Moose, Bulldogs tighten North Division Race

Hockey Betting Lines

02/27/2007 - Springfield, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - It may still be cold outside, but its getting hotter in the North, where two points separate the divisions top three teams as the American Hockey Leagues 2006-07 season sees February give way to March.

The Rochester Americans still own the best record in the division at 36-20-1-0 (.640), but have been besieged by call-ups and have fallen two points behind Manitoba for first place. The Amerks are one of two teams in the Western Conference with 200 goals scored this season, but they have been shut out three times during their current four-game losing streak.

Rochester played this past weekend with four of their top five scorers, Clarke MacArthur, Drew Stafford, Michael Ryan and Mark Mancari, on recall to the Buffalo Sabres, and with leading goaltender Craig Anderson up with the Florida Panthers. With their dual affiliation, the Amerks have sent 18 different players to the NHL this season.

Rochesters recent struggles have opened the door for the Manitoba Moose to move atop the North Division with 75 points. The Moose, who have not won a division title since joining the AHL in 2001, rattled off nine straight wins from Feb. 3-23, and are now 22-5-4-2 since losing back-to-back home games to the Americans in early December.

2007 AHL All-Star forward Jason Jaffray continues to lead Manitobas offense, chipping in 16 points (5g, 11a) and a plus-11 rating in 11 games since the birth of his daughter on Feb. 3. Meanwhile, Drew MacIntyre has gone 18 consecutive starts without allowing more than three goals, and is 16-4-0 in his last 20 decisions in the Moose crease.

Hamilton, on an 11-2-1-2 run, kicked off a nine-game road trip by taking three of four points in Grand Rapids over the weekend. The Bulldogs are gunning for their third division title in the last five years, and enter the week tied with Rochester two points behind Manitoba.

Duncan Milroy and Andrei Kostitsyn, both of whom spent time last week with the parent Montreal Canadiens, share the Bulldogs scoring lead with 52 points apiece, while Corey Locke has put up 12 points (5g, 7a) in his last seven games for Hamilton. Jaroslav Halak, still the AHLs leader with a 2.00 goals- against average, made his NHL debut with Montreal on Feb. 18 and promptly won his first three career starts.

With seven weeks remaining in the regular season, Rochester and Hamilton have 16 games each left against North Division opponents, including four meetings with each other. Manitoba only has eight division games left on its schedule, none against the Amerks or Bulldogs.

800 FOR BONVIE ... Wilkes-Barre/Scrantons Dennis Bonvie became the 27th player in American Hockey League history with 800 regular-season games played when he hit the ice for the Penguins game in Binghamton on Friday night.

The 33-year-old native of Antigonish, N.S., is in his 14th AHL season.

Bonvie, Penguins teammate Wade Skolney and the Senators Mike Sgroi, who have combined for more than 6,300 penalty minutes in nearly 1,500 career professional games, each scored a goal in the Pens 5-4 win.

SHOTS FIRED ... There have been 17 penalty shots attempted in the American Hockey League during the month of February, a sharp increase compared to the 20 that were awarded over the seasons first four months combined.

Shooters are having greater success as well; they were 3-for-20 (.150) on attempts prior to the All-Star break, but are 8-for-17 (.471) since.

The Binghamton Senators have been perfect on their seven penalty shots this season, with shooters going 4-for-4 (led by Matt Koalska with two goals) and goaltenders 3-for-3 on the other end.

SQUEAKY CLEAN ... Forty games into his first full AHL season, Grand Rapids forward Jeff Campbell has yet to run into the long arm of the law.

The third-year pro out of Western Michigan University has seven goals, 13 assists and zero penalty minutes for the Griffins this season.

Including a stint in Lowell last year, Campbell has played 47 career AHL games without being assessed a single penalty.

RATS, CANES RENEW ... The Albany River Rats have extended their affiliation agreement with the National Hockey Leagues Carolina Hurricanes for two more seasons, through 2008-09.

On Saturday night, a crowd of 7,806 fans watched the River Rats post a 4-3 shootout win over Portland, the largest crowd at the Times Union Center since Apr. 5, 2003.

It was Albanys 26th victory of the year; four times in five seasons from 2001-06, the Rats won 25 games or fewer.

ETC. ... San Antonio wrapped up its 16-game road trip with a 2-0 win in Rochester last Wednesday, finishing the 28-day trek at 7-8-0-1... Jason LaBarbera is averaging 36 saves per each of his league-leading seven shutouts for Manchester this season... There have been four games played in the AHL this season that finished scoreless after 65 minutes; Dov Grumet-Morris has suffered the shootout loss in two of them... Chicagos Cory Larose has no goals, but 13 assists, in his last 12 games... Providences Dennis Packard went 32 games without a goal before scoring three times in four contests last week... During its current six-game winning streak, Hartford has outscored its opponents, 26-6... Milwaukee has alternated wins and non-wins over its last 14 games (7-5-1-1)... Syracuses eight-game road winless streak (0-5-0-3) and Hamiltons nine-game home points streak (8-0-1-0) both ended in the Crunchs 5-2 win at Copps Coliseum on Friday... AHL graduates Tomas Fleischmann (Washington), Cam Janssen (New Jersey), Frans Nielsen (N.Y. Islanders), Clarke MacArthur (Buffalo), Ladislav Smid (Edmonton), Tom Gilbert (Edmonton), John Zeiler (Los Angeles) and Tim Brent (Anaheim) all scored their first career NHL goals last week... Binghamton has been awarded the 2008 AHL All-Star Classic.

(Courtesy of AHL)

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NFL Football Betting : Odds on NFL Division to Win the Super Bowl

NFL Super Bowl Betting

The AFC South and the NFC East are the favorite divisions to have the next Super Bowl champ among them in the NFL betting odds. But more down to the point, these football odds are in favor of the Indianapolis Colts, by far the strongest team in the AFC South, and the Dallas Cowboys of the NFC East.

Most sports fans would agree that these two teams top the list to win it all before the season even begins. In the BetUS Sportsbook football futures, the Colts are +800 in the odds to win the Super Bowl, while the Cowboys are sitting at +1000 and the Super Bowl XLIV champions New Orleans Saints at +900. In the AFC South, the Colts won the division for five straight years after the 2002 realignment, before the Tennessee Titans won it in 2008. But the Colts came back strong in 2009 to win the division again en route to the Super Bowl. The Cowboys are the favorite to win the NFC East, as well as to advance far into the post season. The Cowboys won the division last season before their horrendous loss in the NFC Divisional playoff to Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings. But the ‘Boys will take that loss humbly and be ready for the playoffs this time around.

The NFC South is also very strong, at +600 in the NFL futures, considering that it is home to the defending Super Bowl champions. However, some predictions have the Atlanta Falcons with possibilities of claiming the divisional title this season in place of the Saints, as no team has won back-to-back division championships since the division realignment took place. Let’s not overlook the AFC North at +500. As TO goes to Cincinnati to join Chad OchoCinco and Adam “Pac-Man” Jones, this team looks to claim the division title again. And it is likely they will do so. The Bengals lost in the AFC Wild Card spot in a hard-fought battle against the New York Jets last season. Lest not forget the Pittsburgh Steelers, the XLII Super Bowl Champions… All these teams present interesting odds and matchups for the upcoming season, but the safest and surest bet seems to be with the Colts in the AFC South and the Cowboys in the NFC East. Play this weekly NFL Football Contestto see if you can win.

To visit this sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your NFL football betting needs.

Numerous College Basketball teams take final big step to March Madness betting

So, what turned on the lock spigot? Well, after what felt like weeks of teams treading water and slipping back into the bubble muck, a bunch of them finally decided to say "to heck with parity" and won games that should put them into the Big Dance.

Disagree with some of these? Then here's the challenge. Take all of the "should be ins" and make a legit case that each should be ahead of the team that's a lock. Then find 10 more teams that also should be placed in the bracket ahead of that lock team. Not so easy, is it?

If you want more evidence that these locks should be good to go, check out what our research department dug up. Since the NCAA Tournament went to 64 teams in 1985, only six teams from a "big six" conference have had a record of 10-6 or better in conference play and not been selected: Colorado (2004) and Nebraska (1999) from the Big 12, Boston College and Seton Hall (both 2003) from the Big East, Indiana (2005) from the Big Ten and UCLA, which somehow went 12-6 in the Pac-10 in 1988 and still missed out. (Note: Five teams went 11-7 and didn't get in, the latest being last season's Stanford team, which had a brutal nonconference run.)

Yes, 10 conference wins doesn't always mean what it used to because of unbalanced schedules, but this season, it should be plenty good in all but the extreme cases (see: Iowa).

In a way, this is a welcome development, because this is a bubble watch, not a lock watch. We can finally be done with teams like Maryland and Virginia Tech and start really bearing down on at-large battles such as Syracuse-West Virginia and Appalachian State-Georgia Tech.

Interestingly, all the shifting of teams into lock status appears to be more administrative than impactful. The number of remaining available at-larges didn't change one iota. The only difference is that teams on the bubble now have a clearer idea of which team(s) they are competing with for those precious bids.

The Bubble Breakdown
CONFERENCE LOCKS SHOULD BE INS AT-LARGES TAKEN
(assuming no auto bid outlier)
ACC Betting Odds 6 0 5
Big East Betting Odds 5 0 4
Big Ten Betting Odds 2 2 3
Big 12 Betting Odds 3 0 2
Pac-10 Betting Odds 5 1 5
SEC Betting Odds 4 0 3
MVC Betting Odds 1 1 1
MWC Betting Odds 2 1 2
TOTAL 28 5 25

As always, I've tried to be as inclusive as possible while only including teams that would have a reasonable chance of at least being discussed if this were Selection Sunday. If your team's not on here, there's probably a good reason (or three) -- start with the RPI and SOS numbers and work your way down.

(Please remember, per selection committee criteria, that records displayed are Division I only. Next update: Feb. 28)

If you have a legitimate grievance, or just like talking bubble, send an e-mail. Polite ones with fact-based arguments have a much better chance of receiving a response. I apologize in advance if I can't get back to all of you.

Atlantic Coast Conference

Work left to do: Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech

The ACC moves to six locks as BC, Va Tech and Virginia all got their 10th ACC wins, which should be more than enough this season, and Maryland rallied past North Carolina to get the final piece the Terps needed. After that? It could end there unless FSU, Ga Tech or Clemson picks things up in a hurry.

 

Work left to do:

Clemson [19-9 (5-9), RPI: 41, SOS: 42] The Tigers are closer to locking up the collapse of the year award (in a good battle with OK State) than they are to grabbing an at-large. Clemson's been very competitive, but there's no really positive way you can spin nine losses in 11 games. They now cannot get to .500 in ACC play and still must head to Virginia Tech in the season finale (after hosting Miami). Unless the Tigers win both and/or do some serious work in the ACC tourney, they very well could be left out. There are no great nonconference wins, but ODU, App State, Miss. State, South Carolina and Georgia are all respectable W's.

Florida State [18-11 (6-9), RPI: 48, SOS: 14] The Noles got thrashed at Maryland to run their losing streak to five, but then pounded NC State at home to set the table for what likely is an elimination game at Miami. You can at least make a case for the Seminoles at 7-9 in ACC play (and some work in the ACC tourney), but 6-10 is not going to cut it. Wins at Duke and over Florida will resonate, but the computer numbers remain questionable. Beyond Florida, FSU thrashed bubble buddy Providence, but there's not a ton beyond those two games that will help. They didn't show well in big-time opportunities against Pitt and Wisconsin (before the Florida win).

Georgia Tech [18-10 (6-8), RPI: 51, SOS: 46] The Jackets beat Wake on Wednesday but couldn't get it done at UVa on Saturday, which could be a crucial loss with UNC and BC (both at home) remaining and 8-8 almost a certain need for at-large consideration. A nonconference win over Memphis helps, but the RPI and SOS are not at-large quality right now; if you combine those with a sub-.500 ACC mark, that could spell NIT for GT.

For more College Basketball betting lines go to MySportsbook.com

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