Stars slip past Avalanche in SO

Hockey Betting Lines

04/10/2009 - Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Mike Ribeiro scored the decisive goal in a wild shootout, as the Dallas Stars topped the Colorado Avalanche, 3-2, at the Pepsi Center.

In the shootout, Colorado's Wojtek Wolski went first and fooled Dallas goaltender Matt Climie out of his pads. Wolski skated to the left side of the crease, getting Climie to go in the same direction, but he left the puck on the right side and tapped it into an open net.

Fabian Brunnstrom beat Peter Budaj on a top-shelf backhander before Milan Hejduk, switching backhand-to-forehand several times, notched a goal with a backhander over Climie. Dallas' James Neal had his shot slowed down, but the puck rolled by Budaj into the net. A shooter was finally stopped, as Climie stuffed T.J. Hensick's attempt.

Ribeiro's dazzling attempt then won the game. He skated in with his back to the net and turned slightly, sending a pass between his legs. Ribeiro also put his stick between his legs and made a forehand shot, which Budaj initially stopped. But it bounced in the air and into the right side of the crease before rolling across the goal line, ending the contest.

Steve Begin and Brunnstrom scored for Dallas, which was eliminated from playoff contention last weekend. Climie stopped 25 shots in the win, the Stars' second in three tries.

Chris Stewart and John-Michael Liles had the goals for Colorado, which has one win in its last 11 games. Budaj stopped 37 shots.

Stewart's power-play goal with 7:17 left in the second period got Colorado on the scoreboard, but Brunnstrom evened the game on the man advantage 2:09 into the third.

Begin gave the Stars the lead with 3:11 remaining in regulation on a tip-in from the slot, but the Avs evened the game less than a minute later. Liles took a shot from the left corner that bounced off Climie into the Stars' net.

Game Notes

Dallas was 1-for-2 on power plays, while Colorado went 1-for-5...The Stars close their season Friday at Anaheim...The Avalanche host Vancouver and St. Louis over the weekend to end their 2008-09 campaign.

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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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