Lob und Kritik » t baseballs top minor league talent, Wil Myers, and

MONTREAL -- It looked like it would be easy when Rene Bourque scored for the Montreal Canadiens only 11 seconds into the game. But the Canadiens needed a third-period goal from Tomas Plekanec and some fine saves from Carey Price to down the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-2 on Sunday night and take a choke hold on their NHL Eastern Conference playoff series. The victory gave Montreal a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven set with a chance to sweep the Bolts on home ice in Game 4 on Tuesday night. "Weve seen many scenarios in the playoffs and we have to have the same approach for the next game as we had for the last three," said Montreal defenceman P.K. Subban, who had a pair of assists in a standout performance. "Theyre a good team. "They had a lot of opportunities to score. They fought their way back into the game. They put pucks on the net and came hard to the end. We know theyll fight until the final buzzer, so we have to be ready next game." Brendan Gallagher also scored for Montreal while Ondrej Palat, back after missing a game with an injury, and defenceman Matthew Carle replied for Tampa Bay. Montreal outshot the Lightning 31-29, but there were nervy moments and a disputed, disallowed goal as the visitors pushed back in the second and third frames. "We were determined, we played with passion, I thought we responded unreal," said Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper. "Its tough to walk into that locker-room and look those guys in the eye. "Clearly, that was the best game weve played in this series. I though they deserved a better fate. Ultimately, its a loss and thats what hurts the most." The Canadiens have a chance to avenge their only previous playoff meeting with the Lightning, who swept them in 2004 before going on to win the Stanley Cup. After winning the first two games in Tampa, Fla., the Canadiens returned to a rousing welcome from their fans and a spectacular pre-game show. The crowd of 21,273 was still roaring after joining old-time Quebec pop singer Ginette Reno in the Canadian anthem when Subban bounced a pass up the middle of the ice and Bourque collected it behind the Lightning defence. The unexpected scoring hero put his third of the series past Anders Lindback at the 11-second mark -- and the noise got even louder. "I didnt really know who (Reno) was, but by the reaction I knew it was somebody popular," said Bourque. "She did a great job getting the fans fired up. "We didnt plan it at all. It was a lucky bounce." Lindback made up for it with some strong saves as the Lightning cancelled the Canadiens early emotion by killing off a four-minute high-sticking call on rearguard Mike Barberio. Palat tied it 8:39 into the second frame as he buried the ricochet of a Steven Stamkos shot off Mike Weavers skate on the Bolts first power play. Then the Lightning poured it on, and looked like they had the go-ahead goal, only to see Subban bat a flying puck out of the air behind Price. Seconds later, Ryan Callahan put the puck in at 15:38 only to see it waived off due to what was ruled as incidental contact on Price by Alex Killorn. The Bolts felt the goal was good. "I was (angry) then and Im (angry) now," said Cooper. "Thats just my opinion. Ill let the court of public opinion take care of the rest." Of course, the Canadiens thought the officials got the call right. "It was a pass across, it got deflected in the air," said Price. "Subban batted it out of the air and it wound up kind of a scramble. "I tried to come back across the net and tripped over their guy, who was right in the middle of the crease. At that point, I didnt know what was going on." Less than three minutes later, the teams were each down a man when Subban picked up the puck, skated through the defence and around the net to set up Gallagher for his second goal of the series at 18:10. "I just tried to create space," said Subban, who had a team-high 28:03 of ice time. "I took a penalty earlier in the period and I felt good when I came back on the ice and the guys had killed it off. "Larry (Lars Eller) made a great play behind the net to move it to open ice. I tried to draw the forechecker to me and see what happened. I went behind the net. Gally did a great job to get himself open. It makes it easy for me to get it to him." Plekanec scored what would be the game-winner when he threaded a shot through from the right circle 5:43 into the third period. But Carle made it close with a point shot that looked to deflect off a body in front at 11:36. The Canadiens held off a late charge to put the win away. The lightning got a scare at 16:09 of the second when Stamkos fell after jostling with Brandon Prust and got hit in the head by Alexei Emelins knee. But the Bolts scoring star was able to return for the third period and picked up his second assist of the night on Carles goal. Cooper made four lineup changes, bringing in forwards Palat, Tom Pyatt and B.J. Crombeen and defenceman Barberio and scratching Sami Salo, Michael Kostka, Richard Panik and Nikita Kucherov. Salo reportedly has an upper body injury. Montreal made no changes. Notes: The Canadiens called up a taxi squad from AHL Hamilton, including goalies Dustin Tokarski and Devan Dubnyk, defencemen Nathan Beaulieu, Davis Drewiske and Greg Pateryn and forwards Sven Andrighetto, Mike Blundin, Gabriel Dumont, Louis Leblanc and Christian Thomas. . . Bourques goal was not a team record for fastest to start a game. Bo Gainey scored seven seconds into a playoff game in 1977. 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Willie Stargell Jersey .com) - Even on the day his New Hampshire football team became the nations top-ranked team two weeks ago, coach Sean McDonnell conceded something about the team they replaced at No.KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The moment Alex Gordon knew the Kansas City Royals were serious about winning can be traced to a cold December day when his wife heard they had traded for James Shields.The franchise had long suffered through a forgettable cast of starting pitchers, from Jay Witasick to Darrell May to Runelvys Hernandez. Hot prospects flamed out. Free agents fizzled. And every year, the Royals languished near the AL Central cellar.But things changed in December 2012. General manager Dayton Moore thought enough pieces had been assembled and all that was missing was the right starting pitcher — someone who could be the staff ace and change a clubhouse culture accustomed to losing.Moore called up the Rays and made the deal.Thats when I knew, Gordon said, that we were going for it.Two years later, a trade that was panned by many has helped the Royals reach the World Series for the first time since 1985. Shields, who will start Game 1 at home Tuesday night against San Francisco, has been everything Moore had hoped he would be.Those opportunities to acquire a top rotation starter and an impact pitcher like Wade Davis, theyre not presented year-in and year-out, Moore said. We were fortunate the timing of it was such that it was staring us in the face and put us in a position to compete in 2014.It was a gamble. The Royals sent baseballs top minor league talent, Wil Myers, and a bevy of other promising prospects to the Rays.Shields went 13-9 with a 3.15 ERA last year, helping the Royals to their best record in more than 20 years. And over the course of the season, Davis established himself as one of the most dominant late-inning relievers in the game.This year, Shields finished the regular season 14-8 with a 3.21 ERA, helping the Royals return to the post-season for the first time since their only World Series title.He started their wild-card win over Oakland. He allowed two runs over six innings in earning the victory in a Division Series game against the Angels. And he was good enough to help the Royals beat Baltimore in the ALCS, running their poost-season winning streak to 11 games.ddddddddddddHes earned the nickname Big Game James for a reason, Royals manager Ned Yost said.On a team with few veterans, Shields has proved invaluable in October. And when he takes the mound against the Giants, hell be drawing on the experience he gained in 2008, when he tossed 5 2-3 innings for the Rays against the Phillies in the only other World Series start of his nine-year big league career.Hes been tremendous, said Greg Holland, the Royals All-Star closer. He takes that starting five as kind of collectively, Hey, we want to be the backbone of this team. We want to throw 200 innings apiece. We want to push each other, learn from each other.I think he also leads by example, taking the ball every five days and giving his heart and soul, Holland said. I think once you start rattling off good start after good start, it kind of builds on itself. You want to do just as good as the guy in front of you did.Shields also keeps the clubhouse jovial between games and ratchets up the intensity when its time to compete. Once hes on the mound, he stalks around like a lion, often roaring as he heads back to the dugout after a big strikeout.His teammates took notice, adopting many of his mannerisms.I just try to be myself and hopefully its contagious, Shields said. Thats about it. I mean, I have fun with this game. I feel like Im a grinder. I feel like I have a winning attitude, so hopefully it feeds off these guys, and we have fun with it. Were all little kids at heart.Shields can become a free agent after the World Series, and few expect him to re-sign with the small-market Royals. Clubs with far bigger budgets figure to drive up the bidding to the point that Moore is forced to bow out of the negotiations.All of that is for later, though. Shields is too busy with the present, trying to win a World Series ring, to worry about any of it.Obviously we understand the magnitude of whats going on in Kansas City, he said. Were going to go out there and play our game and trust our ability to win ballgames. 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