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02/14/2007 -
If Rick DiPietro accomplishes all that Ed Belfour has, the 15-year deal the New York Islanders made with their young goalie could turn out to be a bargain.
DiPietro turned in another strong performance Tuesday, making 39 saves in the Islanders' 3-2 shootout victory at Toronto. He did it on the same night Belfour tied Hall of Famer Tony Esposito for eighth place on the career shutout list with No. 76 in the Florida Panthers' 1-0 blanking of the Montreal Canadiens.
It took until the 37th game of the 41-year-old Belfour's 19th season to post his first shutout. This one came in Montreal, where Esposito started his career before becoming a star with the Chicago Blackhawks.
``It's definitely an honor to be tied with Tony, one of my heroes,'' said Belfour, who began his career with Chicago in 1988, four years after Esposito retired.
Belfour is in his first year with Florida after stints with Chicago, San Jose, Dallas and Toronto. He has 15 wins and a goals-against average well under 3.00. The Manitoba native shows no signs of slowing down.
It was his first shutout in 86 games, dating to an April 3, 2004 win at Ottawa while playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
``This guy's unbelievable as far as taking care of his body, as far as stretching and understanding his body and knowing what he has to do,'' Panthers coach Jacques Martin said. ``It's nice to see him get some results.''
In other NHL games, it was Boston 3, Edmonton 0; Carolina 2, Los Angeles 1; Tampa Bay 5, Phoenix 3; San Jose 6, St. Louis 5; Colorado 2, Anaheim 0; and Calgary 4, Atlanta 1.
Belfour made a sprawling pad save on Steve Begin midway through the third period and survived a late flurry to make defenseman Jay Bouwmeester's late second-period goal stand up.
Cristobal Huet made 24 saves for the Canadiens, who lost their fourth in a row, but couldn't match Belfour. Montreal is 8-15-1 since its season-high, five-game winning streak, and lost to Florida for the third time in four games.
``It's like walking in quicksand. You take one step forward and three steps back,'' Canadiens coach Guy Carbonneau said. ``You have to work twice as hard to get somewhere. It seems like that's what we're doing right now.''
DiPietro and the Islanders are enjoying some better times.
The 25-year-old netminder, in the first season of his landmark 15-year, $67.5 million deal, anchored the defense, and Viktor Kozlov and Frans Nielsen scored in the shootout to lift the Islanders over the Maple Leafs .
DiPietro stopped 16 shots in the third period while his teammates mustered only one shot on goalie Andrew Raycroft. The game was scoreless between the second period and the tiebreaker, when DiPietro denied Alexei Ponikarovsky and Nik Antropov in the shootout.
That was enough to give the Islanders their first win in Toronto in 12 games (1-10-1) and lift them into a tie with the Maple Leafs for ninth place in the East - two points behind Montreal and the cutoff line in the Eastern Conference playoff race.
``I don't think we've won here in five years, and these points are so important,'' DiPietro said. ``It's a tough race. Toronto is in the same boat as we are. We're trying to fight our way up. There's a lot of teams in front of us.''
Trent Hunter and Miroslav Satan scored in regulation for the Islanders.
Pavel Kubina and Bates Battaglia scored for the Maple Leafs, 11-13-4 at home this season. Only Philadelphia, the NHL's worst team, has fewer home victories with five.
``We had good enough chances to win the hockey game, but Rick made some great saves. Give him credit,'' Toronto captain Mats Sundin said. ``He played a really great game.''Hurricanes 2, Kings 1
At Raleigh, N.C., Scott Walker scored the go-ahead goal in the second period to lead host Carolina past Los Angeles.
Ray Whitney also scored for the Hurricanes, who had lost five of seven. David Tanabe added two assists, and Cam Ward made 21 saves.
Alexander Frolov scored for the Kings, who have lost 13 of 16.Bruins 3, Oilers 0
At Boston, Brandon Bochenski and Marco Sturm scored power-play goals 62 seconds apart in the first period and Tim Thomas stopped 32 shots for the Bruins.
Patrice Bergeron assisted on the first two goals, then left the game in the third period with an unspecified lower body injury. Sturm added an empty-netter with 2:12 left, with an assist from Bochenski.Lightning 5, Coyotes 3
At Tampa, Fla., Vincent Lecavalier had two goals and an assist, and Brad Richards scored a tiebreaking power-play goal early in the third period for the Lightning. Lecavalier has a career-high 37 goals this season.
Richards put the Lightning ahead 4-3 with his 20th goal of the season, reaching the mark in five of his six NHL seasons.
Martin St. Louis had a goal and two assists for the Lightning, who have won 13 of 16. Eric Perrin snapped a 27-game goal-scoring drought.
Michael Zigomanis, Oleg Saprykin and Derek Morris scored for the Coyotes, 4-10 in their past 14 games.Sharks 6, Blues 5
At St. Louis, Joe Thornton and Jonathan Cheechoo each had a goal and three assists to lead the Sharks.
Mike Grier and Patrick Marleau both had a goal and an assist for San Jose, which has won the first two games of its season-high eight-game road trip. Ryane Clowe and Matt Carle also scored for the Sharks.
Bill Guerin had his seventh NHL hat trick for St. Louis and first since March 6, 2003, to reach 25 goals this season.
The Sharks led 5-1 and carried a 6-3 advantage into the third period before holding off the Blues.Avalanche 2, Ducks 0
At Denver, Peter Budaj stopped 39 shots in posting his second shutout of the season and Milan Hejduk had a goal and an assist for Colorado.
Anaheim, which came into the game with the second-best mark in the Western Conference, has lost three straight. The Ducks haven't scored in two contests, a span of 139 minutes, 16 seconds.
Paul Stastny added a goal for the Avalanche, who won for the second time in six games.Flames 4, Thrashers 1
At Calgary, Alberta, Daymond Langkow scored twice and Jarome Iginla added a goal and two assists. Alex Tanguay also scored for Calgary, which moved into first place in the Northwest Division.
Denis Hamel, claimed off waivers from Ottawa on Saturday, scored for Atlanta.
Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
<< Flames 4, Thrashers 1
CALGARY, Alberta (AP) -Daymond Langkow scored twice and Jarome Iginla added a goal and two assists in the Calgary Flames' 4-1 victory over the Atlanta Thrashers on Tuesday night.Alex Tanguay also scored for Calgary, which moved ahead of Vancouver an
<< Thrashers-Flames, Sums
Atlanta 0 1 0-1Calgary 3 1 0-4First Period-1, Calgary, Langkow 23 (Phaneuf, Huselius), 2:59 (pp). 2, Calgary, Iginla 25 (Conroy, Tanguay), 6:19 (pp). 3, Calgary, Langkow 24 (Huselius, Iginla), 13:59 (pp). Penalties-Sim, Atl (goalie interferenc
<< Ducks-Avalanche, Sums
Anaheim 0 0 0-0Colorado 1 1 0-2First Period-1, Colorado, Hejduk 18 (Brunette, Sakic), 17:42 (pp). Penalties-Klee, Col (high-sticking), 2:32; Clark, Col (hooking), 11:24; Anaheim bench, served by Shannon (too many men), 17:02.Second Period-2, Colo
<< Sharks-Blues, Sums
San Jose 3 3 0-6St. Louis 1 2 2-5First Period-1, San Jose, Clowe 13 (Thornton, Cheechoo), :39. 2, San Jose, Carle 6 (Cheechoo, Thornton), 6:51 (pp). 3, St. Louis, Guerin 23 (Backman, Tkachuk), 13:15 (pp). 4, San Jose, Grier 12 (Marleau, Michalek)
Tuesday's College Basketball >>
Buffalo 98, Bowling Green 90, OTNiagara 89, Canisius 88Penn 48, Princeton 35SOUTHCharlotte 80, Louisiana-Lafayette 56E. Kentucky 46, Samford 38Georgia Tech 63, Florida St. 57Jacksonville St. 57, Morehead St. 52Old Dominion 96, Hofstra 82Stetson 88,
Weis testifies in obesity surgery lawsuit >>
BOSTON (AP) - Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis testified Wednesday he had gastric bypass surgery because he was afraid he would die if he didn't lose weight, but life-threatening complications resulted after the procedure.In his malpractice lawsuit, We
NFL COMBINE: Small school stars hoping to make big names for themselves >>
NEW YORK (AP) -Michael Coe wants what Danieal Manning has.Coe, a 6-foot-1, 190-pound cornerback from Alabama State, has looked at the career path of the Chicago Bears' rookie free safety, envisioning what it might be like to jump from a small school
NFL COMBINE: Small-school stars who went on to make it big in NFL >>
Sampling of players from small schools who went on to memorable NFL careers (aactive):Jerry Rice, wr, SF-Oak-Sea (Mississippi Valley State) - 13-time Pro Bowler holds just about every NFL receiving record and is career leader in touchdowns (207).Wal
In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.
Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).
If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).
Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.
New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles
The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)
In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:
There was also the possibility that the final score could land exactly on the spread number (for example, the Pats winning 28-21 when -7), which is called a “push” or “no action” and a refund is then issued to bettors of both teams.
The same game with the same point spread can be considered from the weaker team’s perspective: The Underdog (Philly in the case of our example) is not expected to win the game and online football betting thus receives or “gets” points given by the stronger team. When a game is stated from the underdog’s perspective the team is listed with a plus sign and the number of points they are underdogs by:
Philadelphia Eagles +7 vs. New England Patriots
Keep in mind that Philadelphia +7 and New England -7 is the same point spread on the same game, simply stated differently. The first is from the underdog’s perspective; the later is from the favorite’s.
Not a must, but for some a mathematical approach is insightful. You can determine the ATS winner by either:
Let’s look at the actual result of Super Bowl XXXIX: New England 24 Philadelphia 21
The favorite, New England, won the game but not by more than the point spread they were favored by (7), so the ATS result was a LOSS for Pats bettors.
Looking at it from the underdog’s perspective, Philly did not win the game, but they lost by less than the point spread (7), so the ATS result was a WIN for Eagle bettors.
Mathematically considered, 24 for the favorite Pats minus 7 equals 17, which is less than the 20 the Eagles scored, so the underdog Eagles win the ATS result (or you could figure 20 plus 7 equals 27 for the Eagles, which is more than 24 for the Pats).
Emily’s boyfriend understood the point spread and wagered $100 on the Eagles at +7. The Eagles may not have gotten a Super Bowl ring, but since they won the ATS result Emily’s boyfriend cashed his bet – giving him money to take her out to a nice dinner.
And now hopefully you understand how to read point spreads, putting you one step closer to joining the fun of sports betting.
To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting and World Series odds.
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."
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your bet on football needs.
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