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Goalscoring NHL goalies, village cricket and handball magic

<span>Photograph: Jerome Miron/USA Today Sports</span>
Photograph: Jerome Miron/USA Today Sports

1) Nashville Predators’ Pekka Rinne joins the short list of NHL goaltenders with an eye for finding the opposing net thanks to this effort against Chicago Blackhawks. He’s the first since 2013, when Mike Smith just beat the buzzer for Phoenix Coyotes.

New York Islanders’ Billy Smith, back in 1979, is credited with the earliest example, as the last player on his team to touch the puck before Colorado Rockies’ Rob Ramage passed to empty ice and watched forlornly as it made its way to an unguarded net. However, Ron Hextall shot and scored for Philadelphia Flyers in 1987 – and also contributed the next on the list, in the 1989 play-offs against the Capitals. New Jersey Devils’ Martin Brodeur has three goals to his name, with one sterling full-rink effort, followed by two Ramage-like pieces of charity from Daymond Langkow and Jordan Staal respectively. Leaving the technicalities aside, three more managed the feat from their own sticks: Chris Osgood, Evgeni Nabokov and Jose Theodore, whose 9-iron-style swing is arguably the pick of the bunch.

2) Helen Sharman, Britain’s first astronaut, was recently interviewed by Michael Segalov of this parish, with some of her comments making the front page of the Daily Star. But sadly he didn’t ask her about the opening ceremony of the 1991 World Student Games, the most dramatic and sombrely-commentated flame-lighting of all time.

3) Following last week’s collection of comebacks, another epic looks on the cards as John McCarthy, in the yellow vest, sees Tyler Ranke flagging horribly in the final lap of the steeplechase at the 2014 NY State Championships – no spoilers (although a massive umbrella nearly ruins it for everybody).

4) Sweden’s Valter Chrintz looks like hitting the deck while on the attack against Switzerland, but has enough awareness to pull off the handball equivalent of a backheel.

5) Village cricket. No further comment necessary.

6) Roy Jones Jr turns 51 today, and though he may have hung up his gloves, he can’t resist picking up a mic every now and again. Boxers love a tune, from Joe Frazier having a stab at an Eddie Floyd classic, Muhammad Ali (then Cassius Clay) straining for the high notes of Stand By Me, and Oscar de la Hoya singing La Bamba while reading the lyrics off his phone. And then there’s Tyson Fury

Our favourites from below the line last week

1) RAW 100 Version 5.0, featuring Brandon Semenuk.

2) Competitive parkour on the streets of Eindhoven. Eek.

3) Scott Stoinis unloads in the BBL.

Spotters’ badges: BlackCaesar, FFMExpat, whobroughtoranges.

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