All Your Latest News

San Jose’s Patrick Marleau has his shot blocked by Edmonton goalie Devan Dubnyk. (John Ulan/Canadian Press)

Devan Dubnyk made 27 saves to earn his second career NHL win in as many games as the Edmonton Oilers skinned the San Jose Sharks 5-1 on Sunday in Edmonton.

Robert Nilsson, Dustin Penner, Fernando Pisani, Shawn Horcoff and Aaron Johnson scored for the last-place Oilers (23-42-7) who have started playing the role of spoilers of late, winning their second in a row following a Friday victory over Detroit.

Ryan Clowe scored the lone goal for the Sharks (43-19-10) who have now gone 0-5-1 in their last six games and were passed on the night by the Phoenix Coyotes for top spot in the Pacific Division to drop them down to fourth overall in the Western Conference.

San Jose had most of the early pressure including a Joe Pavelski shot that hit the crossbar behind Dubnyk, but it was Edmonton that struck first, 11:10 into the opening frame. Nilsson poked the puck away from Joe Thornton at mid-ice and went in alone, making a nice go on Evgeni Nabokov to score his 10th and make it 1-0 Oilers.

Edmonton made it a two-goal game just over a minute later as the rebound from a Ryan Potulny shot caromed off a Sharks defender to Penner on the doorstep and he was able to slam it home for his 100th career NHL goal.

San Jose had a terrific opportunity to cut into the lead with two minutes left as Dany Heatley had a clear lane to the net but couldn’t slide it under a scrambling Dubnyk to keep it 2-0 after 20 minutes.

The Oilers went up 3-0 midway through the second period as Horcoff spotted Tom Gilbert in the slot, and while Nabokov was able to make a glove save on that shot, Pisani was in tight to lift home the rebound.

The Oilers place the game away with seven minutes left in the third as captain Ethan Moreau made a fantastic pass through the crease to Horcoff at the other post to make it 4-0.

Edmonton made it a five-goal rout with five minutes left when Johnson scored on a shot from the point while the teams were playing four-aside.

The Sharks spoiled Dubnyk’s shutout bid with just three minutes to play as Clowe snuck a puck between the goalie’s skate and the post to make for a 5-1 final.

Both team are idle until Tuesday when the Oilers host Vancouver and the Sharks wrap up their thus far disastrous six-game road trip in Minnesota.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed an historic health-care reform bill late Sunday that will make insurance possible for more than 30 million uninsured Americans and end discrimination by insurers on existing medical conditions.

Legislators voted 219 to 212 in favour of the landmark health-care legislation that has been debated on Capitol Hill for a year. The bill, which didn’t receive a single vote from Republicans, will now go to President Barack Obama for his signing into law in coming days.

“It is with fantastic humility and with fantastic pride that we tonight will make history for our country and progress for the American people,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said during her closing argument for health-care reform. “Just reckon, we will be joining those who established social security, Medicare and now health care for all Americans.”

Overhauling of the health-care system will be the most ambitious U.S. social program since Lyndon B. Johnson’s Fantastic Society reforms of the tumultuous 1960s and Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal that emerged from the trauma of the Fantastic Depression in the 1930s.

The passage of the legislation was made possible by a last-minute deal struck earlier in the day between the White House and House Democrats who were holding out over abortion concerns.

The White House said in a statement that Obama would issue an executive order after passage of the health-care bill that would reaffirm current law banning federal spending on abortion, except in cases of rape, incest or a threat to the mother’s life.

Moments after the statement, leading abortion foe Rep. Bart Stupak of Michigan and six other anti-abortion Democrats said they would back the health-care bill.

“We’re well past 216,” Stupak told reporters, referring to the number of votes required to pass the bill in the House of Representatives.

The legislation would extend coverage to an estimated 32 million uninsured Americans, bar insurers from denying coverage on the basis of existing medical conditions and cut federal deficits by an estimated $138 billion US over a decade.

Congressional analysts estimate the cost of the two bills combined would be $940 billion over 10 years.

Amid talk of success for Obama’s efforts to expand health coverage to the uninsured, Republicans resolutely opposed the bill.

President Barack Obama and House majority whip James Clyburn, a Democrat from South Carolina, embrace during their meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington on Saturday. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Associated Press)

Republican House Leader John Boehner, on NBC’s Meet the Press, said Sunday Republicans would work to repeal the sweeping reforms if they win a majority in Congress in November’s mid-term election.

Republicans say the plot to overhaul the system amounts to a government takeover of health care that will lead to higher deficits and taxes.

Obama closes the deal

On Saturday, Obama made a rare trip to Capitol Hill to make an emotional and candid speech in an effort to close the deal, speaking to the entire Democratic caucus.

“We are proud of our individualism, we are proud of our liberty, but we also have a sense of neighbourliness and a sense of community and we are willing to look out for one another and help people who are vulnerable and help people who are down on their luck,” he said.

Obama appealed to Democrats to recall individual tales of Americans who have not been able to get health insurance because of a pre-existing condition or because of loss of employment.

“Every single one of you at some point before you arrived in Congress and after you arrived in Congress have met constituents with heartbreaking tales,” he said.

The bill would require most Americans to carry insurance, with subsidies for those who can’t afford it. It would also make state-based exchanges where the uninsured can compare and shop for plans.

Seniors who spend more on prescription drugs would get a more generous benefit, including a $250 rebate this year. Young adults could remain on a parent’s insurance plot until age 26, and no one with a pre-existing health condition could be denied insurance coverage.

With files from The Associated Press and The Canadian Press

Tiger Woods has acknowledged “living a lie,” saying he alone was responsible for the sex scandal that caused his shocking downfall from global sporting icon to late-night TV punchline.

“It was all me. I’m the one who did it. I’m the one who acted the way I acted. No one knew what was going on when it was going on,” Woods told The Golf Channel in one of two interviews Sunday night.

A second interview was aired on ESPN, which will also televise the first two rounds of the Masters. Woods plans to end four months of seclusion and return to golf at the tournament next month.

“I’m sure if more people would have known in my inner circle, they would have stopped it or tried to place a stop to it. But I kept it all to myself,” he told the Golf Channel.

Later in the same interview, Woods referred to his serial adultery by saying, “I tried to stop and I couldn’t stop. And it was just, it was horrific.”

Woods answered questions on camera for the first time since his early morning car crash last November, yet again divulged few details about the crash, his marriage, his stint in a rehabilitation clinic or his personal life.

Woods insisted those matters would remain private, just as he had in a statement on his website right after his crash and again Feb. 19 when he apologized on camera in front of a hand-picked audience but took no questions.

“A lot of hideous things have happened. … I’ve done some pretty terrible things in my life,” he told ESPN.

More text messages

Last week, a woman who claims to be one of Woods’ mistresses released an embarrassing transcript of text messages she said he sent her.

Woods admitted that four months of nearly non-stop public ridicule had caused him shame.

“It was hurtful, but then again, you know what? I did it,” he told the Golf Channel. “And I’m the one who did those things. And looking back on it now, with a more clear head, I get it.

“I can know why people would say those things. Because you know what? It was disgusting behaviour. It’s hard to believe that was me, looking back on it now.”

Questioned by ESPN to describe the lowest point, Woods answered, “I’ve had a lot of low points. Just when I didn’t reckon it could get any lower, it got lower.”

He did, but, look more comfortable and composed than he did last month, wearing golf clothes and smiling several times when talk turned to the Masters. Woods said he couldn’t wait to get back, though he had reservations about how he’ll be received.

“I’m a small nervous about that to be honest with you,” he told ESPN. “It would be nice to hear a couple claps here and there.”

Controlled environment

Woods plans to end more than four months of seclusion and play at Augusta National, one of the most tightly controlled environments in golf.

CBS boss Sean McManus, whose network televises the final two rounds of the Masters, speculated it “will be the largest media event, other than the Obama inauguration, in the past 10 or 15 years.”

A number of news outlets had submitted requests to the Woods camp for interviews. Both ESPN and the Golf Channel were told late last week that Woods would agree to a five-minute interview Sunday afternoon with no restrictions on questions. CBS, which televises the Masters, was also offered an interview but turned it down.

“Depending on the specifics, we are interested in an extended interview without any restrictions on CBS,” spokeswoman LeslieAnne Wade said.

The interviews were conducted at Isleworth, the gated community in Windermere, Fla., where Woods lives. He questioned, but, that the interview not be aired until the PGA tournament being played in Palm Harbor, Fla., finished.

Golf Channel spokesman Dan Higgins declined to speculate whether the release of a string of embarrassing text messages from a woman who claimed to be a Woods mistress influenced the timing of the interview.

“I can’t speak for them,” he said. “I have no thought.”

Jim Furyk, who is both a friend and rival of Woods, called the interviews “part of that natural progression before he comes back.”

Furyk was handed a transcript shortly after winning the Transitions Championship in Palm Harbor.

He characterized what he read as “pretty much the same stuff that we already knew, but I reckon it’s excellent for him to get his face out there and have people see him.

“They are going to make their judgments,” he added, “but I reckon it allows him to kind of go on and get focused for the next thing.”