Crosby powers Pens over Isles to tie for division lead

Hockey Betting Lines

04/08/2010 - Pittsburgh, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Sidney Crosby posted a goal and three assists, as Pittsburgh recorded a spirited 7-3 victory over the New York Islanders in the final regular-season game at Mellon Arena.

Crosby, the 22-year-old Pens captain, is on the cusp of reaching the 50-goal mark for the first time and also eclipsed the 500-point mark for his career. He has recorded four goals and 11 assists in his last six games for 104 total points this season, and took over the NHL goal-scoring lead from Alex Ovechkin by one (49-48).

Bill Guerin tallied twice while Tyler Kennedy added a goal and a helper for the Penguins, who have won four of six and pulled into a tie again for the Atlantic Division lead with New Jersey. The Devils lost to Florida, but hold the tiebreaker after winning all six meetings with Pittsburgh this season.

Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 32 shots for the win.

Matt Moulson, Kyle Okposo and Josh Bailey tallied for the Islanders, who had made a brief but futile charge towards a playoff berth with five wins in their last six games coming in.

Martin Biron started and took the loss after he allowed four goals on 10 shots in the first period. Dwayne Roloson finished the contest by making 22 saves.

Fleury made three successive stops on an Islanders' short-handed break early in the second, but he couldn't stop Bailey's deflection of a Mark Streit shot for a 4-3 game at 6:49.

Guerin was ruled to have made contact with a Crosby slapshot on a Pittsburgh power play with 5:26 to play in the second for a two-goal edge then Kennedy's blast made it 6-3 just over two minutes later.

Guerin tallied once more, at the 1:46 mark of the third period for a four-goal bulge and the home team coasted to victory.

Pittsburgh got off to a hot start after Brooks Orpik rippled the net from the right circle just 23 seconds in, then Alex Goligoski struck from 15 feet out during a power play at 5:01.

Moulson's deflection in the slot pulled the Isles within a goal on a power play at 8:29, but Evgeni Malkin's solo rush down the left wing made it 3-1 for Pittsburgh with 4:45 left in the first.

Okposo's wrister less than two minutes later brought New York back within a goal, but Crosby registered his 49th of the season inside the final minute.

Game Notes

Mellon, once known as the Civic Arena, is the oldest building in the NHL, and has housed the Penguins since their 1967 inception. Pittsburgh will move into Consol Energy Center for next season...Mario Lemieux holds the franchise record with six 50-or-more goal seasons, the last coming in 1996-97...Lemieux also posted six straight 100-point years to begin his career, while Crosby has four in his first five...Pittsburgh has won four of five meetings with the Islanders this season.

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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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