PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Penguins center Jordan Staal is skating for the first time since last season.
Staal underwent surgery during a second-round playoff series against the Montreal Canadiens to repair a sliced tendon in his right foot. He returned late in the series but later developed infections that required treatment for several months.
Staal couldn’t work out or train because of the infections, and he missed all of training camp last month. He resumed skating this week, but the Penguins don’t know when he can resume playing.
• New Jersey Devils forward Brian Rolston will be out four to six weeks after he undergoes surgery today to repair a sports hernia.
• Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson has been suspended for two games for delivering an illegal hit from behind Monday on the Buffalo Sabres’ Jason Pominville. Hjalmarsson will forfeit $37,634.40 in salary.
Pettigrew overdosed on meds
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Former Olympic sprinter Antonio Pettigrew, who admitted to doping and was stripped of a gold medal, committed suicide by overdosing on a drug common to sleeping pills, according to an autopsy report. Pettigrew, 42, was found dead in the back seat of his locked car in August.
An autopsy report released by the state medical examiner’s office said the cause of death was diphenhydramine toxicity. Another report rules the case a suicide and the likely toxic agent as the sleep aid Unisom.
Pettigrew was part of the 1,600- meter U.S. relay team that won the gold medal in the Sydney Olympics in 2000. But the International Olympic Committee stripped the team of the medals two years ago after Pettigrew admitted doping.
Transgender woman sues LPGA
SAN FRANCISCO — Lana Lawless, a former police officer who underwent a sex change operation five years ago, is challenging the LPGA ban on transgender players.
She filed a federal lawsuit in San Francisco federal court claiming the LPGA’s “female at birth” requirement for competitors violates a California civil rights law.
Lawless, 57, is seeking to prevent the LPGA from holding tournaments in the state until the organization changes its policy to admit transgender players. She is also seeking unspecified damages.
“I am, in all respects, legally and physically, female,” Lawless said. “The state of California recognizes me as such and the LPGA should not be permitted to come into California and blatantly violate my rights.”
WADA chief: Case may surprise
MONTREAL — David Howman, the head of the World Anti-Doping Agency, said he wouldn’t be surprised if some BALCO-like revelations come out of the investigation into cycling that has seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong as its apparent focus.
Howman said he suspects “some information will come out of the current inquiries that will be equally as significant as BALCO.”
Howman wouldn’t get into specifics of what he thought might come out of the case being investigated by U.S. prosecutors in Los Angeles, but said WADA has agreed to cooperate in passing along any information it has.
Denver Post wire services
