Sep 21, 2020 4 min read

In the NHL

Edmonton Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl won the NHL MVP award Monday after leading the league in scoring.

Draisaitl is the first German player to win the Hart Trophy. The league announced its most prominent award winners Tuesday night prior to Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final.

The 24-year-old Draisaitl had 110 points in 71 games. He also won the Ted Lindsay Award as most outstanding player decided by members of the NHLPA.

Draisaitl joins Dirk Nowitzki in the NBA as the only German players to earn MVP honors in one of the four major North American professional sports leagues.

He finished ahead of Colorado center Nathan MacKinnon and New York Rangers winger Artemi Panarin in voting by the Professional Hockey Writers Association.

Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck won the Vezina Trophy as top goaltender, Nashville’s Roman Josi got the Norris Trophy as the best defenseman, and Colorado’s Cale Makar won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year.

Girls soccer

Alyssa Clutter scored three first-half goals and undefeated Trinity cruised to a 5-0 victory over visiting Albert Gallatin Class 3A Section action Monday night.

Clutter goals gave Trinity (3-0, 3-0) a three-goal lead at halftime, and Nina King and Emma Lorenzo had tallies for the Hillers in the second half. Goalkeeper Ruby Morgan had her second consecutive shutout.

n Mallory Schreiber scored a game-winning goal with four minutes remaining as bentworth overcame a halftime deficit and defeated visiting Waynesburg 3-2 in a non-section match.

Waynesburg (1-4) led 1-0 at halftime on a goal by Ashlyn Basinger. Reagan Schreiber, who assisred on the game-winner, scored the tying goal for Bentworth (3-2), which has won three in a row.

Goalkeeper McKenzie Booth had a big game for Waynesburg, making 17 saves.

n Ashley Horvath and Alyssa Wright each scored two goals to lead Chartiers-Houston to a 6-0 shutout of Monessen in a Section 2-A match.

Kayla Brose had a goal and four assists and Grace McAvoy added the other goal. Keely Acor had six saves for C-H (2-3, 2-4).

n Belle Vernon scored two second-half goals and rallied to edge Ringgold 2-1 in Class 3A Section 2.

In auto racing

Denny Hamlin is starting his own race car team in partnership with Charlotte Hornets owner Michael Jordan and Bubba Wallace as the driver.

Hamlin, a three-time Daytona 500 winner and top contender for this year’s Cup title, made the announcement on social media. The team will be a single-car Toyota entry aligned with Joe Gibbs Racing.

“Eleven years ago I met Michael Jordan at a then-Charlotte Bobcats game and we became fast friends,” Hamlin wrote. “Not long after, I joined Jordan Brand as their first NASCAR athlete. Our friendship has grown over the years and now we are ready to take it to the next level.

“Deciding on the driver was easy – it had to be Bubba Wallace.”

Hamlin said additional details would be forthcoming. Wallace is the only Black driver at NASCAR’s top level.

There’s been speculation for months that Hamlin was organizing some sort of ownership group as he expects NASCAR’s business model to become more favorable for team owners when the “Next Gen” car is released in 2022. NASCAR rules prohibit a current driver from owning a team and driving for another, but Hamlin works around the policy with Jordan as the primary owner.

Jordan became a partial owner of the Bobcats in 2006 and bought the team outright in 2010, restoring the franchise to its original Hornets name. Hamlin has been a longtime season-ticket holder with courtside seats along the visitors’ bench.

Jordan has twice traveled to the NASCAR season finale to watch Hamlin race for the championship. Hamlin, who’s 39, is still seeking his first title.

Wallace, who has cobbled together about $18 million in sponsorship deals since he made social equality his platform, already said he’d leave Richard Petty Motorsports at the end of the season.