In Brief

hockey

Devils make ninth coaching
move since 2005, hire DeBoer

The New Jersey Devils, who missed the playoffs last season for the first time since 1996, on Tuesday hired Peter DeBoer as coach.

DeBoer, 43, spent the past three seasons as coach of the Florida Panthers. He was fired in April after failing to lead them to the playoffs during his tenure.

The coaching change is the ninth for the Devils since the late Pat Burns resigned after being diagnosed with cancer in 2005. DeBoer replaces Jacques Lemaire, who came out of retirement after rookie coach John MacLean was fired in December.

DeBoer posted a 103-107-36 record with the Panthers, leading them to the second-best finish in franchise history in 2008-09, when they won 43 games and posted 93 points.

Also: All-Star center Steven Stamkos signed a five-year, $37.5 million contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning, two months after helping the team make a surprising run to the Eastern Conference finals.

Stamkos, the top pick in the 2008 NHL Draft, played in all 164 games during the previous two seasons for the Lightning, leading the NHL with 96 goals.

Detroit goaltender Chris Osgood, who won 401 games and three Stanley Cup titles, two as a starter, retired after 17 years in the NHL, 14 with the Red Wings.

Osgood, 38, will remain with Detroit, helping scout and develop young goalies. He underwent hernia surgery in January and played in only 11 games last season as a backup to Jimmy Howard.

Chicago Blackhawks star right wing Patrick Kane had surgery to repair a broken bone in his left wrist. Kane, second on the team last season with 73 points, is expected to resume full activity in six to eight weeks.

The Wranglers agreed to terms with center Thomas Kiriakou for the 2011-12 ECHL season. He spent the previous two years at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada.

miscellaneous

LSU gets year of probation for
recruiting violations in football

Louisiana State committed major violations while recruiting a junior college football player but won't be slapped with any postseason bans or future scholarship reductions, the NCAA ruled. The governing body placed the school on probation for a year and cited a former assistant coach for unethical conduct.

The investigation found that D.J. McCarthy improperly arranged for transportation and housing for former defensive lineman Akiem Hicks in 2009, then tried to cover up those actions.

The NCAA accepted LSU's self-imposed reduction of two scholarships during the 2010-11 academic year, as well as a 10 percent reduction in official visits and reductions in recruiting calls. LSU already had begun reducing official visits during 2010-11.

McCarthy resigned in December 2009. Hicks never played for the Tigers.

Also: Forrest Blue, a four-time Pro Bowl center who helped the San Francisco 49ers win three straight division titles in the early 1970s, died Saturday at age 65 in Carmichael, Calif. No cause of death was given.

The National Junior Golden Gloves tournament, featuring more than 500 boys ages 9-16, begins at 5 p.m. today at the CasaBlanca Event Center in Mesquite. The finals are scheduled for Saturday.

Several local boxers will compete, including heavyweight Deyon Christie, welterweight Marco Magdaleno and flyweight Jamal Watson.

Double amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius qualified for the athletics world championships for the first time, running a personal-best time of 45.07 seconds in the 400-meter dash in his final race before the cutoff date.

The South African also moved a step closer to fulfilling his dream of competing in the 2012 Olympics after running at a small meet in the northern Italian town of Lignano. He needed to run 45.25 to qualify for the worlds, which begin Aug. 27 in Daegu, South Korea.

Martensdale-St. Marys High, a small school from rural Iowa, has broken the national high school record by winning its 84th straight baseball game.

The Blue Devils (41-0) beat Twin Cedars-Bussey High 10-0 in the Iowa substate finals, snapping the mark set by Portsmouth, N.H., earlier this season.

Portsmouth's streak remains at 83 after they won their state title in the spring. Iowa teams play ball in the summer, allowing the Blue Devils to overtake them.

AJ McInerney of Henderson advanced to match play today at the U.S. Boys Junior Amateur golf tournament after carding a two-day total of 142 (70-72) in Bremerton, Wash.

U.S. Open qualifier Beau Hossler shot a 5-under-par 67, the low round of the tournament, on Tuesday and earned medalist honors with a 135 total.

The champion will be crowned in a 36-hole final on Saturday.

Green Valley High star Alex Kaui failed to make the cut at the U.S. Girls Junior Amateur golf tournament in Olympia Fields, Ill. She shot a two-day total of 157 (75-82) and missed the cut by three strokes.