IN BRIEF

HOCKEY

Brodeur closes in on Roy's goalie win total

Martin Brodeur is one win away from tying Patrick Roy's NHL record for career victories by a goaltender.

Brodeur posted his 550th win with a relatively easy 26-save performance, and the New Jersey Devils won a record ninth straight game at home with a 5-2 victory over Wayne Gretzky's hapless Phoenix Coyotes on Thursday.

The 36-year-old Brodeur will get a chance to tie the mark in a storybook setting Saturday, when he returns home to Montreal for a game against the Canadiens.

Also: Alf Pike, a member of the New York Rangers' 1940 Stanley Cup championship team who later coached the club, has died. He was 91.

Pike, who spent six seasons as a Rangers player and two as coach, died March 1 in Calgary, Alberta.

BOXING

Hasegawa keeps WBC bantamweight crown

Japan's Hozumi Hasegawa retained his WBC bantamweight title with a first-round technical knockout of South Africa's Vusi Malinga in Kobe, Japan.

In a showdown of two southpaws, Hasegawa sent Malinga to the canvas twice with lefts to the head before the referee called the fight 2 minutes, 37 seconds into the first round.

Also: Japan's Takahiro Aoh defeated Oscar Larios by unanimous decision to capture the WBC featherweight title in Tokyo.

Aoh, 24, dominated the early rounds, knocking Larios to the canvas in the fourth, and then hung on as the 32-year-old Mexican fought his way back into the contest in later rounds.

TENNIS

Federer fathers child with girlfriend Vavrinec

Swiss tennis star Roger Federer said in a message on his Web site that girlfriend Mirka Vavrinec is pregnant with the couple's first child. The baby is due in the summer.

"This is a dream come true for us," said the 27-year-old Federer, a 13-time Grand Slam champion.

Federer met Vavrinec at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Also: Maria Sharapova made a tentative return from shoulder surgery, teaming with Elena Vesnina in a 6-2, 4-6, 10-7 loss to Ekaterina Makarova and Tatiana Poutchek in doubles play at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif.

It was the first match in seven months for Sharapova, who was forced off the WTA Tour in August by a torn rotator cuff and underwent surgery on her right shoulder two months later.

The UNLV men's tennis team (10-5) snapped a three-match losing skid with a 5-2 victory over Ball State at the Fertitta Tennis Complex.

GOLF

Lamely, Day share lead of Puerto Rico Open

Monday qualifier Derek Lamely and 20-year-old Australian Jason Day shot 6-under-par 66s in windy, sometimes rainy conditions to share the first-round lead of the Puerto Rico Open in Rio Grande.

The 28-year-old Lamely, from Fort Myers, Fla., is trying to become the first Monday qualifier to win a PGA Tour event since Fred Wadsworth in the 1986 Southern Open.

Michael Bradley, Cliff Kresge, Bart Bryant, Kevin Stadler and Bryce Molder opened with 67s.

Also: Americans Josh Teater, Todd Demsey and Alex Prugh shot 7-under 65s to share the first-round lead at the New Zealand Open in Queenstown.

MISCELLANEOUS

No charges for Gagne in nursing home death

A former professional wrestler accused of attacking a fellow dementia patient at a Minnesota nursing home will not be charged in the man's death.

Hennepin County Prosecutor Mike Freeman said that it's clear that 83-year-old Verne Gagne lacked the mental capacity to have intended harm to 97-year-old Helmut Gutmann.

Police say Gagne threw Gutmann to the ground without provocation in January at a nursing home in Bloomington. Gutmann later died of complications from a broken hip. Gagne has Alzheimer's disease, and Freeman says it would have been "unjust" to bring charges.

Also: Tyler Hansbrough of North Carolina, Davidson's Stephen Curry and Luke Harangody of Notre Dame are among the finalists for the John R. Wooden Award as college basketball's player of the year.

Hansbrough won the award last year.

Also on the ballot is Hansbrough's teammate Ty Lawson along with Pittsburgh teammates DeJuan Blair and Sam Young and Duke teammates Gerald Henderson and Kyle Singler. Memphis guard Tyreke Evans was the only freshman finalist; the other eight are seniors.

Syracuse is investigating whether a professional sports agent's recruitment of former Orange standout Donte Greene violated NCAA rules.

Syracuse spokeswoman Sue Edson said the university started the investigation after Yahoo! Sports reported that Ceruzzi Sports and Entertainment of Manhattan helped Greene's uncle, Derrick Marcano, secure a $50,000 line of credit during the 2007-08 season. That might be a violation of NCAA rules.

Greene, who left school after his freshman year and now plays for the Sacramento Kings, signed with another agent.

Syracuse, North Carolina, California and Ohio State will be in the championship round of the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic basketball tournament, to be played Nov. 19 and 20 at Madison Square Garden in New York.

The rest of the 12-team field will be announced later.

Durango High guard Mia Bell was named the Gatorade Nevada Girls Basketball Player of the Year.

Bell, a senior who has signed to play for UNLV, averaged 26.5 points, 6.2 rebounds, 5.2 assists and four steals per game to help the Trailblazers to a 23-10 record.

She now is a finalist for Gatorade's national Player of the Year award.

Bishop Gorman girls basketball junior combo guard Aaryn Ellenberg said she orally has committed to Oklahoma.

The 5-foot-7-inch Ellenberg averaged 18 points this season, leading the Class 4A state runner-up Gaels to a 29-5 record.

UNR's Gary Powers recorded his 800th career college baseball victory in the Wolf Pack's 6-5 win over Oregon in Reno.

Powers improved his 27-year career record to 800-629-4.

Lindsey Vonn captured the super-G season finale at the World Cup finals in Are, Sweden, becoming the first U.S. woman to claim the championship title in the discipline.

Vonn, 24, earned her third crystal globe this season, tying the U.S. record set by Phil Mahre in 1982. She finished the Olympia course in 1 minute, 20.63 seconds.

Aaron Burmeister took the lead in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

Burmeister, a musher from Nenana, Alaska, in his 12th race, was the first out of Ophir, a trail checkpoint 687 miles from the finish in Nome.