Flyers avoid 0-4 start by downing Rangers
PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- Ilya Bryzgalov stopped 18-of-19 shots Thursday to give Philadelphia a 2-1 victory over the New York Rangers, the Flyers' first triumph of the season.
Philadelphia was facing the possibility of losing four games in regulation to open the season, something the Flyers have never done.
They avoided that thanks to second-period goals from Wayne Simmonds and Jakub Voracek, only the fourth and fifth Flyers' scores this season.
Simmonds broke a scoreless tie by tipping in a shot with 8:07 to go in the second and Voracek scored on a wrist shot with 4:06 remaining.
Bryzgalov surrendered a goal to Taylor Pyatt just 1:39 into the third, but the Flyers held on to hand the Rangers their third loss in four games.
New York had defeated Philadelphia in each of their previous eight meetings.
New York goaltender Henrik Lundqvist had 31 saves.
Snedeker shares lead at Torrey Pines
LA JOLLA, Calif., Jan. 24 (UPI) -- Defending FedEx Cup champion Brandt Snedeker fired a 7-under 65 Thursday that gave him a share of the lead one round into the Farmers Insurance Open.
K.J. Choi also shot a 65 and joined Snedeker with a one-shot cushion on the cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean at the Torrey Pines course.
Choi's round was shot on the South Course, a former U.S. Open host and the more difficult of the two used for this week's tournament. Most of the day's low scores were fired on the North Course, which is almost 1,000 yards shorter than its neighboring layout.
Snedeker won last year's Tour Championship, which gave him the $10 million bonus that goes to the FedEx Cup winner each season. That achievement has vaulted him to the No. 8 spot in the world rankings.
Tied for second after the first round at 66 were Josh Teater, Adam Hadwin, Luke List, Ross Fisher, Billy Horschel, Charles Howell III, Mike Weir and Scott Stallings -- all of whom played on the North Course.
Stallings took a five-shot lead into the final round at last week's event in the California desert, but faltered and wound up missing out on a playoff won by Brian Gay. Howell was a participant in the playoff, but failed in his bid to win for the third time on the PGA Tour.
Weir, the 2003 Masters champion, did not survive the cut in any of the 14 tournaments in which he played in 2012.
Gay is not playing this week, nor is Sony Open champion Russell Henley.
Tiger Woods, who missed the cut last week in his season debut on the European Tour, shot a 68 on the South Course and was tied for 20th place. Phil Mickelson settled for a 72 on the North Course in a round that included four bogeys.
Mickelson drew attention last week when he hinted he would have something dramatic to say at Torrey Pines concerning the amount of taxes he currently has to play, but when he arrived at this tournament he declared he was sorry he had ever say anything to start with and was dropping the subject.
Duncan, Bosh among all-star reserves
NEW YORK, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- San Antonio's Tim Duncan and Miami's Chris Bosh were among those selected Thursday to fill out the rosters for this year's NBA All-Star Game.
The starting lineups were announced last week and the league's coaches voted on which reserve players would make the trip to Houston for the game on Feb. 17. Seven reserve players were announced for each team.
Five of those from the Easter Conference will be making their All-Star debut -- New York's Tyson Chandler, Indiana's Paul George, Philadelphia's Jrue Holiday, Cleveland's Kyrie Irving and Chicago's Joakim Noah.
Bosh will be participating in the game for the eighth time and Chicago's Luol Deng will be taking part in the contest for the second time.
Along with Duncan, the Western Conference bench will be made up of San Antonio's Tony Parker, Portland's LaMarcus Aldridge, Houston's James Harden, Golden State's Davis Lee, Memphis' Zach Randolph and Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook.
Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant led fan voting and will start for the West along with teammate Dwight Howard, Chris Paul and Blake Griffin of the Los Angeles Clippers and Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Durant was the MVP of last year's game.
The East starters will be LeBron James and Dwyane Wade of Miami, Rajon Rondo and Kevin Garnett of Boston and Carmelo Anthony of New York.
Michigan rallies to defeat Purdue, improves to 18-1
ANN ARBOR, Mich., Jan. 24 (UPI) -- Glenn Robinson's 3-pointer touched off a 10-point, second-half run Thursday that lifted No. 3 Michigan to a 68-53 victory over Purdue.
The Wolverines, a candidate to take over the No. 1 spot in the national rankings next week after Duke's one-sided loss on Wednesday, have won two in a row since suffering their first loss of the season against Ohio State.
Purdue led by one point at halftime and still had a one-point advantage with 15:23 to play. The Wolverines then ran off 10 consecutive points over a span of 3:24 to take control and they went on to protect their share of the lead in the Big Ten Conference.
Trey Burke scored 15 points to pace Michigan (18-1, 5-1 Big Ten). Tim Hardaway, Jr. had 13 points and both Robinson and Nik Stauskas added 12.
The Wolverines shot 49 percent from the field and made 7-of-16 from 3-point range. Robinson had two of the long-range shots.
Purdue (10-9, 3-3) received 14 points from Terone Johnson.
