Reuters Sports News Summary

Following is a summary of current sports news briefs. NHL roundup: Surging Rangers win 4th straight

Chris Kreider scored the tiebreaking goal with 3:11 remaining in the third period and the New York Rangers beat the host Columbus Blue Jackets 3-1 on Friday night. The Rangers won their season-high fourth straight game and won for the fifth time in six games thanks to Kreider, who scored his seventh goal in the last nine games. NASCAR notebook: New Camaro is source of optimism for Chevrolet teams

After a less-than-stellar rollout of last year's NASCAR Cup Series Camaros, Chevrolet teams are optimistic that changes to the car will result in improved performance in 2020. So far, the results seem to bear that out. Chevrolet driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. of JTG Daugherty Racing won the pole for Sunday's Daytona 500 (2:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Alex Bowman of Hendrick Motorsports grabbed the other locked-in position on the outside of the front row. Man City's appeal may focus heavily on process of UEFA probe

Facing a costly and damaging two-season ban from European football, English champions Manchester City will now turn to the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in an appeal that is likely to focus heavily on procedure. The Premier League club's key players on the pitch may be the likes of Sergio Aguero, Raheem Sterling and Kevin De Bruyne, but off it their line-up of British and Swiss lawyers will also be in focus as they fight to get the ban overturned. McIlroy, Scott, Kuchar tied atop impressive Riviera leaderboard

Rory McIlroy made a deft par save at the final hole to earn a three-way tie for the lead with Adam Scott and Matt Kuchar on Saturday as the Genesis Open headed toward a Hollywood finish in Tinseltown. Despite missing several excellent birdie opportunities, Northern Irishman McIlroy carded three-under-par 68 in magnificent winter sunshine at Riviera in Los Angeles. Holder Monfils to face Auger-Aliassime in Rotterdam final

Defending champion Gael Monfils overcame Serb Filip Krajinovic 6-4 7-6(5) in the Rotterdam Open semi-finals on Saturday to set up a title clash with Canadian teenager Felix Auger-Aliassime. The third-seeded Frenchman, looking to make it two trophies in as many weeks following his triumph in Montpellier, fired 14 aces and 35 winners to overcome Krajinovic. Tokyo 2020 holds torch relay rehearsal

Japanese actress Satomi Ishihara performed the first 'torch kiss' handover of the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics torch relay on Saturday during a rehearsal on the outskirts of the capital. Ishihara's handover in Hamura City formed part of a dress rehearsal for Tokyo 2020 organizers, who mimicked three legs of the relay that will last for 121 days in the build up to the Olympics that begin on July 24. Two Russian athletes stripped of biathlon medals for doping: IBU

The International Biathlon Union (IBU) said on Saturday it was stripping two Russian athletes of medals received between 2013 and 2014 for doping violations. The decision to strip the two retired Olympic champions, Svetlana Sleptsova and Evgeny Ustyugov, of their titles follows an analysis of data from Russia's anti-doping agency laboratory in Moscow, the union said. Browns' Garrett reiterates Rudolph used racial slur

Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett reiterated this week that Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph directed a racial slur at him prior to the melee at the end of the game between the teams in November. "He called me the N-word," Garrett told ESPN reporter Mina Kimes in an interview on Outside the Lines that aired Thursday. "He called me a 'stupid N-word.'" Bryant named Basketball Hall of Fame finalist, three weeks after death

Three weeks after Kobe Bryant, one of the most dominant players in NBA history, was killed with his daughter and seven others in a helicopter crash, the global sports icon was named a finalist to the Basketball Hall of Fame. Bryant, fourth all time in NBA scoring, played for the Los Angeles Lakers during an illustrious 20-year career that was highlighted by five NBA championships, two NBA Finals MVPs and one league MVP. Twitter says Olympics, IOC accounts hacked

Twitter said on Saturday that an official Twitter account of the Olympics and the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) media Twitter account had been hacked and temporarily locked. The accounts were hacked through a third-party platform, a spokesperson for the social media platform said in an emailed statement, without giving further details.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)