning captain in the box for holding.

Andrei Vasilevskiy finished with 20 saves for the Lightning, who won the series 4-2 to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals against the Colorado Avalanche.

Game 1 is Wednesday night in Denver.

HORSES RACE

NEW YORK (AP) — Mo Donegal won and filly Nest finished second, giving trainer Todd Pletcher a 1-2 finish at the Belmont Stakes on Saturday for his sixth victory in a Triple Crown race.

Donegal completed the 1 1/2 mile track in 2 minutes, 28.28 seconds, ahead of Nest and Skippylongstocking.

Pletcher won the Belmont Stakes for the fourth time, after Rags to Riches in 2007, Palace Malice in 2013 and Tapwrit in 2017.

Rich Strike, a stunning Kentucky Derby winner at 80-1 odds, finished sixth after owner Rick Dawson and trainer Eric Reed held him out of the Preakness with an eye on Belmont.

GOLF

ST. ALBANS, England (AP) — Former Masters champion Charl Schwartzel banked $4.75 million by winning the richest tournament in golf history on Saturday, while Saudi backers of the event is facing further backlash after a group of 9/11 victims called on US gamers to pull out of the rebel series.

Schwartzel held on for a one-shot victory at LIV Golf’s inaugural event outside London to claim the $4 million prize for the individual victory – plus an additional $750,000 from his share of the $3 million purse won by his four-man Stinger team for the lead in the team standings.

Twenty players have now defected from the PGA Tour, with Patrick Reed, the last former Masters champion confirmed on Saturday as signing up for LIV Golf.

BROOKLINE, Mass. (AP) – PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan has described the Saudi-funded league that signed Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau as an “exhibition game series” that spends billions of dollars. dollars in players with no return. on his investment.

Monahan also said players paid an exorbitant amount of money “would have to live under a rock” not knowing they would be criticized for the source of the money. LIV Golf is backed by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund.

It was Monahan’s first public comments since Thursday, when Greg Norman’s LIV Golf series began and Monahan suspended all PGA Tour members who played at Centurion Golf Club outside London.

TORONTO (AP) — Rory McIlroy won the RBC Canadian Open on Sunday and gave the PGA Tour a strong response at the start of the Saudi-funded LIV Golf Invitational, closing with an 8-under 62 to win a race mad until the finish with Justin Thomas and Tony Finau.

McIlroy had his first title defense on the PGA Tour. He won golf’s fourth-longest-running National Open in 2019 at Hamilton Golf & Country Club, only to have the COVID-19 pandemic cancel the next two editions.

McIlroy finished at 19-under 261 for a two-stroke win. Finau birdied a 40-footer putt on the 18th for a 64 to finish second alone.

Thomas was third at 14 under. Justin Rose tied the tournament and course record with a 60 — with three eagles and three bogeys — to tie for fourth with Sam Burns (65) at 14 under.

GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP, NJ (AP) — Brooke Henderson holed the first hole of a playoff with Lindsey Weaver-Wright to win the ShopRite LPGA Classic for her 11th tour title.

Henderson closed with a bogey-free 7-under 64 at Seaview Hotel and Golf Club to win for the first time in a year. The 24-year-old Canadian overcame a four-stroke deficit in the final round, finishing at 12-under 201.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Thongchai Jaidee became the first Thai winner in PGA Tour champion history, closing with a 4-under 68 for a one-shot win in the U.S. Family Insurance Championship.

Thongchai bounced back from a bogey on the par-5 16th with a birdie on the par-3 17th and closed with a par. He finished at 14 under 202 at University Ridge.

Tom Pernice Jr. finished second after a 66.

ARDMORE, Pa. (AP) — Top-ranked amateur Rose Zhang set the tone by routing British Women’s Amateur Champion Louise Duncan, and Rachel Heck finished an unbeaten week at Merion as the Americans won the Curtis Cup for the third consecutive time.

The Americans had an 8 1/2-3 1/2 lead going into Sunday’s eight singles and needed just two games to secure the cup. They won seven for a 15 1/2-4 1/2 victory.

The Americans have increased the series lead to 31-8-3 since amateur games began against Team Great Britain and Ireland in 1932.

CAR RACE

SONOMA, Calif. (AP) — Daniel Suárez became the first Mexican-born driver to win a NASCAR Cup Series race on Sunday, fending off Chris Buescher for a historic win at Sonoma Raceway.

Suárez, a 30-year-old Monterrey native, finally earned the 195th career start of a Cup Series career that began in 2017. He also rode his Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet to the third Cup Series win of the season. for this 2-year team co-owned by former racer Justin Marks and music star Pitbull.

Suárez passed Buescher and took control at the start of the final stage on this hilly road course in northern California wine country, and he persevered through a pit stop and warning to emerge in front with 23 laps to go. . Buescher pushed him aggressively, but Suárez made no significant errors as he rode to victory.

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — Max Verstappen extended his Formula One championship lead with victory Sunday at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after Charles Leclerc retired from the lead due to engine failure.

Leclerc looked set to battle for victory, but the Monegasque driver’s car started belching smoke on lap 20 of 51 and he had to pit. It was his second retirement in three races.

Verstappen had passed teammate Sergio Pérez shortly before and claimed his fifth victory of the season.

ELKHART LAKE, Wis. (AP) — Josef Newgarden earned a $1 million bonus that rewards his versatility by winning Sunday at Road America.

The victory was the third of the season for the American, who took the bonus as the first driver of this IndyCar season to win on a road course, a street course and an oval. Half of the money goes to the Penske team, the other half to charities selected by Newgarden.

Newgarden bought out his race from Road America a year ago when his gearbox failed in the final laps.

Marcus Ericsson finished second and the Indianapolis 500 winner reclaimed the series points lead.

SONOMA, Calif. (AP) — NASCAR’s Clash preseason race returns to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in 2023.

NASCAR announced Sunday that it will bring exhibition racing back to the Southern California sporting landmark next season. The Clash’s highly successful debut four months ago was part of NASCAR’s Next Gen car launch and NASCAR received some of its most positive reviews in years for racing.

The Clash took place on a temporary 0.25 mile track inside the venerable Colosseum.

LE MANS, France (AP) — Toyota won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the classic endurance race for the fifth straight time, with the No. 8 car finishing ahead of the No. 7 in another dominating performance on Sunday.

New Zealander Brendan Hartley had taken pole position and was behind the wheel as the #8 Toyota Gazoo finished the race in sunny, hot conditions as teammates Sebastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa watched from the garage at the ‘crew.

Swiss driver Buemi has won the race four times while Hartley picked up his third victory and the second for Toyota after his first win with Porsche in 2017. Both had modest careers in Formula 1.

TENNIS

STUTTGART, Germany (AP) — Matteo Berrettini has shown signs of resuming the form that took him to the Wimbledon final last year by beating Andy Murray 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 to win the ‘Stuttgart Open on Sunday in its first tournament for three months.

The Italian hadn’t played since Indian Wells in March due to a hand injury which forced him to miss the entire swing on clay and, at Murray, he faced an opponent whose own injury had hampered him in the deciding set.

NOTTINGHAM, England (AP) — Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia claimed her first WTA title by winning the Nottingham Open with a 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 victory over Alison Riske of the United States on Sunday.

Seventh-seeded Haddad Maia sentenced sixth-seeded Riske to a second defeat in the grass-court tournament final in central England. The other time was in 2016.

OBITUARY

HALLE, Germany (AP) — Bernd Bransch, captain of East Germany in his only World Cup appearance in a symbolic Cold War victory over West Germany, has died. He was 77 years old.

Bransch’s former club Hallescher FC said in a statement on Sunday that he died on Saturday following “a long and serious illness”.

Bransch was the East German equivalent of charismatic West German star Franz Beckenbauer. Both men have captained their national sides and both played as sweepers, sitting deep in defense with space to launch counter-attacks.

Hallescher FC, known as HFC Chemie in the East German league during Bransch’s time, said he retired in 1977 and later served as club president.

___

More AP Sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports