Blues play host to sliding Wild

Hockey Betting Lines

02/18/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The St. Louis Blues will try to continue their home success when they host the sliding Minnesota Wild in today's matinee battle at Scottrade Center.

The Blues have been nearly unbeatable on home ice all season long, posting an amazing 25-3-4 mark in the Gateway City. St. Louis has also gone without a regulation loss as the host since Dec. 3 and is 17-0-3 in its last 20 games on friendly ice.

With a 10-12-3 record on the road this year, it's safe to say the Blues can thank their home play for their current standing in the Western Conference. St. Louis is seeded fourth in the West and is five points ahead of Nashville for that distinction. The Blues are also just five points in back of Detroit for first place in the Central Division.

Following today's game, the Blues will play seven of their next eight contests on the road.

The Blues turned in a dominating performance in Thursday's home test against the New York Islanders. T.J. Oshie had a goal and two assists and Brian Elliott made 26 saves to lift St. Louis to the 5-1 victory.

Jason Arnott, Kevin Shattenkirk, Andy McDonald and David Perron all scored for the Blues, who rebounded nicely after Tuesday's 2-1 loss at Columbus. St. Louis scored five unanswered goals on Thursday to win for the sixth time in eight games.

"We kind of kept it pretty simple," said Blues defenseman Alex Pietrangelo. "We scored four goals on just shots and tips, doing what we do best. That's putting pucks to the net, getting in front of the goalie's eyes and banging and crashing."

Blues defenseman Carlo Colaiacovo missed Thursday's game with a wrist injury and he may be able to return for today's tilt.

The Wild's struggles continued Thursday night, as Minnesota lost its sixth straight game with a shootout loss against visiting Winnipeg. The six-game slide is Minnesota's second-longest skid of the year after an 0-5-3 stretch from Dec. 13-28.

Minnesota, which was leading the NHL in points in early December, has gone 5-16-6 over its last 27 games to deliver a serious blow to its playoff hopes. The Wild enter tonight trailing Phoenix and Los Angeles by six points for the last postseason berths in the West.

The Wild were burned by Evander Kane in Thursday's loss, as Winnipeg's star forward scored twice in regulation and added the winner in the shootout to lift the Jets to the 4-3 decision at Xcel Energy Center.

Devin Setoguchi had two goals and an assist in the loss while Mikko Koivu added a goal and a helper for the Wild. Niklas Backstrom made 24 stops in the loss.

"It's not fun when you lose, so it wasn't fun," said Setoguchi. "We played a better game and scored, but our game isn't run and gun."

The Wild lost defenseman Mike Lundin to an undisclosed injury on Thursday and he is questionable for today's game.

Minnesota is 12-13-5 as the guest this year and has lost 13 of its last 15 road games.

The Wild were 2-0 against the Blues this year after the clubs met twice in St. Paul, but St. Louis recorded a 3-2 shootout victory on home ice when the teams battled on Jan. 14. Minnesota has taken six of eight overall in this series, but the Blues have won five of the last seven encounters at Scottrade Center.

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Elite 8 NCAA Tournament Betting at online sportsbook MySportsbook.com

In what should be an outstanding Saturday of March Madness betting action, the top four teams in the South and West Regions square off in what should be extremely close match-ups. Three of the four teams are coming off extremely close games on Thursday evening, only UCLA won semi comfortably over Pitt 64-55.

Ohio State is coming off their second game in a row where in all reality they should have lost. Of course that doesn’t matter now since the name of the game is “survive and advance” but as the tournament continues, they can’t afford to keep getting down to their opponents early. Kansas also avoided a scare by holding off a scrappy Southern Illinois squad. In the third thrilling game of the evening Memphis pulled off the minor upset (+3.5) despite being the higher seed to Texas A&M.

Although the spreads are fairly small for Saturday’s games, MySportsbook.com continue to bet against the underdogs. Despite OSU’s two scares, 86% of the “betting public” feels the Buckeyes (-1.5) have what it takes to make the Final Four. In fact, so much of the early money is on OSU that the line has already moved from -1 to -1.5. In the second game of the doubleheader, Kansas and their high-powered offense are 2 point favorites as they take on UCLA and their effective defense. About 63% of the early money thus far is once again backing the favorites. If those percentages stay that high, don’t be surprised if this line moves as well. If you like Kansas (-2) you might want to jump on it early.

Memphis vs. Ohio State

Both squads were involved in thrillers on Thursday evening and should come out fired up. OSU can ill afford to get behind early like they did versus their previous two opponents (Xavier, Tennessee). Greg Oden needs to stay out of foul trouble; the Buckeyes are a completely different team when he is on the court. Memphis definitely has the athleticism and length to match-up with OSU. Of Memphis’ five leading minute earners, the shortest of the bunch is 6’5”. Each team has a very effective defense; Memphis surrenders 62.3 PPG whereas the Buckeyes give up only 61 PPG. With those type of numbers, it isn’t surprising that Memphis covered the UNDER almost 69% of the time this season. As a favorite, OSU has covered the UNDER almost 66% of the time over the last three seasons. The major concern for Memphis which is magnifies this time of the year is their brutal foul shooting (62%). This season, OSU is 17-11 ATS versus teams with a winning record and 7-2 ATS in all tournament games. Memphis has been an extremely reliable cover in tournament play in recent years with a 23-8 ATS record over the last three seasons.

UCLA vs. Kansas

In the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader, UCLA will play in a role which they are very unfamiliar with that of the underdog. Only twice this season have they been getting points from the handicappers and both times they covered. Over the last three seasons UCLA is a reliable 23-7 ATS in this unfamiliar role. UCLA has not fared well against Big 12 opponents recently going 1-7 ATS since 1997. Giving up only 59.6 PPG, UCLA will definitely look to do what they do best: keep this game as low scoring as possible. Their defense has been especially tough during the tournament. UCLA opponents have been able to muster up only 48.7 PPG while shooting a combined 34.5% from the field. UCLA definitely has a challenge at hand with a Kansas team that is capable of putting points on the board in bunches. As a team, they average 79 PPG and shoot an impressive 49.6% from the field and 39.4% from beyond the arc. During the tournament Kansas has been “lights out” from the field having shot 56.2%.

With Friday -105 juice on Basketball betting, MySportsbook.com is the place to bet on all of the “March Madness” action.  Don’t forget to monitor who the public is backing at MySportsbook.com’s “Betting Trends”.  By doing so, you have the best chance of predicting a possible line change, thus getting the best value for your wager.

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