The Carolina Hurricanes will play in the first outdoor hockey game in franchise history when the NHL Stadium Series comes to Raleigh on Feb. 20, 2021.

The game will be held at Carter-Finley Stadium, NC State's football venue. The NHL had tested logistics at the venue last November, using traffic cones to map where the rink would be constructed on the field. A crowd of more than 50,000 could be in attendance.

No opponent has been named. There was heavy speculation that the Washington Capitals, a geographic and playoff rival, would get the call. But the Washington Post reported on Saturday that the Capitals are not the opponent, per a team spokesman.

With the Hurricanes getting a Stadium Series event, there are now five NHL teams that have yet to play in an outdoor game: The Arizona Coyotes, Columbus Blue Jackets, Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning and Vegas Golden Knights.

The Stadium Series game held at the Air Force Academy on Saturday night between the Colorado Avalanche and Los Angeles Kings was the 30th for the NHL since Edmonton's Heritage Classic in 2003.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- The Los Angeles Kings won a 3-1 thriller over the Colorado Avalanche in their outdoor game at the Air Force Academy's Falcon Stadium on Saturday night. But thousands of fans didn't see large portions of the game, and many left before its conclusion, thanks to a horrific traffic mess that turned 45-minute journeys from Denver into four-plus-hour expeditions.

"We left at 3:30 in the afternoon. And we just walked in," said Mario Kontny, an Avalanche season-ticket holder who entered the stadium during the second intermission of a game with a scheduled 6 p.m. MT start. He said the trip from the southern part of Denver to the Air Force Academy would normally take less than an hour.

As the Stadium Series game started, lines of cars seeking to enter the parking lots were visible from the stadium. There were still cars sitting bumper-to-bumper trying to enter as the second period started. Fans were still entering the stadium during the second intermission, nearly two hours after the event started.

Kontny eventually gave up on getting into a lot.

"I got up on the grass and parked my car on some dirt hill. It's insanity," he said. "I missed two periods. I missed [intermission performer] Sam Hunt. What are we paying for? I'm probably going to watch 20 minutes and head out because it's going to be just as chaotic leaving."

The game ended at 8:46 p.m. MT. As of 10 p.m., there was a standstill of traffic leaving the lots around the stadium.

The Air Force Academy was in charge of routing traffic and running the parking lots for the event. The NHL and the Air Force sent out traffic advisories in anticipation of the large volume of cars and some road construction. A couple of accidents on I-25 also delayed travelers.

Avalanche fan Jeff Carter walked through security into the event during the second intermission as well. His car wasn't at the stadium -- after it was stuck in that traffic jam, he parked at a Starbucks that was an hour's walk from the venue. His wife was updating him with news from the game via text message while he walked.

"They need to refund all the tickets," Carter said.

Reached by ESPN, the NHL had no comment. The Avalanche did not answer a request for comment.

Lisa Kruse also wanted a refund. She said she arrived at the game midway through the third period from Westminster, about 40 minutes away from the stadium without traffic.

"The outdoor game is an amazing concept. They need someone in charge that knows about parking and logistics. I've been to concerts at the Air Force Academy and never had any issue," she said. "I love the Avalanche. I bought this ticket to see Sam Hunt, and I missed the concert. I will look for a refund. This was ridiculous." Bennett Cox, wearing a vintage Peter Forsberg Quebec Nordiques sweater, and Jaclyn Peluso, who was wearing an Avalanche sweater, hurriedly walked into the stadium during the second intermission.

"It was a logistical joke. Just a nightmare. Not a lot of planning," Cox said.

"Three hours in the car from Castle Rock," Peluso said.

Ironically, they were able to find a parking space fairly close to the stadium because fans at the game started leaving during the second period.

"Everybody's leaving right now. They want to beat the traffic because it was absolutely horrific coming in," Peluso said. "They should refund our tickets."

Montreal Canadiens head coach Claude Julien was frustrated with the officiating Saturday night, feeling referees Dean Morton and Garrett Rank missed several calls in his team's home loss to the Dallas Stars.

Tyler Seguin scored twice, including the overtime winner, to give the Stars a comeback 4-3 victory.

Mattias Janmark and Blake Comeau scored in regulation for the Stars (34-19-5), who trailed 3-0 before rallying. Joe Pavelski had two assists after missing two games with an injury as the Stars extended their winning streak to four games and improved to 6-1-1 in their last eight games.

Joel Armia, Jordan Weal and Nick Cousins scored for the Canadiens (27-26-8), who have lost four in a row.

"It's pretty obvious we should have gotten power plays," said Julien, who's rarely outspoken about officiating. "Some people need to be held accountable after this game. We had to beat two teams tonight.

"We couldn't talk to the official. He was screaming at our players. I told him, when he was close to the bench, that I hoped he watched his games back. He told me to take a hike."

Ben Bishop made 29 saves and outdueled Montreal's Carey Price, who allowed four goals on 26 shots.

"We've been doing this all season," Bishop said. "I don't think there's any doubt in this room when we go down. It's kind of the way we play. We stick to our systems.

"They got a couple of lucky bounces to get their goals, so I don't think anybody was too worried."

Seguin scored the winner 2:52 into overtime on a nifty backhand goal against Price after Bishop made big saves on Tomas Tatar and Ben Chiarot in close.

Down three goals, the Stars scored twice within six minutes in the second. A giveaway by Marco Scandella to Pavelski led to Janmark's easy tap-in at 9:05. And with time expiring on Armia's hooking penalty, Seguin ripped a one-timer top shelf past Price at 15:47.

Dallas has scored a power-play goal in seven consecutive games.

Comeau completed the comeback for the Stars at 9:08 of the third when his shot from the blue line went off Scandella and changed direction.

The Canadiens were playing the second game of a back-to-back after dropping a 4-1 contest to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday.

Outscored 11-4 on their three-game slide, Montreal's offense finally got going. Fighting to make the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Canadiens needed a fast start and they got it on Armia's opener at 1:02. The Finnish winger scored on an easy tap-in off Max Domi's loose rebound in the slot for his 15th of the year.

Montreal made it 2-0 early in the second when Weal broke free of defenseman John Klingberg, skated in close, and deflected Nick Suzuki's pass in the crease at 3:58.

The Canadiens increased their lead less than three minutes later when Cousins used Klingberg as a screen to beat Bishop between the pads on a fast break.

"That was a good hockey team over there," said Domi of blowing the 3-0 lead. "They're a veteran team and they stuck with it. They got some bounces, some power plays and they capitalized."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

LOS ANGELES – Patrick Cantlay is missing next week’s WGC-Mexico Championship to have surgery to correct a deviated septum.

Cantlay first underwent the procedure in November 2018 but said that another surgery is required to “clean it up a little bit.”

“It’s hard to sleep,” he said Saturday at Riviera. “Tough to get to sleep. Tough to stay asleep.”

The septum is the bone and cartilage that divides the two nostrils in the nose, and surgery is the only way to promote better airflow.

Cantlay expects to fully recover in a few weeks. The Players Championship begins in four weeks, though Cantlay wasn’t exactly sure when he’d return to competition.

When asked why he is undergoing the procedure now, during the run-up to the Masters, Cantlay said: “I didn’t meet a doctor that I thought could do a better job until recently.”  

Ranked sixth in the world, Cantlay has been one of the most consistent players in the game. This season he lost in a playoff in Las Vegas, finished fourth at Kapalua and added an 11^th-place finish last week at Pebble Beach. Through three rounds at Riviera he’s currently outside the top 35.

Cantlay is one of a handful of big-name players who is forgoing the first WGC event of the calendar year, a group that includes Tiger Woods, Brooks Koepka and Justin Rose.

At 10 under for the week, Rory McIlroy, Matt Kuchar and Adam Scott share the 54-hole lead at the Genesis Invitational. Here’s where things stand through three days at Riviera, where tournament host Tiger Woods had a particularly difficult day on the greens:

Leaderboard: Adam Scott (-10), Matt Kuchar (-10), Rory McIlroy (-10), Russell Henley (-9), Harold Varner III (-9), Joel Dahmen (-8), Dustin Johnson (-8)

What it means: McIloy is the new No. 1 who overtook Brooks Koepka last week when both players were out of action and who now looks to further legitimize his claim to the top spot with an immediate win. He is hunting his 19th PGA Tour title, his second win this season and his fifth victory in the last 11 months, dating back to last year’s Players Championship. Two back to start the day, he pulled into a tie for the 54-hole lead with a third-round 67. Standing between McIlroy is a pair of proven winners in Kuchar and Scott (67). Both players are in the midst of career resurgences, with Kuchar coming off a two-win season in 2018-19 and Scott, the 2005 winner at Riviera, just recently ending a three-year worldwide drought with a victory at the Australian PGA Championship in late December. Not to be overlooked, Johnson, the 2017 champion at this event, lurks just two back.

Rounds of the day: Talor Gooch and Hideki Matsuyama posted matching 64s to move to 7 under and 6 under, respectively. Coincidentally, both players made six birdies, one bogey, and an eagle at the par-4 10th.

Best of the rest: L.A. native and local resident Max Homa also moved up to 7 under with a round of 65. He opened with an eagle at the short par-5 first and added five more birdies, dropping his only shot at the par-4 15th.

Biggest disappointment: Tournament host Tiger Woods signed for a 5-over 76 lowlighted by a four-putt at the par-4 13th, his fourth hole of the day.

Afterward, Woods conceded that he was “a little rundown” and that his body was stiff. Woods is 67th out of 68 players in strokes gained: putting and has surrendered 5.62 shots to the field this week on the greens.

Shot of the day: Henley’s eagle putt from 83 feet at the par-5 11th:

It was the cap on a three-hole stretch Henley played in 4 under par following back-to-back birdies at Nos. 9 and 10.

Quote of the day: "I hit it nine times. Anything else? Is it a record or something?” – Ryan Palmer on his sextuple-bogey 9 at the par-3 14th, where he took six shots to escape a greenside bunker.

NAPLES, Fla. – Stephen Leaney leads after Saturday's second round at the Chubb Classic, and Fred Funk is two shots back as he attempts to become the oldest competitor to win a PGA Tour Champions event.

Leaney made an eagle on the 17th hole and has posted consecutive rounds of 65, putting him one shot ahead of Bernhard Langer and two clear of Funk, Chris DiMarco and Fred Couples.

“I played well the last two days,” Leaney said. “I have been driving it great, hitting a lot of very good iron shots. And suddenly started to make some putts, which I didn't really do last year. So just try to keep it going tomorrow.”

Leaney's 130-shot total is his best 36-hole score at a PGA-sanctioned competition. His last pro win was at the 2017 Western Australian Open, and his only appearance in a Sunday final group on the PGA Tour was at the 2003 U.S. Open, when he started three shots behind eventual champion Jim Furyk.

“I mean, I have won over 16, 17 times in the world,” Leaney said. “I mean, I have won tournaments before. No problem in this position. So it's all about controlling yourself. I can't control what anyone else does.”

At 63 years, eight months and two days old, Funk would be the oldest winner ever on the tour, surpassing Scott Hoch at 63 years, five months and four days.

“That's unbelievable,” Funk said. “That would be awesome. Although that will be broken once Bernie gets to be 63, so I might as well get it.”

Funk's two-round total of 132 is his best since the 2017 Regions Tradition, and that was also the last time he started the final round of an event in the top three. He finished tied for fourth.

He hasn't won a PGA Tour Champions event since the 2014 Bass Pro Shops Legends of Golf with partner Jeff Sluman. He's made 145 individual starts since his last solo victory at the 2012 Greater Hickory Classic.

Funk has dealt with back and nerve pain recently and said he had to push through the latter Saturday.

“My back is overall a lot better,” he said. "I usually don't have the nerve pain. Today that nerve pain fired up again on 13, for some reason, going right down my hip and into my leg. And killing me right now. But it's been a lot better. It's been a lot more functional.

“When I had that nerve pain the last two years, it completely shut me down. And I'm scared to death of it, because I know what it means if it pops back up. So I don't want it to come back. I can play with pain, I can't play with that nerve pain.”

Langer is a three-time winner at the Chubb Classic, last in 2016. He shot 5-under 66 in the second round, sending him into Sunday among the top-five at this tournament for the 10th time in 12 starts.

A year after posting a course-record 9-under 62 in the second round at the Chubb Classic, Kevin Sutherland shot a bogey-free 63 and jumped into a tie for sixth place.

LOS ANGELES – Adam Scott is looking for his second victory at Riviera ... well, sort of.

Scott was declared the winner of the 2005 Nissan Open, but the title doesn’t count toward his 13 career PGA Tour victories because it was unofficial, contested over just 36 holes because of unplayable conditions. Scott took home a trophy. Banked $864,000. Earned 75 percent of the world-ranking points (enough to bump him from No. 12 to No. 7). But he didn’t get an official victory – or even a trip to Kapalua the following year for the winners-only event.

Back then Scott didn’t feel as though he had won a tournament (“Not really”), and 15 years later not much has changed.

His memories of the week?

“I remember spending the most amount of time ever in a locker room that week,” he said. Two full days, at least eight hours each, just sitting around and waiting.

Scott and Chad Campbell tied at 9 under after 36 holes, then were sent back up the soggy 18th hole to determine a winner in a playoff. Scott’s 4-footer for par was enough to prevail.

“I guess it was good that it was called off,” Scott said. “And then you win and you’re told it’s not a win, that was not so good. It was still fun – fun to take a trophy home and kind of be a champion here.”

Scott has a chance for an official victory Sunday. He’ll enter the final round in a three-way tie for the lead with Rory McIlroy and Matt Kuchar.

Minnesota United is closing in on the transfer of Boca Juniors midfielder Emanuel Reynoso for a designated player spot, multiple sources have told ESPN.

One source said that the deal was "95 percent done" with Reynoso's transfer fee set at around $5.5 million, though there are still some unspecified terms to be ironed out.

Loons GM Mark Watson has made multiple trips to Argentina in a bid to get the deal completed.

According to TyC Sports, Minnesota reportedly had an offer for Reynoso rejected by Boca two days ago, but the Loons have come back with another offer. More will be known in the next 24 hours following Boca's match against Central Cordoba on Sunday.

If Minnesota can get the deal over the line, it would see the Loons complete a considerable attacking makeover this offseason. MNUFC has already signed Paraguayan forward Luis Amarilla and forward Aaron Schoenfeld while the likes of attacker Darwin Quintero (traded to the Houston Dynamo), forward Abu Danladi (taken by Nashville in the expansion draft) and forward Angelo Rodriguez (contract bought out) have departed.

Reynoso, 24, is in his third season with Boca, and his current contract runs through 2022. He has scored five goals in 65 league and cup appearances with Boca, and was part of the side that claimed a league title in 2018.

Reynoso began his professional career with Tallares in 2014 before moving to Boca four years later.

N'Golo Kante says Chelsea's home clash with Manchester United on Monday is not about avenging an opening-day hammering at Old Trafford, but keeping their noses in front in the scrap for a Premier League top-four finish.

Chelsea are still in fourth spot but after only one win in their last four league games, the gap over the clubs beneath them has been steadily eroded.

They are just two points above fifth-placed Sheffield United while Tottenham Hotspur can move within a point of the Blues if they win at Aston Villa on Sunday. United are six points behind.

"Man United were a bit behind but now they have closed the gap so it's a big opportunity either for us to keep them behind or for them to close the gap more," midfielder Kante said.

"It's an important game for both teams. We all know that Man United at home is a very difficult game, especially after what happened in the first game but we don't look at this.

"We just look forward because we want to keep the gap and so that's why we need to win, not to get revenge."

It is a crucial period for Chelsea with United on Monday, then a home clash with Tottenham on Saturday before a Champions League last-16, first leg tie at home to Bayern Munich.

Kante said the mid-season break has hopefully enabled Chelsea to recharge for a final push.

"I spent time with family and friends at home in Paris, just chilling," the 28-year-old said. "It's a nice thing, a new thing in the Premier League and it's good for the players.

"We have come back and tried to get a good fitness, to be prepared for the next game because we need to make sure we get the three points.

"I believe we have the team to get what we want this season -- to finish in the top four, get Champions League football next season and why not to win a title as well. We have everything that we need in this team."

Victoria 7 for 431 dec and 1 for 168 dec (Maddinson 105*, Harris 54*) lead New South Wales 310 (Patterson 54, Parker 3-54) and 1 for 41 (Larkin 21, Hughes 18*, Siddle 1-18) by 248 runs

A stunning unbeaten century from Nic Maddinson has set up a tantalising final day between Victoria and New South Wales at the SCG.

Maddinson clubbed 105 not from just 90 balls with nine fours and four sixes as Victoria declared their second innings closed at 1 for 168 after just 30 overs, having earlier bowled out New South Wales for 310 to gain a lead of 121. Marcus Harris also made 54 not out but was mainly a spectator as Maddinson assaulted his former team.

Harry Conway made an early breakthrough in Victoria's second innings, trapping Travis Dean in front, but that was the only joy for the Blues as Maddinson teed off.

His century was his second of the season and his fifth for Victoria in just 11 matches since moving from New South Wales in 2018. It followed on from 95 in the first innings to give him 648 runs at 92.57 in Sheffield Shield cricket this year. Incredibly, he made more runs in this game than the entire BBL, where he contributed just 143 runs at 10.21 for the Melbourne Stars.

The declaration left New South Wales needing 290 to win with ten overs and a full day to bat. They started the chase brightly moving to 41, but just prior to stumps, Peter Siddle made a breakthrough with Nick Larkin picking out Will Sutherland at square leg with a flat pull shot to leave the Blues with nine wickets in hand on the final day.

Earlier, the Blues began the day at 4 for 201 in their first innings but folded for 310. Debutant Wil Parker continued his fairytale start to first-class cricket by claiming a third wicket with Dean taking a stunning catch at short leg to remove Daniel Solway. Will Sutherland breached the obdurate defence of Blues skipper Peter Nevill before Chris Tremain and Siddle cleaned up the tail.