Jan 8, 2019 4 min read

Blowout draws low ratings for CFP final

Clemson’s blowout victory over Alabama in the College Football Playoff drew a 14.6 overnight rating for ESPN across its multiple-channel broadcast, the lowest-rated title game in the 5-year-old postseason system.

The viewership numbers reported Tuesday by Nielsen provided some better news for the network. ESPN said Nielsen reported that 25.2 million viewers tuned into Monday night’s game on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU. The figures do not yet include ESPNEWS or streaming viewership. The 2016 national championship game between Alabama and Clemson that was decided on a last-second touchdown drew 25.3 million viewers.

Last season’s Alabama overtime victory against Georgia drew a 16.7 overnight rating.

Vulcans ranked 16th

The California University women’s basketball team dropped four spots to No. 16 in the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Top 25 poll that was released Tuesday afternoon.

The Vulcans (11-1) split a pair of road games last week to open PSAC West play.

The Vulcans continue to be one of two teams from the PSAC West, and one of three teams from the Atlantic Region, featured in the rankings. IUP (11-0) climbed one position to No. 1 in the poll for the first time in program history while Virginia Union (11-1) jumped one spot to No. 12.

In the NHL

Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand each had a goal and two assists, Tuukka Rask stopped 24 shots for his first shutout this season and the Boston Bruins beat the Minnesota Wild 4-0 on Tuesday night.

Danton Heinen and Jake DeBrusk also scored as Boston won its season-high fifth straight game. John Moore and Torey Krug had two assists apiece.

Alex Stalock finished with 23 saves for Minnesota.

• Andrei Vasilevskiy made 31 saves, Brayden Point had two goals and an assist, and the NHL-leading Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Columbus Blue Jackets, 4-0.

NHL points leader Nikita Kucherov had a goal and an assist for the Lightning, and Mathieu Joseph also scored.

Tampa Bay (33-8-2, 68 points) is two points off the pace of the 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens, who set the NHL record for points in a season with 132. The Lightning had a 16-game point streak (15-0-1) end in a 5-2 loss at San Jose on Saturday.

• Justin Williams scored late in the third period and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Islanders 4-3 to snap New York’s six-game winning streak.

Williams scored his 10th goal of the season 15 seconds after leaving the penalty box to make it 3-2 with 17:18 left. The 37-year-old flipped a backhand past goaltender Thomas Greiss with an assist from Greg McKegg. It was his 299th career goal.

• Jeff Skinner got his 29th goal of the season and the Buffalo Sabres scored five times in the second period on their way to a 5-1 win over the New Jersey Devils.

C.J. Smith, Casey Mittelstadt, Jake McCabe and Lawrence Pilut also scored for Buffalo, which improved to 23-14-6. Carter Hutton made 20 saves.

• The Philadelphia Flyers tied an NHL record Tuesday night with Mike McKenna becoming their seventh goaltender to play this season.

McKenna started against the defending Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals because interim coach Scott Gordon wanted to give top goaltending prospect Carter Hart a break after playing twice in three days. Brian Elliott, Michal Neuvirth, Calvin Pickard, Alex Lyon and Anthony Stolarz have also tended goal for Philadelphia.

In the NBA

Nikola Jokic had 29 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists for his fourth triple-double of the season, and his basket with 2.4 seconds left put the Western Conference-leading Denver Nuggets ahead to stay in their 103-99 win over the Miami Heat on Tuesday night.