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Feb 23 '19
SOELDEN, Austria -- Alexis Pinturault carried his outstanding giant slalom form from last year into the new World Cup campaign, dominating the season-opener on Sunday to leave his rivals in awe. Chris Sale Jersey .Having finished runner-up to Marcel Hirscher in the discipline standings for the past two years, the Frenchman won both runs on the Rettenbach glacier to immediately position himself as the main contender for the title.Its all completely new when you start a new season. Everything youve done before is over, said Pinturault after his commanding victory and his seventh straight podium in GS.Pinturault finished in a two-run time of 2 minutes, 14.01 seconds to lead defending overall champion Hirscher by 0.70. Felix Neureuther of Germany was 1.37 behind in third while Zan Kranjec of Slovenia took fourth for his first career top-10 result.Olympic and world GS champion Ted Ligety improved from 14th position after the opening run to fifth, 1.65 seconds off the lead. The American competed in his first race since tearing the ACL in his right knee nine months ago.Only three of the last 37 World Cup giant slaloms have not been won by Pinturault, Hirscher or Ligety.Pinturault built on his first-run lead to take his 16th career win and seventh in GS, matching the French record set by great Jean-Claude Killy in 1967-68.Thats not really my goal, Pinturault said of chasing records. Jean-Claude is one of the biggest French skiers of all time but there are so many other great skiers. I am just thinking about taking risks and skiing fast.Pinturault was clean in both runs and wasnt hampered by changing conditions. After a sun-soaked opening run, partly cloudy conditions dominated during the final run.One thing is really easy in ski racing, he said. There is no strategy. You always have to push and go faster.Pinturault and Hirscher each won four GS races last season, while the Austrian captured the season title in the discipline.The Frenchmans convincing performance made him the favorite for the GS title this time, maybe even for the overall title, Hirscher said.If you watch at last years season more in detail, you will see that Alexis in 2016 was dominating. He was flying through the gates, the Austrian said. He is maybe the favorite for the overall. He can ski in all events so for me he is the man to beat.Hirscher, who hinted he wasnt satisfied with his own form in training, said he was super happy with finishing runner-up, especially since recovering from a near-crash halfway down his second run.Third-placed Neureuther also said Pinturault skied in a league of his own.I had two solid runs and did not make too many mistakes but Alexis and Marcel were out of reach today, the German said.After a rather conservative opening run, Ligety showed flashes of his usual strength and used his trademark fast transition from the steep pitch onto the flat finish section to post the third-best time in the final run.Coming fifth made him not euphoric but Ligety said he was definitely happy with fifth place to start it off with coming back from the knee injury that hampered his preparation in the offseason.My body feels good, I dont have any pain in my knee, said Ligety, who won here last year for a record fourth time and has never finished outside the top 10 in 10 starts.Ligety will skip the next race -- a slalom in Levi, Finland, in three weeks -- and fully concentrate on the next GS in Beaver Creek, Colorado, during the first weekend of December.Now I can get a month of miles and high intensity, he said. Hopefully I can pump it up a little bit more then. Wade Boggs Jersey . Mats Zuccarello and Derek Stepan scored shootout goals, and backup goalie Cam Talbot earned his second win in two nights as the Rangers shook off a late tying tally and beat the Maple Leafs 2-1 Monday night. Craig Kimbrel Jersey . This should be celebrated because it will not always be this way. With the amount of money given to players by their clubs these days, it is a wonder that so many of those teams allow the sport to continue to take away many of their assets so they can play for a different team in the middle of their season. http:///...intendi-Kids-Jersey/ .B. - Sebastien Auger made 44 saves as the Saint John Sea Dogs edged the visiting Acadie-Bathurst Titan 2-1 on Saturday in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action. TUCSON, Ariz. -- Arizona had one of its most difficult seasons in program history, on and off the field.The Wildcats played with heavy hearts all year following the death of a teammate. They endured more injuries than maybe any team in the country. They matched their longest losing streak in 117 years of football, dropping eight straight, and finished with their worst record since 2003.But as the season wound to a close with Friday nights 56-35 win over rival Arizona State, the Wildcats were able to walk off the Arizona Stadium field with a small sense of joy and a glimmer of hope for next season.It certainly doesnt make up for a tough season, but its a great night, Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez said. Its a great night to be a Wildcat.Tough is an understatement.The season started with grief when fifth-year senior Zach Hemmila, projected to be the starting center, died in his sleep on Aug. 8. Hemmilas death, later ruled to be caused by a mix of medications, left the Wildcats with a hole on the line and a bigger one in their hearts.Once the season started, Arizonas injury report became a primary point of focus each week as one player after another went down.Quarterback Anu Solomon started the opener against Brigham Young, but injured his knee in practice the following week. Brandon Dawkins took over and he started getting hit with injuries.Arizona ended up having five players throw a pass and was forced to use a third-string tight end at quarterback at one point.The problems stretched to the rest of the offensive backfield.Arizona was already thin at running back with the dismissal of Orlando Bradford because of domestic violence charges. Then starter Nick Wilson went out with injury. Freshman J.J. Taylor was electric in Wilsons place, but broke his ankle against Washington on Sept. 24 and was done foor the season. Joe Kelly Jersey. The injuries took a toll on Arizonas quick-hitting offense. Typically one of the nations most prolific teams, the Wildcats finished 66th in the FBS in total yards and 99th in scoring.Defense was what really hurt Arizona.The Wildcats have struggled on that side of the ball since Rodriguez arrived and seemed to take a step back this season.Lacking playmakers or depth, Arizona finished 114th of 128 FBS teams in total defense, allowing 469.3 yards per game, and were 118th in scoring at 38.3 points per game.Weve made some mistakes in recruiting and probably havent recruited like we really needed to. I saw it coming, Rodriguez said. It gets exacerbated when you get a few guys banged up.The deficiencies on both sides of the ball led to one of the ugliest stretches in Arizona history.After winning two of their first three games, the Wildcats lost eight straight, matching the 2003 team for longest in school history. Arizona finished 3-9 and had to beat Arizona State in its final game to avoid the first winless conference season since 1957.But for that one night, the Wildcats looked like the team Rodriguez had envisioned when the season started.Though working from a huddle for the first time -- to prevent Arizona State from stealing signs -- Arizona was at its quick-hitting best again. The Wildcats had three touchdowns of at least 60 yards and racked up a school-record 511 rushing yards to crush their rivals in the seniors final game in an Arizona uniform.We needed this win bad, Dawkins said.Now its on to the offseason to heal up and fill some of those holes on defense.---More AP college football: www.collegefootball.ap.org and https://twitter.com/AP-Top25 ' ' '
