2012 April at BetLM

Rangers Make It a Long Day for Ovechkin

NEW YORK — Alex Ovechkin is one of the most dynamic play­ers in hockey. He com­mands atten­tion from top defen­sive play­ers every time he steps on the ice. For seven games in the first round of the 2012 Stan­ley Cup Play­offs, he bat­tled with Boston’s Zdeno Chara and Den­nis Sei­den­berg, exchang­ing huge body blows with each while try­ing to find space to pro­duce offense. Alex Ovechkin Left Wing — WSH GOALS: 2 | ASST: 3 | PTS: 5SOG: 29 | +/-: –1 Ovechkin isn’t likely to face the same phys­i­cal war­fare in the sec­ond round against the New York Rangers, but Dan... 

Nadal Tops Ferrer for 7th Barcelona Title

BARCELONA (ATP/Newsfeed) — Rafael Nadal became the first player in the Open Era to win two tour­na­ments seven times after beat­ing David Fer­rer 7–6 (1), 7–5 in Sunday’s Barcelona Open final. The second-ranked Nadal’s 21st straight vic­tory on clay fol­lowed up his eighth straight win in Monte Carlo, as Nadal won the 10th all-Spanish ATP final for a 48th career win. The sixth-ranked Fer­rer lost his fourth Barcelona Open final to Nadal, who saved 12 of 15 break points for a 34th straight vic­tory at Barcelona. Nadal skipped toward the net in cel­e­bra­tion after hit­ting... 

Hamilton Exits Early With Back Stiffness

ARLINGTON (MLB/Newsfeed) — Rangers out­fielder Josh Hamil­ton left Sunday’s game after two innings because of stiff­ness in his lower back. Right now, the Rangers are list­ing Hamil­ton as “day to day.” Hamil­ton, who has started all 22 games for the Rangers this sea­son, had an RBI sin­gle in the first off of Rays starter David Price and is now hit­ting .395 on the sea­son with nine home runs and 25 RBIs. Hamil­ton, who started in left field for the sixth time, was replaced by David Mur­phy. The Rangers next three games are on the arti­fi­cial turf in Toronto and that... 

Bulls’ Rose Out for Postseason With Torn ACL

CHICAGO (NBA/Newsfeed) — Bulls star Der­rick Rose will miss the rest of the sea­son because of a torn ante­rior cru­ci­ate lig­a­ment in his left knee. Rose was helped off the court late in Chicago’s 103–91 playoff-opening vic­tory over the Philadel­phia 76ers on Sat­ur­day, a stag­ger­ing blow for a team eye­ing a cham­pi­onship run. He scored 23 points and was play­ing more like the league’s reign­ing MVP after miss­ing 27 games because of injuries dur­ing the reg­u­lar sea­son, but his sea­son came to an end as the Bulls were wrap­ping up an impres­sive win. Rose... 

Yes, Graham Harrell Will Be the Packers’ Backup QB

Green Bay (NFL/Newsfeed) — The Green Bay Pack­ers picked up a quar­ter­back in the NFL draft, but it wasn’t Colt McCoy. Seventh-round pick B.J. Cole­man is a guy the Pack­ers will develop for the future, but Gra­ham Har­rell is the backup of the present. Gen­eral man­ager Ted Thomp­son is not inter­ested in bring­ing in a vet­eran to dis­place Harrell. “I don’t think you just say, ‘Hey, I need a vet­eran backup,’” coach Mike McCarthy told the Mil­wau­kee Jour­nal Sen­tinel on Sat­ur­day. “We have the MVP in Aaron Rodgers as our No. 1, and I feel like we have,... 

Kovalchuk Held Without a Shot in Game 1

PHILADELPHIA (NHL/Newsfed) — The last time Ilya Kovalchuk was held with­out a shot in a game was five months ago. The New Jer­sey Dev­ils were able to over­come that stun­ning sce­nario, how­ever, in a 2–1 over­time deci­sion against the Colum­bus Blue Jack­ets on Nov. 23, 2011. In Game 1 of their East­ern Con­fer­ence Semi­fi­nal con­test against the Philadel­phia Fly­ers on Sun­day, the Dev­ils weren’t able to seal the deal this time around in over­time. The Fly­ers scored a 4–3 vic­tory in a game where Kovalchuk was held with­out a shot in 21:20 of ice time. It... 

Eagles Add 13 Rookie Free Agents, Including Chris Polk

Philadel­phia (NFL/Florio) — Eschew­ing any triskaideka­pho­bic ten­den­cies, the Philadel­phia Eagles have announced the addi­tion of 13 new undrafted free agents. They are: WR Elvis Akpla (Mon­tana State); LS Matt Camilli (UTEP); TE Chase Ford (Miami); QB Cliff Har­ris (Ore­gon); FB Emil Igwe­nagu (Mass­a­chu­setts); WR McKay Jacob­son (BYU); WR Damaris John­son (Tulsa); WR Aaron Pflu­grad (Ari­zona State); RB Chris Polk (Wash­ing­ton); FB Jeremy Stew­art (Stan­ford); FS Phillip Thomas (Syra­cuse); P Ryan Tyd­lacka (Ken­tucky); WR Dar­nell Williams (Louisiana College). The... 

Smith Throws 2 TDs in WVU Spring Game

MORGANTOWN (CFB/Rivals) West Vir­ginia’s defense wants to be known as a pos­i­tive just like its proven offense as the Moun­taineers enter their first sea­son in the Big 12. While the defense lost some key starters from last sea­son, there were sev­eral stand­out plays in the annual Gold-Blue spring foot­ball game on Saturday. Defen­sive backs Matt Moro and Bro­drick Jenk­ins and line­man Will Clarke had inter­cep­tions as the Blue defense defeated the Gold offense 43–34. With a mod­i­fied scor­ing sys­tem, the defense earned its points for three-and-outs (five points),... 

Undrafted LB Vontaze Burfict Headed to Cincinnati Bengals

Ari­zona State line­backer Von­taze Bur­fict has agreed to terms on a con­tract with the Cincin­nati Ben­gals, a source with knowl­edge of the sit­u­a­tion told NFL Net­work on Saturday. “I didn’t get drafted like I wanted to, but I’m blessed to be on an NFL team,” Bur­fict said, accord­ing to the Ari­zona State Uni­ver­sity State Press. Ben­gals coach Mar­vin Lewis worked out Bur­fict dur­ing Ari­zona State’s pro day, and accord­ing to Cincinnati.com the two kept in touch. “I feel com­fort­able being coached by him,” Bur­fict said of Lewis. “I know that... 

Kings Storm Past Blues

ST. LOUIS — An evening that began with tor­nado warn­ings, 100 km-h wind gusts and egg-sized hail in St. Louis didn’t set­tle down much when the puck dropped. The fired up Blues stormed Los Ange­les like they were the Edmund Fitzger­ald, fir­ing about six shots on net before the anthem singer was even off the ice, but the Kings weath­ered the fran­tic early moments, launched a counter-attack of their own and rained all over the home town parade. The Cal­i­for­nia giant killers, after dis­patch­ing the No.1 team in the West­ern Con­fer­ence last round, have stolen home ice advan­tage...