Biles win 13th world title with vault gold

Simone Biles easily captured the gold in the vault final of the 48^th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships at the Aspire Dome Friday evening. The American went for less difficult attempts that gave her the victory with Shallon Olsen of Canada winning the silver and Mexico’s Alexa Moreno bringing home the country’s first medal in world championship gymnastics.

After winning the all-around finals Thursday, Biles showed some anger for missing the landing on her signature move on vault and falling off the balance beam. Despite the mistakes, the American would try to put that aside after making history as the only woman to win the all-around four times. She sat just a few away from the all-time record for most medals won at the world championships with her qualifying for the vault final.

Eight competitors began the competition with North Korean Rye Yong Pyong going big with the move called the “Amanar” but couldn’t complete the landing. On her second attempt, Pyong landed on her feet despite having her center body too low. She averaged a 13.616 which Elsabeth Black overtook with a 14 on her first attempt and a Tsukahara on her second that brought her overall to a 14.116.

Biles started her vault attempt with a difficulty value of six where she landed but took a step with her right foot landing on the outer line. She scored a 15.266 before dropping her second to a 5.8 difficulty value which produced her an average score of 15.366 which would stand on top for the remainder of the competition. Moreno had a lot of power from both of her vault attempts that put her behind Biles with a 14.508 for second position.

Olsen took away second place with her vaults that were as high as Biles DV. With a 14.6 and 14.433, it gave the Canadian a 14.516 with one to go. Legendary gymnast Oksana Chusovitina was last to go for the apparatus final and put down a big second attempt that had her landing on both feet. She scored a 14.300 that would put her short of bronze which Moreno took as her biggest achievement of the competition so far.

Red Wings win three in a row in third period surge over Devils

The Red Wings were on a roll that showed a full team effort at Little Caesars Arena Thursday night. Two goals from Michael Rasmussen and a second consecutive empty netter helped Detroit defeat the New Jersey Devils 4-3 giving them their third straight win. Jimmy Howard increased his success stopping 25 shots on goal as he and the squad improved their bottom line.

The Red Wings stand with a two-game winning streak that has taken place at home with things starting to go the right way for them. The pattern of Detroit’s offense began to click the way they wanted it to earning victories against the Dallas Stars and Columbus Blue Jackets. While the wins have begun to appear, the team continued to adjust the lines with reassignments and recalls which included Wade Megan coming to see where he fits on the roster. With their defense getting stronger as Mike Green returned to compete, they once again fight for a chance to keep their winning ways going.

The game was slow through the first few minutes with the Devils first on the books with a shot at Howard who was looking for another victory. New Jersey tried to challenge him in the fourth minute when they got a power play that didn’t come together for them against Detroit’s special teams. They got on the board as well but had only made one shot through seven minutes. The Red Wings added more time to make something happen with a man advantage that saw a great pass from Green turn into a one-timer. Behind the shot was Martin Frk who fired the puck into the net behind goaltender Cory Schneider for his first of the year.

They quickly got back on the power play but were denied another as New Jersey tightened up the coverage while shorthanded. It didn’t take too much from them as they began to produce a little more. When the game returned to even strength, the Red Wings were still in a comfortable position with puck possession. The Devils found a way to get into the pace Detroit had taken control of but were still facing a deficit with a short amount of time left. When the horn sounded, they were outshot 12-6 as the Red Wings had a great start to the contest.

It was another slow start for the teams as they got into the second period. Detroit managed to do the important part and get ahead of the Devils to control the situation. They held them off through 14 minutes with New Jersey getting some scoring chances recorded. An opportunity for them to level things came on a great grab of the puck behind the Detroit net where Travis Zajac got it in front where Blake Coleman stood to score his fourth.

The Devils threatened to take the lead on a power play but the Red Wings made the stop with their PK unit. They made a move to try and make it their time to get the lead pressing the puck close to the New Jersey net where the defense and Schnieder had to rally and stop the play. It ended with Luke Glendening getting into a scuffle with Mirco Mueller who suffered a couple of shots behind the helmet before he went down near the net.

Both went to the box for fighting but Detroit caught a break with a holding call going against the Devils. They only had 15 seconds to do something which concluded with New Jersey clearing it out. Detroit had a majority of the second period in their hands but a slip up gave the Devils a shot at making the third period very interesting. They were only outshot 10-8 making the next 20 minutes with the score tied a concerning time for the Red Wings winning streak.

As the third period got underway, Detroit finished up their power play being denied a chance to edge ahead on the score. They soon discovered that it wasn’t going to be them to change the tide as they suffered a penalty putting the Devils on the man advantage. It took them some time to find the opportunity but a drive from a drive from Sami Vatanen gave New Jersey the lead three minutes in and his first. The Red Wings were going to let the deficit sit around long as they were determined not to run behind the Devils in the game. Rasmussen made that clear scoring his second of the season with help from Gustav Nyquist and Dennis Cholowski who notched his eighth point. Rasmussen fought to make sure the puck got behind Schneider to level the score just short of the five-minute mark.

The teams combined for three shots through seven and a half minutes making it a tight race to the finish. Detroit was still taking its time with the puck seriously slapping it away at the Devils netminder who was under pressure to not allow another one. He got a break as the Red Wings got caught on a penalty putting New Jersey on the power play. They lost their chance to overtaking Detroit as Glendening’s stick stopped the pass at center to take off with the puck skating for a shot that he didn’t get credit as Justin Abdelkader got a stick on it to score shorthanded. Abdelkader got his second of the season with six minutes to go.

Detroit was playing a major set of defense with Howard intent on finishing the period with a victory. Four minutes went by and New Jersey wasn’t finding their way to get a grip on a chance to force overtime. With two minutes left, they pulled Schneider from the net on two occasions to give the Devils a 6-5 opportunity. Howard made a great save on a wide-open shot from Kyle Palmieri that nearly had the game tied. There was still 68 seconds left for the Devils who took a timeout.

After two saves off the leg pad from Howard, they attacked the net scrambling to take every shot possible before a cross-check from Jonathan Ericsson made it 6 on 4 for New Jersey. 49.3 seconds were left with the Devils taking a faceoff in the offensive zone. Dylan Larkin made it key to win the faceoff which got to Trevor Daley who slid the puck down the line that went into the net making it their second straight game of doing so.

It was the fourth they had and another way of securing the victory. The Devils got another goal with on what Howard felt was goaltender interference but was overruled by officials. Marcus Johansson got his second of the season but it wouldn’t help them. There were just four seconds on the clock that gave the Devils little chance of forcing overtime which the Red Wings made sure of.

"We're just starting to play, said Niklas Kronwall after the game."Were getting some bounces and were holding on to the puck a lot longer in the offensive zone. All in all, were spending more time there and when you have control of the puck it leads to confidence so I think that's been a big plus here." 

Howard finished the night recording his third win with a .893 save percentage with his GAA still above three. With a good winning streak alive and well, they’ll try to make it four when they host the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday.

Biles win fourth All-Around title at WGC

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Simone Biles put herself in a place all by herself at the 48^th Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Doha, Qatar Thursday evening. The 21-year-old who had two falls during the competition had the difficult values working for her as she secured a fourth world championship all-around title at the Aspire Dome. She surpassed Russia’s Svetlana Khorkina for the most world all-around titles won. Japan’s Mai Murakami earned the silver with American Morgan Hurd coming out with the bronze.

After a huge victory in Tuesday’s team final, the United States would be fully in charge of running for two spots in the all-around competition. Hurd and Biles stand out as former back to back world champions with the 17-year-old trying to go for a second straight. While it would be a friendly competition between herself and the three-time champion of the event, it would be a race to the gold medal.

Hurd began the race with a great vault that gave her a 14.600 overtaking Murakami who scored a 14.566. Biles was next to go and set herself for a massive scoring result with a 6.40 point difficulty value. On her attempt, the 21-year-old didn’t get her hands in the exact place leading to the rarest of falls to the pad. She moved herself to the right that clearly had her uncentered earning a 14.533 in the process.

Hurd put together a solid run on the uneven bars delivering a seamless routine that had very little errors in it. The 17-year old’s dismount was perfect sticking the landing entirely that earned her a 14.333. Biles followed her teammate starting with a DV just a tenth higher. Despite a step backward, the all-around Olympic champion got a 14.725 taking the lead. Belgium’s Nina Derwael scored the best result with a 15.100 putting her into third at the halfway point.

The third rotation took them to the balance beam where things again didn’t go well for Biles. While most of her routine was good with a slight mistake, the biggest moment came when ththree-timeme champion fell off the apparatus. It took a toll on her overall score of 14.233 that put her in first. Derwael stayed in the hunt putting together a great routine that scored her a 13.733 tying with France’s Melanie de Jesus dos Santos for the best score.

Hurd was last to go on the beam and had some nerves from watching her teammate earlier. A balance check followed by a near fall where she put her hands on the beam cost her dearly. The American took a 12.933 that put her in fourth place at the end of the third. The top five was just under a point making the last rotation anyone’s to make their way on the podium.

Russia’s Angelica Melnikova started things on the floor with a step out of bounds on her second tumbling pass. With one small mistake on her final tumbling pass, Melnikova lost more than four tenths which gave her a 13.633 which took her out of the running. Derwael had a clean floor routine but her difficulty being 4.9 gave her a 13.300 putting her ahead of Melnikova with three to go.

Last years floor champion was next and took a stumble on her first turn of the routine. Murakami had some minor mistakes going forward but somehow scored a 14 to put her into the lead. Both Hurd and Biles were the final two to compete that secured Japan a medal. Hurd clearly found her comfort zone on the floor putting together a clean routine that earned her 13.866 that put her short of defending her title. Biles was last to take Murakami off the top of the leaderboard. She started with a big tumbling pass that ended with a huge step out of bounds losing four tenths. She kept the rest of her routine clean to score a 15.000 making her a four time all-around champion.

Murakami gave Japan their first world silver in women’s all-around gymnastics making it a huge moment for her and her country. Hurd ended in third just 66 hundredths behind Murakami to make it back to back podium finishes for the 17 year old. With the major parts of the competition out of the way, it would be the apparatus finals that each qualifier would compete in before the event came to its conclusion.