Long Beach State Falls To Kansas State

Sharks on brink after 3-0 loss in L.A. Anze Kopitar, Slava Voynov and Jeff Carter provided the scoring in Los Angeles' 3-0 victory in Game 5 to put San Jose on the brink of elimination in the Western Conference semifinals. Voynov's fourth goal of the postseason 53 seconds into the final period put the Sharks in desperation mode, but Los Angeles goalie Jonathan Quick stopped all 24 shots en route to this second shutout of the series, third of the postseason and seventh career in the playoffs. San Jose has scored only one power-play goal in 19 attempts on the road in the playoffs. Los Angeles' Trevor Lewis won an offensive-zone draw from Joe Thornton to set up Voynov, whose blast from the right circle sailed by Sharks goalie Antti Niemi, who appeared to be screened by teammates Thornton and Brad Stuart three seconds after a Kings power play expired. The Kings scored the lone goal of the opening 40 minutes, and the Sharks were probably lucky to even be that close considering Los Angeles completely dictated play for most of first two periods. The Sharks started strong, earned an early first-period power play that yielded two shots after Carter boarded San Jose defenseman Dan Boyle, but the Los Angeles cranked off the final seven shots of the period for a 9-6 edge. Niemi came up big late in the first with a right-pad save on Williams' shot from the slot one-half minute after Voynov missed the net on an uncontested slap shot from the very spot in the right circle from which he scored in Game 1.

Here are some thoughts found on Twitter this week.

The Brookfield East boys won the Waukesha North Sectional on Thursday. Read more and get highlights from other prep games in our roundup.

Sevens rugby, which will debut at the Rio de Janeiro Games, has won over Carlin Isles, a sprinter who has run 100 meters in 10.13 seconds.    

Ron Gardenhire has never made a secret of his admiration for Prince Fielder. The Minnesota Twins manager has often called the Detroit Tigers' slugger one of the best and smartest hitters and baseball, and openly talks about telling his pitchers not to let Fielder beat them. That's why Thursday night was so tough. With the game tied at six in the eighth inning, Detroit had a runner on second and one out.