THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25, 2012
NHL
PAGE 5B
Devils force seventh game against Panthers
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEWARK, N.J. — Travis Zajac scored at 5:39 of overtime and the New Jersey Devils avoided elimination and sent yet another Eastern Conference first-round series to a seventh game with a 3-2 victory over the Florida Panthers on Tuesday night.
Steve Bernier and Ilya Kovalchuk also scored and Martin Brodeur made 14 saves for New Jersey, which squandered a two-goal lead and had fans dreading another first-round playoff exit until Zajac scored from the right hand circle.
The shot beat Scott Clemensen to the lower corner and set off a mob scene on the ice.
Clemmensen was outstanding, stopping 39 shots in an emergency start for the injured Jose Theodore. Kris Versteeg and Sean Bergenheim tallied for Florida, which was looking for its first series win since 1996.
Game 7 will be played in Sunrise, Fla., on Thursday.
Two other series in the conference are also headed to Game 7s. Washington will be at second-seeded Boston on Wednesday and Ottawa will be at the top-seeded Rangers on Thursday.
The Panthers had a chance in a scramble in front of Brodeur just before Zajac's goal.
However, Zajac pulled the puck away from the crease and led a rush up ice. Zach Parise took his cross-ice pass and gave the puck to Kovalchuk, who found Zajac skating down the right wing for a shot along the ice into the net
The Devils outshot Florida 42-16 in a game played before a sellout crowd.
Despite being outshot 29-10 in the opening 40 minutes, the Panthers rallied from a 2-0 deficit and entered the third period tied at 2-all.
The remarkable aspect was that the Panthers took only four shots in the second period and tallied on the two of the first three.
Versteeg cut the deficit to 2-1 at 7:05 of the period. Stephen Weiss
centered the puck from along the left sideboards and Versteeg's shot hit off the skate of Devils forward Alexei Ponikarovsky and into the open side of the net. Brodeur never had a chance.
The tying goal came at 12:49 after the referees ignored a slash by Bergenheim that knocked Kovalchuk to the ice. It led to a 4-on-2 rush. Brodeur made the initial stop on a shot from the between the circles by Tyson Strachan, but Bergenheim came late and tucked the rebound into an open net with teammate Marcel Goc hanging on the crossbar.
Kovalchuk gave the Devils a 2-0 lead earlier in the period, slam-dunking a pass from Zaajac into the net with four seconds left on a power play. It was his third goal of the series.
The Devils had a big territorial advantage in the final 10 minutes of the first period and it finally paid off when Bernier beat Clemensen with a bad-angle shot at 16:37 of the period.
New Jersey Devils' Ilya Kovačukh, of Russia, celebrates after scoring a goal against the Florida Panthers. His goal came during the second period of game six of a first-round NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoff series on Tuesday in Newark, N.J.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NBA
Thunder's Cook fills in for Durant late against Sacramento
ASSOCIATED PRESS
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Kevin Durant scored 32 points, reserve Daequan Cook had all 19 of his points in the fourth quarter and the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Sacramento Kings 118-110 on Tuesday night to win their first game since top James Harden took an elbow to the head.
each having one game left.
Durant extended his lead in a tight NBA scoring race with the Los Angeles Lakers' Kobe Bryant despite sitting out the entire fourth quarter in a close game. Durant is averaging 27.97 points per game to Bryant's 27.86 with
Cook filled the scoring void, scoring Oklahoma City's first 14 points of the final period to put the Thunder ahead for the first time since the first quarter.
DeMarcus Cousins, who was allowed to play only after his 13th technical foul was rescinded earlier in the day, led Sacramento with 32 points.
With the Thunder locked into the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference playoffs, coach Scott Brooks held his starters out in the fourth quarter even though it was a four-point game after three.
Cook wiped away that deficit
immediately with a jumper and a 3-pointer, and ably filled Harden's usual role as the big scorer off the bench. Harden averages 16.8 points, best among NBA reserves.
Harden suffered a concussion Sunday when he was elbowed in the back of the head by the Lakers' Metta World Peace, formerly Ron Artest, and didn't pass league-mandated tests that would have allowed him to return and play. The team has him listed as day-to-day and it's unknown if he'll be ready in time for the start of the playoffs this weekend.
The NBA suspended World
Peace seven games for elbowing Harden.
The Kings were without leading scorer Marcus Thornton for the third straight game with a left quad contusion, and reserve Terrence Williams was out sick.
Travis Outlaw moved into the starting lineup and scored a season-high 20 points — only his fourth game in double figures this season. Jason Thompson scored 22, Tyreke Evans had 18 and Isaiah Thomas 11 as all five Sacramento starters hit double figures.
It still wasn't enough down the stretch.
Royal Ivey put Oklahoma City
ahead to stay with a long jumper from the left side with 3 minutes left, and Cook's 3-pointer in transition extended the lead to 114-107 with 44.9 seconds left. Cole Aldrich hit all four of his free throws to close it out.
Sacramento made 18 of its 22 shots (82 percent) in the first quarter to get out to a 40-35 lead after Isaiah Thomas' buzzer-beating 3-pointer. It was the most points allowed by Oklahoma City in any quarter this season.
The Kings followed that by scoring 10 of the first 12 points in the second quarter to build a 50-37 lead following Jason
Thompson's three-point play, and Sacramento hit the half-century mark less than 15 minutes into the game.
Cousins hit a hook shot and a two-handed slam to get the Kings going again after Oklahoma City had closed to 59-57 at halftime, sparking a 10-0 run that pushed the lead back out to 13.
Oklahoma City then scored the next nine points to close the gap to 77-73 after Durant's 3-pointer.