LAKE LOUISE, Alta. - Lindsey Vonn raised her arms in the air, let out a whoop and fell flat on her back in celebration of an emotional World Cup downhill win Saturday.The ski star led an American sweep of the podium in Lake Louise, Alta., with Stacey Cook second and Julia Mancuso third. Canadas Larisa Yurkiw came the closest to spoiling the U.S. party by finishing a career-best fourth.Vonn claimed the 15th World Cup victory of her career at the Alberta ski resort, but this one was different. Since sweeping both downhills and super-G in 2012, Vonn underwent a pair of knee surgeries that limited her to less than a handful of races in the last year and a half.When she arrived in Lake Louise this week, Vonn hadnt raced in almost a year.The 30-year-old sobbed into the shoulder of her father Alan Kildow and other people on her support team when it was clear her time would hold up for the victory Saturday.Today was just an enormously happy day and also a big relief to know that Im back and I still have the capability of winning, Vonn said.Yurkiws celebration was similar to Vonns, minus the back flop in the finish area. After finishing 22nd in Fridays first downhill, the 26-year-old from Owen Sound, Ont., crossed the finish line less than two-tenths of a second from the podium.Its just such a validation to what I believe in my gut, Yurkiw said. Ive chosen to believe in myself and built a career around it. Im really lucky that its working.Vonns time was one minute 50.48 seconds. Cook was second in 1:50.97, Mancuso third in 1:51.05 and Yurkiw fourth in 1:51.22. Overall World Cup leader Tina Maze of Slovenia was eighth after winning Fridays downhill.There were four American women in the top-10, but none on the podium in Fridays first downhill of the season. They swept the medals Saturday and put four in the top six with Edmonton-born Laurenne Ross finishing sixth. The Audi World Cup Lake Louise concludes with Sundays super-G.Mancuso says the chemistry on the team works well when Vonn is on her game.We missed having someone so dominant around because you can always count on her to put in a good performance, Mancuso said.The rest of us on a good day, were definitely contending for the podium, but Lindseys proved that every day shes contending for the podium. Its nice to have that sort of energy and intensity. Its like OK Lindsey has her game face on so we need to put our game-face on.Cook also returned to the podium in Lake Louise after finishing second in a pair of downhills two years ago.For North Americans, its kind of the one spot where we have an advantage over the Europeans, she said. That comes from Lake Louise being so supportive of junior racing. They host the Nor-Ams and for a junior racer to get on a World Cup track, its the only place in North America that happens. We have a lot of experience here. We have a lot of runs on this hill. You learn whats fast and experience counts big time.Yurkiws catastrophic knee injury in 2009 kept her from racing for almost two years. She lost her spot on the Canadian ski team for the 2013-14 season, so Yurkiw raised money via sponsorships and raced solo to qualify for the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.She regained her place on the national team as the lone downhiller for this season, but turned down financial support from Alpine Canada. The organization runs the womens national team as a combination of speed and technical — slalom and giant slalom — racers. Yurkiw didnt want to join a program where downhill was not a priority.Yurkiws previous best results — a sixth and a seventh in downhills — came last year when she was on her own. Her expectations for Lake Louise this year were low. Yurkiws return to snow in the fall was delayed because of a pair of off-season knee surgeries.Im a racer so I come out and hope to be the fastest every day and sometimes you are and most of the time youre not, so Im really happy with todays result, Yurkiw said.This is much beyond anything we could have hoped for this weekend. My coach was almost crying yesterday and hes like a mans man, so kind of awkward, but I think were surpassing our goals. It opens up the season for an anything-is-possible year.Vonn tore a pair of ligaments and broke a bone in her right leg racing super-G at the 2013 world alpine ski championships.Her attempted comeback for the Winter Olympics stalled out when she tore one the reconstructed ligaments and then sprained a ligament last season. Vonn underwent a second knee surgery in January and did not defend her Olympic womens downhill title.Lake Louise is a place where the four-time overall World Cup champion has dominated in the past. It delivered a welcome dose of confidence Saturday.It was a really long way, you know from being injured and two operations and coming back and coming back again and not quite knowing if I would get to be where I was before, she said. You know I always believed in myself. I never gave up that belief but at the same time, its hard not knowing.With 60 career World Cup victories, Vonn is two away from matching the womens record of 62 held by Annemarie Moser-Proell of Austria. Vonn denied that was on her mind Saturday.No, I just have to focus on the skiing, she said. Every day has gotten better. I just have to keep building my confidence and keep working and everything will eventually come. Wholesale Shoes Black Friday Free Shipping .C. -- Eric Staal kept his focus after his apparent breakaway goal was waived off early in the third period. Shoes Black Friday Deals 2020 . He wants to seize that opportunity. The trouble is, Firus has had more bumps on the road to Sochi than most. Last year, Firus had the skate of a lifetime in the short program at the Canadian championships when he landed his first triple Axel in competition and finished third in a stacked field. https://www.cheapshoesblackfriday.com/. 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Patrick Maroon scored the go-ahead goal, Frederik Andersen made 37 saves, and the Ducks beat the Kings 2-1 on Saturday night for their third straight win in the Freeway Faceoff. Andersen and the Pacific Division leaders barely held off the Kings, who had a 38-20 shots advantage. An apparent tying goal by Anze Kopitar was waved off with 6:23 left because of incidental contact with Andersen, prompting Kings fans to litter the ice. The Ducks still showed remarkable resilience in another bruising chapter of this rivalry. Tim Jackman scored an early goal for the Ducks, who won back-to-back games at Colorado and Los Angeles after a four-game skid knocked them from their longtime perch atop the overall NHL standings. Anaheim leads San Jose by two points in the division standings, and the Kings are well back in third place. "Its going to be tough for the Kings to catch us now," Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau said. "Were up 15 points on them with 14 games to play. They were playing so well. We didnt think they were going to lose another game all year. It was important for us to come in here and show we could measure up to them." Tyler Toffoli scored a power-play goal and Martin Jones stopped 18 shots for the Kings, whose eight-game winning streak was snapped Thursday by Toronto. Los Angeles had won each of Anaheims last five visits to Staples Center since November 2011. The late-game controversy added to the lively rivalry in the Southern California clubs first meeting since their outdoor game at Dodger Stadium on Jan. 25. Kopitars shot through traffic hit Andersens crossbar and apparently rattled in, but the officials immediately waved off any goal, later announcing Andersen had been hit. "The puck was in, but there was some contact," Andersen said. "I couldnt really stop the puck. The ref did the right thing and made the right call." Replays showed the puck barely crossed the goal line while Marian Gaborik and Anaheims Jakob Silfverberg were next to Andersen. Los Angeles coach Darryl Sutter leaned onto the ice to disagree, and the crowd made its displeasure known. &"They called it that I touched the goalie before the puck went in," Gaborik said.dddddddddddd "But I dont know, I havent seen the replay." Dozens of fans threw drinks, water bottles and concession items on the ice, prompting a short pause in play while employees with snow shovels removed the garbage. "I dont know why everybody is getting wound up about that," Boudreau said. "They ran into our goalie. I thought it should have been a penalty, frankly. ... Ive seen a lot less things get called for penalties." Jackman put the Ducks ahead late in the first period with his fourth goal of the season, coming out of the corner to score on a slick pass from Mathieu Perreault. The Kings evened it on a power-play goal midway through the second period when Jarret Stolls shot hit Andersens pads and went straight to Toffoli for just his second goal in 26 games since Dec. 19. "I think we didnt play the best that we could," Toffoli said. "But I think we know now that the rest of the season here we have to play hard and play the right way." Los Angeles hadnt scored against Anaheim in more than 148 consecutive minutes, going scoreless against their rivals since Kopitars first-period goal early in their last meeting at Honda Center, two days before Jonas Hillers shutout in Chavez Ravine. Maroon put the Ducks back ahead on the games next shot just 1:09 later. Sprawling Kings defenceman Jake Muzzin deflected the puck past Jones for Maroons first goal since Jan. 30. The Kings scratched captain Dustin Brown, who played sparingly against Toronto on Thursday after Sutter said Browns entire line looked tired. The U.S. Olympian missed practice Friday with what Sutter said was an illness. Anaheim scratched U.S. Olympic defenceman Cam Fowler, who incurred a lower-body injury Friday in Calgary. The Ducks also played without 43-year-old forward Teemu Selanne, who has sat out the back end of several back-to-back sets this season. NOTES: New Anaheim D Stephane Robidas took the pregame warmup, but didnt make his Ducks debut. The veteran blue-liner, acquired March 4 from Dallas, is nearly recovered from a broken leg. ... Jones started for the second time in three games after Jonathan Quick missed practice Friday with an illness. ... Anaheims power play went 0 for 3, dropping to 2 for 42 in its last 13 games. ' ' '