Kommandozentrale » t. If given a chance, that is. If I am not playi

The Chicago Blackhawks stunned the Boston Bruins, scoring twice in the final 1:16 to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 win in decisive Game Six for the Chicago Blackhawks, giving Chicago their second Stanley Cup in four seasons. With their backs against the wall, Boston dominated play early, outshooting Chicago 12-6 (32-8 in shot attempts) in the first period, but only held a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes, on a goal by Chris Kelly. Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews evened the score in the second period and the Blackhawks started to turn the momentum. Despite Chicago holding a shooting edge in the third period, Bruins LW Milan Lucic broke the tie with 7:49 left in the third period and, at that point, it was looking like the series could be heading back to Chicago for Game Seven. With the game on the line, Toews and Patrick Kane created a scoring opportunity, with Toews feeding Bryan Bickell across the crease and Bickell fired it home to tie the game. Bickell, who had nine goals in 48 regular season games, scored his ninth goal of the playoffs in his 23rd game. Scoring with just more than a minute remaining sure made it look like overtime was coming, but the Blackhawks didnt get the memo. They quickly entered the Bruins zone and Dave Bolland banged in a rebound to suddenly flip the script. Bolland, who has been a stellar playoff performer in previous seasons, struggled at times in this playoff season as he was coming back from injury, scoring one point in his first dozen playoff games, then added five points in six games in the Stanley Cup Final. As the playoffs wounds down, it became a war of attrition between Boston and Chicago as injuries started to affect player availability and performance. Bruins RW Nathan Horton was playing with chronic shoulder injury that limited his effectiveness and had two assists and seven shots on goal in six games against Chicago. In Game Six, Bruins RW Jaromir Jagr was limited to just 6:27 of ice time, while C Patrice Bergeron, who left Game Five early, played 17:45 with a broken rib, torn cartilage and a separated shoulder. In Bergerons absence, David Krejci, the playoffs leading scorer with 26 points in 22 games, played 23:37 to lead all Boston forwards. Chicago had their own injuries to deal with. Toews was held out of action in the third period of Game Five, due to a suspected concussion, but he was vital to the Blackhawks effort in Game Six, playing 20:12 and scoring a goal and an assist to lead all Chicago forwards. Marian Hossa, who was playing in his fourth final in six years, missed Game Three of the Final before returning to play in a diminished state for the rest of the series despite a disc in his back pushing against a nerve, leaving his foot numb when he played. Then there was Bickell, who suffered a Grade Two knee sprain late in the Western Conference Final against Los Angeles, and injury that under normal circumstances might cause him to miss three-to-four weeks of action. Bickell, who had been a playoff beast, didnt record a point in the first three games of the Final, but contributed four points in the last three games. Blackhawks RW Patrick Kane, who had 19 points and a plus-7 rating, was named the Conn Smythe Trophy winner as Playoff MVP, but there were no obvious choices on the Blackhawks side. Bickell had 17 points and was plus-11, Patrick Sharp had a playoff-leading 10 goals and 16 points and D Duncan Keith had 13 points and a plus-10 rating. G Corey Crawford probably had the best claim to the award among Blackhawks, with a .932 save percentage in the postseason. Even though the Bruins didnt win, G Tuukka Rask and his .940 save percentage would have been an entirely justifiable selection, as would Krejci, who was seven points clear of any other scorer in the postseason. Bruins LW Milan Lucic had 19 points, was plus-12 and led the playoffs with 102 hits. Bickell was second with 85. Part of the story for the Blackhawks were the contributions they received from players like Michal Handzus, the 36-year-old cast-off from San Jose who scored 11 points and had a plus-7 rating filling a second-line centre role for Chicago, while playing with a broken wrist and torn MCL. Michael Frolik (10 points) and Andrew Shaw (nine points) were also effective forwards on the lower half of the Blackhawks depth chart. Boston had contributions from the likes of Dan Paille (nine points) and received 17 goals from their defenceman, led by Johnny Boychuk with six (Boychuk scored one goal in 44 regular season games). At the same time, the Bruins needed more from offensive performers like Jagr, who had zero goals (and 10 assists) on 58 shots in the playoffs and Tyler Seguin, who set up Bostons first goal in Game six, but managed one goal and eight points in 22 playoff games. Its not that Jagr and Seguin didnt play well, both had shots and good possession numbers, but at some point, the shots have to turn into goals if its going to make a difference in playoff results. Toews, Hossa, Keith and rookie Brandon Saad were among those leading the Blackhawks in possession metrics for the postseason, and Toews could have been lumped in with Jagr and Seguin, except that Toews found the net in two of the last three games of the postseason, scoring a total of five points. Its such a thin line between winning and losing that a goal or two from underperforming players could have shifted the balance in the series. The Blackhawks got those goals and the Bruins didnt. In the end, the Blackhawks were the best team in the regular season and earned their favourite status going into the Final with excellent possession stats. In a series which had three overtime games and no game with a margin greater than two goals, Chicago outscored Boston 18-14 over the six games, for a well-deserved and hard-fought victory, if perhaps shocking in its sudden swerve ending. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook.Custom Cavaliers T-shirts . Capitals head coach Adam Oates said Ovechkin was injured in the first period against the Vancouver Canucks on Monday and clarified it was not a head injury. Cheap Custom Cavaliers Jersey . Pettersen, winner of last years Evian Championships, had nine birdies and three bogeys, holding off a series of challengers led by Marion Ricordeau of France. The second-ranked Norwegian made her season debut after missing the LPGA Tours opening event last month in the Bahamas because of a shoulder injury. http://www.customcavaliersjersey.com/ . -- Tony Stewart is 20 pounds lighter and has a titanium rod in his surgically repaired right leg. Custom Cavaliers Jersey China . "I dont know that were close," said general manager Alex Anthopoulos. "I just think, right now, the acquisition cost just doesnt work for us right now. I dont know if I can quantify how far off or things like that that they might be but I would say we continue to have dialogue. Cheap Cavaliers Jerseys . -- Devin Hester is done returning kicks in Chicago.New Zealanders 324 for 7 dec (Latham 55, Williamson 50) and 235 (Ronchi 107) drew with Mumbai 464 for 8 dec (Yadav 103, Pawar 100, Lad 100)ScorecardIn the second innings of their warm-up match against Mumbai, Luke Ronchi and Martin Guptill combined to give the New Zealand team management a selection headache sooner than they would have anticipated. While Guptill followed his first-innings failure with a duck, Ronchi scored a blistering century on a last-day pitch that had begun to misbehave.It would be a dramatic move if a batsman who has opened only three times in first-class cricket replaced an opener in whom New Zealand have invested, but if there ever was a time and a place to do so, this might be it. Guptill averages 29.59 in Tests, which drops to 20.68 in Asia. He may be sensational in limited-overs cricket, but Tests and spin have not been his best friends. Concurrently, there is no better place than Asia for a non-opener to think about converting. It is often the best time to bat, before the ball begins to turn, reverse swing or gets too soft to travel.Ronchi got his crack at a top-order spot in the second innings, much like his previous three forays playing for Western Australia before he moved to New Zealand. Mumbai declared immediately after Siddhesh Lads century - the third of their innings. Then, out walked Ronchi alongside Guptill, the only specialist batsman who did not get a long hit in the first innings. With it being the third day of the game, the flat pitch had dried out and was offering turn and variable bounce, enough for Mumbai to open with the left-arm spin of Vishal Dabholkar.But Guptill cant blame the pitch for his dismissal. In Dabholkars first over, the batsman edged a half-volley, seemingly playing inside the line of the ball and giving the slip fielder an easy catch. Ronchi looked in much better control, and displayed more scoring options against spin and the slow nature of the pitch. He swept with authority, drove the quicks with power, found gaps repeatedly and was difficult to pin down at one end for the pressure to build.My game plan is to get off strike, Ronchi said after the match. If the field is in, I go over the top. [A] couple over the top, then a few gaps, and get off strike. Thats the way I go about it. If it works, fantastic. Doesnt work all the time, but the best way to bat sometimes is to be at the other end. If you can get yourself off strike, it is a good thing.Even if New Zealand were to stay conservative and dont open with Ronchi, he might be quite useful in the middle order. Almost all of his 107 runs came in the ccompany of bowlers.dddddddddddd The New Zealanders used the final day of the game to give chances to those who didnt get them in the first innings. Guptill and Henry Nicholls were the only specialist batsmen repeated before they had no choice but to send others in. Ronchi put on 23, 64 and 47 runs with Mitchell Santner, Doug Bracewell and Trent Boult respectively. Batting with the tail could prove crucial on raging turners; Ravindra Jadeja frequently gave India the match-tilting runs from around 120 for 6 in the series against South Africa.Asked if he might have staked a claim for the opening position, Ronchi said: Maybe, but its just the position I was given in the second innings - to go out and open. [I] just wanted to sort of have a hit and do as best as I possibly could. If it comes up I certainly wont say no, but you never know what Hess [Mike Hesson] and Kane [Williamson] are thinking. So I will just go about my business and do the best I can for my team whenever given the chance, I guess.I have no idea [what role they have in mind for me]. Its up to them. Whatever they say, I will try to do my best. If given a chance, that is. If I am not playing, I am not playing. If I am playing and batting at 11, I am more than happy. Whatever role they ask me to perform, I certainly wont say no.If New Zealand do want Ronchi in, Nicholls may in danger of going out. He scored 1 in the second innings, but was undone by a ball that jumped out of the rough. If Nicholls does play the first Test in Kanpur, as a middle-order batsman, he would have to face one of the most difficult spin environments without any prior experience. Going into that with 30 runs from two innings would not make him feel good.This is when just one warm-up match on such a tough tour becomes unfair. A batsman needs time out in the middle to develop the methods and confidence to play spin. As another example, Santner jumped out of the crease to try to get to the pitch of a ball, and was stumped off Lad. He bats in the lower order for New Zealand and his runs could be very crucial. If selected for the Test, and having failed against a part-timer in a practice match, will he have the confidence to run at R Ashwin or Jadeja?The odd misbehaving delivery aside, New Zealand batted relatively comfortably through the rest of the day. They were bowled out for 235 in the fourth of the mandatory 15 overs in the last hour of play, but Mumbai did not take up the chase of 96 in nine overs. ' ' '