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03/01/2007 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Colorado Avalanche start up a crucial five-game road trip this evening at the United Center against a Chicago Blackhawks squad that's hoping to end a recent slide.
Colorado begins this trek in 10th place in the Western Conference standings and 11 points behind the Minnesota Wild, the team that is holding down the conference's eighth and final playoff spot. For the franchise to advance to the postseason for a 12th consecutive season, the Avalanche need a strong performance on the road, where the club is just 12-15-2 on the season.
The Avs come in on a good note, however, as they halted a three-game losing spurt with Tuesday's 3-2 home win over Columbus.
Peter Stastny extended his point streak to 13 straight games with his 22nd goal of the season. The rookie standout has 19 points (8 goals, 11 assists) during the tear, which is the longest active streak in the NHL.
Teammate Andrew Brunette has notched a point in 11 consecutive contests after scoring the game's first goal. The veteran forward has five goals and 12 assists during his run.
Milan Hedjuk finished with a pair of assists for Colorado, which nearly received a shutout from Peter Budaj. The Slovakian netminder, who ended with 23 saves, allowed two goals in the final 1:56 of action.
Chicago fell for the sixth time in its last seven outings after Tuesday's 4-1 setback to Detroit at the United Center. Jeff Hamilton had the only goal for the Blackhawks, who played without leading scorer Martin Havlat.
Havlat sat out the contest with the flu but is expected to be available tonight.
Chicago traded its second-leading point-getter, center Bryan Smolinski, to Vancouver on Monday for a second-round pick in the 2007 draft.
The Blackhawks will wrap up a four-game homestand tonight and bring a 12-15-4 record at the United Center into this evening's tilt.
Chicago has won two of its three earlier meetings with Colorado this season, including a 2-1 triumph in the Windy City back in December. The Avalanche have emerged victorious in five of their last seven trips to Chicago, however.
<< Clippers, SuperSonics conclude home-and-home set
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Los Angeles Clippers and the Seattle SuperSonics play
the finale of a home-and-home set tonight at KeyArena.
This is the fourth and final meeting of the campaign between the clubs.
The Clippers have won three strai
<< Reeling Flyers resume road trip in Boston
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Martin Biron is expected to make his debut in net for the
Philadelphia Flyers when they visit the Boston Bruins tonight at TD Banknorth
Garden.
The Flyers, who have an NHL-low 42 points, have dropped five straight ga
<< Rangers host new-look Penguins in key Atlantic showdown
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Pittsburgh Penguins will bring a few new faces to the
rink this evening, when they head to Madison Square Garden to face the New
York Rangers.
On Tuesday morning, the Pens convinced 40-year-old winger Gary R
<< Nation's longest win streak on the line in El Paso
El Paso, TX (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The sixth-ranked Memphis Tigers own the
nation's longest winning streak at 17 games, and they are clearly
favored in tonight's Conference USA clash with the Miners of Texas El-
Paso.
Trojans take on Huskies in Seattle >>
Seattle, WA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 23rd-ranked USC Trojans and Washington
Huskies continue to jockey for position in the upcoming Pac-10
Conference Tournament.
USC has posted back-to-back victories to move to 21-8
Instate rivals meet in critical ACC tilt >>
Charlottesville, VA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 21st-ranked Virginia Tech
Hokies and the Virginia Cavaliers are two of the three teams tied for
first place in the ACC standings, making today's meeting in
Charlot
Mavs try to tie franchise-best winning streak vs. Cavs >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The red-hot Dallas Mavericks try to tie a franchise-best
14-game winning streak when they welcome the Cleveland Cavaliers tonight to
American Airlines Center.
Dallas won a franchise-record 14 straight games at the start of
WAC Champion Nevada to take on Utah State in Logan >>
Logan, UT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - With their fourth straight regular season
conference title already in hand, the 10th-ranked Nevada Wolf Pack
stroll into the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum tonight in Logan where they
will
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NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.
No. 1 always seems to fit USC.
Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.
Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.
Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.
"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."
Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.
"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."
The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.
"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."
Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.
"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"
USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.
"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."
While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.
As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.
But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.
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The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.
The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.
The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.
No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.
Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.
Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.
Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.
The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.
South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.
The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.
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