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retained control of the Test. They would have been pleasantly sur
in Fragen 24.12.2018 10:29von t123 • 2.563 Beiträge
PITTSBURGH -- Tomas Vokoun had forgotten what it was like to start in the playoffs. Tyler Kennedy wondered if hed ever get the chance again. Thats never an issue for Sidney Crosby, who followed the lead of his decidedly less-heralded teammates to establish a bit of order to the Pittsburgh Penguins first-round series with the New York Islanders. Vokoun stopped 31 shots in his first post-season appearance in six years, Kennedy broke a scoreless tie with a sizzling breakaway and Crosby delivered another magical goal in a career stuffed with them. The Penguins beat the Islanders 4-0 in Game 5 to take a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series. Kris Letang and Doug Murray also scored for Pittsburgh, which finally looked like the team that rolled to the best record in the Eastern Conference during the regular season. Game 6 is Saturday in New York. Another 60 minutes like the Penguins put together on Thursday and a Game 7 wont be required. "They played harder than us," New York coach Jack Capuano said. "The better team won tonight. They deserved the hockey game." One the Penguins desperately needed after the Islanders evened the series 2-2 with a wild 6-4 victory in Game 4 that appeared to have the top seed reeling. Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma grew so frustrated watching eighth-seeded New York overwhelm goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury that Bylsma benched the Stanley Cup winner -- who had made 79 consecutive playoff starts -- in favour of Vokoun, a 36-year-old journeyman who has never made it out of the first round of the post-season in his career. Vokoun is three periods away now after shutting out the Islanders for the second time this season. Not bad for a guy starting his first playoff game since April 20, 2007 while playing for Nashville. "I was a little bit nervous the whole day; you wouldnt be human if you werent," Vokoun said. It didnt look like it once the puck dropped. Vokoun didnt budge when the Islanders dominated the first period, turning aside 14 shots in the first 20 minutes as the Penguins tried to gain their bearings with a new lineup designed to cut down New Yorks speed advantage. Though Bylsmas biggest change was inserting Vokoun in place of Fleury, he also scratched defenceman Mark Eaton and forwards Jussi Jokinen and Tanner Glass in favour of younger, quicker skaters Simon Despres, Joe Vitale and Kennedy. The moves paid off handsomely. Kennedy, squeezed out of the rotation by the influx of veterans brought in at the trade deadline, gave the Penguins the confidence boost they needed 7:25 into the second period. The play began innocently enough in Pittsburghs end before Letang hit Kennedy with a pinpoint 80-foot stretch pass right up the middle of the ice. Kennedy greedily accepted the puck at New Yorks blue line, then flipped a wrist shot over Evgeni Nabokovs glove to give Pittsburgh the lead. The score seemed to rattle Nabokov. Murray loped in a lazy wrist shot from the point that Nabokov tried to glove only to have the puck slip out of his left hand, over his back and into the net. There was nothing fluky about Crosbys third goal of the series, a masterpiece that ranks among the more dazzling plays of his already highlight-heavy career. The Pittsburgh captain, still wearing a cumbersome mask to protect his broken jaw, took a pass from teammate Jarome Iginla at centre ice then effortlessly split New York defenders Lubomir Visnovsky and Thomas Hickey. Crosby crossed the blue line and poked the puck ahead as the defencemen closed in, lifting his stick before stepping through a pair of flailing poke checks. Nabokov didnt have a chance as the wrist shot zipped over the goaltenders stick to push the lead to 3-0. Theres a statue outside Consol Energy Center commemorating a similar goal by Hall of Famer and team co-owner Mario Lemieux. The bronze sculpture shows Lemieux slicing through two Islanders defenders in 1988 on his way to the net. Crosby downplayed any similarities. "His was much nicer than mine," Crosby said. "He went through guys and stickhandled through them and stickhandled around the goalie, too. I had a few less moves and a pretty basic shot, but Ill take the goal anytime it goes in." The Islanders never recovered. While they kept Vokoun busy, he was rarely outnumbered as Pittsburgh cut down on the turnovers that led to a seemingly endless flurry of odd-man rushes by the Islanders in Games 2-4. "We didnt do a great job of helping Marc out," Crosby said. "We wanted to make sure we did a better job in front of our goalie." When New York did manage to get deep, Vokoun didnt falter and neither did the guys in front of him as the Penguins were able to develop a consistent rhythm for the first time since a 5-0 romp in Game 1. Nabokov never located one and found himself on the bench when Letang scored on the power play 5:43 into the third period. Nabokov finished with 23 saves but spent the final 14:17 watching backup Kevin Poulin kept the Penguins off the board. The Islanders will get a chance to regroup at home on Saturday in their bid to win a playoff series for the first time in 20 years. At least Game 5 is over. New York hasnt won a Game 5 of any playoff series since 1988. "For us its two Game 7s right now starting on Saturday," New York defenceman Mark Streit said. "Weve just got to concentrate on our game, what brought us in this situation and what makes us successful. We know we have it in the room. Were a confident group." NOTES: New York played without D Andrew MacDonald, who is dealing with an upper body injury. The Islanders also scratched F Marty Reasoner and D Matt Carkner among others ... Kennedys goal was his sixth winning goal in the post-season, sixth most in Pittsburgh history. Air Max Plus For Sale . Pettersen, winner of last years Evian Championships, had nine birdies and three bogeys, holding off a series of challengers led by Marion Ricordeau of France. The second-ranked Norwegian made her season debut after missing the LPGA Tours opening event last month in the Bahamas because of a shoulder injury. Air Max Plus Online . Anthony Calvillo, through 20 CFL seasons, was frequently invincible and largely stoic in the heat of competition. But underneath the professional exterior he was, and is, compellingly human. http://www.cheapairmaxplus.com/ . Paul Pierce couldnt believe he missed at the end. Young scored a season-high 26 points to spark a huge effort from the leagues most productive bench, and Los Angeles beat the Brooklyn Nets 99-94 on Wednesday night after blowing a 27-point lead. Cheap Air Max Plus . The 28-year-old from Calgary matched his career best after missing just one shot in his two rounds of shooting in the mens 10-kilometre sprint competition. Smith finished in 23 minutes 15. Air Max Plus Clearance . PETERSBURG, Fla. Sri Lanka 537 and 5 for 0 (Silva 3*, Karunaratne 1*) lead Zimbabwe 373 (Cremer 102*, Moor 79, Herath 3-97) by 169 runsScorecard and ball-by-ball detailsA fantastic rearguard effort from Zimbabwes middle and lower order, led by Graeme Cremers maiden Test ton, helped the hosts avoid the follow-on and post 373 after they had slumped to 139 for 6 in the morning. Peter Moor put his wicketkeeping woes behind him to contribute with an 84-ball 79 and Donald Tiripano struck a composed 46.Cremer, batting at No. 8, played an attritional Test innings, waiting for anything overpitched. He received plenty such deliveries and drove elegantly to accrue seven of his ten boundaries through mid-off and extra cover. His timing was superlative and placement impeccable, important requisites for boundary scoring.The highlight of Cremers innings was his discipline with straight-bat strokes, even if the ball was short or wide. He milked the spinners, particularly with the spin to long-on or square on the leg side.On 58, Cremer was dropped at backward square leg by Asela Gunaratne. Other than that opportunity, Cremer looked impregnable with a tight defense - bat close to body, head over the ball and a good judgement of which balls to play at and which to leave. Such was his fluency that his hundred never looked in doubt as long as he didnt run out of partners. Suspense arose around the ground when he needed No. 11 Chris Mpofu to block out one delivery from Rangana Herath. Moor was more selective in his choice of shots, opting to loft the spinners straight as opposed to opting for cross-bat strokes. He used his feet effectively and hit the slower bowlers through the line in the arc between long-off and long-on. When the bowlers compensated with a shorter length, the cut shot was productive.He reached his fifty off 49 balls, thereby forcing Herath to dispatch fielders to the boundary. At one point, Herath had five deep fielders off his own bowling.Just when Moor looked set for his maiden Test ton, debutant Lahiru Kumara worked him over with a pair of outstanding bouncers on a slow pitch. The first, directed at the neck, caused Moor to fend awkwardly. The ball lobbed over slip for four. Two balls later, another well-directed bouncer accounted for Moor. The ball ballooned up off the glove and gully raced in to complete a low catch, Kumaras first Test wicket and Sri Lankas only one of the session.ddddddddddddKumara continued to trouble the batsmen with extra oomph in a testing spell. Cremer survived a nasty moment when Kumaras bouncer hit and subsequently detached his helmet, which fell perilously close to the stumps.He added 92 with No. 9 Donald Tiripano, who was equally adept at keeping out the straight deliveries and accumulating runs against Sri Lankas tiring spinners. Against the run of play, Tiripano missed a straight one from part-timer Kusal Mendis - it was Mendis first wicket in first-class cricket.Despite the lower-order fightback, Sri Lanka still retained control of the Test. They would have been pleasantly surprised with the conditions that greeted them on the third morning. After the Harare surface offered nothing to seam or spin on the first two days, it started to behave differently. Variable bounce, pace and enough lateral movement for the seamers helped Sri Lanka run through Zimbabwes middle order in a five-wicket morning session.Overnight batsmen Tino Mawoyo and Hamilton Masakadza began the day with staunch defence, even with low bounce evident from the second ball of the morning. Mawoyo was uncertain against the short ball on the second evening, and Suranga Lakmal exploited that weakness by repeatedly employing the bouncer. Some flew off the surface, some looped to the keeper.In the fifth over of the day, a bouncer hustled Mawoyo for pace and an attempted pull resulted in a top-edge, which was taken by square leg placed halfway to the boundary.Sean Williams and Craig Ervine, Zimbabwes best batsmen, were visibly disconcerted by the bounce and chose to sweep Rangana Herath. Both batsmen struck boundaries but the stroke was always fraught with risk on this pitch. Williams attempted a hard sweep off Herath but the ball bounced extra and took the leading edge, which was snaffled at deep square leg. Zimbabwe had lost their third wicket of the day inside 12 overs, the second off a top edge.Dilruwan Perera capped an excellent morning for Sri Lanka with two lbws, both non-turning offbreaks. Ervine missed a straight delivery, his pad interfering with the bats contact with the ball. Malcolm Waller went back to what he thought was a long-hop, but the ball skidded on and beat his pull. cheap falcons jerseys cheap ravens jerseys cheap bills jerseys cheap bears jerseys cheap bengals jerseys cheap cowboys jerseys cheap lions jerseys cheap texans jerseys cheap colts jerseys cheap jaguars jerseys cheap chiefs jerseys cheap rams jerseys cheap dolphins jerseys cheap vikings jerseys cheap saints jerseys cheap giants jerseys cheap jets jerseys cheap eagles jerseys cheap steelers jerseys cheap 49ers jerseys ' ' '
« tion. He was sacked a half-dozen times, including 3 1/2 times by outside | rbs on Saturday.Kvyat said Toro Rosso was still investigating the incident, » |
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