Canes clobber Lightning for season sweep

Hockey Betting Lines

03/07/2009 - Tampa, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Eric Staal had four goals and two assists as the Carolina Hurricanes dominated the Tampa Bay Lightning in a 9-3 win at St. Pete Times Forum.

Tuomo Ruutu had two goals and three assists while Erik Cole added four assists for the Hurricanes, who have won four of their last five games. Cam Ward made 22 saves in the win.

The win vaults Carolina into the seventh spot in the Eastern Conference, one point ahead of the idle Rangers and Penguins.

Vincent Lecavalier and Ryan Malone each had a goal and an assist for the Lightning, who have dropped three straight and nine of 11 overall. Mike McKenna and Karri Ramo each played in net, with McKenna giving up three goals on 15 shots and Ramo allowing six goals on 22 shots in relief.

Staal notched his first goal of the game while shorthanded when he wristed home a Rod Brind'Amour pass just 7:01 in and added his second goal at the 9:40 mark of the first when he found himself wide open in the slot and wristed the puck into the right corner of the net.

Joni Pitkanen made a nifty move to get clear of a defender along the right boards and sent the puck back to Anton Babchuk, who blasted a shot that went off a defender and snuck into the net at the 10:09 mark.

Tampa got one past Ward at the 12:43 mark of the first as Steven Stamkos sent a pass from the left point to the low right side where Martin St. Louis one- timed it into the net.

Carolina turned the game into a rout in the second period as the team lit the lamp six times in the frame.

Joe Corvo got the first goal of the period at the 2:41 mark and Brind'Amour added a power-play score a little over a minute later.

Ruutu got his first goal of the game on the power-play at the 6:03 mark and Staal completed his seventh career hat trick at the 12:48 mark when he jammed the puck in from the right side of the net.

Staal notched the first four-goal game of his career at the 16:45 mark of the second on a tip in of a Ruutu shot and Ruutu completed the scoring in the frame with 27 seconds left on a one-timer.

Tampa got goals from Lecavalier at the 3:30 mark of the third and another from Malone at the 9:12 mark to account for the final score.

Game Notes

Carolina hosts the New York Rangers on Monday...Tampa plays in Ottawa on Wednesday...Staal's second goal was his 30th of the season, marking his fourth straight campaign of at least 30 goals...Tampa's Vinny Prospal had two assists in the game, giving him 400 in his career...It was the most goals Carolina scored this season and the most Tampa Bay has given up this season...Carolina won all six games against Tampa Bay this season with one coming in overtime and another in the shootout. The Hurricanes have won nine of the last 10 against Tampa Bay overall.

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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

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