NHL suspends Boston Bruins’ Shawn Thornton for 15 games

The NHL suspended Boston Bruins forward Shawn Thornton for 15 games without pay for punching and injuring unsuspecting Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik in a Dec. 7 game. Orpik hasn’t played since.

“It says volumes about getting that kind of play out of the game,” Penguins Coach Dan Bylsma said Saturday after the sanction was announced. “I think it’s a pretty strong message.” The suspension will cost Thornton $84,615. He served three games of the ban before the length of the suspension was determined.

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The Edmonton Oilers traded goalie Jason LaBarbera to the Chicago Blackhawks for future considerations.

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The NHL suspended Toronto Maple Leafs forward David Clarkson for two games without pay for an illegal check to St. Louis forward Vladimir Sobotka’s head in a Dec. 12 game.

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GOLF: South African player wins Mandela title

Dawie van der Walt of South Africa shot a four-under 66 to win the Nelson Mandela Championship at Durban, South Africa. Van der Walt finished with a three-round total of 15-under 195 in the rain-shortened event. It was his second European Tour victory.

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Matt Kuchar and Harris English took a four-stroke lead in the Franklin Templeton Shootout at Naples, Fla., playing the back nine in nine-under 27 in the better-ball round for a 12-under 60. Kuchar and English were 20 under at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort’s Tiburon course. The team event ends Sunday with a scramble. Retief Goosen and Fredrik Jacobson were second after a 61.

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Stewart Cink and son Connor birdied three of the last five holes for an 11-under 61 and a one-stroke lead in the Father-Son Challenge at Orlando, Fla. Stewart Cink made an eight-foot birdie putt on the final hole at Grande Lakes in the scramble event. Steve and Sam Elkington were second. Jack and Gary Nicklaus shot 63 for third. The 73-year-old Jack Nicklaus made a 10-foot birdie putt at No. 18. “I helped [on] a hole!” he said.

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Spain’s Sergio Garcia opened a four-stroke lead in the Asian Tour’s Thailand Championship at Chonburi as he birdied the final two holes for his second straight 65. Garcia is at 18-under 198.

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Steve Saunders took a three-stroke lead in the Web.com Tour Qualifying Tournament at La Quinta, birdieing his final four holes on PGA West’s TPC Stadium Course for a five-under 67. Saunders, from Fort Collins, Colo., had a 17-under 199 after 54 holes in the six-day, 108-hole event that will determine player priority rankings for the Web.com Tour season.

BOXING: Juergen Braehmer wins light-heavyweight title

Germany’s Juergen Braehmer unanimously outpointed Marcus Oliveira at Neubrandenburg, Germany, to take the vacant WBA world light heavyweight title. The judges scored it 115-112, 117-110, 117-110 in favor of the 35-year-old Braehmer, a former WBO champion, who withstood a late barrage from the previously undefeated American in the last round to claim his second world title. Braehmer improved to 42-2 (31 KOs), and the 34-year-old Oliveira dropped to 25-1-1 (20 KOs).

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NFL: Family decides to exhume Jovan Belcher’s body for exam

Former Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher’s body has been exhumed more than a year after he killed his girlfriend and himself so that his brain can be examined for signs of a degenerative condition linked to repeated concussions. Belcher’s family had his body exhumed Friday at North Babylon Cemetery in the Long Island, N.Y., community of Bay Shore, the family’s attorney, Dirk Vandever, told the Kansas City Star. An examination of Belcher’s brain could determine whether he had chronic traumatic encephalopathy last December when he killed his girlfriend Kasandra Perkins, with whom he had an infant daughter, in their home. Belcher then drove to the Chiefs’ practice facility and shot himself in the head in the parking lot.

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Chiefs wide receiver Dexter McCluster has been ruled out for Sunday’s game in Oakland after developing an infection in a small cut on his ankle.

ETC.: Shaun White slips to second in Olympic qualifier

Shaun White, the world’s top snowboarder, fell and finished second in the year’s opening Olympic halfpipe qualifier, behind Greg Bretz, who all but sealed up a trip to his second Olympics with the victory.

White said he hyperflexed his ankle and is only in need of ice and rest to get going again. On the women’s side, defending Olympic champion Torah Bright of Australia won the halfpipe event. Two-time Olympic medalist Kelly Clark finished second and 13-year-old Chloe Kim, who isn’t eligible for the Olympics, was third. American Devin Logan won the women’s skislope title.

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Tucker West, 18, became the youngest male slider to qualify for a U.S. Olympic luge team, after he and Aidan Kelly secured the final two spots on the 10-person team that will compete at the Sochi Games. In competition at Park City, Utah, Armin Zoeggeler of Italy held off Chris Mazdzer of the U.S. to win with a two-run time of 1 minute 30.599 seconds.

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Steven Holcomb led the U.S. to a sweep of the World Cup two-man bobsled race at Lake Placid, N.Y. It’s the first time U.S. sleds have gone 1-2-3 in a two-man World Cup race. Holcomb and Chris Fogt finished two runs in 1:50.19 seconds. Nick Cunningham and Johnny Quinn were second in 1:50.74, and Cory Butner and Chuck Berkeley were third in 1:50.85.

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For the first time in nearly five years, U.S. skier Ted Ligety didn’t reach the final of a World Cup giant slalom race. The first skier down the hill, Ligety took a gate too wide, went down on his hip and out of his opening run on the steep and icy Stade Olympique de Bellevarde course at Val d’Isere, France. Two-time defending World Cup champion Marcel Hirscher won the giant slalom. Bode Miller of the U.S. didn’t finish his first run after tripping over his skis near the bottom.

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Tina Weirather won a World Cup super-G race in St. Moritz, Switzerland, on her mother Hanni Wenzel’s 57th birthday at the same resort where Wenzel became the slalom world champion in 1974. Weirather clocked 1:17.38 for her first victory this season. Kajsa Kling of Sweden was second and Anna Fenninger of Austria third. Lindsay Vonn skipped the race.