MONTREAL -- Montreal Canadiens forward Patrik Laine returned to the lineup Saturday night, scoring his club's lone goal in a 2-1 shootout loss to the Dallas Stars.

Laine, who missed the previous four games due to an illness, notched his ninth power-play goal of the season in just 14 games, but couldn't prevent the Stars from registering their seventh consecutive victory.

"It's always not fun to miss games," said Laine, who blasted a one-timer during a 5-on-3 power play late in the second period. "So, it was good to be back, and it didn't feel awful. It felt like I had a pretty decent game."

After the veteran sat out the season's first two months because of a knee injury, Laine now has nine goals and 11 points this season, his first with Montreal. Before Saturday, Laine, who was named Montreal's player of the month for December, last played on New Year's Eve.

Last season, while with the Columbus Blue Jackets, the 26-year-old was limited to only 18 games while rehabbing a broken clavicle. He then spent time in the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program from January to July.

Jamie Benn scored his 12th of the season for Dallas in the win, and Jason Robertson's snap shot past Sam Montembeault was the only puck to land in the net during the shootout.

"Obviously, they have a really good team," Laine said of the Stars. "And they play hard, and they forecheck hard, so there's not too much time. But I feel like, after the first (period), we improved, and we had every opportunity like they did."

Dallas goaltender Jake Oettinger stopped Laine, Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki in the shootout, and made 30 saves overall. On the other side of the ice, Montembeault made 34 saves for Montreal, which lost for only the third time in 12 games.

"Our job as a staff is to make sure we're all on the same page on the ice," Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said. "After that, I feel they can coach themselves on the ice, and when you have that, it's clear. Guys are vocal on the bench, and we're going to try to keep growing that."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Alex Ovechkin is just 21 goals shy of tying Wayne Gretzky's hallowed career record after scoring in the Washington Capitals' 4-1 win over the Nashville Predators on Saturday night.

Ovechkin blocked a shot and went the length of the ice with 58 seconds left to set up his No. 873 career goal, an empty-netter to seal the win. He added an assist in the game as well.

Ovechkin, 39, entered the season 42 short of breaking Gretzky's career record of 894 goals. The Russian, in his 20th NHL season, was on pace to get to 895 in February before breaking his left leg in a shin-on-shin collision in November. He missed 16 games but resumed his pursuit at Toronto in the Capitals' first game out of the Christmas break.

For the Capitals on Saturday, Ethen Frank got his first NHL goal; Tom Wilson and Andrew Mangiapane were responsible for the two others. Logan Thompson stopped 32 shots as the Capitals won for the second time in three games.

Filip Forsberg scored and Juuse Saros made 12 saves for the Predators, who have lost two straight.

One day after getting an assist in his NHL debut, Frank gathered a stretch pass from Matt Roy at the Nashville blue line and drove down the right side before beating Saros with a wrist shot from the lower part of the right faceoff circle at 8:30 of the third period to put the Capitals up 2-1.

Wilson scored the game's first goal at 9:03 of the second period.

Forsberg tied it with 3:46 remaining in the second. After going 18 games without scoring, Forsberg has goals in consecutive games.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

AC Milan's uphill battle to close the gap to the top of Serie A continued when they were held to a 1-1 draw at home by relegation-battlers Cagliari on Saturday in new head coach Sérgio Conceição's league debut.

Cagliari stunned the hosts in the 55th minute when defender Nadir Zortea scored from a counter-attack four minutes after Álvaro Morata's opener for Milan from close range.

Conceicao, who was appointed on Dec. 30 to replace sacked Paulo Fonseca, led Milan to Italian Super Cup success on Monday against Inter Milan, becoming the manager who needed the fewest games (two) to win a trophy with the club since 1929-30.

It may take time, however, for the Portuguese coach to turn around their Serie A fortunes, with Milan having won one of their last five league games.

They sit eighth in the standings on 28 points, eight points behind fourth-placed Lazio but have two games in hand.

The hosts dominated the entire match and midfielder Tijjani Reijnders should have put them in front after 20 minutes but his low attempt was denied by Cagliari goalkeeper Elia Caprile.

Milan keeper Mike Maignan stretched to keep out Mattia Felici's lofted effort from the edge of the box just before the break.

The hosts were strong after the restart with Christian Pulisic hitting the bar from the edge of the area and Morata finding the side netting before the Spaniard broke the deadlock in the 51st minute.

Theo Hernández found Pulisic inside the box with a stunning diagonal ball and the American's effort was deflected onto the post by Caprile before Morata scrambled the rebound home.

Zortea, however, levelled for Cagliari four minutes later with a low shot from outside the box for his fourth league goal of the season, the joint most goals by a defender in the big five European leagues this campaign.

Milan were still in control and Pulisic had a great chance to restore their lead but was thwarted by Caprile after the hour-mark before Hernández fired a terrific shot over the bar.

But the 23-year-old Caprile brilliantly denied further shots by Tammy Abraham and Hernández, before saving the France defender's free kick deep into stoppage time.

Cagliari, who snapped their losing streak of five games across all competitions last weekend when they won 2-1 at bottom side Monza, are 18th with 18 points.

Manchester City avoided a potential FA Cup banana skin with an 8-0 home thrashing of fourth-tier Salford City on Saturday -- a club with strong connections to local rivals Manchester United.

A much-changed City side were totally dominant with Divin Mubama marking his senior debut with a goal, Jack Grealish ending a year-long goal drought with a penalty and James McAtee bagging a second-half hat-trick.

Mubama doubled City's lead with a tap-in after Jérémy Doku had given the hosts the lead in the eighth minute and City were out of sight when Nico O'Reilly scored before halftime.

Grealish got in on the act when he earned and then converted a penalty in the 49th minute before McAtee scored three times inside 20 minutes and Doku slotted home a penalty.

Salford are co-owned by Manchester United teammates Gary Neville, Ryan Giggs, Phil Neville, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt and David Beckham, but while they have made great strides and are pushing for promotion from League Two, they were given a 90-minute schooling by a slick City.

"Man City and Pep have never disrespected anybody and tonight they showed us why they are what they are and why he is who he is," Salford boss Karl Robinson said.

His side had conceded no goals in their last six games but City proved a much tougher hurdle as Butt and Scholes watched on from the director's box and Giggs from the technical area in his role as the club's football director.

"I have told the players if someone had told me we would concede eight goals in seven games I would have taken it," Robinson joked. "I just didn't expect it to be all in one match."

City manager Pep Guardiola made nine changes to the line-up that beat West Ham United last weekend but his big guns were all stacked on the bench in case of an emergency.

That never looked like materialising once a counter-attack in the eighth minute saw Matheus Nunes drive forward and pass to Grealish who in turn played in the over-lapping Doku to send a left-foot shot in off the post.

Mubama made it 2-0 with a tap-in from a Nunes pass and it was game up for Salford just before the interval when O'Reilly controlled a Doku pass to steer home a shot for his first goal for the club.

Grealish scored his first goal since Dec. 16, 2023 when he was hacked down in the area just after half-time and got up to convert the penalty.

The excellent Doku set up McAtee for his first goal just past the hour and the Belgian converted a spot kick before being substituted. McAtee then put the icing on the cake with two more well-taken goals.

Pep Guardiola has revealed that Kyle Walker has asked to leave Manchester City.

The England defender was left out of the squad for the 8-0 win over League Two side Salford City in the FA Cup on Saturday.

Asked after the game about the reason behind Walker's omission, Guardiola explained that Walker asked City director of football Txiki Begiristain on Thursday to be allowed to move to "another country" in the January window.

"It's not easy for me to say because I should tell him, but he's not here, so two days ago Kyle asked to explore the options to play abroad at the end of his career," Guardiola told a news conference.

"He's been our right-back, giving us something we didn't have, but now in his mind he would like to explore to go to another country to play his last years for many reasons. For that reason, I prefer to play other players whose mind is here. He went to Txiki. He asked to explore, it doesn't mean it's going to happen because you never know the situation."

Walker came close to leaving the Etihad in 2023 when Bayern Munich offered him a two-year contract. He was convinced to stay after holding a private dinner with Guardiola and later signed a new three-year deal and was made club captain.

Interest from Saudi Arabia last summer came to nothing, but after a poor start to the season with City, the 34-year-old, who arrived from Tottenham in 2017, has lost his place as a regular starter.

"He asked [to leave] two years ago after the treble," Guardiola said. "Bayern wanted him but the offer was not good enough and the club [told] him how important he is. We cannot understand the success we had these years without Kyle. It's impossible.

"I respect a lot because I'm more than grateful since he has been [here] many years for us. His first season here, we started to win, win, win , win, win.

"He's been important for the national team and important for our team but he said that 'I want to explore, my mind and my heart and I want to explore it'. I don't know what's going to happen."

United States women's national team forward Jaedyn Shaw is set to be traded by the San Diego Wave to the North Carolina Courage for an undisclosed amount of allocation money, sources confirmed to ESPN.

The Equalizer was the first to report news of the deal.

The deal will come as a blow to San Diego head coach Jonas Eidevall, who was named to his post earlier this week. But Shaw, 20, had long been seeking a trade, with one source telling ESPN that the request dated back to a year ago.

The move should do plenty to bolster a North Carolina attack in need of more production compared to the top teams in the league, having tallied 34 times in 26 matches. With Brazilian attacker Kerolin returning from injury, and with Shaw's arrival, North Carolina figures to have a much more potent offense in 2025.

Shaw joined the Wave back in 2022 and went on to score 14 goals in 61 league and cup appearances. She was part of San Diego teams that claimed the NWSL Shield in 2023 and the NWSL Challenge Cup in 2024. Shaw was also named to the NWSL Best XI in 2023.

The Frisco, Tex. native has made considerable inroads at the international level as well, having scored eight goals in 21 matches following her debut in October of 2023. Shaw was part of the squad that claimed the gold medal at the 2024 Olympic games. She was named U.S. Soccer Young Female Player of the Year in 2022.

Real Madrid eased past Mallorca and Barcelona comfortably beat Athletic Club to set up a Clásico showdown in the Spanish Supercopa final in Saudi Arabia on Sunday (2 p.m. ET, stream LIVE on ESPN+, U.S. only).

It's the third season in a row Madrid and Barça have met at this stage, with the previous winners going on to secure the LaLiga title -- Barça in 2023 and Madrid last year. Xavi Hernández, Barça's coach at the time two years ago, even spoke about the confidence which came from beating Madrid in the Supercopa.

Both teams have experienced up-and-down seasons, but they go into Sunday's game in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in relatively good shape with all their stars available in attack. For Madrid, there are signs that Kylian Mbappé, Vinícius Júnior and Jude Bellingham are coming good. For Barça, Lamine Yamal is back from injury to partner with Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski. Dani Olmo is also available again after the registration fiasco which saw him miss the semifinal. -- Sam Marsden

Clásico all-time head-to-head

All competitions
Madrid 105, Barcelona 101, Draws 52

Finals
Madrid 5, Barcelona 4

-- ESPN Research

What happened in the last Clásico?

October's 4-0 humbling of Real Madrid at the Bernabéu was the peak of Barcelona's early-season form. It was a triumph for Hansi Flick's high-risk high line and a shock to Madrid's system, sparking a mini-crisis for Los Blancos. But it was also a game won -- despite the scoreline -- on razor-thin margins. If Madrid, and especially Kylian Mbappé, had been a bit more clinical and exploited Barça's defence with more precision, the result might have been very different.

Madrid had multiple chances to score, denied by either poor finishing or the offside flag, before Robert Lewandowski hit the target in the 54th minute. Two minutes later, Lewandowski grabbed a second goal, and it was effectively game over. By the time Lamine Yamal and Raphinha had chipped in late on, the scoreline suggested a rout, but that wasn't reflective of the balance of play over 90 minutes.

All that suggests that there's no guarantee of a repeat. And we've seen in recent years that big Clásico wins aren't necessarily predictive of the next meeting, or the season as a whole. As precedents go, Madrid would prefer to look to the last Supercopa, in January 2024, when Vinícius Júnior's hat trick inspired a comprehensive 4-1 Madrid victory. -- Alex Kirkland

How Real Madrid's and Barcelona's seasons have gone so far

Real Madrid: Carlo Ancelotti's side already have two trophies in the bag for 2024-25: the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Intercontinental Cup. They're looking to add a third in Jeddah, and that's with a team that is yet to truly find its rhythm.

Madrid started the season slowly -- draws at Mallorca and Las Palmas in August showed a concerning lack of cohesion -- and there have been some high-profile defeats along the way, notably to Lille, AC Milan and Liverpool in the Champions League, and that home thrashing from Barça. There's been criticism of Mbappé, and injuries, especially to Dani Carvajal, have weakened the team.

But overall, the trend is one of gradual improvement. Jude Bellingham has been the star -- his all-round game is now arguably even better than last season's heroics -- with Vinícius Júnior not far behind. Mbappé's rate of goal scoring has improved, even if he hasn't hit top form yet. The weak link is the defence, and especially the full-backs, with Lucas Vázquez struggling to replace Carvajal's defensive output. -- Kirkland

Barcelona: Barcelona's season can be broken down into two parts: before November and after November. Before November, they won 12 of 14 games, scoring four or more goals in seven of those matches, including in wins against Madrid and Bayern Munich. Since November, they have won seven out of 13 games and lost five, including shock home defeats against Las Palmas and Leganés.

Various reasons have been offered for their dip. Raphinha suggested there was some fatigue, Lewandowski has talked about the team's mentality in the "smaller" games and there was a period when they were without Yamal. Opposition players and coaches have also spoken about how they successfully targeted Barça's high defensive line, which yielded such devastating results for them earlier in the season.

Beating Madrid, after back-to-back wins at the start of 2025 against Barbastro and Athletic Club, will fuel the sensation they have turned the corner from what Flick dubbed a "s--- November." -- Marsden

Key clashes

Mbappé vs. the Barcelona defence: Mbappé was caught offside a career-high eight times -- six of them in the first half -- when the two teams met in October. And when he wasn't offside, his finishing was wayward. But that slump came in the midst of a dry spell of seven games with just one goal.

Since then, Mbappé has been scoring more regularly, finding the net in four consecutive games in December. He also netted in both of Madrid's finals so far in 2024-25, against Pachuca and Atalanta. A big performance against Barça on Sunday would be the highlight of his season so far, and the defining "I'm him" moment everybody has been waiting for. -- Kirkland

Yamal vs. Mendy. Yamal showed no sign of ill effects from an ankle injury as he returned by scoring the second goal in the semifinal win against Athletic on Wednesday. Ferland Mendy knows all about the threat the 17-year-old poses, having been dizzied by him at the Bernabéu in October. The battle between the two could decide this game.

Yamal's numbers might not be as impressive as Raphinha's and Lewandowski's -- although he's still scored seven goals and provided 12 assists this season -- but Barça are always better when he's on the pitch. He has started 20 games this season, and Barça have won 17 of them. He demands attention on the right and, if he doesn't score or assist, it creates more space for others. -- Marsden

Clásico predictions

Real Madrid 3-2 Barcelona. There will be goals. At both ends. Even against Mallorca in the semifinal, Madrid looked vulnerable at times, and Barcelona's defence isn't as strong as it was. It'll come down to which team is more clinical. Bellingham should star, again, and Vini Jr. will have a point to prove, after looking unhappy at being substituted towards the end of the Mallorca game. It'll be fun. -- Kirkland

Real Madrid 1-3 Barcelona. It's hard to disagree with Alex that there will be goals. The first one will be especially key. If Barça get it, it will force Madrid to be more open than they ordinarily might be. If Madrid get it, Barça have a habit of chasing games earlier than they need to. Therefore, I think this will mirror the last two finals between the teams, with whoever scores first eventually winning comfortably. I'm just not sure who. -- Marsden

Betting odds

Real Madrid -125, Barcelona -105 (at time of publication)

-- ESPN BET