winless

On the face of it, Ulster are without a victory in their four United Rugby Championship outings this season.

But head coach Richie Murphy is not ready to hit the panic button.

Despite a winless start, the Irish province are just one point outside the play-off places despite a struggle for results.

An opening defeat by Edinburgh was followed by two thrilling draws against Glasgow and Munster, and then a loss to the Bulls in the first of a South African double-header.

There has been a constant theme throughout: Ulster have allowed the opposition to build an early – and often significant – lead.

On each occasion they have fought back, but have yet to seal a comeback with victory.

Murphy admits his side have been “digging a bit of a hole” in each of their four matches this season.

“Obviously, we’re not quite getting the results that we wanted, but we’re in every game,” said Murphy, whose side defeated Zebre in their Challenge Cup opener.

“We’re playing against top-class opposition and we’re fighting for everything we can get.”

“It’s really important that we don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. We will stick to our process and stick to what we believe in, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

Marat Khusnutdinov scored in the third period and the Boston Bruins beat the Kings 4-1 on Saturday night for their fifth straight victory.

With the Philadelphia Flyers winning Saturday night, the Kings (0-4-2) are the last NHL team without a win this season.

David Pastrnak had a goal, Elias Lindholm and JJ Peterka scored empty-netters, and Jeremy Swayman made 25 saves. The Bruins swept the three California teams as part of a four-game trip that ends in Dallas on Tuesday.

Alex Laferriere scored for the Kings, and Anton Forsberg made 24 saves. The Kings were held to one goal for the fourth straight contest.

Khusnutdinov put the Bruins (7-2-0) ahead 2-1 with 6:24 remaining, scoring on a backhander after Forsberg failed to cover up Morgan Geekie’s shot and Matt Poitras kept the puck alive.

The Kings got off to a quick start, scoring 31 seconds into the game. Laferriere was at the top of the crease to put in Adrian Kempe’s pass for his second goal of the season, making the most of his promotion to first-line center.

But the Bruins responded early in the second period, with Pastrnak tying it at 2:43. He pounced on a loose puck in the neutral zone and took it the other way to beat Forsberg on a wrist shot from the right circle for his fourth goal.

It was Pastrnak’s 289th goal at even-strength, tying Phil Esposito for third-most in Boston history.

Bruins center Pavel Zacha did not play because of an upper-body injury he sustained in the third period against the Ducks on Friday. He is day to day, coach Marco Sturm said before the game.

Up next for the Kings: at Washington on Tuesday night.

Martin Pospisil scored the tiebreaking goal with 4:22 left, Yegor Sharangovich added an empty-netter with 1:22 remaining and the Calgary Flames beat the Ducks 4-2 on Tuesday night.

Adam Klapka and Aydar Suniev added goals, and Dustin Wolf stopped 22 of 24 shots as the Flames (1-5) won for the first time this season. Beckett Sennecke and Leo Carlsson scored goals, and Lukas Dostal had 32 saves for the Ducks (4-2).

Pospisil’s decisive goal came after he took a pass from Suniev at the center circle, skated down the left side, deked Ducks defenders Tyson Hinds and Tristan Luneau by faking a shot and snapped the puck past Dostal’s short side for a 3-2 lead.

Anaheim gave up the tying goal just eight seconds after killing Calgary’s five-on-three advantage — with the help of Dostal’s four saves — for two minutes of the second.

As Sennecke (tripping) and Alex Killorn skated out of the penalty box, Flames winger Ryan Strome snuck a cross-ice pass from the outside the left circle to Suniev, who snapped a shot from the inside edge of the right circle past Dostal’s blocker for a 2-2 tie at the 8:02 mark.

The Flames took a 1-0 lead 8:32 into the first when Maksim Tsyplakov intercepted a pass in the Anaheim slot and touched a pass back to Klapka, who beat Dostal.

But the Ducks tallied twice within a 1:56 span of the first for a 2-1 lead. Sennecke stole the puck at his own blue line and beat Wolf glove-side for a breakaway goal with 7:51 left, and Carlsson’s shot from the right circle went over Wolf’s left shoulder for a power-play goal with 5:55 left.

Roger McQueen, the Ducks’ first pick in the 2025 draft, made his NHL debut after being recalled from the AHL San Diego Gulls. The 20-year-old center did not find the score sheet in 11 ½ minutes of ice time.

McQueen replaced center Ryan Poehling, who suffered a medial collateral ligament sprain that will sideline him for six to eight weeks. Ducks forward Cutter Gauthier missed the game because of a lower-body injury and is day to day.

Connor McDavid had a goal and two assists in the dynamic first period of his four-point night, propelling the Edmonton Oilers to a 4-1 victory over the winless Kings on Tuesday.

Vasily Podkolzin got his sixth and seventh goals of the season, Leon Draisaitl also scored and Devon Levi made 39 saves for the Oilers, who have won five straight and scored at least three goals in every game of their 5-0-1 start.

McDavid recorded at least three points in a period for the 33rd time in his 11-year career, doing it in the first period for the 10th time. The six-time Art Ross Trophy winner as the NHL’s top scorer has a whopping 16 points already this season with five multi-point games.

Brandt Clarke scored for the Kings, who dropped to 0-3-2 to begin coach Peter Laviolette’s first season despite outshooting the Oilers 40-16. The Kings are still adjusting to their new direction under Laviolette, who wants offensive aggression from a team that has played deliberate, defense-first hockey for nearly two decades.

The Kings and Philadelphia are the NHL’s only winless teams.

Evan Bouchard had two assists for the Oilers, who are off to their strong start despite playing without injured Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.

Edmonton opened the scoring when McDavid froze Cody Ceci and fed the puck low to the quick-wristed Draisaitl. One minute later, Podkolzin converted the rebound after McDavid blew past Mikey Anderson and blistered a shot off Darcy Kuemper.

After the Kings had pinned Edmonton in its own end for nearly two full shifts late in the first period, McDavid came off the bench, accepted Ty Emberson’s pass at the blue line in stride and scored his fourth goal.

Kuemper was replaced by Anton Forsberg to start the second.

Clarke scored late in the second period on a long shot through traffic. The goal was Clarke’s first since the Kings’ young defensive cornerstone signed a five-year, $37-million deal last June.

McDavid and Draisaitl assisted on Podkolzin’s empty-net goal.

While Liverpool have won twice on their travels this season, they now sit ninth in the league – and their main issue seems fairly clear.

They have scored just seven goals this season – just twice at Anfield – and only seven teams have managed fewer.

It was early on in the first half when the cameras panned to Alexander Isak, Cody Gakpo and Dominik Szoboszlai in the Main Stand at Anfield – all three of them were out with injuries.

Among them, the trio have scored six of Liverpool‘s seven league goals this season and on a day when Man City’s attack showed their class, Liverpool didn’t show any quality in the final third.

City (16) have scored more than double the goals Liverpool (7) have scored this season in the top flight.

Across three league games at Anfield this season, Liverpool have failed to score in two of them. That must improve.

In Isak’s absence, Lewis Koumas put in a great shift. However, the 21-year-old lacks that killer edge in front of goal at this level.

The focus must fall on summer signings Florian Wirtz and Bradley Barcola. It is this kind of game where you need a match-winning moment and neither showed anywhere near the quality that is expected when you have a price tag of over £100m.

There was one moment at 0-0 in the 55th minute when Wirtz had Milos Kerkez and Barcola in acres of space to his left, but chose to shoot and fired wide.

“You learn a lot in games like today,” Iraola said. “I am very proud of my players. They put the work rate and everything in today. It’s a loss and we didn’t get anything from the performance but I liked it a lot.”

But deep down, Iraola will know there is a lot of work to do and getting the big money signings to deliver will be high on his agenda.

LAS VEGAS — Mitch Marner scored a power-play goal from the high slot at 2:41 of overtime to give Vegas a 2-1 victory over the Kings on Saturday on a night in which the Golden Knights paid tribute to their past.

Trevor Connelly scored the other goal for the Golden Knights. Connelly, Marner and Mark Stone each had two points, with Stone getting both of his on assists. Carter Hart made 26 saves.

Artemi Panarin scored for the Kings and Darcy Kuemper made 30 saves.

Vegas (5-1) is off to a quick start this season, and the Kings (0-2-2) are still searching for their first victory.

Each club swapped power-play goals in the second period, with the 20-year-old rookie Connelly scoring after Stone’s pinpoint cross-ice pass. Panarin answered with a shot from the high slot later in the period.

In overtime, the Golden Knights quickly took advantage of a tripping penalty on Kings center Scott Laughton. Marner skated from near the blue line toward the slot, scoring just seven seconds into the penalty.

The Golden Knights, in their 10th season, paid tribute throughout the game to their inaugural “Misfits” team that reached the Stanley Cup Final. Gerard Gallant, who coached that team, was in attendance along with several players from that squad. Fan-favorite Ryan Reaves, who retired last month after 16 NHL seasons, cranked the pregame siren.

Referee Furman South briefly went down to the ice early in the third period when Vegas center Nic Dowd collided with him. South got up holding his midsection, but remained in the game.

Up next for the Kings: vs. Edmonton at Crypto.com Arena on Tuesday night.

Ulster hooker Tom Stewart admits “I don’t think I’ve come to the party well enough” and says the squad must have “honest conversations” after an underwhelming start to the season.

Successive draws with Glasgow and Munster after a loss to Edinburgh leaves Ulster winless in the United Rugby Championship before starting their Challenge Cup campaign away to Zebre next week.

Head coach Richie Murphy said he was “bitterly disappointed” after his side were forced to fight back for a 26-26 draw with Munster, while Stewart questioned his own contributions to the game in Belfast.

“From a personal point of view, I’m not happy with my performances about it. I don’t think I’ve come to the party well enough, I don’t know if it’s my preparation or the mental side to the game,” said Stewart, who captained Ulster against Glasgow and Munster in the injured Iain Henderson’s absence.

“It’s something I really need to have a look at and plan better or whatever it is, but I need to start understanding why that is the case.”

Stewart, who marked his seventh Ireland cap with a try against Japan over the summer, added: “From my own point of view, I need to properly watch back my intent in some of the collisions and my actual process around what I’m doing.

“Then I think we need to have some honest conversations this week within ourselves, with the team, players and coaches to see where we’re at.”

Ulster travel to Zebre on Saturday (15:15 BST) before travelling to South Africa for difficult URC assignments against the Bulls and Stormers.

For Stewart, Ulster “can’t shy away” from the shortcomings in their performances as they strive to kick-start their season.

“It’s hard, when you have a game like that you don’t want to watch it back,” added the 25-year-old.

“You don’t want to review yourself properly, you don’t want to look at the hard stuff, the nitty-gritty that you haven’t done well, but that’s where you find the fixes, the learnings.

“The hardest stuff you watch will be the most impactful stuff going forward.”