Coyotes visit Dallas with shot at ninth straight win

Hockey Betting Lines

03/21/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Phoenix Coyotes will try to match another franchise record tonight and also take a shot at first place in the Pacific Division when they visit the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center.

The Coyotes have already set a club mark for wins in a season with 45 and enter tonight with an eight-game winning streak -- one victory shy of the franchise record set by the Winnipeg Jets from March 8-27, 1985.

More importantly, Phoenix, which hasn't made the playoffs since the spring of 2002, has a chance to take over first place in the Pacific from San Jose. The Sharks are one point ahead of the Coyotes and are playing in Edmonton tonight.

The Coyotes have won their last two games in the shootout phase and earned a 5-4 victory over visiting Chicago on Saturday. Radim Vrbata scored the lone goal of the shootout to lift Phoenix to its fourth straight home win

In the third round of the shootout, Vrbata lifted a backhand into the top of the net, and Ilya Bryzgalov sealed the win when he stopped Patrick Sharp's stuff attempt.

Lee Stempniak had two goals, while Adrian Aucoin and Wojtek Wolski each had a goal and an assist for the Coyotes. Bryzgalov made 34 saves in the win.

"I thought it was a very entertaining hockey game," Coyotes head coach Dave Tippett said. "We found a little bit of a second wind in the third period."

Stempniak is riding a nine-game point streak and he has nine goals and two assists in eight games since coming over from Toronto in a trade on March 3. He has 23 goals and 41 points overall this season.

Phoenix has a solid 19-12-3 record as the guest this year and is beginning a three-game road trip this evening.

Meanwhile, Dallas enters Sunday with fading playoff chances and is closing out a six-game homestand tonight. The Stars are eight points behind Detroit for the eighth and final playoff seed in the West.

Dallas has won two of its last three, but Saturday's win over Ottawa was just the third victory in the last 10 games for the Stars. Trevor Daley notched the game-winner early in the third period as Dallas overcame a three-goal effort by Jason Spezza to clip the Senators, 5-4.

Brad Richards tallied twice with Mike Ribeiro and Jamie Benn striking once each for the Stars. Kari Lehtonen picked up his second win with Dallas after a 25-save performance.

"We were very resilient," Stars head coach Marc Crawford said. "This time of the year that's a great quality to have. We didn't play our best game that we've played probably over the last homestand, and we had to be resilient enough and determined enough and we were good when we had to be."

The Stars, who will begin a four-game road trip Tuesday in Nashville, are 20-10-6 as the host this season.

Tonight marks the final meeting of the season between the Stars and Coyotes. Phoenix has taken three of five from Dallas this year, but the Stars have posted wins in the last two encounters. The Coyotes have seven victories in the last 10 overall matchups and have also won five of their last seven in Big D.

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Betting the NFL preseason

Rule No. 1 in the gamblers' handbook states, "Avoid sports betting on meaningless games."

When you're drowning in a sea of baseball monotony, however, things change. Even a hint of pro football betting can persuade the most disciplined bettor to break a few rules. 

The NFL preseason is around the corner, with a tempting Hall of Fame match kicking off on Sunday. But bettors must stay vigilant. Wagering on NFL exhibition games is an entirely different beast than the regular season. Most fans don't recognize the players on the field because starters get as much action in August as Warcraft fans get on Prom night.

The only certainty about the NFL this time of year is uncertainty – and yet there are some who say betting in August can be a gold mine.

“I actually feel the NFL preseason presents solid profit opportunities for sharp bettors and handicappers,” Sports Expert Steve Merril explains. “My experience has been that the sportsbooks fear the preseason, which is evident by lower limits and massive moves.”

The line moves are attributed to the limited knowledge available regarding playing-time distribution. One team’s top unit out on the field for one more series has an impact on the pointspread. Setting lines in the preseason often is a shot in the dark.

“We base the betting lines mostly on public perception,” Pete Korner, founder of the Sports Club in Las Vegas, says. “It’s very tough to predict, almost a guessing game.”

The preseason is all about figuring out who’s in and for how long.

“It becomes a race between bettors and oddsmakers to find out how long the quarterbacks are going to stay in,” Korner admits. “If a sharp gets the information first, he could exploit an early line. I’m a full believer in moving the line in the preseason if the books find out something late in the week.”

Determining what each team’s motive is can help bettors handicap. To do this you must pay close attention to the philosophies head coaches employ in exhibition play.

“You need to know what a coach is trying to accomplish,” says Covers Expert Bryan Leonard. “Sometimes a new coach will want to instill a winning attitude. Others just want to make sure their starters don’t get hurt."

So how do you distinguish who’s playing scared and who’s playing for keeps?

“Head coaches on the hot seat or new coaches trying to implement a winning attitude usually try harder to win in the preseason,” Merril says.

Cleveland Browns head coach Romeo Crennel fits this criteria. He’s entering his third season as the sideline boss and has yet to lead the Browns to more than six wins.

Cleveland is an enticing bet as well because of the unresolved quarterback situation. General manager Phil Savage sacrificed the Browns’ first-round pick in next year’s draft for Brady Quinn, but the former Notre Dame quarterback hasn’t signed or reported to training camp yet.

Charlie Frye and Derek Anderson split time at QB last season and it looks like either player (or even Quinn) could be the opening-day starter.

“If a team has quarterback depth and the pecking order hasn’t been decided, it’s a big advantage,” Leonard says.

Even in the third week of the preseason when starters generally play the most, the final outcome of the game is in the hands of fringe players. A team's talent, all the way down to the last man on the roster, is something to consider.

The New England Patriots have long been considered one of the deeper teams in the NFL and coach Bill Belichick has said in the past he’s unafraid of stars getting hurt in games with nothing on the line. He shocked his colleagues in 2003 by playing some of his starters on special teams in the preseason.

“We want to have the team ready to play a tough, physical game and preparation has to go into that and I imagine a certain amount of injuries go with it,” Belichick told the Providence Journal in August 2003.

Bettors can only hope to find more teams that share the Pats' business-like approach to the preseason (New England is 17-9-3 against the spread since 2000) and take advantage of teams who detest the exhibition schedule.

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your bet on football needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.