Kiprusoff, Flames blank Sens

Hockey Betting Lines

03/12/2010 - Calgary, AB (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Miikka Kiprusoff stopped all 33 shots he faced for his 34th career shutout, as the Calgary Flames topped the Ottawa Senators, 2-0, at the Saddledome.

Jamal Mayers and Chris Higgins scored for the Flames, who won their fourth consecutive game and continued their fight to gain a playoff berth. The Flames have been hovering around the final spot in the West and currently sit one point above Detroit for the eighth position.

Brian Elliott allowed two goals on 25 shots for the Senators, who fell to 1-3-1 since the resumption of play following the Olympics and remained two points behind the Buffalo Sabres in the race for the Northeast Division crown.

The Senators failed on all five of their power-play chances.

The Flames opened the scoring at the 5:29 mark of the first period. Curtis Glencross' strong forechecking effort on a dump-in allowed him to gain control of the puck along the rear boards. Glencross sent a quick pass into the lower right circle, where Mayers corralled the disc and beat Elliott with a wrister.

Midway through the first period, the Senators thought they tied the game, but the celebration was short-lived as referee Rob Martell waived his arms signaling the goal was no-good. Replays showed that Milan Michalek's stick was above the crossbar when it deflected the puck into the back of the cage after a shot from the right point.

Both goaltenders saved all 12 shots they faced in the scoreless second period.

In the early stages of the third stanza, Ottawa gained a power play when Mark Giordano was whistled for cross-checking. However, solid penalty killing by the Flames and the inability of the Sens to gain quality scoring chances kept the visitors without a goal.

Ottawa's Peter Regin was all alone atop the crease for a rebound chance with 12 minutes to go, but he hit the crossbar.

Soon after, Calgary moved ahead by two on Higgins' eighth goal. Ian White intercepted a pass in the neutral zone, skated across the blue line down the left-wing side and, from near the half-wall, sent a pass through the slot for a successful one-timer by Higgins from inside the right circle at 9:05.

In the final minutes, Daniel Alfredsson had a good look from above the right circle, but Kiprusoff was quicker with the glove.

Game Notes.

The start of the game was delayed by 35 minutes due to a broken pane of glass which occurred during warmups...Despite the loss, the Sens have still won eight of their last 12 road games...Kiprusoff notched his fourth shutout of the season...The Flames were 0-for-3 on the power play.

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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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