SAPPORO, Japan -- Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu topped the 300-point mark to win the NHK Trophy on Saturday and qualify for the figure skating Grand Prix Final.Hanyu landed three quadruple jumps to finish with 301.47 points, the highest score on the GP circuit this season.Hanyu, who was second behind Patrick Chan at Skate Canada last month, secured a berth at the Dec. 8-11 Grand Prix Final next month in Marseille, France.Im actually very relieved that I can advance to the Grand Prix Final, Hanyu said. I was able to land the (quad) loop cleanly for the first time in a competition.Nathan Chen of the United States finished second with 268.91 points and also advanced. Keiji Tanaka was third with 248.44.Russias Anna Pogorilaya won the womens singles, with Satoko Miyahara taking second place. Pogorilayas compatriot Maria Sotskova came in third.Pogorilaya retained her lead from the short program and clinched a spot in the final with a solid free skate. Her winning total was 210.86.The victory was the second on the GP tour this season for Pogorilaya. She also won the Cup of Russia in early November.I believe that overall I skated very well today, Pogorilaya said. I made some small mistakes. Im generally very happy.Pogorilaya did receive an edge call on her second jump, a triple flip, but still won in decisive fashion.The calls on edges have become much stricter since last year, Pogorilaya said. I have talked to my coach about this and we are focusing on it.Two-time world champions Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford of Canada won the pairs event.Duhamel and Radford, who were in second place after Fridays short program, finished with a combined total of 205.56 points to add to their win at Skate Canada.As with the short program, there were some strong elements and some unfortunate mistakes, Radford said. My body got tight and tired at the end of the program and I just had a slight problem with that last lift.Peng Cheng and Yang Jin of China were second with 196.87 points, and Wang Xuehan and Wang Lei, also of China, were third with 185.32.Peng and Yang also qualified for the GP Final with their second-placed finish.The other pairs to qualify for the final are: Aliona Savchenko and Bruno Massot of Germany; Xiaoyu Yu and Hao Zhang of China;Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov of Russia; and Julianne Seguin and Charlie Bilodeau of Canada.The NHK Trophy is the sixth and final event in the International Skating Unions Grand Prix series.Salomon Sale Canada . Kuznetsov, who was selected by the Capitals in the first round of the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, has been playing for his hometown team Chelyabinsk Traktor of the KHL. Salomon Shoes Canada Online . John Lucas, signed as a mentor for rookie Trey Burke, showed he can score if required, scoring 12 points of his 16 points in the second quarter as Utah built an 18-point lead. http://www.salomonsalecanada.com/ . The third-ranked Ivanovic, who won the event in 2008 and 10, served five aces and broke Wickmayer, also a former winner in 2009, five times. "The result looked easier than it really was," Ivanovic said. Salomon Shoes Outlet Canada . Blackwood, 28, has played the last three seasons in the San Diego Padres system, including the past two summers with Class AA San Antonio of the Texas League. Salomon Cheap Shoes . Peter Holland and Brad Staubitz were sent to Toronto on Saturday as the Maple Leafs traded defenceman Jesse Blacker and draft picks to the Anaheim Ducks.Longtime Washington Capitals general manager George McPhee has become the first general manager of the NHLs expansion franchise in Las Vegas.After an exhaustive process that included interviews with as many as seven candidates, owner Bill Foley -- with the help of adviser Murray Craven, a longtime NHL player and close associate of Foleys -- opted to go with McPhee. He was announced as team GM at a news conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday afternoon.The Las Vegas team, as yet unnamed, was awarded the NHLs 31st franchise in June, shortly before the leagues annual awards ceremony held in Las Vegas.Our mission here is clear: Were going to build an organization and a team that people in Nevada and Las Vegas will be proud of, and were going to do it quickly, and were aiming at the Stanley Cup, McPhee said Wednesday. Its that simple.Prior to the expansion announcement, Foley had said in an interview that hiring the right GM was a crucial step to building a team that can be competitive early in the process. Although there were a number of current assistant general managers or top player personnel executives considered for the job, McPhees experience was a key factor in his earning the post, those close to the process said.We all want to win, and hes going to win for us, but I like to have people that I really get along with and that I can communicate with, Foley said of McPhee. We had great candidates; they were all good. I just felt there was a little something extra with George.Among those also considered for the post were associate?Pittsburgh Penguins?GM Jason Botterill, assistant?Tampa Bay Lightning?GM Julien BriseBois, and Paul Fenton, who holds a similar position in?Nashville. The Las Vegas team also asked for permission to speak to former Florida GM Dale Tallon, who recently moved into a?more senior position with the?Panthers, but its believed the two sides did not speak about the job.McPhee, a 58-year-old native of Guelph, Ontario, was most recently an adviser to New York Islanders GM Garth Snow.?One of McPhees top priorities will be to build a scouting staff, a source close to the process said.Many NHL scouts have a window in their contracts that would allow them to seek other employment opportunities, and it will be key for the Las Vegas franchise to move quickly to assemble a top-notch scouting staff for the coming season.The Las Vegas franchise will begin play in 2017-18. In advance of its first season, the team will draft players from the current 30 teams in an expansion draft that will be held next June, shortly before the annual entry draft.Each NHL franchise can expect to lose one player in the draft, and it will be up to McPhee and his staff to assess which players might be made available to them, as well as any potential deals that could be made in advance of the expansion draft.McPhee said tearing down and rebuilding a team can be negative fun and called taking over a brand-new team a phenomenal opportunity.Here you come in and its a clean slate and you get to pick everyone in your organization, McPhee said. This is what every GM wants to experience at some point in his career, to be abble to start with a new franchise.ddddddddddddMcPhee began his NHL management career with Vancouver?and was part of a Canucks team that advanced to the 1994 Stanley Cup finals.He was named GM of the Capitals in 1997 and guided the team to its first and only trip to the Stanley Cup finals the following spring, when the Capitals were swept by the Detroit Red Wings.McPhee was forced by ownership to sell off the teams high-priced players during the 2003-04 season. He then rebuilt the team behind homegrown stars, such as?Alexander Ovechkin?and Nicklas Backstrom,?a process that no doubt was a factor in his hiring for the Las Vegas position.He took Washington from being a team that was scrambling and sort of turned it around, so I think that experience will be a big plus, said Doug MacLean, who was the?Columbus Blue Jackets GM when they entered the league in 2000. I think its a real good fit.Under McPhee, the Capitals became a regular-season titan, winning seven Southeast Division championships and a Presidents Trophy as the NHLs top regular-season team in 2009-10.Apart from the obvious selections of players such as Ovechkin, McPhee was also responsible for drafting and developing key Capitals personnel, including defending Vezina Trophy winner Braden Holtby (drafted 93rd overall in 2008), highly skilled forward?Evgeny Kuznetsov (picked 26th overall in 2010) and promising young netminder Philipp Grubauer (selected 112th overall in 2010).Although the Capitals could not replicate their significant regular-season success in the playoffs during McPhees tenure -- ultimately leading to his dismissal in the spring of 2014 -- the Capitals under his watch became one of the most vibrant hockey markets in the United States.In a short period of time after the 2004-05 lockout, fans began flooding to the Verizon Center in Washington to support the Capitals, and they continue to do so to this day.I think Ill be hopefully even better the second time around, McPhee said. There are lots of GMs in this business that have done a good job in one place and gone to the next place and won Cups. Id like to be one of those guys.For all his talk about wanting to win right away, McPhee has shown restraint and patience as a GM. A title is his goal, but first its about putting a team on the ice that will thrill the 15,000-plus fans who signed up for season tickets to make the NHL in Las Vegas happen.The whole thing is a process, McPhee said. Well play a brand of hockey that people will like. Ive never enjoyed that sit-back style of hockey. I like a team thats attacking all the time, pressuring pucks all over the ice. I love the way Pittsburgh played this year, and they won the Stanley Cup. Well be doing the same sorts of things.McPhee played for four years at Bowling Green State University and won the Hobey Baker Award as the top collegiate player in 1981-82. He went on to play 115 NHL games as a forward, all but one with the New York Rangers.Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.? ' ' '