SALT LAKE CITY -- The Utah Hockey Club put defenseman Juuso Valimaki on waivers Sunday.

The 26-year-old Finn has five points and 14 penalty minutes while averaging 16:33 of ice time in 43 games this season. He has one year left on his contract at a salary cap hit of $2 million.

Valimaki fell out of Utah's lineup with John Marino and Sean Durzi each back from a long-term injury. If he clears waivers, the team can assign Valimaki to the Tucson Roadrunners of the American Hockey League.

Going on waivers comes after Valimaki was selected to Finland's roster for the 4 Nations Face-Off but was a healthy scratch for all three games of the tournament.

Manchester United loanee Antony was shown a straight red card during Real Betis' 2-1 win over Getafe on Sunday.

Antony was penalised in injury time for lunging at Getafe defender Juan Iglesias' ankle while charging him down.

Prior to the sending off, Antony had already left his mark on the game with an assist for Isco's opener in the first half. It was his fifth goal contribution for Betis since joining the Seville-based side on loan until the end of the season.

The Brazil international has enjoyed a new lease of life at Betis and has spoken of "finding himself again" at the LaLiga.

The red card against Getafe means he be suspended for Betis' clash against Real Madrid next Saturday.

Carlo Ancelotti described Luka Modric as "a gift for football" after the midfielder, 39, scored a spectacular goal in Real Madrid's 2-0 win over Girona on Sunday.

Modric opened the scoring in the 41st minute at the Bernabéu, before Vinícius Júnior added a late second, as Madrid kept pace with Barcelona at the top of the LaLiga table.

The Croatia international is no longer a regular starter for Madrid, having made just nine league starts this season and another 15 substitute appearances, but remains an important figure in the dressing room.

"Modric is a gift for football," Ancelotti said in his post-match news conference. "He should keep going for as long as he wants to. Whatever he does, he does well. Football, and we at Real Madrid, have been lucky to have him as a legend. He has been a gift, with his quality and his professionalism."

Modric -- whose contract is due to expire this summer -- is the oldest player ever to feature for Real Madrid, and will turn 40 in September this year.

Ancelotti compared him with his legendary player at AC Milan, Paolo Maldini, who won the 2007 Champions League aged 38, before retiring two years later.

"I have an example of another player, Maldini, you can compare both of them," Ancelotti said. "They're fantastic role models. It isn't a coincidence that they reached 40. Genes are a factor, but above all professionalism, seriousness, attitude."

"I don't know if it's one of my most spectacular [goals], but it was nice," Modric told Real Madrid TV. "It's always special to score at the Bernabéu ... The recent games show we're in a good moment. We have to keep going. I think we can still grow as a team."

Madrid play Real Sociedad on Wednesday in their Copa del Rey semifinal first leg, before visiting Real Betis in LaLiga and then playing Atlético Madrid in the first leg of their Champions League round-of-16 clash.

Ancelotti said defender David Alaba was in contention to start that game after playing 70 minutes against Girona, in his first start in over a year.

Pep Guardiola said he saw Manchester City's "bright future" despite watching his young team lose to Liverpool at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday.

Liverpool took a big step towards the Premier League title with a 2-0 victory on Sunday. Guardiola left the experience of Rúben Dias, Mateo Kovacic, Ilkay Gündogan and Bernardo Silva on the bench in favour of a team with an average age of just 24.7-years-old.

City included three 20-year-olds -- Rico Lewis, Savinho and Abdukodir Khusanov -- in the starting XI and, despite the result, Guardiola said he was impressed.

"I saw a bright future," Guardiola told the BBC.

"Other than Kevin [De Bruyne] and Nathan [Ake], they are the future of this club in the next years, with others who will come in future windows.

"It was a good game. Tight game in the first half. First half it was more open and in the second half they defended very deep. They always have the threat but it is not easy to control it. Big compliment to them but I am very pleased with the way we play."

The result leaves City 20 points behind Liverpool in the table and Guardiola's team have plenty of work to do in order to close the gap and challenge for the title next season.

Asked what the biggest difference between the two side is right now, Guardiola told ESPN: 'You can see it in the table, they've picked up a lot of points, we've lost a lot when we couldn't have.

"As for today, I have few things to say, we got to the touchline a lot, the winger was brilliant, but we lacked the quality to be able to resolve [the moves]."

City were without Erling Haaland again because the knee injury picked up during the 4-0 win over Newcastle.

The striker was kept on the bench against Real Madrid in midweek and was left out of the squad entirely against Liverpool.

City face Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday and Guardiola is unsure whether the Norway international will be back.

"I don't know," he said. "I am not saying we didn't get the result because Erling was not there. That is unfair on the other players. We could finish more but in general it is fine."

Information from ESPN's Joao Castelo-Branco contributed to this report

Mohamed Salah said Liverpool's modern-day legends "need another title" after they swatted aside Manchester City at the Etihad on Sunday to move 11 points clear of second-placed Arsenal in the Premier League title race.

Asked whether he thought Liverpool were close to securing their second Premier League title, Salah told Sky Sports: "I wouldn't say it's close. It's just like, we need another title for sure.

"Me and the big guys here in the team, we need another title. But yeah, we'll give it our best and we'll give it a good shot."

Salah has been in inspired form this season, and he became the first player in Europe's top five leagues to register 50 goal involvements when he gave Liverpool the lead in their 2-0 victory.

The result, combined with Arsenal's defeat to West Ham in north London on Saturday, has left Liverpool with a commanding lead in the Premier League title race.

If they can get over the line in Arne Slot's first season in charge, it will secure the second Premier League title in the club's history, five years after their first success under former coach Jürgen Klopp.

Salah and teammates such as Virgil van Dijk, Alisson and Trent Alexander-Arnold were vital then and are set to be so again as they eye a trophy lift in May.

Van Dijk, Alexander-Arnold and Salah are all out of contract at Anfield this summer and have been able to speak to clubs abroad with the view of signing for them in June.

Despite the ongoing uncertainty over his long-term future at the club, Salah admitted this has been his favourite season on Merseyside.

"I don't know. It's opinion. Maybe people prefer my first season [or] people prefer now. But I think I prefer now because it's just winning the league, doing your best and helping the team, helping young players as well. It's incredible. Probably this year," Salah said.

Meanwhile, City winger Jérémy Doku said he believed his side deserved more from their defeat.

"To be fair, if I look at the game, I don't think that they were much better than us," Doku said. "Two goals, one set piece and the second goal was a long ball, so well done to them. We know their qualities and that they like to play in behind. They did well, and after it is hard to come back against a team that defends well like that."

Information from ESPN's Global Sports Research contributed to this report.

RALEIGH, N.C. -- NC State guard Zoe Brooks never panicked, flinched or hesitated. Not with the chance to take on the All-American guards leading Notre Dame, the nation's top-ranked team.

The 5-foot-10 Brooks scored a career-high 33 points to help the 13th-ranked Wolfpack beat No. 1 Notre Dame 104-95 in double overtime Sunday, swapping her typical role as sidekick to touted backcourt teammates for breakout star of a thrilling game played in the national TV spotlight.

"I like challenges," Brooks, a sophomore, said.

Brooks came in averaging 13.5 points and her previous high was 21. But she blew past that in a high-pressure matchup against the Irish's backcourt of Hannah Hidalgo and Olivia Miles, attacking the paint to put the pressure on Notre Dame's interior defenders and constantly getting to the foul line in 48 minutes.

The day started with the Wolfpack players delivering doughnuts to fans lined up outside for hours to get in early on a day when ESPN's "College GameDay" was on site to highlight the matchup. By the end, Brooks was joining teammates in hopping around and celebrating on the court in front of a packed Reynolds Coliseum at the horn.

And it wasn't long before they took that party to the campus at Bell Tower to celebrate with fans -- the site where NC State marked the unexpected double Final Four by its men's and women's teams last spring.

The Wolfpack ended Notre Dame's 19-game winning streak and denied the Irish the chance to clinch the Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season title outright. Now, after earning its first home win against a No. 1-ranked team since beating Wayland Baptist in 1978, NC State still has a chance to grab at least a share of that title.

"It's amazing," Brooks said. "We're all tired. We're all banged up, all hurting. We just kept fighting. We wanted to win this game really bad, and we did everything we could to win."

Brooks made 9 of 20 shots and hit all 14 of her free throws while drawing a game-high eight fouls on opponents. She was unafraid to go right at Hidalgo, a first-team Associated Press All-American ranked second nationally in scoring (24.6) and a familiar opponent from their pre-college days.

She also didn't hesitate to drive against bigger defenders, like when she had her shot blocked in the paint by the 6-foot Liatu King but went back up to snag the rebound and draw a foul. Brooks responded by calmly sinking two more free throws for an 80-77 lead with 22.5 seconds left in regulation.

Sometimes, she scored easily. Sometimes, she was knocked to the floor. But in a game with slim margins of 21 ties and 21 lead changes, those big moments kept adding up until NC State finally wrestled away control for good in the final extra five minutes.

"She got to the free throw line 14 times individually, we didn't even have that many as a team," Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey said, referencing the Irish's 10 attempts. "So, she did a great job of getting downhill, playing with a ton of confidence and it was one of those nights for her, having a career high. Hats off to her, she played well."

Brooks' lofty recruiting pedigree forecasted performances like this, notably as a McDonald's All-American and top-10 national recruit when she arrived before last season. But she had only twice cracked the 20-point mark in her career, with 21 points against ETSU in the season opener and then 21 in a loss at Florida State on Feb. 9.

NC State generally hadn't needed her to take on that role, with James being such an explosive and gifted scorer while Rivers is an all-around matchup headache with length and versatility.

Those players showed up Sunday, too. James had 20 points, including a highlight-reel transition layup in which she smoothly took the ball around her back to change hands and avoid Miles' strip attempt in the second overtime. And Rivers barely missed a triple-double with 14 points, 13 rebounds, nine assists, two steals and three blocks.

Brooks offered a glimpse of an even higher ceiling for the Wolfpack.

"Notre Dame deserves all the attention and all that they get," Wolfpack coach Wes Moore said of the Irish's guards. "But I like ours, too. We've got some pretty good ones."

WASHINGTON -- Alex Ovechkin fired a perfect wrist shot past Calvin Pickard for his first goal of the game, scored from his office on the power play for his second and sailed a shot into an empty net from his own zone to complete the hat trick.

"I have pretty good chances to score more," Ovechkin said, "but I'll take three."

Scoring three goals in the Washington Capitals' 7-3 rout of the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday put Ovechkin 13 away from breaking Wayne Gretzky's NHL career record of 894 that long seemed unapproachable. Even after missing 16 games earlier this season because of a broken leg, the 39-year-old is on pace to pass Gretzky this spring.

"He amazes me night in, night out," Capitals goaltender Charlie Lindgren said. "He truly is the best."

Linemate Dylan Strome, who has assisted on 16 of Ovechkin's 29 goals this season, acknowledged "it's going to be tough still" to set the record in March or April. Asked whether scoring 13 in Washington's final 25 games was doable, Ovechkin said he's taking it "game by game."

If there are more games like Sunday's against the Oilers, it's a matter of when, not if, Ovechkin reaches 895 and beyond.

"I've never seen a guy so hungry," longtime teammate Tom Wilson said. "Some guys score and they [think], 'OK, I had a good night.' He comes back to the bench, he's asking if he can go out again like right away. It's pretty fun, and it's been an amazing journey watching him do what he can do."

The effort marked Ovechkin's second hat trick this season, after posting one on Nov. 17 on the road against the Vegas Golden Knights. According to ESPN Research, Ovechkin is the third player in NHL history to record multiple hat tricks at age 39 or older, joining Gordie Howe (four) and Johnny Bucyk (two).

Watching from the other side, grizzled veteran Corey Perry lamented the Oilers letting Ovechkin get open enough to do damage.

"You give the best goal scorer in the world that kind of time, he's going to put it in the back of the net," Perry said.

After scoring 10 minutes apart in the second period, Ovechkin almost beat Pickard a third time in the third but was denied. He got eight shots on Edmonton's goaltender and had four more attempts.

It took an empty net for the hats to fly from the juiced-up crowd of 18,573 fans who chanted "Ovi! Ovi!" throughout. Ovechkin conceded he was a little surprised Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch pulled Pickard for an extra attacker while trailing by three, but it turned out to be good for the Capitals when Ovechkin scored from 139 feet out.

"They got an elite team with elite offensive players and 17,000 people in the stands were hoping they pull the goalie," Strome said. "We'll take it. Obviously he'll take it, and it was a lucky, fortunate bounce. But I guess when you have 882 goals, you get those bounces."

Ovechkin tied Jaromir Jagr's record with 135 game-winning goals, and the 32nd hat trick of his 20-year NHL career moved him into a tie for fifth on that list with Hall of Famer Phil Esposito. His next goal will be No. 30, reaching that mark for an 18th season.

"You cannot write a story and a book of what he's doing right now at 39," Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. "The goals he's scoring, he could've had six."

Lindgren counts himself fortunate not to have to face Ovechkin, and playing with him the past two-plus seasons has kept him from being one of the 181 goaltenders the Russian superstar has scored on. He felt for Pickard getting beaten on shots that are incredibly difficult to stop, and from the other end of the rink, he has an appreciation for Ovechkin lighting up the league and chasing history.

"It's just insane, honestly," Lindgren said. "He just scores in so many different ways. Best hockey player in the world."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

University of Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders, considered to be one of the top two players at the position available in April's NFL draft, will not work out at scouting combine in Indianapolis this week, sources confirmed to ESPN.

Though Sanders won't work out at Lucas Oil Stadium, he will meet with teams in Indianapolis, the sources said. Quarterbacks are scheduled to arrive Tuesday at the combine, which formally opens Monday. Their on-field workouts are slated for Saturday.

It is not known if Sanders will also go through the medical exams prospects are scheduled to do each year at the combine.

Sanders is expected to throw on campus next month at Colorado's pro day. Often, some of the top prospects at each position choose not to work out at the combine, instead waiting for the more familiar campus settings.

Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams, who was the No. 1 pick last April, did not throw at the 2024 combine. Neither did Jayden Daniels, who went on to win NFL's Offensive Rookie of the Year Award with the Washington Commanders this past season, nor New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye.

Williams, Daniels and Maye were selected 1-2-3 as a record six quarterbacks were selected in the first round of the draft. In an appearance this month on ESPN's "Get Up,'' Colorado coach Deion Sanders, Shedeur's father, made the case for his son to be this year's top pick.

Deion Sanders said his son had seven different offensive coordinators in four years combined at Jackson State and Colorado and continued to perform at a high level.

On ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr.'s latest Big Board, Shedeur Sanders is the No. 4-rated prospect overall and the No. 1 quarterback, just ahead of Miami's Cam Ward. Sanders and Ward have trained together in the Dallas area with quarterbacks coach Darrell Colbert since the end of the season.

Sanders led the nation with a 74% completion rate for the Buffaloes in 2024. He also led the Big 12 in passing yards (4,134), touchdowns (37), passing yards per game (318.0), completions (353) and attempts (477).

His 71.8% completion rate over his two seasons at Colorado are an FBS record.

NFL Network was first to report that Sanders would not work out at the combine.

BOSTON -- The New York Knicks entered this weekend hoping to show they'd made strides in matching up with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics, the cream of the crop in the Eastern Conference this season.

Instead, after a 37-point shellacking at the hands of the Cavaliers in Cleveland Friday, followed by a 118-105 loss to the Celtics here at TD Garden on Sunday afternoon -- a game Boston led by 27 and had total control of for the vast majority of the action -- New York admitted it has a long way to go to catch its rivals after falling to 0-5 against Boston and Cleveland this season.

"Where I said from the beginning of the season: We're a work in progress," Karl-Anthony Towns said of where he thinks the Knicks stand in comparison to their elite competition in the East. "We're going to be a work in progress all year until the day we step into the postseason.

"Every team in the NBA will tell you the same thing. We're all a work in progress until the postseason, when you put all the chips and cards and see what the season taught you."

It's good for the Knicks (37-20) that they still have another 25 games to go, because what this one against Boston (41-16) showed is that there remains a Grand Canyon-sized gap between New York and its historic rival. The Celtics have won the three matchups with the Knicks by a combined 63 points and spent most of this game threatening to win by another 20-plus-point margin after jumping out to a 38-19 lead after the first quarter.

"Because we have good defenders," said Kristaps Porzingis, who finished with 15 points, 7 rebounds and 3 blocked shots, on what has allowed Boston to dominate its matchup with New York this season. "We make it difficult on them. Obviously they have really talented offensive players, but our versatility and the guys we have on the team can make it really difficult for them.

"Obviously it's a dangerous team anyway, but we respect them and we came out the right way in the first and we set the tone for the game."

The Celtics set the tone with that first quarter, and the Knicks -- once again -- found themselves floundering against an elite team. With more than two-thirds of the season in the books, the numbers across the board are beyond concerning.

New York is 26-6 against teams with losing records, and 11-14 against teams with winning records. The Knicks are now 20th overall in defensive rating -- a shocking number for a Tom Thibodeau-coached team. Against top-10 offenses this season, the number is even worse -- dipping all the way down to 29th in the NBA, ahead of only the Toronto Raptors, per ESPN Research.

"It's probably a combination of things," Thibodeau said of New York's struggles defensively against elite teams. "One, they're elite, and I think the volume 3- shooting teams, you can do a good job, but it just takes two or three minutes of not getting it right and they can go on a run on you. So it's something that we got to continue to work on and that's the test of the league. So learn from each game, get ready for the next one. And that's where we want to focus on."

What's become clear across the first three games this season against Boston -- even though this was the first time Porzingis had played against his former team this year -- is that it's a difficult matchup for Towns, in particular, to handle. New York has run more drop coverage against Boston -- 48% of the time against ball screens, per ESPN Research -- than any team in the league.

And, across those possessions, the Celtics have averaged 1.34 points per direct pick, per ESPN Research -- their best rate against any team playing drop coverage against them this season.

While Towns playing center has, as expected, juiced New York's offense -- the Knicks are more than nine points per 100 possessions better offensively with Towns on the floor than on the bench -- the other end, against all opponents, has been a concern.

Going back to those games against top-10 offenses, Towns has allowed opponents in those games to shoot 63% from the field -- ranking 346th out of 346 players to contest at least 50 shots against those teams, per ESPN Research.

On layups and dunks in those games, Towns is allowing 70% shooting -- and opponents are shooting 60% overall on layups and dunks against him, which is the worst mark of any player to contest at least 300 of them.

While Towns eventually got going in the second half, finishing with 24 points and 18 rebounds in 41 minutes as he played a significant part in New York cutting into the lead, Boston gave him and the rest of the Knicks' defense a ton of trouble throughout the game.

"Just mistakes we made that we can't make," Towns said of New York's defensive issues. "We've just got to clean it up."

Towns also briefly left the game in the fourth quarter after limping following an attempted dunk. He walked back to the locker room after checking out of the game during an ensuing timeout, only to eventually return for the final few minutes.

Asked about it afterward, Towns said, "We'll just see how the next couple days go. Time will tell.

"It's a long season. It has peaks and valleys. It is what it is."

The same could be said for these two games. Instead of a statement of intent for the Knicks' hopes of breaking a 52-year championship drought and a 26-year NBA Finals drought, the losses to the Cavaliers and Celtics -- making New York 0-7 this season against them and the Oklahoma City Thunder -- instead made a very different kind of statement about where the Knicks sit right now in comparison to their championship rivals. And while the Knicks did their best to point to an impressive 23-5 third-quarter run as a tangible sign of improvement, that could only be taken so far.

"You've got to take something positive out of something," Jalen Brunson said. "I think the positive from this game is that third quarter and how we played. But I mean, I can keep saying all this stuff, but we've got to go out there and do it.

"That's all."