Maple Leafs Sparks Goals Over Nashville

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Mike Ribeiro scored in regulation and Loui Eriksson and Jamie Benn found the back of the net in the shootout for the Stars, who have won three of four since a five-game skid and pulled within two points of the Wild for the eighth spot in the Western Conference.

 

Boyd Gordon also scored shorthanded, Ray Whitney had two assists to stretch his point streak to five straight games (2 goals, 6 assists) and Smith ended with 30 saves to win his career-high 20th game of the campaign. Phoenix was coming off a victory on Saturday over Pacific Division-leading San Jose and has won three of four, wrapping a season-long six-game homestand with a record of 3-2-1.

 

"We were gritty tonight. We found a way to get a win tonight on home ice when it was needed the most," Coyotes head coach Dave Tippett said. "We had a great effort from a lot of our guys tonight and that is going to be key down the stretch here."

 

Six of the past seven games between these two clubs have been decided by one goal and that could give the edge to Dallas. The Stars are 14-6-2 in games decided by the minimum this year, while the Coyotes are 8-9-8.

 

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.

 

"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.

 

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."

 

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.

 

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.

 

Nashville has posted the best record in the league since Dec. 28, going 14-3-0 and outscoring its opponents 55-33 in that span. Saturday's 3-1 triumph over St. Louis put the Predators a point ahead of the Blues for second place in the Central Division and Nashville enters tonight four points behind front-running Detroit for the most in the NHL.

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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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