MONTREAL (AP) — Zach Benson broke a tie on a third-period power play on his 21st birthday and the Buffalo Sabres beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-2 on Tuesday night in Game 4 to even the Eastern Conference semifinal series.
Benson took a pass in the slot from Josh Doan, kicked the puck to his stick and put a backhander past goalie Jakub Dobes at 4:41 of the third. The goal came with Jake Evans off for holding Peyton Krebs.
Game 5 is Thursday night in Buffalo, with Game 6 in Montreal on Saturday night. The series winner will face Carolina in the Eastern Conference final. The Hurricanes swept both of their series.
Tage Thompson tied it for Buffalo in the second period with a fluke goal and also had an assist. Defenseman Mattias Samuelsson opened the scoring and Doan had two assists.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen replaced Alex Lyon in goal after the Sabres dropped Games 2 and 3, making 28 saves in his first action since being pulled in the third period of a Game 2 loss to Boston in the first round.
Alex Newhook and Cole Caufield scored for Montreal. Dobes stopped 19 shots.
GOLDEN KNIGHTS 3, DUCKS 2, OT
LAS VEGAS (AP) —Pavel Dorofeyev scored his second goal of the game at 4:10 of overtime to give Vegas a victory over Anaheim, moving the Golden Knights a victory away from advancing to the Western Conference final.
Game 6 of the second-round series is Thursday night at Anaheim.
The Golden Knights can reach the conference final for the first time since winning the Stanley Cup in 2023. Anaheim, making its first playoff appearance in eight years, will try force a Game 7 back in Las Vegas on Saturday.
Tomas Hertl had gone 29 games going back to the regular season without a goal, but now has two in two games. He also had the primary assist on Dorofeyev’s power-play goal in the first period. Jack Eichel had two assists, including the primary one on the winner.
Carter Hart stopped 34 shots.
Montréal Canadiens center Alex Newhook (15) celebrates his goal against the Tampa Bay Lightning with defenseman Lane Hutson (48) during the third period in Game 7 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup first-round playoff series, Sunday, May 3, 2026, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology investor Softbank Group Corp. reported Wednesday that profits for the fiscal year through March zoomed by nearly five-fold from the previous year as its AI investments paid off.
The Tokyo-based company recorded an annual profit of 5 trillion yen ($32 billion), far greater than the 1.15 trillion yen profit racked up the previous year.
Sales climbed nearly 8% on-year to nearly 7.8 trillion yen ($50 billion) from 7.2 trillion yen, the company said in a statement.
Among its most lucrative investments was OpenAI, in which Softbank has invested $34.6 billion, recording gains of $45 billion.
SoftBank also invests in U.S. AI company Nvidia, German mobile and internet provider Deutsche Telekom and British semiconductor manufacturer Arm. It also is behind the humanoid robot Pepper.
SoftBank said it got an additional lift from the initial public offering of PayPay, a popular mobile-payment application in Japan, which allows users to make quick, cashless payments using QR codes.
Gains from holdings in Intel Corp. offset the minus from those in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.
Such mixed picture results are typical for SoftBank, which began early in investing in technology for a Japanese company and now oversees a sprawling scope of businesses through what it calls Vision Funds.
SoftBank was founded more than four decades ago by Masayoshi Son, the company's chief executive and chairman, who is a University of California graduate and now a billionaire widely considered a pioneer in Japan's technology sector.
Softbank recently started a battery business in Japan to build next-generation electric power infrastructure in anticipation of growing electricity demand driven by AI use.
The company also is working with Toppan, a Japanese printing, communications, security and packaging company, to develop lightweight, durable “skin” material for aircraft wings that is set to be used for commercial services in about three years.
SoftBank Group does not provide earnings forecasts.
Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@yurikageyama
FILE -SoftBank Chief Masayoshi Son talks with OpenAI Chief Sam Altman, not in photo, during an event for enterprises in Tokyo, in Tokyo, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (Kyodo News via AP, File)
