Buzzer Beaters

Tonight is a good night for the world of baseball. The Boston Red Sox head to the big apple to battle the New York Yankees in a 3 game set this weekend. This is the second series of the year between these historic franchises. The first time these teams met this season on the week of April sixth; when the baseball season was still young and the Red Sox were 0 and six. Boston was able to get their first win of the year against Yankee Starter Bartolo Colon, but the Yankees took two of three in the series. First pitch is at 7:05 tonight, and the starters will be Clay Bucholtz (3-3 4.19 Earned Run Average) against Bartolo Colon (2-1 3.86 Earned Run Average).


The NBA conference finals are almost set, but there is still some second round action that needs to be settled. The Oklahoma City Thunder look to close out the Memphis Grizzlies in Game 6 of the Western Conference Semifinals tonight. It has been an explosive series up to this point, with two games going into overtime and game four's triple overtime marathon. As expected, the Thunder have been lead by the two headed scoring monster of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook; in this series, Duranchula and Westbrook are averaging 27.0 points per game and  25.4 points per game respectively. However, Memphis has been able to bully the Thunder in the low post thanks to the efforts of Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol, who are averaging a combined 40.6 points per game in this series. Tip off is at 9:00 P.M. on ESPN, and the winner of this series will take on Dirk Nowitzki  and the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference Finals.


For the first time since 1992, the Boston Bruins are going to the Eastern Conference Finals. The Bruins completed their sweep of the Philadelphia Flyers 5-1 on May 6th and will face the Tampa Bay Lightning for the right to play for the Stanley Cup. Don't expect a sweep from either of these teams in this round. The Lightning explosive offense is lead by Steven Stamkos (45 Goals in the regular season) and Hart Trophy finalist Martin Saint Louis (99 points in the regular season).  Yet the Bruins strong defense, lead by Zdeno Charra and Dennis Sedinberg, has given up only 24 goals in 11 games. The Bruins also have goaltender Tim Thomas, who leads all goalies in the playoffs with a .941 save percentage, but are without their best postseason player Patrice Bergeron; who received a concussion in the Flyers series. The Bruins won three out of four in the regular season series, but the Lightning did not have goaltender Dwayne Roloson in any of those games. The puck drops at 8:00 P.M. tomorrow in Boston.

Moving over to the West, that conference Final will feature the San Jose Sharks and Vancouver Canucks. The Canucks have been regarded by many hockey analysts as the best team in the NHL; and their play has been outstanding. The Canucks dispatched the Nashville Predators in 6 games while it took the Sharks 7 games to rid themselves of the Detroit Red Wings. The Canucks have gotten great play from center Ryan Kesler, who has 5 goals and 10 assists in the playoffs. The Sharks will turn to Danny Heatly and Joe Thorton and their combined 24 points in the postseason to lead their offense. Don't expect either team to dominate this series defensively. The Canucks have given up 33 goals in the postseason while the Sharks have given up 38.
These two teams had the best power plays in the regular season with the Canucks converting 24.3 percent of the time and San Jose converting on 23.5 percent of their power plays. In the postseason the Canucks remain hot on the power play, with a conversion percentage of 22.2 percent; and the Sharks have less of a power play bite, for they have only converted on 13.7 percent of their power plays in the playoffs. The series begins north of the border on Sunday at 8:00 P.M.

There seems to be some movement towards finding the two men who attacked San Fransisco Giants fan Bryan Stow. According to the Santa Cruz sentinel, approximately 200 billboards showing police sketches of the suspects appeared all over the Los Angeles area on Thursday. Lamar Advertising Company was behind the making of the billboards, each with a 100,000 dollar reward for any information regarding the two men who attacked Stow. Bryan Stow was beaten by two men wearing Dodger Jerseys on March 31st opening day game between the San Fransisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers. Stow remains hospitalized in Los Angeles with a coma.