SPORTS DIGEST || Poland district final tickets on sale today

Poland district final tickets on sale today

The Poland High School Athletic Department will be pre-selling tickets to the Poland boy’s basketball district final starting today. Tickets will be on sale from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and from then again from 8 a.m. to noon on Friday. Tickets are $6 for adults and $4 for students.

OSU football players to visit Eastwood Mall

Former Ohio State football players will be appearing at Everything Buckeyes at the Eastwood Mall in Niles on March 8 and then again on March 15.

The players who are scheduled to appear on March 8 from noon to 2 p.m. are linebacker Ryan Shazier, cornerback Bradley Roby, and offensive tackle Jack Mewhort. On March 15, from 6 to 8 p.m., running back Carlos Hyde, Boardman grad Corey Lindsley, and quarterback Kenny Guiton.

Pens add forwards Goc, Stempniak at deadline

PITTSBURGH

The Pittsburgh Penguins acquired forward Marcel Goc from the Florida Panthers and forward Lee Stempniak from the Calgary Flames in exchange for draft picks.

Goc had 11 goals and 12 assists in 62 games this season for the Panthers, and the 31-year-old Stempniak had five goals and 18 assists in 52 games with Calgary. The additions give the Penguins some needed depth along their bottom two lines, which have been decimated by injuries this season.

Pittsburgh sent a third-round pick and a fifth-round pick in the 2015 draft to Florida in exchange for Goc, while the Flames received a 2014 third-round pick for Stempniak.

Jackets send Gaborik to Kings, add Schultz

COLUMBUS

The Los Angeles Kings acquired veteran goal-scorer Marian Gaborik from the Columbus Blue Jackets.

The Blue Jackets get right wing Matt Frattin and a second-round pick in the 2014 draft, plus a conditional third-rounder if the Kings win their first-round playoff series or re-sign Gaborik.

In a separate deal, the Blue Jackets, in dire need of immediate help on the blue line, traded a fifth-round draft pick to the Edmonton Oilers for veteran defenseman Nick Schultz.

10-second rule withdrawn by NCAA

NEW YORK

The NCAA football rules committee tabled a proposal Wednesday that would have penalized offenses for snapping the ball before 10 seconds had run off the 40-second play clock.

After a conference call, the panel agreed not to send the so-called 10-second rule to the playing rules oversight panel for approval Thursday.

NCAA national coordinator of officials Rogers Redding says withdrawing the proposal allows “time to gather more information from the medical community and allow time for a broader discussion of the implications of that change.”

Hester says Bears ’parting ways’ with him

LAKE FOREST, Ill.

Record-setting returner Devin Hester says he will not be back with the Chicago Bears next season.

Hester told the NFL Network on Wednesday that Chicago “wants to go a different route with me,” and that they are “parting ways” with him.

Ukraine beats US 2-0 in soccer exhibition

LARNACA, Cyprus

On a night that gave a small contingent of Ukrainian fans an opportunity to wave their flags and unite amid a political crisis back home, their national soccer team eased past the United States 2-0 Wednesday in an exhibition game shifted from Kharkiv to a Mediterranean island nation 600 miles to the south.

Staff/Wire Reports