Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Sergei Gonchar played the final two rounds of the Stanley Cup playoffs with a partially torn right medial collateral ligament, a major injury that can sideline an athlete for months. Gonchar, playing through the injury because he wanted to win the Stanley Cup for the first time in an NHL career that began during the 1994-95 season, was injured during a knee-to-knee hit by Washington star Alex Ovechkin in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. Gonchar missed two games, returned for Game 7 of that series and played in the conference finals against Carolina and the Stanley Cup finals against Detroit without missing another game for the Stanley Cup champion Penguins. “Lots of guys were playing with bruises,” Gonchar said Sunday of refusing to be sidelined.

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Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said the jammed left knee that put him on the bench for all but one shift during the second half of Pittsburgh’s 2-1 victory in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals Friday in Detroit isn’t serious. On Sunday, a doctor told Crosby that an MRI exam probably won’t be needed. “In a few weeks, it should be all right,” Crosby said.

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Flyers defenseman Derian Hatcher retired Monday, two weeks after knee replacement surgery in effect ended his 16-year career. The 37-year-old former Flyers captain joined the coaching staff as player development coach. “It sounded like the perfect way to stay in the game and see if I like it,” Hatcher said. “I will be watching the younger players and making sure everything runs smoothly for them. I will be involved with running the rookie camp this summer.”

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Maxime Talbot scored two second-period goals, and the Penguins overcame the loss of captain Sidney Crosby for a short period and a whole lot of history to beat the defending champion Detroit Red Wings 2-1 on Friday night in Game 7 and win the Stanley Cup for the third time. Crosby, just four years after being the No. 1 selection in the draft, became the youngest captain of a champion at 21 years old. He played just one shift after leaving the ice during the second period after taking a hard hit along the boards from Johan Franzen. “It’s unbelievable. It’s the stuff you dream of as a kid. It’s reality now,” Crosby said. “We worked so hard. It’s amazing to see how far we’ve come, and couldn’t feel any better.”

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Ray Emery is getting his second — and maybe last — chance in the NHL. A year after Ottawa released the petulant goaltender, forcing him to turn to a Russian league when no other NHL team would take him, Emery agreed to a one-year contract with the Philadelphia Flyers worth about $1.5 million. General manager Paul Holmgren thinks Emery, 26, has mended his mercurial ways and can again be the player he was when he helped the Senators to the Stanley Cup finals in 2007. “I spent a great deal of time talking with Ray,” Holmgren said Wednesday. “The thing that kept coming back is he’s recognized there was a period in his life when he made some mistakes.” Emery missed practices and clashed with teammates in Ottawa and was charged with multiple speeding violations and a road rage incident. Emery insists he’s learned from the past. “I learned maybe more from those bad experiences than the good times we had there,” he said. “I realize I had a great thing going and lost a lot of people that I enjoyed hanging out with. I want to get back to having those good relationships. I think that’s the reason I’m going to change.”

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It’s not uncommon for tough fighters to be ducked and dodged, but it’s happened so frequently to Chad Dawson that he’s starting to run out of rematches, too. The exciting two-time light heavyweight champion has agreed to a rematch with Glen Johnson this fall, promoter Gary Shaw said Friday.

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Michael Hunter Jr. fought his way back into the USA boxing national championships in a room, not a ring. Hunter, who was disqualified from his bout the day before for using too much gauze on his hands, hired a lawyer to plead his case to an arbitration panel Thursday and won.

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Pittsburgh Penguins forward Petr Sykora could miss Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals with a right foot injury sustained during his first playing time in more than a month. The Penguins did not practice Wednesday, but Sykora was seen leaving Mellon Arena on crutches, with a brace on his right foot and ankle, after he was treated by the team’s medical staff.

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