SPORTS DIGEST|| Palmer steps down as Sebring football coach

Palmer steps down as Sebring football coach

Sebring

Brian Palmer stepped down as the Sebring football coach on Tuesday, according to 21 WFMJ. Palmer went winless in two seasons with the Trojans.

Sikora named football coach at Campbell

Campbell

Mickey Sikora will be named the head football coach at Campbell, according to 21 WFMJ.

It’s Sikora’s second stint with the Red Devils. He stepped down following the 2013 season after coaching Campbell for four seasons. He finished with a 26-15 record.

Sikora led the Red Devils to two league championships and one playoff appearance.

Guesman finishes 2nd at Wildcat Invitational

Latrobe, Pa.

Jessica Guesman, a Howland graduate, finished as the runner-up this weekend in the Wildcat D2-D3 Invitational, hosted by Wilmington University. Jessica had a 5-game total of 988, an average of 197.6 per game. She was named All-Tournament.

Hornqvist’s hat trick leads Pens by Colorado

PITTSBURGH

Patric Hornqvist’s natural hat trick in the third period powered the Pittsburgh Penguins past the Colorado Avalanche 6-3 on Tuesday night.

The Avalanche had erased a three-goal deficit to tie the game going into the third when Hornqvist went to work.

His power-play goal 6:11 into the final period gave the Penguins the lead. Hornqvist beat Semyon Varlamov again just 1:21 later to push Pittsburgh’s advantage to two, and the veteran from Sweden completed the hat trick on his next shift when he fired a wrist shot by Varlamov less than 90 seconds later.

Jake Guentzel, Evgeni Malkin and Derick Brassard also scored for the Penguins, who halted Colorado’s 11-game point streak. Kris Letang added two assists for Pittsburgh. Casey DeSmith finished with 42 saves.

Tyson Barrie, Carl Soderberg and Matt Nieto scored for the Avalanche, who saw their six-game road win streak snapped. Varlamov made 26 stops, but struggled early and late.

Redskins ‘discussed’ signing Kaepernick

WASHINGTON

Washington Redskins coach Jay Gruden says the team “talked about and discussed” bringing in quarterback Colin Kaepernick for a tryout “but we will probably go in a different direction.”

Gruden told reporters during a conference call Tuesday that would there have been “a greater possibility” of considering Kaepernick if the Redskins were in need of a QB in Week 1 rather than at this stage of the season now.

Washington lost Colt McCoy to a broken right leg in a 28-13 loss at the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday night that dropped the Redskins’ record to 6-6. McCoy had replaced Alex Smith as the starting quarterback after Smith broke his right leg last month.

Kaepernick filed a grievance against the NFL last year, saying team owners colluded to keep him off rosters.

Seattle awarded NHL’s 32nd franchise

SEA ISLAND, Ga.

Seattle is getting a National Hockey League team.

The NHL Board of Governors unanimously approved adding Seattle as the league’s 32nd franchise on Tuesday, with play set to begin in 2021 instead of 2020 to allow enough time for arena renovations. The as-yet unnamed franchise will be the Emerald City’s first major winter sports team since the NBA’s SuperSonics left town in 2008.

The Seattle Hockey Partners group impressed the board’s executive committee in October with a plan that had all the ingredients the NHL was looking for. Strong ownership led by billionaire David Bonderman and producer Jerry Bruckheimer, a downtown arena in a sports-crazed city and a season-ticket drive that drummed up 10,000 orders in 12 minutes all cleared the way for the NHL to add another team after Las Vegas began play in the 2017-18 season.

Staff/wire report