Football Betting

Coyotes visit Dallas with shot at ninth straight win

Hockey Betting Lines

03/21/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Phoenix Coyotes will try to match another franchise record tonight and also take a shot at first place in the Pacific Division when they visit the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center.

The Coyotes have already set a club mark for wins in a season with 45 and enter tonight with an eight-game winning streak -- one victory shy of the franchise record set by the Winnipeg Jets from March 8-27, 1985.

More importantly, Phoenix, which hasn't made the playoffs since the spring of 2002, has a chance to take over first place in the Pacific from San Jose. The Sharks are one point ahead of the Coyotes and are playing in Edmonton tonight.

The Coyotes have won their last two games in the shootout phase and earned a 5-4 victory over visiting Chicago on Saturday. Radim Vrbata scored the lone goal of the shootout to lift Phoenix to its fourth straight home win

In the third round of the shootout, Vrbata lifted a backhand into the top of the net, and Ilya Bryzgalov sealed the win when he stopped Patrick Sharp's stuff attempt.

Lee Stempniak had two goals, while Adrian Aucoin and Wojtek Wolski each had a goal and an assist for the Coyotes. Bryzgalov made 34 saves in the win.

"I thought it was a very entertaining hockey game," Coyotes head coach Dave Tippett said. "We found a little bit of a second wind in the third period."

Stempniak is riding a nine-game point streak and he has nine goals and two assists in eight games since coming over from Toronto in a trade on March 3. He has 23 goals and 41 points overall this season.

Phoenix has a solid 19-12-3 record as the guest this year and is beginning a three-game road trip this evening.

Meanwhile, Dallas enters Sunday with fading playoff chances and is closing out a six-game homestand tonight. The Stars are eight points behind Detroit for the eighth and final playoff seed in the West.

Dallas has won two of its last three, but Saturday's win over Ottawa was just the third victory in the last 10 games for the Stars. Trevor Daley notched the game-winner early in the third period as Dallas overcame a three-goal effort by Jason Spezza to clip the Senators, 5-4.

Brad Richards tallied twice with Mike Ribeiro and Jamie Benn striking once each for the Stars. Kari Lehtonen picked up his second win with Dallas after a 25-save performance.

"We were very resilient," Stars head coach Marc Crawford said. "This time of the year that's a great quality to have. We didn't play our best game that we've played probably over the last homestand, and we had to be resilient enough and determined enough and we were good when we had to be."

The Stars, who will begin a four-game road trip Tuesday in Nashville, are 20-10-6 as the host this season.

Tonight marks the final meeting of the season between the Stars and Coyotes. Phoenix has taken three of five from Dallas this year, but the Stars have posted wins in the last two encounters. The Coyotes have seven victories in the last 10 overall matchups and have also won five of their last seven in Big D.


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Horse Betting

(This is an update of a sportsbook for the May 4th issue of ESPN The Magazine).

The Kentucky Derby's post-position draw happened on Wednesday. And, as is always the case, shortly afterwards, a buzz raced around Churchill Downs. It was a low rumble at first, nothing that the squares in the mint julep crowd pick up right away. But by the time the sun set over the twin spires, the chatter was impossible to ignore. Everyone -- sharps, trainers, owners -- was talking about one thing: the wise guy horse, the pre-draw long shot us mopes didn't have on our radar until it was too late.

"You think you're hearing the scoop," says handicapper Lane Gold. "Then you get to the window, the odds are short, and you missed it."

Recognizing a wise-guy horse early is as hard as picking a Derby bonnet. That's because handicappers don't like hype (see ya, I Want Revenge). They want Thoroughbreds who look good losing prep races like the Santa Anita Derby. They eye horses who ate up the field after starting wide or made an easy transition from synthetic tracks to dirt. They look for ponies who showed muscle gain race to race and those who ran hard after several weeks' rest.

"A wise guy," says John Avello, a bookmaker at Wynn Las Vegas, "looks for a horse who can improve."

When I first wrote Horse Betting for The Mag, which I turned in a three weeks before Wednesday's draw, I predicted these three horses had wise guy potential:

CHOCOLATE CANDY (15-1 in mid-April, currently 20-1 according to Avello): His second-place finish at Santa Anita, following a seven-week layoff, proved two things: He can run after resting, and -- by losing a high-profile prep race -- he wouldn't be overhyped.

DESERT PARTY (15-1; 15-1): He was upset in the UAE Derby by a horse he had beaten twice. The public remembers his loss, but the wise guys his wins.

PIONEEROF THE NILE (8-1; 4-1): The big favorite at Santa Anita struggled to win, so he initially got less hype than Quality Road and I Want Revenge.

You may have noticed that the odds on Pioneerof the Nile have been cut in half, from 8-1 to 4-1. Which means the wise guys took a shine to him long before the post-position draw. But, to be honest, this is one of those years with four elite horses getting everyone's attention, squares and sharps alike.

"You're not gonna get a lot of chatter about a horse that isn't in that group, which includes Pioneer, I Want Revenge, Dunkirk and Friesan Fire," Avello told me Wednesday. "We don't have a group of horses behind those top four who look like real legit contenders."

Come Derby week, the final two elements in picking a wise guy horse are how he's working out and what gate he's coming out of.

(By the way, picking a Preakness favorite is a whole different bale of hay, partially based on how horses finish in the Derby. You can see my analysis of who has the best shot at Pimlico on Insider Sunday morning.)

Well, early in the week I Want Revenge, Pioneerof the Nile and Friesan Fire were working out better than anyone. Some thought Friesan Fire, currently 6-1, might have run too fast, burning a five-furlong run in :57 4/5. "When you are running that fast you have the sense that it took something out of him," says Gold. "The Derby is longer than any horse has run, and if they need that extra surge you worry they won't have it because they burned it in the workout."

But, Gold points out, Friesan Fire's trainer is Larry Jones, Two years ago his horse Hard Spun did a five-eighths workout in :57 3/5 and then went on to finish second, behind Street Sense, in the Derby. "Every trainer has different methods," says Gold. "And clearly he knows what he's doing."

Now, as for starting position, Gold says to remember this: Churchill Downs traditionally has 14 starting gates. For the Derby, it brings out auxiliary gates and between the original 14th gate and the new 15th gate, there is a little more space than there is between gates 1-14. "That 15 position will give you a precious second or two to sort out what's happening to your inside," says Gold. "Sixteen is also okay because you can follow the horse in front of you."

Dunkirk, one of the race favorites, is coming out of gate 15. In 16 is Baffert's Pioneerof the Nile. I Want Revenge drew 13, where Smarty Jones won from in 2004, and Friesan Fire picked the sixth position. "He doesn't have a lot of speed to the inside of him," says Gold. "So he will get a clear shot to be near the front."

All the jibber-jabber means this: Pioneerof the Nile has leapfrogged from 8-1 to being the second favorite, along with Dunkirk, behind I Want Revenge. Meanwhile, Friesan Fire, with a good trainer, a strong week of training and a decent post position, is still at 6-1. "By Saturday, it's possible he could go from fourth to the favorite," says Gold.

In other words, meet Friesan Fire, your 2009 wise guy horse.

"Now," says Avello, "it's time for action."

To visit this horse betting site go to MySportsbook.com for all your horse racing betting needs.

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