Category: Uncategorized

By DANIEL DULLUM
Sports Radio Service
Saturday, January 11, 2014

GLENDALE, Ariz. – Leave it to a goaltender not to be superstitious about any connotation involving the number 13.

With a little luck, and a consistent rotation ot talented teammates in front of him, Anaheim goalie Jonas Hiller is enjoying the kind of hot streak keepers thrive on. The Ducks’ 5-3 win over Phoenix Saturday night gave Hiller his 13th consecutive win – the longest such streak in the NHL since New Jersey’s Martin Brodeur won 12 straight between Oct. 23-Nov. 20, 1997.

“I hope 13 is not an unlucky number,” Ducks Coach Bruce Boudreau said. “He’s playing tomorrow too (at home against Detroit).”

In the month of December, Hiller was 9-0-1 with a 1.96 goals against average.

“It’s definitely a great thing, but at the same time, I’m really excited about winning with the team,” Hiller said. “That’s what’s the most fun right now. Personal things are like cherry on the cake, but you need the whole team to win.”
“If you take each day as its own entity, you don’t think of it as the number 13. You just come in and play hard, and it’s our turn to go out and play hard tomorrow. That’s the way we look at things.”

“If the guys score four or five goals every night, it’s not too tough to win as a goalie,” Hiller said. “I think those things come because we work hard, keep on forechecking, keep on doing the things we need to do. We have four strong lines and that’s tough to contain.”

Defenseman Hampus Lindholm scored twice in the Ducks’ win – the first goal of the night against Thomas Greiss and the only tally allowed by Mike Smith.

“It was unbelievable,” Lindholm said of his first career two-goal game. “I don’t think we played our best game, but we got a good win. It’s always good to win in someone else’s rink.”

The Ducks have won eight of their last nine road games, and have averaged 4.8 goals over their last six games since losing 3-1 to San Jose on Dec. 9.

“We have a game plan out there and we know we’re a good team,” Lindholm said. “When you do things right out there, you know you’re going to get a couple of goals.”

On this night, the Ducks put together a three-goal flurry in the second period, including Ryan Getzlaf’s 23rd goal of the season that chased Greiss. But Anaheim’s defense also allowed Phoenix to score a couple of late goals, one on a two-man advantage with less than two minutes to play.

“We’d like to play a more complete game,” Boudreau said. “We don’t have the luxury in the third period of not playing hard up to the end. Tonight, I’m not saying we didn’t play hard, but we took a couple of dumb penalties.

“It was a sloppy finish and sure, we’re concerned about it. It’s still not the 60-minute game you want, but it’ll get there.”

“Sure, there are some areas where we can always get better,” Lindholm said. “You can’t expect to play super good out there every game. You want to improve on the small things going toward the playoffs “

The Ducks have 73 points (34-8-5), best in the NHL as of January 11, a mark that includes winning 16 of their last 17 games. Anaheim is also the first team to reach 70 points-or-better this season. Though it’s early January, Saturday’s game was the final meeting of the season between the Ducks and Coyotes, with Anaheim sweeping the season series 5-0-0.

“You always want to win those series because we might face them in the playoffs,” Hiller said. “You want to make sure you have that confidence that we can play against them and win.

“When you win, you want to just forget about yourself,” he added. “Here, everybody believes we can beat anybody in any stadium.”

That’s a point the Ducks are driving home on a nightly basis. A return to the Stanley Cup finals for Anaheim is not an unreasonable goal for this squad to pursue.

How good are the Ducks? We’ll know within the next week or so. There’s a couple of home games coming up against Detroit and Vancouver, followed by a two-game road swing to Chicago and St. Louis. That four-game stretch will say a lot about the NHL West overall and the Anaheim Ducks lofty perch in particular.

Daniel Dullum covers the NHL West for Sports Radio Service.

(TAGS: Anaheim Ducks,NHL,Jonas Hiller,Sports Radio Service,Daniel Dullum)

by Morris Phillips

 

BERKELEY–You know it’s interesting after the game last Thursday at Stanford I had a chance to question both coaches–Mike Montgomery from Cal, and Johnny Dawkins of Stanford—and both downplayed the fact that Stanford operates without a traditional, past-first point guard.

 

The decision was made at the beginning of this season that Stanford’s Aaron Bright was going to come off the bench allowing Dawkins to play a bigger, more defensive-leaning lineup.  Bright became the sixth man, but then he was lost for the season when he separated his shoulder in practice.  Bright gave Stanford a facilitator of a structured, half court offense with the opportunity to get some easy baskets out of their sets.   Fast forward to Thursday night, and the Cardinal registered a season-low seven assists (against 10 turnovers), and they took a bushel of tough, off-balance shots with Cal players hanging off their shoulders.

 

Montgomery put it best: the Stanford game plan was to attack the basket relentlessly, and get the rebound if they missed.  The strategy was passable in the first half—the Cardinal shot 48 percent in the first 20 minutes—but the efficient shooting didn’t continue in the second half even as Cal fell into some serious foul trouble.  As for rebounding, Pac-12 conference leader Richard Solomon grabbed 13 rebounds in 32 minutes, and Cal won the battle, 37-35.

 

What’s disappointing is Stanford saw the strategy pay dividends in their big upset of Connecticut with 6’9” Dwight Powell acting as a playmaking point forward. That night Stanford’s 2-3 zone look with the big bodies on the baseline really frustrated UConn, but offensively their 53 points was just enough, and not a desired total for sustained success.  This time out, the defensive effort was good, not great, and fell short in the final minutes when Cal’s Justin Cobbs took over late, scoring 11 of Cal’s final 17 points.  

 

Cobbs played a beautiful floor game–super under control and he made plays when needed, often by forcing his way into the lane.  Montgomery would prefer he would shoot a little bit more and take a greater offensive load like he so masterfully accomplished in the final five minutes against Stanford.  Surrounded by Cardinal defenders, he laid off a beautiful pass to Solomon for a dunk right one possession after he canned a short jumper in the lane. Cobbs had the type of game Chasson Randle needed to have for Stanford, and that might have spelled the difference as one star player gets the job done, while the other team’s star struggles.

 

Looking back at that second game of the year, in which Stanford fell 112-103 to BYU you can see why the decision was made to bring Bright off the bench.  BYU shot 53 percent from the field and put up 112 points at Maples Pavilion despite missing 15 free throws.  The ESPN announcers picked up on it right away: when you play Randle and Bright together your back court is too small, and deficient defensively to get it done BYU really took advantage of them.  Bright not only struggled defensively, but shot 0-5 in 18 minutes of action as well.

 

Stanford remains a tremendously interesting team. They possess size, depth and athleticism, but their reputation is on too many nights they don’t shoot the ball well enough to win.  That’s not just the story this year, but the story of the last three years.  They haven’t qualified for the NCAA tournament under Dawkins and now—after losing the conference opener to Cal—they could be staring at a 0-3 start in conference with the trip to Oregon State and No. 12 Oregon up next. 

 

If they want to play with the bigger lineup and without a traditional point, they need to rebound better, make foul shots at a higher clip, and possess a better assist-to-turnover ratio.  Right now, they’re not maximizing their strengths and getting beat by their weaknesses. 

 

 

Morris Phillips and Michael Duca cover Cal basketball for Sportstalk radio

 

{Sharks} {NHL}

By Jeremy Kahn

After trailing 2-1 midway thru the third period, the San Jose Sharks needed to do something big and it was the combination of Joe Thornton and Brett Burns to get them back into the game.

Thornton made a great pass to Burns, who put the shot passed Corey Crawford to tie up the game, sending the game into overtime and ultimately a shootout.

It was in that shootout that Logan Couture and Joe Pavelski scored, while Sharks goalie Alex Stalock continued his perfect streak in stopping shots and the Sharks defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 3-2 at the United Center.

This was the first win by the Sharks against the Blackhawks in Chicago since December 30, 2010.

Jason Demers put the Sharks on the board in the first period, but the Blackhawks lit the lamp twice in the second period on goals by Niklas Hjalmarsson and Michal Rozsival.

It was the first goal of the season for Rozsival, and his first since March 1, 2012, while playing for the Phoenix Coyotes.

{Sharks} {NHL}

By Jeremy Kahn

There must be something about the San Jose Sharks defeating the Chicago Blackhawks at the United Center.

The last time the Sharks won at the United Center was on December 30, 2010, or six months after the Blackhawks won their first Stanley Cup since 1961.

It must be a coincidence, as Logan Couture and Joe Pavelski scored in the shootout, as the Sharks defeated the reigning Stanley Cup Champions 3-2 on a cold night on the West Side of Chicago.

Rookie Alex Stalock stopped 33 of 35 shots, as he remains perfect in two shootouts in his young career.

Jason Demers got the Sharks on the board in the first period, but the Blackhawks cane back to take the lead until Brett Burns tied in the third period.

It was a very clean between the two teams, as there was just one penalty called in the entire game with 1:14 remaining in the first period, when Brandon Bollig was called for roughing on Mike Brown.