Hockey

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is calling on the minor league Bakersfield Condors to stop displaying live condors at its hockey games.

The animal welfare group issued a statement Tuesday in response to a game last week in which an Andean condor escaped from a handler and slid on the ice as the national anthem played.

The rare bird of prey — with a wingspan of several feet — is the mascot for the Bakersfield Condors.

MINNEAPOLIS — At the University of Minnesota, just a slap shot away from Mariucci Arena and Williams Arena, there’s a team that operates in the shadows of the nation’s No. 1-ranked men’s hockey team and two basketball programs riding roller-coaster seasons.

Gophers women’s hockey coach Brad Frost has called his team “the best-kept secret in town.”

The boycotts were threatened. The irate tweets were posted.

NHL fans were fed up with labor strife updates and they weren’t coming back to the sport they loved once the lockout was lifted.

Except that they did. In most homes and arenas, they came in record numbers, unable to stay away for that first faceoff.

The fans partied in Nashville, Tenn., where $1 hot dogs helped woo Predators fans back to Bridgestone Arena.

NEW YORK — Hockey fans will click their bitterness or forgiveness over the NHL lockout by whether they tune into the games on TV.

Then again, if the shortened season ends with, say, a Rangers-Red Wings final, even the most aggrieved of them might have a hard time staying away.

NEW YORK — NHL owners have ratified the tentative labor deal. All that now remains is player approval to finally start the hockey season.

The league’s board of governors met Wednesday in a Manhattan hotel and voted on the agreement that was reached early Sunday on the 113th day of the NHL lockout.

The NHL appears headed toward a 48-game season for the second time in two decades.

“I think 48 is most likely at this point, unless the players can expedite their ratification process,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly wrote in an email Monday to The Associated Press.