Capitals top Hurricanes in SO

Hockey Betting Lines

03/14/2009 - Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Alexander Semin and Alex Ovechkin scored in the shootout, and the Washington Capitals edged division-rival Carolina, 5-4, at Verizon Center.

Semin flipped a forehand shot above Cam Ward's glove for the first goal for Washington, and Ovechkin sealed the win with a wrister through the goaltender's legs.

Semin finished with a goal and three assists in regulation for the Capitals, who have won three straight and snapped a four-game home losing streak. Ovechkin, Mike Green and Nicklas Backstrom each had a goal and an assist. Jose Theodore made 28 saves in the win.

Eric Staal had a goal and two assist for Carolina, which has lost three straight since a four-game win streak. Ray Whitney and Erik Cole both notched a goal and an assist, while Niclas Wallin also scored in the loss. Ward stopped 27-of-31 shots in a losing effort.

Carolina struck first. Cole got his second goal since returning to the Hurricanes in a trade with Edmonton, firing a shot from the left circle 9:53 into the contest.

The Caps quickly answered, as Semin fed Green in the slot for an easy one- timer that beat Ward to the glove side just over a minute later. Ovechkin stuffed in a rebound off a Green shot to make it 2-1 while on the power play at 18:01.

Another power-play goal, this one by Semin on a spin-o-rama in the slot, put the Capitals ahead by two at the 1:31 mark of the second.

Staal pulled the Hurricanes to within one on his 33rd of the year 5:57 into the middle frame, but Backstrom scored Washington's third power-play goal to at 12:27.

With just eight seconds left in the second, Whitney made it a 4-3 game with his 23rd goal of the season.

Carolina pulled even midway through the third. Wallin let fly a slap shot from the point, and the puck snuck inside the near post at 10:47. Neither team scored in the final minutes, and the game went to overtime and eventually a shootout, after the Hurricanes squandered a power play opportunity in the extra session.

Game Notes

Ovechkin is 2-for-6 in shootout attempts this season...Washington leads the season series, 3-2...The Caps will now embark on a five-game road trip against Atlanta, Florida, Tampa Bay, Carolina and Toronto.

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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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