Sports - Seattle Post I. - 2012-05-20 22:02:06.
Tortorella takes shots at Devils, defends Prust
The New York coach defended Rangers forward Brandon Prust, who was given a one-game suspension Sunday because of an elbow to the head of New Jersey defenseman Anton Volchenkov, and accused the Devils of embellishing to draw penalties in the Eastern Conference finals.
Tortorella said the Devils set picks during power plays to set up shots for Ilya Kovalchuk and prevent the Rangers from getting into position to block them.
Neither of those players, nor Prust, was penalized for their hits during the Rangers' 3-0 win that gave New York a 2-1 lead in the East finals.
Kovalchuk scored a power-play goal in Game 2 that the Rangers say was made possible by a pick.
Prust had a chance to present his version of the hit during a telephone hearing with NHL disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan on Sunday morning.
When you're off-balance, your arms go up, I didn't want to do a face plant into the boards.
Prust's elbow connected with the back of Volchenkov's helmet near the boards at 2:38 of the second period.
Rookie forward Carl Hagelin was given a three-game ban in the first round for an elbow to the head of Daniel Alfredsson that gave the Ottawa Senators captain a concussion.
Tensions erupted on March 19 in the final regular-season meeting between the Atlantic Division rivals, when DeBoer had enforcers Cam Janssen, Eric Boulton and Ryan Carter in the starting lineup, and Tortorella countered with a physical lineup of Prust, Mike Rupp and Stu Bickel.
Dubinsky hasn't played since Game 7 of the first-round series against Ottawa, when he injured his right foot or ankle.
Whether Tortorella's comments were fueled by anger or gamesmanship, the fiery coach wasn't about to sit back and have one of his players attacked at this critical juncture of the playoffs.
The Rangers were forced to seven games in the first two rounds by Ottawa and Washington, and would like to bring a 3-1 edge home to Madison Square Garden for Game 5 on Wednesday night.
Josefson's return will likely force out struggling veteran Petr Sykora, who practiced with the extra players on Sunday.
Fresh legs this time of year, you're 15 games into a playoff run, can never hurt.
Sports - Seattle Post I. - 2012-05-20 22:02:06.
James, Wade combine for 70 as Heat win Game 4
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) â The coveted NBA championship, the one LeBron James needs to validate everything, was vanishing.
With 18,000 towel-waving fans roaring like the engines at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Indiana Pacers had knocked the Miami Heat to the floor and to the edge of elimination.
James scored 40 points with 19 rebounds and nine assists, and Wade added 30 points â 22 in the second half â as Miami rallied to even their semifinal series against Indiana with a 101-93 win on Sunday over the Pacers, who had the defending Eastern Conference champions down couldn't keep them there.
With All-Star forward Chris Bosh injured and back in Florida, the James-Wade tag team saved the Heat, who will host Game 5 on Tuesday night at AmericanAirlines Arena.
Me and 'Bron had it going, said Wade, who bounced back from the worst playoff game of his career â five points on 2-of-13 shooting â with one of his best, We played off of each other very well.
The Heat now head home back in control of the best-of-seven series, which is down to a best-of-three with two of the games on Miami's home floor.
Udonis Haslem, playing with a large bandage covering a nasty cut over his right eye that required nine stitches, added 14 points for Miami.
Wade finished with nine rebounds and six assists, erasing the ugly memory of Game 3 when he also had a confrontation with Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, a public dispute that turned into a bigger deal than it probably was because of a two-day break between games.
Granger's 3-pointer had given Indiana a 61-51 and the Pacers, outhustling the Heat to loose balls, appeared poised to take a commanding lead in the series.
Only eight teams in league history have overcome a 3-1 deficit to win a best-of-seven series.
Sports - Seattle Post I..
Babe Ruth jersey sells for record $4.4 million
NEW YORK (AP) â A baseball jersey worn by Babe Ruth has sold for more than $4.4 million, a record for any item of sports memorabilia, according to the buyer and seller.
Sports - Seattle Post I..
Munoz wins Sybase after slow-play controversy
Munoz beat Candie Kung 2 and 1 on Sunday to win the Sybase Match Play Championship, a title that was set up when Morgan Pressel was penalized for slow play while in control of their semifinal match.
[...] before she could tee off on No. 13, tour official Doug Brecht informed her that she was being penalized for slow play.
In match play, a time penalty is the loss of the previous hole and that handed the admittedly slow-playing Munoz the hole.
Match referee Marty Robinson had two committee officials away from the 15th review the videotape of the one camera angle they had of the hole.
Pressel lost the match when she bogeyed the next two holes, missing a 3-foot par putt at No. 17.
Pressel was the only one disciplined in the tournament, although two others face fines for slow play.
Daly-Donofrio said slow play is a concern throughout golf, which was evident on the PGA Tour last week when Kevin Na was very slow at The Players Championship.
[...] the PGA Tour has not handed out a slow play stroke penalty in more than a decade.
Sports - Seattle Post I..
Dufner's 25-foot birdie putt on 18 wins Nelson
Life has certainly changed for the 35-year-old golfer who last summer at the PGA Championship blew a four-stroke lead with four holes to play and lost in a playoff.
With a 25-foot birdie putt on the final hole of the Byron Nelson Championship on Sunday, Dufner closed out a one-stroke victory over Dicky Pride to win for the second time in four weeks.
Pride, whose only PGA Tour victory in a 20-year professional career came in 1994, was at 10 under with a par-saving 22-foot putt at No. 18 for a round of 67 after hitting his drive into the water.
J.J. Henry, who had an early hole-in-one, was in the lead at 11 under after consecutive birdies at Nos. 15 and 16, overcoming a bad tee shot on the first and a greenside bunker on the second.
Phil Mickelson, making his first Nelson start in five years, had four consecutive birdies on the front nine and went on to a round of 66 to finish four strokes back.
Pride, who went to the University of Alabama, then watched the final group play the hole, and applauded on the clinching putt by Dufner, who went to rival Auburn.
Vijay Singh, a 34-time PGA Tour winner whose last victory was in 2008, was within two strokes of the lead after his third-round 66.
Bradley the nephew of LPGA great Pat Bradley who got his first PGA Tour victory at last year's Nelson, had a triple-bogey 7 at the 232-yard 11th hole for the second day in a row.
Sports - Seattle Post I..
Full field set for Indianapolis 500
On an otherwise ho-hum day of qualifying, nine cars made the field on their first attempts, ending any potential last-minute drama and assuring the May 27 race would start with a full field of 33 cars for 64th consecutive year.
For the first time since 2004, there were no bump attempts â taking away the intrigue of last year's enthralling finish when Marco Andretti bumped his way into the race by knocking out teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay on the final four-lap qualifying attempt of the month.
Heck, there weren't even any rumors floating around Gasoline Alley about late additions to Indy's entry list.
The Frenchman will start 33rd after finishing with a four-lap qualifying average of 210.094 â the slowest speed of any Indy starter since the late Fermin Velez went 206.512 in 1997.
IndyCar has a rule requiring cars to perform within speeds at least 105 percent of the leader and demonstrate consistency with control, placement and interaction with other cars on the track.
When Ryan Hunter-Reay ran out of gas on the final lap in the 2010 race, the hard-charging Mike Conway couldn't avoid him and wound up going airborne into the catch fence.
Conway broke his leg, sustained a compression fracture in his back and missed the rest of the season.
Over the next 43 minutes, Conway, four-time Champ Car champion Sebastien Bourdais, English rookie Katherine Legge, Spanish driver Oriol Servia, former Freedom 100 winner Wade Cunningham and Alesi all qualified for the race.
After a brief delay, American rookie Bryan Clauson, who crashed Saturday, took his turn and qualified Sarah Fisher's second car at 214.455 â substantially slower than the speeds he had posted earlier this week.
