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04/11/2008 - Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Calle Ridderwall scored the game-winner 5:44 into overtime, as the Notre Dame Fighting Irish advanced to the first championship game in the program's 40-year history with a 5-4 win over the Michigan Wolverines in the Frozen Four.
In the extra session, Ridderwall collected a rebound in the slot, transfered the puck from the backhand to the forehand and snapped a shot that beat Bryan Hogan on the stick side.
Ridderwall finished with two goals, while Ryan Thang registered a goal and an assist for the Fighting Irish, who will battle Boston College in Saturday's title game. The Eagles defeated North Dakota 6-1 earlier on Thursday. Notre Dame is the only number four seed to reach the championship game.
Jordan Pearce made 29 saves to earn the victory.
Chad Kolarik scored twice for the Wolverines, who entered the tournament as the top seed. Carl Hagelin and Matt Rust each posted a goal and an assist, while Aaron Palushaj finished with three assists.
Billy Sauer allowed three goals on nine shots in the first period before he was lifted at the start of the second in favor of Hogan, who made 18 saves the rest of the way.
Kolarik notched a power-play at the 2:16 mark of the third, tying the score at three. Kevin Deeth restored the lead for Notre Dame at 11:30, but Hagelin drew the Wolverines even with 5:21 to play in regulation. From below the goal line, Hagelin threw a backhander that worked its way between the left skate of Pearce and the near post.
Ridderwall and Mark Van Guilder scored goals 42 seconds apart in the first period. Ridderwall found the back of the net at the five-minute mark when he snapped a shot from the high slot that beat Sauer on the blocker side. Shortly after the opening tally, Van Guilder fired a wrist shot from the left faceoff circle that squeezed between the left arm and body of Sauer.
Thang's short-handed marker gave the Fighting Irish a 3-0 lead with 35 seconds to play before the first intermission.
The Wolervines responded with two goals in a 15 second span in the middle stanza. After Kolarik put Michigan on the board at 8:48, Rust ripped a shot from the high slot over the glove of Pearce to cut the deficit to 3-2.
<< Davis has successful surgery
Phoenix, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Doug Davis
underwent what the club described as successful surgery for thyroid cancer on
Thursday.
"The surgery that was completed this evening by Dr. Bob Evani was
<< Buck lifts A's over Jays in 12 innings
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Travis Buck drove in all three Oakland runs,
including the game-winning, two-RBI double in the 12th inning, as the
Athletics continued to thrive in international territory and outlasted the
Toronto
<< Inglese resigns as Boston College's women's basketball coach
Chestnut Hill, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Boston College women's basketball coach
Cathy Inglese resigned Thursday.
"I am forever grateful for the rich and rewarding opportunity that Boston
College has afforded me for the past 15 years
<< Pettitte strong as Yankees snap Royals' win streak
Kansas City, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Alex Rodriguez, Jorge Posada and Melky
Cabrera all homered, and Andy Pettitte pitched into the seventh inning as the
New York Yankees salvaged the finale of a three-game series by besting Kansas
City, 6
Correia dazzles Cards >>
San Francisco, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kevin Correia befuddled Cardinals batters
over 7 2/3 scoreless frames, as the San Francisco Giants downed the St. Louis
Cardinals, 5-1, at AT&T Park.
Correia (1-1) mixed a sharp breaking ball wit
Western Illinois names new men's basketball coach >>
Macomb, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Western Illinois will introduce Jim Molinari as
its new head men's basketball coach at a Friday morning press conference.
The 14-year Division I head coaching veteran brings 28 years coaching
experienc
Martin won't coach Panthers, will remain GM >>
Sunrise, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Florida Panthers will have a new head
coach for the 2008-09 season, and that coach will be selected by the man who
vacated the position late Thursday, according to a published report.
The Miami Her
Lakers crush Clippers in Battle of Los Angeles >>
Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Luke Walton scored 18 points as the Lakers
routed the Clippers, 106-78, at the Staples Center.
Kobe Bryant added 16 points for the Lakers, who finished a perfect 4-0 against
the Clippers this season and
My fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online."
The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet.
To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession.
However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks.
Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable.
Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone.
Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC.
There will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson.
The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans.
So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California.
USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl.
USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter.
Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles.
That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy.
The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?"
The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning.
Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States.
It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella."
The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot.
The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan.
Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season.
After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country.
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