John Tortorella is fired as coach of New York Rangers

John Tortorella was defiant in stating that the New York Rangers didn’t take a step back when they were knocked out of the Stanley Cup playoffs in the second round.

General Manager Glen Sather thought otherwise and fired the combative coach Wednesday.

The fiery Tortorella was let go four days after the Rangers’ season ended with a Game 5 loss at Boston to the Bruins. New York had reached the Eastern Conference finals last year and was considered to be a championship contender in this lockout-shortened season.

“I came up with the decision that I really needed to do something to improve our team going forward,” Sather said during a conference call. “Every coach has a shelf life. I’ve told every guy that I’ve hired that at some point in time this is going to change.

“Our goal is to win the Stanley Cup and we didn’t achieve that goal this year. I had to make a decision, so I did.”

Tortorella was dismissed with one year left on his contract. In 319 regular-season games with New York, including a four-game run at the end of the 1999-2000 season, Tortorella went 171-118-1-29. He was 19-25 in the postseason, and reached the playoffs in four of five seasons after taking over as coach in February 2009.

Tortorella, hired to replace Tom Renney with 21 games remaining in the 2008-09 season, achieved some success with the Rangers but couldn’t match the Stanley Cup title he earned in 2004 with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

SOCCER: Two file suit against Chivas USA

Two former coaches with Chivas USA filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court charging the team with discrimination, claiming they were fired earlier this year “because they were neither Mexican nor Latino.”

Daniel Calichman and Theothoros Chronopoulos, both former members of the U.S. national soccer team, worked with Chivas USA’s youth academy, where they coached players between the ages of 7 and 18. In the suit they allege that the Major League Soccer team, under the direction of new majority owner Jorge Vergara, instituted a policy that included “discriminating against and terminating non-Mexican and non-Latino employees” with Mexican nationals. Last season the team had one player with Mexican heritage; this year it has no fewer than 14.

In the suit, the two coaches say they were ordered to collect ethnic and national origin data on players and coaches in the academy and two months after they complained to the team’s human resources department, they were fired. The team and the league declined to comment on the suit.

—Kevin Baxter

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England and Ireland played to a 1-1 tie in a scrappy but peaceful exhibition in London in their first matchup since hooliganism forced the abandonment of a game 18 years ago. England fans rioted during the 1995 game in Dublin. On Wednesday, they heeded the warning of England Coach Roy Hodgson by largely refraining from anti-Irish chanting at Wembley Stadium.

ETC: Raiders’ Hayden out of hospital

Oakland Raiders first-round draft pick D.J. Hayden has been released from the hospital after undergoing surgery to remove scar tissue from his abdominal region. The team said Wednesday that Hayden, who suffered a life-threatening injury in November, is home resting after the operation conducted last week. Hayden is not expected back on the field until training camp in late July.

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Former New York Giants receiver Steve Smith has announced his retirement from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The former USC standout played six NFL seasons, helping the Giants win a Super Bowl as a rookie and leading the NFC in receptions two years later, when he was a Pro Bowl selection. Smith, 28, battled knee injuries the past three seasons that limited him to playing in 27 of 48 games.

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USC’s Pac-12 Conference opener against Washington State on Sept. 7 and a Thursday night home game against Arizona on Oct. 10 will kick off at 7:30 p.m., USC announced. Both games will be televised by the FOX Sports 1 cable network.

USC’s game at Oregon State on Friday, Nov. 1 will kick off at 6 p.m. and will be televised on ESPN2. USC previously announced that its Aug. 29 season opener at Hawaii will kick off at 5 p.m. local time (8 p.m. PST) on CBS Sports Network cable. The Trojans’ Oct. 19 game at Notre Dame will kick off at 7:30 p.m. local time (4:30 p.m. PST) on NBC.

—Gary Klein

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The estate of the late Penn State football coach Joe Paterno and several university trustees and former players plan to sue the NCAA over the landmark sanctions against the university for the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal. The Paterno family’s attorney, Wick Sollers, told Bob Costas on the NBC Sports Network’s “Costas Tonight” show that former coaches and faculty members are part of the suit. Excerpts from Costas’ interviews with Sollers and other representatives for the family were provided by the network. According to NBCSN, Sollers said NCAA President Mark Emmert and Oregon State President Edward Ray — who was chair of the NCAA’s executive committee — are also named in the planned litigation.

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A few months after facing Olympic extinction, wrestling has become a favorite to clinch the final spot in the 2020 Games. Everyone connected with the sport exhaled Wednesday, as the International Olympic Committee announced that wrestling was one of three sports selected to compete for the last provisional spot in the 2020 and 2024 games. Wrestling, squash and a combined bid from baseball/softball will be presented for a final vote by the IOC General Assembly in its meeting in September

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Anders Albertson shot a three-under-par 67 to help Georgia Tech top the team leaderboard in the NCAA tournament, and Arizona State freshman Jon Rahm followed his opening 61 with a 72 to remain in front with one round left in the individual competition at Milton, Ga. California was a stroke back of Georgia Tech, with the top eight schools after the third round Thursday advancing to team match play. USC is tied for 20th and UCLA is tied for 22nd

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Jack Nicklaus, the host of this week’s Memorial tournament in Dublin, Ohio, says the Tiger Woods-Sergio Garcia feud is “stupid” and he partially blames the media. “Do guys have an issue one with another? They usually resolve it themselves,” Nicklaus said. “You guys want to resolve it in the newspapers today. Nobody needs that. And I think they both finally said, ‘It’s enough. Forget it, guys. Let’s move on.’ In our days, I suppose there were times when you had an issue with somebody and it came about. You never read about it.”