Pogge gets first win as Leafs rout Thrashers

Hockey Betting Lines

12/22/2008 - Atlanta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Justin Pogge got the win in his NHL debut and the line of Alexei Ponikarovsky, Matt Stajan and Nik Antropov accounted for nine points, as the suddenly high-powered Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Atlanta Thrashers by a 6-2 final at Philips Arena.

Pogge, who was recalled from Toronto's AHL affiliate on Sunday, got the start between the pipes with first-stringer Vesa Toskala dealing with a groin pull. A third-round choice in the 2004 NHL Draft, Pogge needed just 19 saves to get the victory but made several key stops with the game still in doubt.

Stajan scored twice and assisted on another, Ponikarovsky had a goal and two helpers and Antropov logged three assists for Toronto, which has won five of its last six overall and is coming off an impressive 7-3 win against Pittsburgh Saturday at the Igloo.

Jeremy Williams and Dominic Moore each notched a goal and an assist, with Toronto capping a three-game road trip, 2-1, Monday. The Leafs are now 8-8-2 as the visitor this season.

Colby Armstrong and Todd White had the goals for the Thrashers, who had won two of their last three games coming in but are just 3-8-2 in their last 13 games overall.

Kari Lehtonen was peppered with 37 shots in taking the loss, having made his first appearance in almost two months on Saturday in a win against Tampa Bay. He had been battling a back injury and hadn't played a game since October 30.

Atlanta has also lost eight of its last nine home tests and wrapped a three- game homestand, 1-2, Monday. The Thrashers are just 6-9-2 as the host this year.

Toronto scored twice in the first 20 minutes for the early lead and Pogge not only notched his first NHL save but was perfect over that stretch with six stops.

Ponikarovsky scored just 59 seconds into the game off his own rebound in front and the Leafs manufactured a second score with 9:17 to play in the period. Jason Blake threw it down low into the left corner where Moore corralled the puck behind the net, re-directing a pass out in front for Williams, who one- timed the disc into the top-right corner of the net.

Pogge and Lehtonen held their opposites off the scoreboard for most of the second until Toronto made it a 3-0 affair with 2:24 left.

The Leafs broke out of their own zone on a 3-on-2 with Ponikarovsky gaining the zone along the left boards before skating across the high slot and sending a backhand pass to Antropov at the right circle. Antropov accepted the puck and immediately directed it back across to a cutting Stajan inside the opposite circle and a swipe of the stick sent it past Lehtonen.

Atlanta was able to solve the 22-year-old Pogge, though, just before the close of the frame. Jason Williams sent a long outlet pass to Armstrong along the right boards. Armstrong skated into the zone and let rip a slapper that beat Pogge over the left shoulder as the clock wound under 10 seconds.

An offensive zone power-play draw had the puck scoot back to Pavel Kubina for a hard shot from the left point and Moore was able to put back the rebound with a backhander under the left pad of Lehtonen to restore Toronto's three- goal advantage just past the midway point of the third.

Viktor Kozlov cut into the Toronto zone and wheeled around for a pass just inside the right circle to White slicing from the left toward the net and he finished it off with a backhander past Pogge to make it 4-2 with 5:46 left.

However, the Leafs countered just over 1 1/2 minutes later as John Mitchell cut down the left side and drew two defenders before sending a blind, backhand pass to Niklas Hagman in front for a bang-bang score.

Atlanta pulled Lehtonen with 1:39 to play and the Leafs had the puck in the net shortly thereafter via Stajan for the 6-2 final.

Game Notes

Atlanta logged a 6-3 victory in Toronto on November 25...Toronto has won three straight and eight of its last 10 in Atlanta...The Maple Leafs scored 18 goals on their three-game road trip.

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MySportsbook.com favors Bears, Bengals, Chargers and Colts to remain perfect

LAS VEGAS , Sept. 28 - Two big match-ups of undefeated teams have fans salivating at the Week Four schedule in the NFL. The Chicago Bears stifling defense looks to provide a less than hospitable welcome to the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday night in a battle of two 3-0 teams in the NFC conference. In the AFC, the San Diego Chargers (2-0) head to Maryland to face the surprising Baltimore Ravens (3-0) as both try to keep pace atop the conference standings. Betting Lines makers at MySportsbook.com, online sportsbook and casino, have set the Bears as 3.5 point favorites while the Chargers are a 2.5 point bet.

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To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your NFL football betting needs.

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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