NHL Hockey Betting: Tonight Tampa Bay at Vancouver 10:05 PM ET


by Bob Acton - Date: 2007-03-06 - Word Count: 310 Share This!

Whether or not the Tampa Bay Lightning finish atop the NHLs Southeast Division will probably depend on how it concludes a current season-long six-game road trip. Part III of the venture takes place Tuesday night when Coach John Tortorellas team visits Vancouver in one of 10 games on the schedule.

The Lightning split the first two games of the trip, beating Washington 5-4 in overtime on March 1 and losing 6-2 at Florida two nights later, and take a 37-26-4 record into GM Place. Tampa Bay still has to travel to Edmonton, Calgary and Toronto before returning home to face Buffalo on March 16.

Southeast Division teams have been toasted by the Canucks, Oilers and Flames this season, winning just one of 11 games. That statistic doesnt bode well for Tampa Bay, which sits tied with Atlanta for first place in the Southeast Division with 78 points.

Vancouver leads the Northwest Division with a 38-22-5 mark for 81 points, but Minnesota and Calgary are lurking with 79 points apiece. The Canucks, 21-9-2 at home, have won two straight 4-3 decisions. The latest was a clutch shootout victory over the Wild on Sunday that improved their OT record to a remarkable 14-5. Theres a lot of tight games, said Daniel Sedin, who beat goaltender Nicklas Backstrom in the sixth round of the shootout to win it. A lot of games going into overtime and shootouts and if we hadnt won those we wouldnt be in the race now.

Sedin leads Vancouver in goals (29) and points (63). Tampa Bay features two of the leagues leading scorers in Vincent Lecavalier (42 goals, 36 assists) and Martin St. Louis (39, 50), so Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo can expect a busy night.

Sportsbook.com lists the Canucks at -140 and the total at 5.5 goals. Considering the Lightning allowed 10 goals in the last two games, the over is enticing.

Related Tags: sports betting, online gambling, online sports gambling, online betting

Your Article Search Directory : Find in Articles

© The article above is copyrighted by it's author. You're allowed to distribute this work according to the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs license.
 

Recent articles in this category:



Most viewed articles in this category: