National Sports

MIAMI (AP) — Sean O'Malley emphatically defended his bantamweight belt Saturday night, unanimously outpointing Marlon “Chito” Vera in UFC 299.

QUEBEC — The Queen's Gaels will be playing for their first-ever national championship on Sunday after edging the Ottawa Gee-Gees 85-77 in the semifinals of the U Sport men's Final 8 basketball championship in Quebec City, Que.

VANCOUVER — Casey DeSmith didn't expect to be in net for the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday.

EDMONTON — The top-seeded University of Saskatchewan Huskies have advanced to Sunday's U Sport women's basketball championship final with a 64-57 win over Laval Rouge et Or in Saturday's semifinal action at Saville Community Sports Centre.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Deandre Ayton returned from a right hand sprain and had a season-high 30 points and 19 rebounds to help the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Toronto Raptors 128-118 in overtime on Saturday night.

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Alex Tuch scored the decisive shootout goal and the Buffalo Sabres overcame a two-goal deficit and a disallowed overtime goal in a 3-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday.

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Alessandro Schöpf scored his first Major League Soccer goal in more than a year to help the Vancouver Whitecaps beat the San Jose Earthquakes 2-0 Saturday night.

Saturday's Scoreboard NHL Vancouver 5 Winnipeg 0 Toronto 3 Montreal 2 Florida 5 Calgary 1 Buffalo 3 Edmonton 2 (OT) San Jose 2 Ottawa 1 Carolina 4 New Jersey 2 Nashville 2 Columbus 1 Boston 5 Pittsburgh 1 Washington 4 Chicago 1 Tampa Bay 7 Philadelph

MONTREAL — Sheldon Keefe thought the players on his top line "weren’t very good" on Saturday night.

REGINA — Brad Gushue was a win away from making more curling history at the Canadian men's championship.