Although it remained a mystery who the Kings’ starting goaltender would be on opening night next season, the team announced that it had made yet another tweak to the coaching staff that will be guiding its goalies.

Mike Buckley, formerly of the Pittsburgh Penguins, was named goaltending coach. He assumed the role of Bill Ranford, who held that title for 17 years before ascending to his newly created position of Director of Goaltending.

This reorganization tracks with the addition of North American goalie scout Matt Millar as well as some overtures the Kings have made to deepen their once-neglected talent pool between the pipes. When the recently departed Jonathan Quick arrived at the top level of the organization, he was part of a robust competition in goal. But over the course of his tenure as the starter, the Kings only invested one selection in the first two rounds into a goalie, Christopher Gibson (2011), who never played a game for them.

Last season, not only did the Kings make a trade under some duress for a veteran goaltender, playoff starter Joonas Korpisalo, but they also acquired a coveted goalie prospect in the University of Michigan’s Erik Portillo. Buckley will soon work directly with Portillo, much as he oversaw the development of Matt Murray in Pittsburgh.

Buckley, 46, had a similar progression to Ranford’s. He served eight years as goalie coach before being promoted to a supervisory role. But the most vital parallel is that Buckley, like Ranford, was part of a coaching staff that won two Stanley Cups, with Ranford’s coming in 2012 and 2014, just before Buckley won back-to-back rings in 2016 and 2017 with Pittsburgh.

— Andrew Knoll

Vikings release star running back Cook

The Minnesota Vikings are parting ways with star running back Dalvin Cook for salary cap savings after his fourth consecutive season surpassing the 1,000-yard rushing mark.

The team announced the move Friday, a day after Cook was informed he was being released, a person familiar with the team’s decision told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Cook, in just six years with the Vikings, reached third on the franchise all-time rushing list with 5,993 yards. He’s fifth in rushing attempts (1,282) and fourth in rushing touchdowns (47).

Cook was scheduled to count more than $14.1 million against Minnesota’s salary cap, which would have been the third-highest figure for a running back in the league behind Derrick Henry of the Tennessee Titans and Nick Chubb of the Clevelan Browns. Cutting him chopped $9 million off the team’s cap charges for this year.

Oregon has historic comeback victory

Oregon pulled off the biggest comeback in the history of super regionals to move within a win of reaching the College World Series for the first time in 69 years, and Duke edged closer to its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament’s final eight in 62 years.

No. 2 national seed Florida and TCU also won their super regional openers Friday and are one victory away from clinching spots in the CWS beginning next week in Omaha, Nebraska.

Since the tournament went to its current format in 1999, the winner of a super regional opener advanced to the CWS 78% of the time (144 of 182).

Drew Conley hit a walk-off single to right in the ninth inning for Oregon, which erased an 8-0, third-inning deficit and beat tournament darling Oral Roberts 9-8. Before Friday, teams that trailed by eight runs or more in a super regional game were 0-96.

This wasn’t even the Ducks’ biggest comeback of the season. They trailed Arizona 10-0 after two innings on April 1 and rallied to win 13-11. Oregon won its 10th straight game and ended Oral Roberts’ 21-game streak, which had been the longest in the country.

Oregon will head to the CWS for the first time since 1954 if it can beat the Golden Eagles again today.

Oral Roberts was a No. 4 regional seed as the automatic qualifier from the Summit League, which ranked 28th out of 30 conferences in RPI. The Eagles won three straight in Stillwater, Okla., last week. Now they must beat Oregon twice to become the lowest seed to reach the CWS since Stony Brook in 2012.

The Blue Devils opened their best-of-three super regional with a 5-4 win at No. 7 national seed Virginia. Florida defeated South Carolina 5-4 in Gainesville and TCU beat No. 14 Indiana State 4-1 in Fort Worth, Texas.

Virginia had entered Friday 35-4 at home, but two of those losses were to Duke in an Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season series.

Duke went ahead 5-4 in the eighth inning and secured the win when left fielder Tyler Albright caught Jake Gelof’s deep fly to the wall to end the game. It was the first time in 46 games that Virginia had lost when tied or leading after the sixth inning.

Duke’s only CWS appearances were in 1952, 1953 and 1961. This is the Blue Devils’ third super regional since 2018. Duke won its 2019 opener against Vanderbilt but lost the next two games.

Florida got homers from Josh Rivera, BT Riopelle and Tyler Shelnut in its 5-4 win. Brandon Neely got the final out after Will McGillis homered to pull the Gamecocks within a run in the ninth.

Kenya’s Kipyegon sets world record in 1,500

Faith Kipyegon set a world record in the 5,000 meters on Friday, a week after becoming the fastest woman ever over 1,500 meters.

The two-time Olympic and world 1,500-meter champion set the world record in the women’s 5,000 in just her third elite race over the distance when she won at the Diamond League meet in Paris in 14 minutes, 5.20 seconds.

Last week at the Golden Gala meet in Florence, the 29-year-old Kenyan runner lowered the world record in the 1,500 to 3:49.11.

NCAA champ UConn adds transfer Spencer

National champion UConn added some shooting depth to its roster, announcing the signing of former Rutgers guard Cam Spencer from the transfer portal.

Spencer, who graduated last month with a year of eligibility remaining, averaged 13.2 points in his only season in New Jersey. The 6-foot-4 guard shot 44.4% from the floor.