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ARE, Sweden -- Anna Fenninger seized the lead in the overall Alpine World Cup standings on Friday by winning a giant slalom for the second straight day. The 24-year-old Austrian extended her first-leg lead to beat Viktoria Rebensburg of Germany by 0.61 seconds. "Its just amazing. It was a fight in the second run," said Fenninger, the Olympic silver medallist in giant slalom, who had to contend with cross winds, rain and a rutted snow surface. Jessica Lindell-Vikarby of Sweden was third, trailing 0.68 behind Fenningers combined time of 2 minutes, 00.15 seconds, and retained her lead in the season-long GS standings. Still, it is Fenninger who leads overall, using the 100 race points for victory to take a slender seven-point advantage -- 1,151 to 1,144 -- over Maria Hoefl-Riesch of Germany. "Im so happy that I can win two times in Are," said Fenninger, whose late-season surge has her contending for the overall title for the first time. Hoefl-Riesch, the 2011 overall champion, had a better second run yet still placed 10th, 2.32 behind her new rival. Marie-Michele Gagnon of Lac-Etchemin, Que., was 25th and Marie-Pier Prefontaine of St-Sauveur, Que., didnt qualify for the second run. Five scheduled races remain this season, starting with a slalom on Saturday when the German will be favoured to regain the lead. Hoefl-Riesch, the 2010 Olympic slalom champion, has three top-5 finishes in World Cup slaloms this season, while Fenninger has not started in the discipline since December 2011. Fenninger also won the Olympic super-G title last month, and has two victories and a runner-up finish in three World Cup races since the Winter Games. Rebensburg, who took a bronze medal defending her Olympic GS title in Sochi, got her best-placed finish of the season. With one GS race remaining, Lindell-Vikarby has a 14-point lead over Fenninger in the discipline standings. The final race closes World Cup finals week at Lenzerheide, Switzerland, on March 16. On Saturday, new Olympic slalom champion Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States will start as favourite. She placed 24th on Friday, more than three seconds behind the winner. American teammate Julia Mancuso placed 20th and fell outside the top-25 places in the season-long GS standings, which determines the line-up at the World Cup finals. . And by all indications, the team is expected to select phenom Connor McDavid with their selection. The Buffalo Sabres, who were knocked down to the second overall pick after finishing with the worst regular season record, are expected to take the other generational player in Jack Eichel. . -- Derek Jeter spoke for 25 minutes, 44 seconds and answered 26 questions about his decision to retire at the end of this season. . -- The Vancouver Whitecaps remained unbeaten with a scoreless draw at the New England Revolution on Saturday. .J. -- Rampage Jackson scowled, howled, then bellowed to the crowd: "Im back! Im back!" With rebuilt knees and a new promotion, Jackson might have one more act left in MMA. . -- Arizona coach Bruce Arians says there "were obviously very, very many problems" with the officiating in the Cardinals 24-21 loss at Philadelphia.(SportsNetwork.com) - The Pittsburgh Penguins hope to rebound from a loss in the opener of the Eastern Conference second round series when they host the rival New York Rangers in Sundays Game 2 from CONSOL Energy Center. New York placed second in the Metropolitan Division this season, finishing 13 points behind the Penguins, but the Rangers were able to strike first in this best-of-seven set, taking Game 1 by a 3-2 score in overtime. Derick Brassard scored at 3:06 of the extra session to lift the Rangers to victory, although the end of the game was far from conventional. Brassard knew he scored off a feed from Benoit Pouliot, but the game went on. Seconds later, with the Penguins still scrambling around in their zone, Brassard set up Pouliot for what appeared to be the winning goal. However, the original shot by Brassard was reviewed and showed the puck clearly going underneath the crossbar and inside the left post. Because the puck sprung back out so quickly, it wasnt evident that it was a good goal and play continued, albeit momentarily. "It was all (Pouliots) play," Brassard said. "First of all, he cut (off) the pass behind the net and right away he found me in front of the net. At first, I thought it went in. I thought it went under the bar and the ref said it wasnt in. The puck came back to me and (Pouliot) was open. It was a great feeling." New York opened a playoff series with an OT win for the first time since Game 1 of the Patrick Division Finals on Apr. 17, 1986 at Washington . The Blueshirts have won eight of the last 10 playoff series in which they won Game 1, including four of the last six playoff series in which they won Game 1 on the road. Henrik Lundqvist made 34 saves for the Rangers, including one on Lee Stempniak in the final 11 seconds of regulation. New York won a Game 7 at home against Philadelphia on Wednesday to advance to the second round for the third consecutive year.dddddddddddd The Flyers and Rangers had played Game 6 in Philly on Tuesday, so Fridays tilt was New Yorks third test in three different cities over the span of four days. When the Rangers host Pittsburgh in Game 3 on Monday it will mark five games in seven days for New York. Despite New Yorks recent workload and the fact that the Penguins had three days off ahead of Fridays opener, the home club was the team that looked flat for large stretches of Game 1. "For whatever reason, we didnt come out hard enough," said Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby. "I thought those goals in the second definitely gave us a boost. I thought from there on we had some good chances. Pretty even after that." Stempniak and James Neal scored second-period goals for Pittsburgh, which outshot the visitors by a 36-27 margin in the loss. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 24-of-27 shots for the Pens after struggling at times during his teams first- round win over Columbus. "They got the first one tonight. Its disappointing, but (we) got to have a short memory," said Penguins head coach Dan Bylsma. Both teams were 0-for-4 on the power play. The Rangers have failed to score 25 straight times with the man advantage dating back to its first-round series against Philadelphia. The Penguins have won all four previous playoff series with the Rangers. After Fridays loss, Pittsburgh fell to 16-5 all-time against New York in the postseason. Pittsburgh defenceman Brooks Orpik missed Game 1 with an undisclosed injury and he is questionable for Game 2. Orpik also sat out Game 6 against Columbus and Robert Bortuzzo could fill in for him on Sunday for a third straight game. ' ' '
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