THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, APRIL 16, 2012
PAGE 7
NHL
Flyers rally from behind to sweep third win
ASSOCIATED PRESS
PHILADELPHIA— Fists were flying faster than shots on goal. Sidney Crosby and Claude Giroux even became knotted in the pushing, pulling and shoving, a pair of superstars willing to mix it up to prove which team was the baddest on the ice and the scoreboard.
The Penguins and Flyers talked trash, laid the smack down, and played one wildly entertaining game. The result was still the same. The Flyers rallied from another early deficit for a decisive Game 3 victory that placed them on the brink of an improbable sweep.
"Our goal is to finish it right away," Briere said.
Danny Briere, Matt Read and Max Talbot each scored two goals to lead Philadelphia to an 8-4 victory over Pittsburgh on Sunday in a fight-filled game in the Eastern Conference quarterfinal.
The goals might be hard to find on a highlight reel. This one was all about the brawls more suitable for a UFC card. Three players were tossed in the first period. There was a rare fight between superstars when Crosby squared off against Giroux.
No one got the better end of that scrap. But by the end, Flyers fans serenaded the Penguins with booming chants of "You can't beat us!"
"All three games were kind of weird games," Giroux said. "I guess I like weird games because we always finish by winning."
Giroux and Wayne Simmonds also scored to help the Flyers take a 3-0 lead in the combustible best-of-seven series. Game 4 is Wednesday night in Philadelphia. The Flyers scored 20 goals in the first three games.
Jordan Staal and James Neal
scored twice for a Penguins team pushed to the limit by its hated, intrastate rival. Marc-Andre Fleury was benched after allowing six goals in two periods. He has allowed a whopping 17 goals in the first three games.
Philadelphia Fliers won its third game in a best of seven series against the Pittsburgh Penguins. If the Fliers win the next game they will advance to the Easter Conference semifinals.
Coach Dan Bylsma said Fleury would start, "the next four games."
Hard to imagine at this rate, especially with NHL scoring leader Evgeni Malkin (109 points) yet to score a goal for the Penguins.
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The Flyers played a postseason video that billed their run as the "Fight to the Cup." They never expected a first period that would have left those old Broad Street Bullies smiling.
Each team had their top defenseman — Pittsburgh's Kris Letang and Philadelphia's Kimmo Timonen — tossed. So was Penguins forward Arron Asham.
But the scene ripped straight out of the pages of Ripley's came when Giroux and Crosby went at it against the backboard.
penalized for roughing.
"In the end, that's really playoff hockey," Flyers coach Peter Laviolette said. "A couple of the best players in the world dropping the gloves going at it. Would I rather have G keep his gloves on? Sure. But when he's fighting Sidney Crosby, that's playoff hockey. That's this series."
While the 20,092 fans dressed in their matching Hulk Hogan-inspired orange T-shirts roared, Timonen and Letang exchanged shots, and Voracek and Pittsburgh's Steve Sullivan each were
Crosby ignited the scrum when he twice jabbed goalie Ilya Bryzgalov's glove against the ice. Giroux, third in the NHL in points this season, shoved Crosby from behind. Crosby, clearly not caring about his history of concussions, retaliated by shoving Giroux's head against the glass.
Timonen and Letang were both hit with 5 minutes for fighting and were ejected because they were assessed a major penalty after the original fight had started.
Crosby insisted the Penguins weren't getting rattled.
"There's more than one team getting in those things," he said. "You can make a story all you want about us getting frustrated. They're doing the same things we are. It's intense."
The on-ice violence was just warming up.
Flyers forward Brayden Schenn rammed Paul Martin into the boards, turned around and was crosschecked in the upper body by Asham. Asham jumped a defenseless Schenn and connected with a vicious right to earn the match penalty — a penalty imposed on a player who deliberately attempts to injure or who deliberately injures an opponent in any manner. Asham could get suspended for the punch.
As the game wound down, Crosby yanked the back of Scott Hartnell's jersey and the fireworks went off again. Simmonds, Neal and Pittsburgh's Craig Adams also were socked with penalties.
The slugfest on the ice overshadowed the one on the scoreboard.
Staal scored only 3:52 into the game to give the Penguins the first goal for the third straight game. It marked the 13th time out of the last 15 games the Flyers have trailed 1-0. At that point, the Flyers had been outscored 7-1 in the first period in this series.
The Flyers rallied from a 3-0 hole in Game 1, and deficits of 2-0 and 3-1 in Game 2.
They did it again. Talbot tapped a rebound toward Fleury that the Penguins goalie tried to stab at with his glove. The puck trickled
by for the tying goal.
Briere scored consecutive goals off a 5-on-3 power play and a one-timer to leave Fleury reeling.
"I thought the first two games in Pittsburgh were crazy," he said. "This one was even wilder."
Neal scored the first of his two goals to make it 3-2. Read ended the period when he snagged the puck behind the net, skated around and buried it for a 4-2 lead.
Crosby and Bryzgalov jawed at each other as the teams skated toward the locker room.
Philadelphia's lead stood even as the 108-point Penguins attacked with their offense instead of their fists in the second period.
Neal and Read swapped goals to open the second. Steal knocked in a rebound to help the Penguins close to 5-4.
Simmonds, though, took a perfect entry pass from Braydon Coburn and backhanded in the fast-break attempt for the insurance goal. That was their third power-play goal and the Flyers also had a short-handed score.
The Penguins were assessed 46 penalty minutes, and the Flyers 34. through the first two periods.
"I don't like them, because I don't like any guy on their team," Crosby said.
Flury, having a series to forget, was replaced by Brent Johnson to open the third. New goalie, same result. Giroux scored 27 seconds into the third on Philadelphia's first shot of the period.
The scoring continued and so did the hard hits. Neal flattened Game 2 star Sean Couturier in the waning minutes and sent the Flyers rookie center to the locker
room. Players from both teams
- including Schenn and Crosby
— had to be separated during a melee along the boards. Neal appeared to target Giroux's head in the third, though the Flyers star ducked and landed softly on the ice.
"We saw Neal going after Sean's head and Claude's head," Briere said. "Obviously, he had a plan in mind."
It's a plan Bylsma wants to avoid.
"The way the game was called, there was a lot of extracurricular activity during and after the plays," he said. "That's an area of the game we want to stay away from. We don't want to be involved in those situations against this team."
MLB
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Jeter, Nova lead Yankees in victory over Angels Sunday
NEW YORK — Derek Jeter hit a three-run homer to extend his fast start and Ivan Nova won his 14th straight decision, leading the New York Yankees to an 11-5 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Sunday night.
Raul Ibanez added a titanic homer
and Jeter also doubled during a four-run rally to help the Yankees take two of three in an early series between high-priced teams expected to challenge for the American League pennant.
The prime-time crowd for a nationally televised game included Tim Tebow and Dwyane Wade, who sat side by side wearing Yankees caps in
the third row next to the Los Angeles dugout. The new backup quarterback for the New York Jets, Tebow was mostly booed when he was shown on the giant video board — but he cracked a smile anyway.
New York spoiled the season debut of Jerome Williams, chased in the third inning, while sending Albert Pujols and the Angels to their
sixth defeat in eight games. The $240 million slugger went 1 for 5 with an RBI single in the seventh that cut it to 8-5, but David Robertson retired Mark Trumbo on a bases-loaded fly to end the iming.
Pujols is still looking for his first home run with his new team. He's gone nine games without one, his longest drought to start a season.
Howie Kendrick had a triple, a double and a bunt single for the Angels, his second consecutive three-hit game. Needing a home run for the cycle — the longtime Yankees nemesis hit one Saturday — he nearly got it with a drive that barely sliced foul in the eighth.
On the next pitch, Kendrick grounded out.
NBA
Nova (2-0) struck out eight over six innings, fanning Kendrick, Pujols and Torii Hunter in succession in the third. Often the beneficiary of big run support, the 25-year-old right-hander hasn't lost in the regular season since the Angels beat him 3-2 on June 3.
Heat beat Knicks to claim Southeast Division title
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NEW YORK - The Miami Heat finally came to Madison Square Garden, a sea of orange surrounding them in what looked like a playoff game.
Maybe that's all it took to bring out their best on the road.
LeBron James had 29 points and 10 rebounds, Dwyane Wade added 28 points and nine boards, and the Heat overcame Carmelo Anthony's 42 points to beat the New York Knicks 93-85 on Sunday to clinch the Southeast Division title.
"This is obviously a lot of our favorite places to play, but I think it came at a good time for us," Wade said. "We were struggling, as in to play a complete game on the road, and what better place to come in and focus then here, where this team has been playing well and can embarrass you if you don't play your game. So understanding that this could obviously be a first-round matchup as well, I thought today we came in, we didn't play amazing, but played good enough to win the game. We did a lot of good things, so it was a good time for it."
Originally scheduled to be here in November, the Heat's lone regular-season game in New York came with the compressed regular season coming to a close — and with a chance they'll be back again soon.
Chris Bosh finished with 16 points and 14 rebounds for the Heat, who pulled away in the fourth quarter of a possible playoff preview. Miami is
second in the Eastern Conference and the Knicks came into the game tied for seventh, although they fell back behind Philadelphia after the loss.
Anthony had only two baskets in the fourth quarter, perhaps tired from playing 43 minutes and with James switching over to defend him after Anthony had overwhelmed Shane Battier. New York had its rinkgame home winning streak snapped.
Anthony had the Knicks hoping he could pull out another game against a power team after scoring a season-high 43 last Sunday in overtime against Chicago. His tip-in gave New York a two-point lead with 9½ minutes left, but by the time he had his other field goal on a 3-pointer with 1:28 remaining, Miami had opened an 11-point cushion.
"It was all a blur. I don't even know what happened. It just happened so fast. They made some tough shots down the stretch the last couple of minutes of the game, the last six minutes of the game," Anthony said. "We couldn't make shots. We had some good looks. Couldn't make them. Didn't make them."
JR Smith scored 16 points for the Knicks, who lost all three games against the Heat. Still without the injured Amare Stoudemire and Jeremy Lin, New York didn't have the firepower to match Miami's Big Three for 48 minutes.
Wade moved easily and shot 10 of 18 after missing the last game to rest his ankle. Miami has won two in a row after back-to-back losses last
"It's all about perseverance and just continuing to stay with it," Bosh said. "We know we're a great road team, we just have to go out there and prove it night in and night out and I think were going to do a better job and continue to play well, and hopefully this will give us some momentum."
week against Boston and Chicago.
"We got some defensive stops in Chicago, but were unable to close it out," James said. "Tonight we were able to make some shots from the floor and then come back down and get some big stops."
Despite their talent, the Heat haven't measured up on the road in recent weeks, perhaps the biggest concern about them heading into the postseason. They are only 17-13 outside Miami and hadn't beaten a team with a winning record in nearly a month.
Miami held a few nine-point leads in the third, but the Knicks cut it to three by period's end, then got a tying 3-pointer from Steve Novak to open the fourth and Landry Fields followed with a basket to put New York ahead in the opening minute.
It was close for the next six minutes before Wade and James hit jumpers after Joel Anthony tipped in a miss, a flurry of six straight points that gave Miami an 87-80 lead. The Knicks, relying on jumpers most of the game, simply couldn't hit any, and lacked much inside presence when Tyson Chandler appeared slowed by knee pain after landing awkwardly in the third quarter.