Leafs try to stay hot in Winnipeg
Hockey Betting Lines
02/07/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - It certainly seems as though the Toronto Maple Leafs made a collective New Year's resolution of ending the franchise's longest playoff drought ever.
The Leafs look to continue their climb up the Eastern Conference standings this evening and match their longest win streak of the campaign as they battle the offensively-challenged Winnipeg Jets for the final time this regular season.
Toronto has yet to qualify for the playoffs since the 2004-05 lockout, with its six-year absence marking the longest ever for the Original Six franchise. However, the Maple Leafs' current three-game win streak and string of six consecutive contests with a point (5-0-1) has pushed the club into the seventh spot in the East with 62 points, one ahead of the Senators and one back of the sixth-place Devils, who visit the conference-leading Rangers tonight.
After getting consecutive shutouts from goaltender James Reimer to kick off this win streak, the Maple Leafs turned up the offense last night in a 6-3 win over the visiting Oilers. Reimer saw his shutout streak end just 21 seconds into the game, but settled down to make 27 saves and help Toronto improve to 10-4-1 since the start of the calendar year. That includes a season-high four- game win streak from Jan. 3-10.
Toronto has pulled within six points of first-place Boston in the Northeast Division as well, but isn't looking ahead of itself.
"There's not a whole lot of scoreboard watching on our part," said Leafs head coach Ron Wilson about his club, which vaulted over the idle Sens in the standings with the win. "We just try to take care of our own business and worry about ourselves."
Phil Kessel scored twice and added an assist for his second straight three- point game. The forward is tied for second in the NHL with 29 goals and third with 57 points. He reached the 300 career point mark in last night's win, as did captain Dion Phaneuf thanks to a pair of assists.
Clarke MacArthur scored a goal to give him five tallies and four assists over a five-game point streak, while Mikhail Grabovski had two assists and has logged 12 points in his past six contests.
Having relocated from Atlanta to Winnipeg this previous offseason, the Jets have enjoyed their time at home this year as evidenced with a 15-8-2 mark. However, the franchise is just 9-16-4 away from its new home and returns to Winnipeg this evening following a 2-4-0 road trip.
The Jets were shut out twice on the swing, including Sunday's 3-0 defeat in Montreal. Ondrej Pavelec gave up three goals on 23 shots for Winnipeg, which did not score more than two goals in any game on the trip. That left more than a few Jets discouraged, including leading-scorer Blake Wheeler, who picked up a career-high seven penalty minutes versus the Canadiens that included just his second ever fighting major.
"Just overall it's been frustrating. We can't score goals," said Wheeler. "Our goalie was phenomenal again tonight and when you lose 3-0, what can you say? It's not like it was 3-2 where we had a chance to win the game."
The Jets failed to score a power-play goal on the trip, going 0-for-15. Playing a seventh straight game without concussed forward Evander Kane, who leads the club with 18 goals, hasn't helped a Winnipeg team that sits 10th in the East and five points out of first place in the Southeast Division.
Tonight's matchup with the Leafs won't help the Jets break out of their season-high funk on the man advantage. Toronto has gone 15 straight games without allowing a power-play goal, the longest such streak in the league since the Chicago Blackhawks went 19 straight games without giving up a power- play goal in 1969-70.
Toronto is a perfect 22-for-22 over its current run, which is its longest for the franchise since 1940-41.
The Maple Leafs have sandwiched a pair of home wins around a 3-2 setback to the Jets in Winnipeg on Dec. 31. Toronto notched a 4-0 win in the previous meeting on Jan. 5 behind a 24-save effort by Jonas Gustavsson, one of seven shutouts suffered by Winnipeg this year.
Kessel has three goals and two assists in the three meetings.
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - There may not be a more confident goaltender in the league right now than Nashville's Pekka Rinne. Vancouver should have plenty of positive feelings heading into Tuesday night after the way it won its last game. The Preda
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and reigning titlist Daniela Hantuchova posted first-round wins, while second-
seeded Dominika Cibulkova came up a loser Tuesday at the $220,000 Pattaya Open
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UC Davis switches date of 2012 opener >>
Davis, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The UC Davis football team's 2012 season opener
against Azusa Pacific has been changed to Thursday, Aug. 30 at Aggie Stadium.
The game was originally scheduled to be played on Saturday, Sept. 1.
The Aggies are
Elite 8 NCAA Tournament Betting at online sportsbook MySportsbook.com
In what should be an outstanding Saturday of March Madness betting action, the top four teams in the South and West Regions square off in what should be extremely close match-ups. Three of the four teams are coming off extremely close games on Thursday evening, only UCLA won semi comfortably over Pitt 64-55.
Ohio State is coming off their second game in a row where in all reality they should have lost. Of course that doesn’t matter now since the name of the game is “survive and advance” but as the tournament continues, they can’t afford to keep getting down to their opponents early. Kansas also avoided a scare by holding off a scrappy Southern Illinois squad. In the third thrilling game of the evening Memphis pulled off the minor upset (+3.5) despite being the higher seed to Texas A&M.
Although the spreads are fairly small for Saturday’s games, MySportsbook.com continue to bet against the underdogs. Despite OSU’s two scares, 86% of the “betting public” feels the Buckeyes (-1.5) have what it takes to make the Final Four. In fact, so much of the early money is on OSU that the line has already moved from -1 to -1.5. In the second game of the doubleheader, Kansas and their high-powered offense are 2 point favorites as they take on UCLA and their effective defense. About 63% of the early money thus far is once again backing the favorites. If those percentages stay that high, don’t be surprised if this line moves as well. If you like Kansas (-2) you might want to jump on it early.
Memphis vs. Ohio State
Both squads were involved in thrillers on Thursday evening and should come out fired up. OSU can ill afford to get behind early like they did versus their previous two opponents (Xavier, Tennessee). Greg Oden needs to stay out of foul trouble; the Buckeyes are a completely different team when he is on the court. Memphis definitely has the athleticism and length to match-up with OSU. Of Memphis’ five leading minute earners, the shortest of the bunch is 6’5”. Each team has a very effective defense; Memphis surrenders 62.3 PPG whereas the Buckeyes give up only 61 PPG. With those type of numbers, it isn’t surprising that Memphis covered the UNDER almost 69% of the time this season. As a favorite, OSU has covered the UNDER almost 66% of the time over the last three seasons. The major concern for Memphis which is magnifies this time of the year is their brutal foul shooting (62%). This season, OSU is 17-11 ATS versus teams with a winning record and 7-2 ATS in all tournament games. Memphis has been an extremely reliable cover in tournament play in recent years with a 23-8 ATS record over the last three seasons.
UCLA vs. Kansas
In the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader, UCLA will play in a role which they are very unfamiliar with that of the underdog. Only twice this season have they been getting points from the handicappers and both times they covered. Over the last three seasons UCLA is a reliable 23-7 ATS in this unfamiliar role. UCLA has not fared well against Big 12 opponents recently going 1-7 ATS since 1997. Giving up only 59.6 PPG, UCLA will definitely look to do what they do best: keep this game as low scoring as possible. Their defense has been especially tough during the tournament. UCLA opponents have been able to muster up only 48.7 PPG while shooting a combined 34.5% from the field. UCLA definitely has a challenge at hand with a Kansas team that is capable of putting points on the board in bunches. As a team, they average 79 PPG and shoot an impressive 49.6% from the field and 39.4% from beyond the arc. During the tournament Kansas has been “lights out” from the field having shot 56.2%.
With Friday -105 juice on Basketball betting, MySportsbook.com is the place to bet on all of the “March Madness” action. Don’t forget to monitor who the public is backing at MySportsbook.com’s “Betting Trends”. By doing so, you have the best chance of predicting a possible line change, thus getting the best value for your wager.
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Kurt Warner to start, Matt Leinart to watch
Despite the debate that's swirling , Kurt Warner will remain the starting quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals, coach Dennis Green said today. The Arizona Cardinals are the +7 point underdog at online sportsbook MySportsbook.com for this Sunday's game.
Green's comment came in a statement released by the team following an ESPN report that Green decided that rookie Matt Leinart would replace Warner as starter for Sunday's game at Atlanta.
"Generally talking about the starting lineup is not something we do," Green told the AP. "However, given the speculation that was out there we want to make it clear. We're disappointed after last week, but we still expect to be a playoff football team and we fully expect Kurt Warner to be the quarterback that leads us. That has not changed."
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