Bolts host Panthers in home-and-home finale

Hockey Betting Lines

12/27/2008 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Tampa Bay Lightning will shoot for a home-and-home sweep as well as their third consecutive victory overall when they welcome the Florida Panthers for a battle at St. Pete Times Forum.

The Lightning edged Florida in a shootout on Friday night in Sunrise to kick off the home-and-home set. It was the second straight win for Tampa Bay, which also earned a victory Tuesday in Pittsburgh.

Tampa had won back-to-back games on just one other occasion this season, when it picked up three straight victories from October 28 to November 1. The Bolts had lost three in a row and 12 of 13 games before winning their last two tilts.

Ryan Malone notched the game-winner in the fourth round of the shootout as Tampa Bay blew a two-goal lead but topped Florida, 4-3, at BankAtlantic Center on Friday.

After Lightning goalie Mike Smith foiled Stephen Weiss to open the fourth round, Malone stuck a forehander to the stick side on Florida netminder Craig Anderson.

Steve Eminger netted a goal and two assists for the Lightning. Mark Recchi and Evgeni Artyukhin also tallied while Smith came up with 25 saves.

Keith Ballard, Cory Stillman and Bryan McCabe scored for the Panthers, who have dropped three of five, but were coming off consecutive shutout victories.

Starter Tomas Vokoun allowed three goals on 27 shots through two periods. Anderson stopped all eight shots he faced in the third period and overtime. Vokoun had notched the back-to-back shutouts for Florida before getting solved by the Lightning early in Friday's game.

Florida is 2-0-1 against the Lightning this year, winning a 4-0 home decision on November 12 before posting a shootout victory in Tampa less than a week later. Despite Friday's loss the Panthers have taken four of six in the series and have won two of three in Tampa.

The Lightning are just 3-6-6 as the host team this year, while Florida is 8-9-2 on the road.

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FOOTBALL BETTING LINES

NFL Football Sports Betting

Two playoff teams from 2007 take center stage on the NFL Network Sunday night in a Week 2 NFL betting match-up when the (0-1) New England Patriots betting head south to Florida for a contest with the (1-0) Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

New England HC Bill Belichick couldn’t care less about the way his team plays in the preseason. With a chance to tie last week’s game with the Baltimore Ravens betting, He elected to go for the two-point conversion and outright victory. The conversion failed, and the Pats ended up falling to the Ravens by a 16-15 final count.

New England rolled off twelve unanswered points to give it a chance at securing the victory, but it never threatened to cover the 3.5-point spread. NFL bettors saw this one coming, as they bet the Ravens down from +6 to +3.5 as the week progressed. QB Tom Brady didn’t take part in the Patriots first preseason clash, but could see action this weekend.

His three replacements all put up embarrassing numbers. They went a combined 17 for 33, and threw three interceptions and no touchdowns. The New England defense was encouraging, as they held the Ravens to 2/12 third down conversions and surrendered just ten first downs. That ‘D’ should be bolstered with the addition of former Bucs and Denver Broncos betting safety John Lynch, who could make his Patriots debut on Sunday against his former mates.

HC Jon Gruden had to be impressed with the way his Bucs played on both sides of the ball in their dominating 17-6 victory over the Miami Dolphins in Week 1’s NFL pre-season betting action. Bucs bettors were quite happy with the effort, as they made a mockery of the fact that they were underdogs in the game.

The logjam at the quarterback position didn’t get any easier to separate for Gruden, as all four of his QBs had positive experiences in the first exhibition of 2008. The four combined to complete 28 of their 40 passes for 204 yards and a touchdown, and that was without starting QB Jeff Garcia in the lineup.

RB Michael Bennett had 19 carries and four receptions, totaling 90 yards and a touchdown. Expect to see more of Bennett, Kenneth Darby, and Earnest Graham, as they all compete for playing time with Warrick Dunn in the backfield this season. Defensively, the Bucs recorded four sacks and held the Fins offense in check all day.

First round draft pick Aqib Talib was impressive in the secondary, recording a tackle and two pass defenses in his debut. Don’t be surprised to see Talib in the starting lineup opposite Ronde Barber for the Bucs in ’08.

The betting trends suggest that NFL bettors should be backing the Bucs in this intra-conference exhibition.

These two teams hooked up last year in Tampa Bay, with the Bucs winning that game 13-10. The Buccaneers have only lost one preseason game at home dating back to the beginning of the ’05 preseason. The Patriots have had a mixed bag of results in their recent exhibitions. They have gone 2-2 ATS and SU each of the last three years.

New England currently sits as modest 1-point favorites in this preseason showdown with the ‘total’ now sitting at 34.5.

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