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04/06/2007 - St. Louis, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chris Mueller had a goal and an assist to help the Michigan State Spartans advance to their first championship game since 1987 with a 4-2 win over the Maine Black Bears in the Frozen Four.
Nick Sucharski, Chris Snavely and Kim McKenzie all lit the lamp for the Spartans (25-14-3), who will play the winner of the North Dakota/Boston College game later on Thursday.
"The biggest thing today was the penalty kill," said Mueller. "We knew Maine had the top power play, but we played with patience and stayed out of the box, which was the key to winning the game."
Jeff Lerg finished with 29 saves for Michigan State, which last won a national title in 1986.
"We expected Maine to come out flying," said Lerg. "We didn't match them for the first two period, but we got our game going and the late goal in the second period gave us momentum for the third to carry on for the win."
Josh Soares and Keith Johnson each had a goal and an assist and Ben Bishop finished with 29 saves for the Black Bears (23-15-2), who defeated Michigan State in last season's East Regional final, 5-4.
"We played a great game," said Bishop. "But their goalie got off to a tough start, giving up a goal on the first shot, but he played well at the end and made some key saves in the third period."
The championship game will be played on Saturday.
Maine initially grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first when Johnson scored just 23 seconds in and a little over three minutes later Soares scored on a shot from the slot through traffic.
However, the Spartans scored four unanswered goals to win the game.
Mueller got his team on the board when he banged the puck out of mid-air into the net to make it a 2-1 game at the 7:25 mark of the first.
Michigan State tied the game with the only goal of the second period when Snavely scored to make it a 2-2 game.
The Spartans grabbed their first lead of the game as Sucharski jammed the puck into the net during a jam in front for a 3-2 advantage 5:11 into the third.
"There was traffic in front and the rebound popped out in front and I went to dive on it but somehow they slipped it underneath me into the net," said Bishop.
McKenzie sealed the win for the Spartans when he snapped a wrister on the fly from the left circle that Bishop stopped, but the rebound went right back to McKenzie and he buried it in the back of the net with 10:14 to play.
It is the fifth time in school history that Michigan State will appear in the championship game.
<< Rose and Wetterich lead Masters; Woods four back
Augusta, GA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Justin Rose and Brett Wetterich are tied atop
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Tiger Woods, the winner of the last two m
<< Washington's Hawes experiments jumping to NBA
Seattle, WA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The University of Washington announced freshman
center Spencer Hawes will experiment with making the jump to the NBA.
The 7-foot Hawes, who led the Huskies with 14.9 points per game this past
season, anno
<< Phillies acquire Rosario from Toronto
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Philadelphia Phillies acquired right-
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<< Eustachy gets extension at Southern Miss
Hattiesburg, MS (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Southern Mississippi has given men's
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Blueshirts lock up playoff spot >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jaromir Jagr had a goal and an assist and
Henrik Lundqvist made 25 saves as the New York Rangers clinched a playoff
berth with a 3-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens at Madison Square Garden.
Petr Pr
Sabres rally to top Bruins >>
Buffalo, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Thomas Vanek scored twice and also notched an
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finale at HSBC Arena.
Derek Roy had a goal and one assist and Ales Kotalik als
Brodeur sets record on championship night for Devils >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Martin Brodeur used 34 saves to break the
all-time mark for wins in a single season and Jim Dowd scored the short-handed
game-winner midway through the third period, as the New Jersey Devils clinched
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Islanders stay alive with win over Leafs >>
Uniondale, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jason Blake scored the go-ahead goal 3:46
into the third period and the New York Islanders kept their slim playoff hopes
alive with a 5-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs at Nassau Coliseum.
Aaron Asham and M
In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.
Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).
If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).
Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.
New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles
The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)
In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:
There was also the possibility that the final score could land exactly on the spread number (for example, the Pats winning 28-21 when -7), which is called a “push” or “no action” and a refund is then issued to bettors of both teams.
The same game with the same point spread can be considered from the weaker team’s perspective: The Underdog (Philly in the case of our example) is not expected to win the game and online football betting thus receives or “gets” points given by the stronger team. When a game is stated from the underdog’s perspective the team is listed with a plus sign and the number of points they are underdogs by:
Philadelphia Eagles +7 vs. New England Patriots
Keep in mind that Philadelphia +7 and New England -7 is the same point spread on the same game, simply stated differently. The first is from the underdog’s perspective; the later is from the favorite’s.
Not a must, but for some a mathematical approach is insightful. You can determine the ATS winner by either:
Let’s look at the actual result of Super Bowl XXXIX: New England 24 Philadelphia 21
The favorite, New England, won the game but not by more than the point spread they were favored by (7), so the ATS result was a LOSS for Pats bettors.
Looking at it from the underdog’s perspective, Philly did not win the game, but they lost by less than the point spread (7), so the ATS result was a WIN for Eagle bettors.
Mathematically considered, 24 for the favorite Pats minus 7 equals 17, which is less than the 20 the Eagles scored, so the underdog Eagles win the ATS result (or you could figure 20 plus 7 equals 27 for the Eagles, which is more than 24 for the Pats).
Emily’s boyfriend understood the point spread and wagered $100 on the Eagles at +7. The Eagles may not have gotten a Super Bowl ring, but since they won the ATS result Emily’s boyfriend cashed his bet – giving him money to take her out to a nice dinner.
And now hopefully you understand how to read point spreads, putting you one step closer to joining the fun of sports betting.
To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting and World Series odds.
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