Sports briefs for February 22, 2005

Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2005 | 10:29 a.m.

Amateurs play in longest game

Five days after the National Hockey League season was canceled, 40 amateur skaters set a Guinness World Record by playing a hockey game for 10 consecutive days on an outdoor rink in Alberta.

The game began Feb. 11 and ended Monday morning in front of about 1,000 spectators, said Edmonton, Alberta, optometrist Brent Saik, the game's organizer.

Saik, who lost his father to colon cancer in 1991, first staged the game in 2003 to raise money for pediatric cancer research and set the record at 82 hours.

After the mark was broken in 2004 by a group in Ontario who played for 203 hours, the 36-year-old Saik decided to stage this year's game.

"Hockey isn't canceled. It's alive and well, as you can see," said Saskatchewan native Trevor Maurer, who played in the 2003 game and was a referee this year. "The NHL is just a league."

Six players per team competed at a time in 10-hour shifts while other teammates slept nearby. Team A topped Team B by the score of 1,722 to 1,601. So far, more than $100,000 has been raised for cancer research, Saik said.

Kurokawa in fourth

UNLV's Elena Kurokawa was in a fourth-place tie after two rounds at the Arizona Invitational, and UNLV was in ninth after 36 holes of golf at the Arizona National Golf Club.

UNLV's Moore named

Sheena Moore was named the Mountain West Conference women's basketball player of the week after leading UNLV to two wins last week. It is the first weekly honor of the season for Moore, and the second in her career.

Moore, a 5-foot-7 junior point guard from Lansing, Mich., averaged 15.5 points per game in UNLV's wins against Colorado State and Wyoming.

Priest sentenced

A priest pleaded guilty today in Pittsburgh of involuntary manslaughter in the 2003 death of University of Pittsburgh receiver Billy Gaines, who fell through a church ceiling while drunk. The Rev. Henry Krawczyk was sentenced to seven years' probation, the maximum he could have received.

Jimmy Young dies

Former heavyweight contender Jimmy Young, who beat George Foremand and fought Muhammad Ali and Ken Norton in the 1970s, died Sunday in a Philadelphia hospital of heart disease. He was 56.

Johnnie Walker joins

The maker of Johnnie Walker whiskeys will sponsor McLaren-Mercedes Formula One racing after August when the European Union's ban on tobacco sponsorship takes effect.