Tie Puts the U.S. in Next Round

Zach Parise’s penalty shot was stopped with 1:25 left, but the United States clinched a spot in the quarterfinals of the World Hockey Championships by tying last-place Ukraine, 1-1, Monday at Innsbruck, Austria.

The Americans trailed, 1-0, until defenseman Brett Hauer scored a power-play goal 2:45 into the third period.

The penalty shot was awarded after Ukrainian goalie Kostyantyn Simchuk was called for delay of game when he intentionally knocked the net off its moorings as the U.S. applied pressure.

Kostiantyn Kasianchuk scored for Ukraine at 10:15 in the second period.

The U.S. will have to wait until today’s play is completed to know its opponent Thursday in the quarterfinals.

Pro Football

Minnesota Viking owner Red McCombs said he was confident his team would be sold by June for $625 million to the investor group now headed by New Jersey developer Zygmunt Wilf.

Initially one of four limited partners, Wilf has since assumed the lead role, presumably because Arizona businessman Reggie Fowler has been unable to raise the money required to be in charge.

The New York Giants claimed quarterback Tim Hasselbeck on waivers after he was released by the Washington Redskins.

Miami Dolphin cornerback Will Poole, the leading candidate to replace traded Patrick Surtain, is expected to sit out the 2005 season because of a torn left knee ligament suffered during mini-camp last week.

College Baseball

After winning Sunday to clinch a Big West Conference series victory over Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, league-leading Cal State Fullerton held on to the top spot in Baseball America’s poll this week.

The Titans, 36-12 overall and 13-2 in the Big West, will play host to Pepperdine tonight before visiting the White House on Saturday as last season’s College World Series championship team.

Long Beach State (33-16, 11-4) fell one spot to 12th, and USC (28-15) moved up one to 24th.

Tennis

Top-ranked Roger Federer beat Fernando Verdasco, 6-4, 6-3, after a three-week foot injury layoff, and Andy Roddick lost, 7-6 (4), 4-6, 7-5, to Nicolas Massau in the opening round of the Hamburg Masters in Germany.

Roddick, Tommy Haas and the doubles team of Mike and Bob Bryan of Camarillo are among the early entrants for the July 25-31 Mercedes-Benz Cup at UCLA’s Los Angeles Tennis Center. Haas won the singles title last year, and the Bryans took the doubles.

Jurisprudence

Ricardo Mayorga will be retried on rape charges after an appeals court in Managua, Nicaragua, overturned a decision that cleared the former welterweight champion and ordered a new trial because of trial errors.

Five Connecticut football players were charged in a case in which the window of a vehicle was shot out by a pellet gun Sunday as two cars passed in a parking lot in Willimantic, Conn.

Sophomore safety Tyvon Branch, sophomore defensive end Daniel Davis, sophomore linebacker Daniel Lansanah and sophomore safety Marvin Taylor were charged with possession of a weapon in a motor vehicle.

Junior safety Donta Moore was charged with possession of a weapon in a motor vehicle, second-degree reckless endangerment, third-degree criminal mischief, third-degree assault and unlawful discharge of a firearm.

All five were suspended from the team.

Miscellany

The UCLA women’s basketball team slipped below the acceptable standard set by the NCAA’s new academic guidelines, according to revised figures.

The first Academic Progress Rate report was initially made public in February, but, given the newness of the program, part of a broad academic reform, schools were allowed several months to make corrections.

“We wanted to give our member institutions a chance to go back and look at their APR scores,” said Erik Christianson, an NCAA spokesman. “We realize that when you have a new program, it may take a little time.”

This first report is considered a trial run. In the future, teams will have to score at least 925, roughly equivalent to a 50% graduation rate, to avoid loss of scholarships and other penalties.

The revised report had the Bruin women’s basketball team falling to 867, but a university official said that because of developments with two student-athletes, the number might be revised back upward.

A dozen UCLA and USC teams showed higher scores in the new data, although the Bruin football team and the Trojan men’s basketball team still failed to reach the “penalty line.”

Perhaps the most numerous changes for Southern California teams were in baseball, where Long Beach State, Cal State Northridge, UCLA, Pepperdine and USC all had higher revised scores.

The USC baseball team and the men’s basketball team at Long Beach State moved above the penalty line after corrections were made.

UC Irvine freshman Garrett Sapp was selected to compete May 21 as an individual in the NCAA men’s golf West Regional at Stanford. The top two individuals not on teams will advance to the NCAA championships in Owings Mills, Md.

Pepperdine senior All-American Michael Putnam was named one of the five finalists for the 2005 Byron Nelson Award by the Golf Coaches Assn. of America. The recipient will be announced during the NCAA championships.