The second leg of the Triple Crown goes Saturday when the Preakness Stakes is held at Pimlico Racetrack in Baltimore. If the Kentucky Derby is like March Madness or the NHL playoffs, in that it has a crapshoot feel, the Preakness is analogous to the NBA playoffs, where the favorites prevail. And standing in the roles of the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs are I’ll Have Another & Bodemeister, who finished 1-2 at Churchill two weeks ago and are slotted as the morning-line favorites in Baltimore. TheSportsNotebook will break down the contenders in the 11-horse field by first looking at the five new runners, and then the six holdovers from the Derby…
The Los Angeles Kings moved to within a game of sweeping of the NHL’s Western Conference Finals with a 2-1 win last night in Phoenix. The Coyotes came out and played hard, even got a brief lead, but in the end there’s too much talent on Los Angeles for this series to turn around.
After a scoreless first period, Phoenix scored early in the second. But as happens so often to a team swimming upstream, things immediately turned back against them. LA center Anze Kopitar scored the tying goal two minutes later and then Dwight King got the game-winner in the third.
The Miami Heat are officially in serious trouble—not getting a serious challenge—but trouble, as in can lose this series to the Indiana Pacers after a blowout defeat last night left the Pacers up 2-1 in the series. And one team that’s not in serious trouble is San Antonio, who laid waste to the LA Clippers to defend their home floor and take a 2-zip series lead. TheSportsNotebook recaps the games and looks ahead to a playoff doubleheader on Friday…
The defenses were sharp last night in Madison Square Garden as the New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers hooked up for Game 2 of the NHL’s Eastern Conference finals. But the Devils were the sharper of the two and they got the big goal when then they needed it to tie up the series at a game apiece with a 3-2 win last night.
NBA Playoffs: Sixers & Lakers Win Survival Tests
The Philadelphia 76ers and the Los Angeles Lakers each faced virtual must-win spots on their home floors—in both cases a loss would have moved them to within a game of elimination with two more road dates ahead of them, in Boston and Oklahoma City respectively. But the Sixers and Lakers got it done and kept their conference semi-finals series alive. TheSportsNotebook recaps both games and looks ahead to Saturday’s doubleheader…