Boston Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery said his side learned an important lesson after losing Game 2 of their Stanley Cup first-round series to the Florida Panthers 6-3.

The Panthers split the opening two games in Boston where the Bruins boasted a 34-4-3 record during the regular season, with the series now headed to Florida for Games 3 and 4.

Florida scored four third-period goals to blow the game open after it was locked at 2-2 heading into the final 20 minutes.

The Bruins came into the playoffs fresh from setting NHL records for most wins and points in regular season history.

The defeat marked the Bruins' first in their past 10 games and only their second loss at home this season by more than one goal.

"The number one lesson you learn is how hard it is to win in the playoffs," Montgomery told reporters.

"Florida did a good job. I thought they had a real good gameplan. We got to look at the tape, we've got to get better, we've got to execute better.

"For a team that's been really good in the third period for a long time, it's an opportunity for us to learn from that."

Montgomery labeled the turnovers his side gave away as "catastrophic", while he lamented their inability to regain their composure when they went 4-2 down in the third period.

"I didn’t think we re-grouped and reset," he said. "Most of the year we've been able to reset and go back to our go to our game.

"We didn’t go back to our game at 4-2. I thought we got back to our game in the first two periods."

The win means the Panthers have home-ice advantage ahead of Games 3 and 4 in Florida, although head coach Paul Maurice was not getting carried away.

"You can’t get too far behind anybody. Certainly not a team like the Boston Bruins, the season they’ve had," Maurice said.

"We’d be more than happy to play seven of them, grind it out. Play as long as we can for as hard as we can."

Aaron Judge robbed Shohei Ohtani of a homer before delivering a blast of his own as the New York Yankees downed the Los Angeles Angels 3-2 on Wednesday.

Gleyber Torres hit a walk-off sacrifice fly in the 10th inning, after the Angels had squared the game up following Judge's first-inning two-run shot.

Judge was at the heart of everything early, robbing Ohtani of a first-inning homer with a leaping ricochet catch on the wall at center field after the ball hit the heel of his glove and bobbled into his throwing hand.

The reigning AL MVP then launched a two-run blast into the left-center bullpen at the bottom of the first to open up a 2-0 lead. It was Judge's sixth homer of the 2023 season.

Judge produced another moment of magic in the field in the eighth inning with a diving one-handed grab at right-center field to save a go-ahead run from Brandon Drury.

Ohtani had a frustrating game, going none-for-four and stranding three runners with inning-ending strikeouts in the fifth and seventh innings.

The Angels reeled in the Yankees' early lead with Taylor Ward's fifth-inning RBI, before Gio Urshela's two-out RBI single in the eighth.

In the 10th, Urshela lined out to right with Mike Trout stranded on third with two-out, before Torres' walk-off sac fly to center-right field with bases loaded, driving in Isiah Kiner-Falefa.

Soto shines as Braves' run ended

Juan Soto continued to emerge from his early-season slump with a 431-foot blast to right-center field in the San Diego Padres' 1-0 win over the Atlanta Braves.

The result snapped the Braves' eight-game winning streak, with the Padres improving to a 9-11 record with Fernando Tatis Jr set to return from a long-term suspension on Thursday. Joe Musgrove's return from injury is close too.

Soto, who was hitting .175 with three home runs from 19 games coming in, delivered the decisive blast the fourth inning while Nick Martinez threw six strikeouts across seven scoreless innings, allowing three hits.

More milestones for free-wheeling Rays

The Tampa Bay Rays' outstanding early season form continued with an 8-0 victory over the Cincinnati Reds setting more records, having started the year with a 13-game winning streak.

The Rays blasted six first-inning runs with Yandy Diaz setting the tone with a lead-off homer, setting a modern era record for differential after 19 games (+83), having scored 133 runs and allowed 50, beating the previous mark held by the 1905 New York Giants (+79).

Tampa Bay also became the first team n the modern era to have four shutouts of eight-plus runs in their first 19 games of the season, as Drew Rasmussen had seven K's across five scoreless innings. It was the team's sixth shutout in 19 games.

Three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer could face a 10-game suspension after being ejected from the New York Mets' 5-3 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers after checks for a sticky substance.

The Mets right-hander pleaded his innocence with the umpires checking the pitcher's hand and glove for a sticky substance on three separate occasions, eventually tossing him from the game prior to the fourth inning.

Under MLB rules, if a player is deemed to have violated the rules on sticky substances, they will receive an automatic 10-game ban, which can be appealed.

Scherzer was left bewildered by the decision, yelling "it's rosin" upon umpire Phil Cuzzi's call to eject him from the game, before reluctantly exiting.

"I'd have to be an absolute idiot to try to do anything when I'm coming back out for the fourth," Scherzer told reporters. "He said my hand is too sticky, and I said, 'I swear on my kids' life that I'm not using anything else. This is sweat and rosin, sweat and rosin.'

"I don't get how I get ejected when I'm in front of MLB officials doing exactly - exactly - what you want and being deemed my hands too sticky when I'm using legal substances, I do not understand that."

In the umpires' pool report, plate umpire Dan Bellino said the stickiness of Scherzer's hand worsened from the initial second-inning inspection to the third inspection in the fourth inning when he was ejected.

"As far as stickiness, this was the stickiest it had been since I've been inspecting hands, which goes back three seasons," Bellino said.

Cuzzi added: "I said this to Buck and to Max, it really didn't matter to us what it is. All we know is that it was far stickier than anything that we've felt certainly today and anything this year, and so in that case, we felt as though he had two chances to clean it up, and he didn't."

Scherzer became only the third pitcher to be ejected for violating the updated foreign substance policy, after Seattle's Hector Santiago and Arizona's Caleb Smith, both in 2021. Both copped 10-game bans.

Giannis Antetokounmpo has been ruled out of Game 2 of the Milwaukee Bucks' first-round playoff series against the Miami Heat due to a bruised lower back.

Antetokounmpo exited the Game 1 loss with a lower back contusion after landing heavily when driving to the basket and charging into Heat's Kevin Love. He initially tried to play on but was ruled out at half-time.

The Bucks had listed the MVP candidate as doubtful on Tuesday after an X-ray and MRI scan both came back clean, later updating that to questionable.

Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer confirmed prior to Wednesday's Game 2 that Antetokounmpo would be unavailable.

"[We were] hopeful that he would play and also aware that he might not," Budenholzer told reporters. "The guys are ready. The group's focused and in a good place."

Antetokounmpo's status will be critical for the Bucks during the series, but Budenholzer remained optimistic that he will return soon.

"He's continued to improve, but organizationally and talking and working with him and the sports performance group, the decision was made," Budenholzer said.

"He's out. The guys that are ready and the guys that are available are good to go. We'll continue to monitor him and expect for him to improve and still continue to be optimistic that soon he'll be ready to play."

The Greek forward averaged 31.1 points and 11.8 rebounds per game during the regular season, sitting in the NBA's top five for both categories.

Ja Morant was listed as "out" by the Memphis Grizzlies for Game 2 of their first-round playoff series against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Morant left the court in Sunday's Game 1 defeat to the Lakers at FedExForum in the fourth quarter after trying to break his fall on a drive with his right hand, with his wrist bending unnaturally.

An MRI on Monday revealed a re-aggravation of soft tissue in his hand, having previously suffered an issue against the Milwaukee Bucks on April 7.

According to multiple reports, the Grizzlies listed Morant out prior to the start of Game 2 in Memphis on Wednesday, citing "right-hand soreness".

The 23-year-old was in excellent form in the regular season, averaging 26.2 points and 8.1 assists per game from 61 appearances.

The Grizzlies are already missing key players Steven Adams and Brandon Clarke for the whole of the playoffs, and will be hoping Morant can return as soon as possible.

Tiger Woods faces another rehabilitation process after the 15-time major winner underwent surgery on his ankle.

Woods went under the knife for a procedure to address post-traumatic arthritis in his talus bone, which makes up the lower part of the ankle joint.

The 47-year-old, who suffered severe injuries to his leg in a car crash in Los Angeles in 2021, withdrew from The Masters seven holes into his third round this month after battling to make the cut.

Though no timeframe was placed on his recovery, Woods' participation at the second major of the year – the US PGA Championship – is now in doubt.

A statement on Woods' social media channels read: "Earlier today [Wednesday], Tiger underwent a subtalar fusion procedure to address his post-traumatic arthritis from his previous talus fracture.

"It was performed by Dr Martin O'Malley at HSS Sports Medicine Institute in New York.

"He has determined the surgery to be successful. Tiger is recovering and looks forward to beginning his rehabilitation."

Pep Guardiola felt "exhausted" Manchester City showed they are streetwise in the Champions League as they reached the semi-finals with a 4-1 aggregate win over Bayern Munich.

Eight days after winning the first leg 3-0 at the Etihad Stadium, the Premier League champions drew 1-1 at Allianz Arena to set up a tie against holders Real Madrid.

Erling Haaland missed a first-half penalty, but scored his 48th goal of the season after the break to put City ahead the night.

Joshua Kimmich denied City an 11th successive victory late on after a second harsh penalty award of the game – Manuel Akanji punished for what was adjudged to be handball.

City are in the hunt for a Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup treble after advancing to a third successive European semi-final.

Guardiola, who took charge of the Premier League champions for a 400th time when he came up against his former club Bayern on Wednesday, feels their experience is standing them in good stead.

He told BT Sport: "We struggled in the first half. [Dayot] Upamecano broke all the lines down our left side and we struggled with [Kingsley] Coman.

"We were fortunate before the penalty miss, they had one or two chances and anything could happen but we defended really well.

"The finishing from Erling was really, really good. He is so young. The experience that we have in this competition, the players feel it a lot, they want to do it really well. The second half was much, much better since minute one."

City face Championship side Sheffield United in an FA Cup semi-final on Saturday and Guardiola is concerned fatigue will be an issue.

He added: "We are exhausted. I don't know how we recover to play against Sheffield United [in the FA Cup semi-final].

"Now is a tough moment for the game on Saturday, but we have to play then as [Manchester) United play in the Europa League [so play Brighton and Hove Albion in the FA Cup on Sunday]."

Ons Jabeur forged a comeback win over Jelena Ostapenko to get her Stuttgart Open campaign off to a flying start.

Jabeur endured an injury-hit start to 2023 but bounced back with a victory in Charleston and made it six wins on the bounce by overcoming Latvian Ostapenko 1-6 7-6 6-3 on Wednesday.

Next up for Jabeur is a potential quarter-final tie with Elena Rybakina – a rematch of last year's Wimbledon final.

Rybakina, who won the Indian Wells Open in March, came up trumps on that occasion, fighting back to win 3-6 6-2 6–2.

The Kazakh, seeded sixth, overcame German Jule Niemeier 7-5 6-3 in the round of 32 and will now face Beatriz Haddad Maia in the last 16.

World number two Aryna Sabalenka also booked her progression to the last eight, beating 2021 French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova 6-2 6-3.

Coco Gauff, meanwhile, claimed her first victory in Stuttgart as she overcame a tough test from Veronika Kudermetova.

Gauff, the world number five, was taken to a deciding tie-break but ultimately prevailed 6-2 4-6 7-6 (7-3). The American will face Anastasia Potapova in the next round.

Former world number one Karolina Pliskova defeated Maria Sakkari in straight sets in Wednesday's other encounter.

Inter head coach Simone Inzaghi admitted he had only previously dreamt about his team reaching the final four of the Champions League.

The Nerazzurri were drawn into what was considered a 'group of death' earlier in the tournament when they were put in with Bayern Munich and Barcelona, making it through as runners-up ahead of the LaLiga giants.

Inter beat Benfica 5-3 on aggregate following a 3-3 draw at San Siro in the quarter-finals on Wednesday, meaning they will face city rivals Milan in the semis for the first time since the 2002-03 season, while it will also be the first time the two will meet five times in one season.

"There is great happiness," Inzaghi said after the game. "We played a great game against a difficult team.

"We fully deserved this semi-final, which before was only a dream. I'm happy for the boys and for our progress. We started with a very difficult group with Barcelona and Bayern Munich. We work every day to experience these evenings."

Their passage to the semis of the Champions League for the first time since they won the competition in 2009-10 should relieve some pressure on Inzaghi, who has come in for criticism for the team's league form, having not won any of their last five games in Serie A, losing four.

"Critics aren't a problem," he insisted. "I know where they come from. Some speak well, some speak bad."

Federico Dimarco had a productive game down the Inter left against Benfica, providing six open-play crosses – twice as many as any other player – and claiming assists for Lautaro Martinez and Joaquin Correa after Nicolo Barella had earlier given the hosts the lead.

Roger Schmidt's men equalised Barella's goal through Frederik Aursnes, before late efforts from Antonio Silva and Petar Musa levelled things again.

"We're very happy, it's been many years since Inter made it to the semi-finals," Dimarco told Amazon Prime. "There's still one step left to get to the end.

"We played well, apart from some lack of attention for their goals. The assists? I worked all week for this, the important thing is that the team wins.

When asked about the prospect of facing Milan, he replied: "Let's think about the other matches first. I'm calm, there's still one step left for us to move forward."

Stefanos Tsitsipas breezed into the third round of the Barcelona Open with a straight-sets win over Pedro Cachin on Wednesday.   Tsitsipas took 79 minutes to see off Argentine Pedro Cachin 6-4 6-2 on Pista Rafa Nadal.   The second seed from Greece did not face a break point and won all three that he fashioned to set up a meeting with Canadian Denis Shapovalov, who got the better of Jozef Kovalik 6-4, 6-3.   Jannik Sinner, the fourth seed from Italy, eased to a 6-2 6-4 win over Diego Schwartzman at the Real Club de Tennis Barcelona-1899.   Cameron Norrie and Lorenzo Musetti will do battle in round three after defeating Pavel Kotov and Jason Kubler respectively in straight sets.   Karen Khachanov beat Nicolas Jarry 6-4 6-4, while Grigor Dimitrov, Dan Evans, Alex de Minaur, Yoshihito Nishioka and Francisco Cerundolo also celebrated midweek wins.   Rain hit the schedule hard at the BMW Open, where Aslan Karatsev was leading Daniel Altmaie 3-0 in the third set when play was suspended in the only singles action of the day.  

Erling Haaland doesn't often miss penalties.

Erling Haaland doesn't often hit straight at the goalkeeper when one-on-one.

And Erling Haaland doesn't pass up a third invitation to score.

Having sliced over the crossbar from 12 yards in the first half of Manchester City's Champions League quarter-final second leg against Bayern Munich, and then shot straight at Yann Sommer in the 55th minute, Haaland might have been forgiven for thinking it was not going to be his night on Wednesday.

Yet even when Haaland does, indeed, miss, he still must score. It's as predictable as day turning to night. Death, taxes and Haaland scoring goals. 

It's just what he does, and he did it again – for a 48th time this season – 57 minutes into a thrilling game at Allianz Arena to fully ensure City would not let their 3-0 aggregate lead from the first leg slip.

For much of the first half, Thomas Tuchel's Bayern had run City's defence ragged. Leroy Sane seemed like a man possessed against his former club, but could not find the finishing touch.

Previous incarnations of Pep Guardiola's team might not have had the physicality up top to exploit such a stretched game, but they do now.

Haaland enjoyed, and won, a personal tussle with Dayot Upamecano all game. The Norway international was fist pumping when, in the 18th minute – just after Sane had fired wide at the other end – referee Clement Turpin was brandishing a red card Upamecano's way, with Bayern's centre-back having dragged City's number nine to the ground just outside the box.

A delayed offside flag spared Upamecano, though his luck ran out when, 10 minutes before half-time, Ilkay Gundogan's shot struck his outstretched arm.

Yet again, Upamecano's blushes were spared. Haaland skied his spot-kick, missing a penalty for the first time in his last 16 attempts in all club competitions, since doing so for Borussia Dortmund against Union Berlin in April 2021.

Bayern went into half-time with the scores level, down but not out. They had, in fairness, been the better side; 10 shots to City's four and an open play xG of 0.91 to their visitors' 0.09.

The end-to-end, thrill-a-minute football continued after the break. Kingsley Coman, teed up by Sane, tested Ederson, before the magnificent Jack Grealish slipped in Haaland at the end of a rapid City counter. Sommer, though, was up to the task.

Ederson could only watch as Coman flashed a low cross-shot across the face of goal soon after, but Bayern could only play with fire for so long.

Fifteen seconds later, City were celebrating. Kevin De Bruyne had released Haaland who, after sitting Upamecano down on the turf, slammed home. About time.

Haaland has scored 13 Champions League knockout-stage goals in only 10 such appearances. It was his 12th goal in the competition for City, matching the single-season record for a player of an English cub, level with Ruud van Nistelrooy in the 2002-03 campaign. He is averaging a goal every 66 minutes across all competitions.

Bayern benefitted from a soft handball decision of their own when Sadio Mane's effort deflected up and hit Manuel Akanji's arm. Joshua Kimmich lashed his penalty down the middle, but it was a mere consolation in the grand scheme of a tie that finished 4-1 to City on aggregate.

A Mane miss from close range and Tuchel receiving his marching orders to the stand for dissent capped off the Bavarians' Champions League exit.

Tuchel was brought in to ensure domestic success and progress in Europe. Six games into his tenure, Bayern lead the Bundesliga only on goal difference, while it is City who will face holders Real Madrid in the last four.

That's a rematch of last season's semi-finals, when City dominated in the first leg only to capitulate late on in the second. 

Having been denied by Tuchel in Porto two years ago, City – the third English team to have qualified for the Champions League semi-finals in three successive seasons – have put one ghost to rest already. Now, it's time for another, and with Haaland on board and firing, it could just be their time.

Erling Haaland scored his 48th goal of the season after missing a penalty as Manchester City drew 1-1 at Bayern Munich to cruise into the semi-finals of the Champions League.

Haaland was on target in a f3-0 first-leg victory that put City in control of the quarter-final and he struck again to open the scoring at Allianz Arena on Wednesday.

The prolific striker had missed a spot-kick for the first time in two years in the first half, but he silenced the Bayern faithful after the break.

Joshua Kimmich ended City's 10-match winning run by converting a harshly awarded penalty before Thomas Tuchel was sent off as Pep Guardiola, a former Bayern boss, saw his side seal a 4-1 aggregate win and a last-four tie against holders Real Madrid.

Kingsley Coman was a huge threat down the right as Bayern started with a great tempo and Leroy Sane should have put them in front when he fired wide after racing clear.

There was drama when Dayot Upamecano was shown a red card by referee Clement Turpin for a professional foul on Haaland, but the defender was given a reprieve as the Norway striker was offside.

Upamecano breathed another sigh of relief when Haaland put his spot-kick over the crossbar nine minutes before half-time after the Bayern centre-back was harshly penalised for handball.

The Bavarian giants continued to look dangerous, but City produced a devastating counter-attack to take the lead on the night after Ederson denied Coman from a tight angle.

Kevin De Bruyne was the provider, slipping in Haaland to clinically drill beyond Yann Sommer with his left foot after Upamecano slipped 12 minutes into the second half.

Sadio Mane replaced Sane, the pair who were involved in an altercation after the first leg, before Mathys Tel had a goal ruled out for offside.

Kimmich converted from 12 yards out after Manuel Akanji was unfortunate to have been penalised for handball seven minutes from time, with Tuchel then seeing red for his touchline antics as Bayern crashed out.