Sharks, Stars renew hostilities in San Jose
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02/02/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The San Jose Sharks turned in an impressive performance in their first game following the All-Star break and the Pacific Division leaders will aim for a third straight win tonight when they host the rival Dallas Stars at HP Pavilion.
The Sharks, who hold a two-point edge over Los Angeles for the top spot in the Pacific, halted a three-game skid by posting a 1-0 win in Calgary on Jan. 24. San Jose posted another shutout in its first game after the break, slamming visiting Columbus by a 6-0 score on Tuesday.
Antti Niemi recorded both shutouts for the Sharks, giving him four blankings on the season. Niemi is expected to get the start tonight and the Finnish backstop enters the game with a shutout streak of 124 minutes, 17 seconds. No Sharks goaltender has ever posted three straight shutouts.
The Sharks had five players post multi-point games Tuesday against the Blue Jackets with captain Joe Thornton leading the way with two goals and an assist. Niemi made 30 saves for the 17th shutout of his career.
Joe Pavelski, Jamie McGinn and Michal Handzus all had a goal and an assist for the Sharks and Logan Couture added two helpers. Patrick Marleau also scored in the win, which improved San Jose's home record this season to 16-8-2.
"I'm glad we played an emotional game," said Sharks coach Todd McLellan after watching the teams combine for 19 penalties. "That's a big thing. I think we did a good job on sticking together."
Sharks forward Ryane Clowe (facial fracture) and defenseman Jason Demers (lower body) are questionable for tonight. Clowe has missed the last six games, while Demers has so far only missed Tuesday's game with a charley horse.
Dallas started its post-All-Star schedule off with a bang on Wednesday, as the Stars slammed the Ducks, 6-2, in Anaheim. It was the second straight win for the Stars after a five-game skid and they enter tonight trailing Minnesota by one point for the final playoff seed in the West. The Wild also play tonight in Colorado.
Michael Ryder and Jamie Benn each had a goal and two assists to lead Dallas to the rout in Anaheim. Stephane Robidas, Eric Nystrom, Vernon Fiddler and Sheldon Souray each scored for the Stars, who are trailing San Jose by eight points for the Pacific lead..
"I think we were thinking more about offense tonight," said Benn. "We got some timely goals there in the first period and things started rolling from there. It was nice to have an output like that."
Kari Lehtonen turned aside 33 shots in the win and is now 18-11-1 on the season. The Finnish backstop is expected to get a rest tonight in favor of rookie goaltender Richard Bachman.
Dallas is 12-12-0 as the visiting team this year and will complete a brief two-game trip tonight. The Stars will play next on Saturday, when they host the Wild in Big D.
San Jose is 2-0 against the Stars this year and has won four straight in the series. The Sharks have outscored Dallas by a combined 11-2 margin in winning the last two encounters in Silicon Valley.
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NCAA Football Betting : USC's reward: Top spot in Top 25NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.
No. 1 always seems to fit USC.
Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.
Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.
Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.
"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."
Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.
"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."
The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.
"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."
Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.
"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"
USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.
"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."
While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.
As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.
But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.
Get the latest 2009 BCS Championship odds at MySportsbook.com.
The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.
The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.
The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.
No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.
Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.
Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.
Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.
The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.
South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.
The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.
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