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It wasn’t pretty but the Florida Panthers came away with a 2-0 victory over the lowly Maple Leafs on Saturday night.

Red-hot Tomas Vokoun recorded the shutout, turning away 39 shots.

Vokoun has six shutouts this season and 37 in his career. His last came Monday night against Atlanta, when he stopped 27 shots in a 1-0 win.

“It’s always nice when you get on a roll,” Vokoun said.

The Panthers did an admirable job of clogging the lanes and blocking shots, preventing the Leafs from having any quality scoring chances.

Kenndal McArdle netted his first NHL goal, and Cory Stillman also scored for the Panthers, who have earned at least one point in five straight home games.

Stillman opened the scoring with a power-play goal at 4:36 of the second period. With Tomas Kaberle in the penalty box for tripping, Dennis Seidenberg fired a slapshot from just inside the blue-line that hit the end boards and bounced back out past the net.

Stillman, positioned in the crease, poked in the rebound.

The Panthers were playing without right-winger Nathan Horton, who broke his left leg during Thursday’s 2-1 shootout loss to the New York Islanders. Horton, who has 17 goals and 29 assists through 51 games this season, is expected to miss four to six weeks with a broke tibia.

Left-winger David Booth is also still recovering from a concussion he sustained in October.

“We’ve got Booth and Horton out of the lineup, it’s our seventh game in 10 nights. It’s a gutsy win,” Panthers coach Pete DeBoer said.

“Our goaltender was fantastic early, gave us a chance to get out of the first period. Considering the circumstances, I thought it was a real gutsy effort.”

Jonas Gustavsson made 20 saves for the Maple Leafs.

“We worked through the whole game,” Gustavsson said. “I reckon the guys deserved better.”

McArdle made it 2-0 with 6:55 left. He took a pass from Gregory Campbell and scored with a wrist shot from the right circle.

“It was fantastic to be able to score that goal and get a win, as well,” McArdle said. “It’s just a win-win situation and I was just really pleased that our team was able to hold on.”

“Their goaltender had a pretty excellent game,” Toronto coach Ron Wilson said.

“I thought we managed the ice really well, but they got a lucky bounce off the back boards on their power-play goal. We couldn’t get any bounces on our power play. You can’t fault their [Leafs'] effort, they played really hard but couldn’t score.”

The Leafs return to action on Tuesday at home against the Los Angeles Kings.

The Texas Rangers are about to be sold to a group that includes the team’s Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan. (Jeff Yucky/Getty Images)

Tom Hicks has agreed to sell the Texas Rangers to a group that includes Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan.

The sides announced Saturday night that they had finally reached an agreement, eight days after a 30-day exclusive negotiating window expired. The group is headed by Pittsburgh sports attorney Chuck Greenberg.

“Together, we have worked exhaustively since last month to attain this agreement,” Hicks said in a statement. “It’s a complex business deal that positions the franchise positively for the future.”

The buy price is expected to be more than $500 million US.

The next step is the deal has to be reviewed by baseball’s executive and ownership committees. Then at least 75 per cent of baseball owners would have to approve the transfer of ownership from Hicks to Greenberg’s group.

A group of 40 lenders holding debt from Hicks Sports Group also has to approve.

Defaulted on loans

There is a chance the deal could be approved before the April 5 opener, though the process could continue into the season.

Hicks Sports Group defaulted early last year on $525 million in loans tied to the Rangers and the NHL’s Dallas Stars, which Hicks has owned since 1996. Hicks has said that was a deliberate go to force lenders to renegotiate terms of the deals.

Hicks, who bought the Rangers in 1998, place the team up for sale to help pay off or reduce that debt. He has said he plans to keep his NHL team.

Greenberg has questioned Hicks to continue his association with the Rangers as chairman emeritus.

“Nolan and I greatly appreciate Tom Hicks’s willingness to work beyond the deadline to complete the deal and his support for passing the torch from the Hicks family to our group,” Greenberg said.

“His actions speak eloquently to his commitment to serve the best interests of Rangers fans and the community.”

Land deal

In a separate transaction, Ballpark Real Estate, L.P., an independent investment vehicle controlled by Hicks, will sell or transfer to the Greenberg-Ryan group approximately 62 of 79 hectares around Rangers Ballpark and Cowboys Stadium that is owned or controlled by Hicks. In return, Hicks will receive cash, notes, and an ownership position in the team.

Hicks announced Dec. 15 that he was entering in exclusive negotiations with Greenberg, choosing that proposal over bids submitted by former sports agent Dennis Gilbert and Houston businessman Jim Crane, who at the end of the 2008 season attempted to buy the Houston Astros from Drayton McLane.

At one point before going into negotiations with Greenberg, Hicks was trying to place together a group of local investors for a bid in an effort to maintain controlling ownership of the team.

After the 30-day exclusive negotiating window expired on Jan. 15, Greenberg and Ryan issued a midnight statement saying they had “come too far to walk away now” and were prepared to work around the clock if that’s what it would take to reach a final agreement.

If the deal is approved by baseball, Greenberg will become managing general partner and CEO of the Rangers while Ryan will continue as team president, the position he assumed two years ago.

Andy Murray plays a forehand in his fourth-round match against John Isner at the Australian Open at Melbourne Park on Sunday. (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

Andy Murray overcame huge-serving John Isner 7-6 (4), 6-3, 6-2 on Sunday to set up a quarter-final match against defending champion Rafael Nadal at the Australian Open.

The 22-year-ancient Scot rated Isner’s serve among the best in the game, so he was delighted to wear down the American after a crucial service break in the eighth game of the second set. He fended off break points in the next game to serve out the set.

“It’s tough. I had my coach serving at me from the service line this morning to try to get used to it,” Murray said of the six-foot-nine Isner’s serve. “But once you get out there it’s kind of tough.”

Murray broke serve again in the seventh game of the third set when the American netted a forehand and then smashed his racket into the court in disgust.

“It’s been excellent. I went really well since the start of the tournament,” Murray said. “I didn’t drop a set yet … not too much to complain about.”

So far.

The fifth-seeded Murray faces a daunting quarter-final as he attempts to win his first major title. Nadal won his fourth-round match, beating Ivo Karlovic 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.

No. 2 seed Nadal, who beat Roger Federer in last year’s final, rallied after losing the second set following a ninth-game service break.

Zheng posts record win

Zheng Jie set another national mark by becoming the first Chinese player to reach the Australian Open quarter-finals when she beat Alona Bondarenko 7-6 (6), 6-4.

The 26-year-ancient Zheng had already matched her own previous best run at Melbourne Park by reaching the fourth round, but is still a win away from equalling her best performance at a Grand Slam tournament.

She made a stunning charge to the Wimbledon semifinals in 2008, becoming only the second wild-card entry to reach the semis at a major and ousting then No. 1-ranked Ana Ivanovic along the way.

No. 31-seeded Bondarenko had been on an eight-match winning streak after a title run at Hobart last week, which included a quarter-final win over Zheng.

Zheng was more steadfast in the tiebreaker after the pair traded three service breaks in the opening set.

Bondarenko held for a 4-3 lead in the second, but Zheng won the last three games after holding a lengthy service game to level it and breaking player from Ukraine at like in the next.

Zheng earned match point with an angled volley and Bondarenko slammed her racket into the court. She place a backhand out next point to give Zheng the win.

It was Zheng’s first straight-sets win this week in Melbourne, where she and No. 16 Li Na set a record as the first two Chinese woman to reach the fourth round at the same major.

Toronto’s Daniel Nestor and Serbian Nenad Zimonjic advanced to the quarter-finals in men’s doubles, defeating Germany’s Philipp Marx and Igor Zelenay of Slovakia 6-4, 6-2.