Avs turn tables on Kings with home victory

Hockey Betting Lines

02/22/2012 - Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Paul Stastny tallied twice as Colorado finished off a season sweep of Los Angeles with a 4-1 decision at Pepsi Center.

"From start to finish tonight we played our game. We kept attacking even after we were up four goals," said Stastny. "Our defense played really well and created a lot of offense for us."

Mark Olver and Jay McClement also lit the lamp for the Avalanche, who took all four games this year over the Kings for the first time since moving to Denver prior to the 1995-96 campaign. LA won all four meetings a season ago.

Semyon Varlamov made 32 saves to pick up his second victory in three starts.

Dustin Brown provided the sole offense for the Kings, who dropped their fourth straight game and sixth in seven.

Jonathan Quick took the loss and was pulled following the first period after allowing three goals on 11 shots. Jonathan Bernier stopped 15 shots the rest of the way.

Olver started the early burst when he ripped a shot under the crossbar from the inner edge of the left circle just over seven minutes in.

Stastny doubled the edge exactly six minutes later when he grabbed an errant Kyle Clifford clear behind Quick, and scored on a wraparound.

It was 3-0 with 2:38 left before intermission as McClement tipped in a Ryan O'Reilly centering pass.

"It's 3-0 and something had to change. They were moving the puck so well and created a lot of chances early," Quick noted. "We have to be prepared and ready to play every night from now on. They seemed to want it more than we did."

Bernier spelled Quick for the start of the second but the move failed to spark the visitors. Stastny pumped in a power-play goal at 12:45 of the second period when he netted a Gabriel Landeskog rebound while falling down.

Brown hit the scoreboard for LA with 4:35 played in the third after Brown tipped in a Drew Doughty point blast, but the visitors had no more answers.

Game Notes

Stastny recorded his second multi-goal game of the season, after a two-goal performance at San Jose on December 15...Avs defenseman Erik Johnson left after the first period with back spasms and did not return...Steve Downie, acquired from Tampa Bay on Tuesday, finished his first game in a Colorado uniform with one shot on goal in 16:20 of ice time.

Wwuproar Hockey Betting News

<< Ellis' last-second shot lifts Warriors over Suns; Curry injures foot
Phoenix, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Monta Ellis scored 26 points and made the game- winning jumper with one second left, lifting the Golden State Warriors over the Phoenix Suns, 106-104. Ellis' fadeaway jumper with Grant Hill in his face snap

<< Vinci out at Monterrey Open
Monterrey, Mexico (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Top-seeded Italian Roberta Vinci was a second-round loser at the $220,000 Monterrey Open on Wednesday. Vinci fell to Russian Nina Bratchikova 7-5, 7-5 in 1 hour, 21 minutes on the hardcourts at Sierr

<< Packers TE Finley tweets 2-year deal
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Green Bay Packers and tight end Jermichael Finley have agreed on a two-year deal. Finley confirmed a report of the deal on his Twitter account Wednesday night, saying: "It's TRUE! Thank you so much to the Packers

<< No. 6 Michigan State edges Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Keith Appling's go-ahead free throws with 32 seconds remaining lifted No. 6 Michigan State to a 66-61 victory over Minnesota on Wednesday. Austin Hollins airballed a three-pointer from the right w

<< Bruins hang rare home regulation defeat on Blues
St. Louis, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Brad Marchand scored twice as Boston doubled up St. Louis, 4-2, at Scottrade Center. Chris Kelly and Milan Lucic each posted a goal and one assist for the Bruins, who had lost three of four coming in. Ti

No. 4 Kansas tops Texas A&M >>
College Station, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Elijah Johnson scored a team-high 21 points to lead No. 4 Kansas past Texas A&M, 66-58, in the final Big 12 clash between the two schools. Tyshawn Taylor added 12 points, Jeff Withey contribute

Roddick ousted in Memphis >>
Memphis, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Belgian Xavier Malisse knocked off second- seed and defending champion Andy Roddick 7-6 (10-8), 7-5 in first-round action at the $1.155 million Regions Morgan Keegan Championships on Wednesday. Rodd

Gasol, Lakers edge Mavericks >>
Dallas, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Pau Gasol had 24 points and nine rebounds on Wednesday night, as the Lakers escaped with a 96-91 win over the Mavericks. With the narrow victory, the Lakers improved to 2-0 this season against Dallas,

UNLV handles Boise State >>
Las Vegas, NV (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chace Stanback drained four three-pointers en route to a game-high 19 points and seven rebounds as No. 21 UNLV took care of business on Wednesday with a 75-58 victory over Boise State. Brice Massamba contrib

Paul leads Clippers past Nuggets >>
Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chris Paul had a season-high 36 points to go along with nine assists as the Los Angeles Clippers pulled away in the fourth quarter to down the Denver Nuggets, 103-95, at Staples Center. Blake Griffi

Big 12 Conference betting odds

Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State

Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.

Work left to do:

Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.

Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.

Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.