Woman Scores Landmark Goal

Canadian Olympic star Hayley Wickenheiser became the first woman to score a goal in a men’s pro hockey game, sending a backhander past goaltender Antti Kauhanen on Saturday at Helsinki, Finland.

Wickenheiser scored at 7:57 of the first period in Salamat’s 5-4 loss to Titaanit before a sellout crowd of 1,200 at the Varuboden Arena. Wickenheiser’s goal was set up by Immo Suutarinen.

“I’m not satisfied ... we lost the game,” said Wickenheiser, who had an assist and was named star of the game. “But I’m very happy I got the first goal in my team’s arena. I’m feeling better and better all the time.”

Wickenheiser assisted on Kalle Kontio’s second-period goal. She has a goal and two assists in six games.

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College Football

Minnesota’s Dan Nystrom made a 44-yard field goal with four seconds left to cap a 24-point fourth quarter in the South’s 27-24 victory in the Hula Bowl at Wailuku, Hawaii.

Louisiana Lafayette’s Ivan Taylor set up the winning field goal, recovering an onside kick after California’s Joe Igber tied it with a one-yard dive with 55 seconds left.

The South overcame a 24-3 deficit in the fourth quarter. Charles Pauley of San Jose State began the comeback with an eight-yard touchdown pass from Arizona’s Jason Johnson.

Joe Paterno might step down as coach of Penn State after the 2006 season. Paterno told WTKR-TV in Norfolk, Va., that he has not decided on a firm retirement date, but he said that he might make that decision after the 2006 season.

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Track and Field

Regina Jacobs became the first woman to break four minutes in the indoor 1,500 meters, upstaging the successful returns of Olympic champions Maurice Greene and Stacy Dragila in the Boston Indoor Games.

Jacobs finished in 3 minutes 59.98 seconds to break the 13-year-old world record of 4:00.27 set by Romanian Doina Melinte on Feb. 9, 1990. Mary Slaney held the American record of 4:00.80 for even longer -- 23 years.

Dragila, the Olympic champion in the women’s pole vault, cleared 15 feet, 5 1/2 inches for an American record. Dragila missed in three tries at 15-7 1/4 in a bid to break Svetlana Feofanova’s world record of 15-7.

In the 60-meter dash, Greene finished in 6.52 seconds -- short of his world record of 6.39 but enough to beat the 6.56 by Jon Drummond.

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Tennis

Monica Seles and Lindsay Davenport overcame slow starts to advance to the final of the Pan Pacific Open at Tokyo.

The top-seeded Seles beat fourth-seeded Chanda Rubin, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, and the third-seeded Lindsay Davenport followed with a 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 victory over Lisa Raymond.

Fifth-seeded Yevgeny Kafelnikov beat eighth-seeded Jarkko Nieminen, 7-6 (8), 6-3, to advance to the final of the Milan Indoors tournament in Italy. Kafelnikov, eliminated from the Australian Open by Nieminen, will face Martin Verkerk, a 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (1) winner over Ivan Ljubicic.

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Winter Sports

Colorado football player Jeremy Bloom won his first World Freestyle Championships gold medal, finishing first in the dual moguls competition at Park City, Utah.

Norway’s Kari Traa won her second gold of the championships on the women’s side.

Australia’s Alisa Camplin won the women’s aerial title and Russia’s Dmitri Arkhipov took the men’s event.

Austria’s Florian Liegl won his first World Cup ski jumping event on the Kulm mountain at Bad Mitterndorf, Austria. Liegl dominated the qualifying and had jumps of 208.5 and 194.5 meters for 386.1 points.... Olympic bronze medalist Susi Erdmann and Annegret Dietrich of Germany lead midway through the bobsled World Championships at Winterberg, Germany.

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Miscellany

Clint Dolezel passed for four touchdowns to lead Grand Rapids to a 54-36 victory over Buffalo in an Arena Football League game in New York.

Jimmy Pelzel had 16 kills to lead the No. 1-ranked UC Irvine men’s volleyball team to a 30-20, 30-26, 30-25 victory over No. 2 Hawaii at Irvine.