IN BRIEF

HOCKEY

Islanders goalie DiPietro returns, fuels victory

Rick DiPietro returned to the New York Islanders’ lineup Friday night, stopping 28 shots and recording a rare assist in a 4-1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs in Uniondale, N.Y.
DiPietro had missed 27 games following his second knee surgery in five months.
Bill Guerin scored twice for New York to reach 400 career goals.
Also: James van Riemsdyk and Drayson Bowman scored two goals each for the United States, which opened the world junior hockey championship with an 8-2 rout of Germany in Ottawa.
Jordan Schroeder had a goal and three assists, and Colin White added a goal and set up another.
In other action on the first day of the tournament, host Canada rolled past the Czech Republic 8-1, Russia topped Latvia 4-1, and Sweden posted a 3-1 win over Finland.

HORSE RACING

Bob Black Jack wins opener at Santa Anita

Bob Black Jack, who set the pace in the Kentucky Derby in May, led all the way in claiming the $250,000 Malibu Stakes in Arcadia Calif., winning by 2¼ lengths over Into Mischief on the opening day of Santa Anita’s 72nd thoroughbred racing season.
Bob Black Jack, ridden by David Flores, covered seven furlongs in 1 minute, 20.20 seconds. The fourth choice in a field of seven paid $12, $5.20 and $3.60. The win was the fourth in 10 lifetime starts for Bob Black Jack and was worth $150,000, raising the career earnings of the 3-year-old California-bred son of Stormy Jack to $594,925.
Into Mischief, the 22-10 favorite, returned $3.40 and $2.80. Georgie Boy finished third in the race for 3-year-olds and paid $3.40 to show.
Colonel John, who beat Bob Black Jack by a half-length in April’s Santa Anita Derby, finished fourth.
Also: Jockey Sam Thompson Jr. died Christmas Day in Los Alamitos, Calif., five days after he was thrown from a quarter horse following a race at the Los Alamitos track.
The 36-year-old rider had been on life support at Los Alamitos Medical Center since the Dec. 20 accident. Thompson’s family had him taken off life support Thursday, medical center spokesman Orlando Gutierrez said.
Harems Dynasty, a 2-year-old filly, threw Thompson after finishing seventh in the eighth race. The Los Alamitos Race Course season ended Dec. 21.
Thompson, who lived in Long Beach, missed much of the 2008 season because of a broken foot.
Two connected barns at New Orleans Race Course were quarantined because a 3-year-old filly tested positive for equine herpes.
It could take 10 days to clear other horses trained by Dallas Stewart, who handles the filly, and Neil Howard, said Dr. Tom David, the equine medical director of the Louisiana State Racing Commission.
Stewart has 44 horses and Howard 27, track spokesman Lenny Vangilder said. Nasal swabs were taken to test all 71, he said. Howard said the horses in his stable all look fine.
The horses cannot race until they are cleared, said Eric Halstrom, Fair Grounds vice president and general manager of racing. The state agriculture department will decide when those horses may be moved, Vangilder said.

MIXED MARTIAL ARTS

Fighter Eilers shot, killed during dispute

Mixed martial arts fighter Justin Mark Eilers was shot to death during a domestic disturbance in Nampa, Idaho, police said. He was 30.
Eilers, a Boise resident, was identified Friday as the victim of a Christmas night shooting in southwestern Idaho. Canyon County Coroner Vicki DeGeus-Morris said Eilers died of a single gunshot wound to the chest, and the death was ruled a homicide.
James Robert Malec, 48, was arrested on suspicion of second-degree murder.