Faustian Cuppa Chowdah, May 24th 2010: Sox Get Some 'Tek Support in Cleveland; Lightning Rod- Thomas Gives Up Early Goal, Shuts Out TB for 58 Min.

NHL: Just when you think you might have things figured out, guess again!

Unable to hold onto a pretty commanding 3-0 lead over the weekend, the Bruins went down 1-0 early against the Lightning on Monday night. Simon Gagne would get one past Tim Thomas just 1 minute and 9 seconds into the first to give Tampa the early lead. But unlike Saturday, that would be it.


Playing to a full house that included the C's Rajon Rondo and Pats head coach Bill Belichick, the Bruins would rally in the second, pulling even on Nathan Horton's even strength goal four and a half minutes into the period and taking the lead on a Brad Marchand tally around the 16 minute mark.

Tampa would furiously try and get one past Thomas in the 3rd to get the equalizer, but Thomas managed to turn aside all of them, even when starter Mike Smith was pulled for the extra attacker late in the 3rd. Rich Peverly would give the B's the breathing room they needed with all of 13 seconds remaining in regulation after scoring an empty-netter.

Dwayne Roloson did not get the start in net Monday- Lighting head coach Guy Boucher went with Mike Smith between the pipes. Over the weekend, Smith did not allow a goal after Roloson had given up three in the 1st period. However, on Monday Smith allowed two goals on 19 shots while Tim Thomas turned aside all but one of the 34 shots he faced.

The Bruins win Monday night by a 3-1 final and lead the series 3 games to 2. The Eastern Conference finals shifts back to Florida for Wednesday night, with a 8PM ET puck drop- the game will be televised on VS and the CBC.

WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: The Bruins or Lightning now know who they'll be going up against once the Eastern Conference finals are wrapped up.

It might've taken double OT on Tuesday night to secure the series win against the San Jose Sharks, but the Vancouver Canucks needed all of five games to advance to the Stanley Cup finals after winning the Western Conference finals 3 games to 1.

Kevin Bieksa scored a wobbly knuckler 10 minutes into the second OT in Vancouver Tuesday night to send the Canucks to the Stanley Cup finals for the first time since 1994.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NHL: The Hennepin County Medical examiner's office released a report that NY Rangers enforcer Derek Boogaard died from an accidental mix of alcohol and the painkiller oxycodone. Boogaard was a few months shy of his 29th birthday at the time of his May 13th death and had his season ended b a concussion earlier this year.

MLB: After getting 7 and ⅓ innings from Clay Buccholz Monday night, the Red Sox bullpen could not manage to hold onto a 2-1 lead, giving up 2 runs in the bottom of the 8th. Although JD Drew and Jed Lowrie would get 1-out singles in the top of the 9th, the game ended when OF Carl Crawford grounded into a double-play.

Tuesday night featured a matchup between Josh Beckett and Fausto Carmona that was a little more reminiscent of the 2007 ALCS.

Although the Tribe would get on the board first with an RBI single from OF Ezequiel Carrera in the bottom of the 2nd, the Red Sox would take the lead in the top of the 3rd and then add to it in the top of the 7th after Big Papi led off the inning with a double and Jason Varitek hit a 1-out homer to right field to make it 4-1.

Cleveland would get a run back in the bottom of the 9th thanks to a 1-out Travis Buck solo homer off of Papelbon. 1B Matt LaPorta belted another Papelbon offering pretty deep to left, but that ended up being out #3 and the Red Sox hang on to win by a final of 4-2.

Tomorrow's day game will wrap up the 3-game series before the Sox move on to Detroit. Jon Lester (6-1; 3.68 ERA) will get the start against Mitch Talbot (1-0; 1.46 ERA). The game gets under way from Jacobs Field (I consider 'Progressive' a slur) at 12:05 PM ET.

Mid Week Cuppa Sports Chowdah- Bruins Catch Seguin Wind, Even Series at 1-1; Here There Be Tygers; Twins Legend Killebrew Passes Away

RED SOX: As it turned out, Tuesday night's home game against Baltimore was rained out, so those of us interested in seeing how Wakefield would fare as a starter this season would have to wait a little longer.

On Wednesday night, it looked as though the weather would continue to play havoc with Boston's schedule a fairly dense fog moved into the area before the ballpark was hit with a deluge late in the scoreless game against the Detroit Tigers. The grounds crew rolled out the tarp in the top of the 8th, but barely a half hour later the game resumed. After relieving starter Clay Buccholz, Daniel Bard threw exactly one pitch before the game was suspended but came right back out and retired the side in order.

Carl Crawford managed a 2-out walk in the bottom of the 8th and went from 1st to home when Jarrod Saltalamacchia hit a double to left center to score the game's only run. Like the weather, Papelbon's 9th wasn't pretty but it was good enough for the save in the 1-0 game.

Buccholz threw a career high 127 pitches in 7 innings of work while Detroit starter Phil Coke (who hadn't allowed a Red Sox batter past first base) needed only 78 pitches for as many innings.

Thursday night's game has all the makings of a pitcher's duel as Josh Beckett (3-1; 1.75 ERA) goes up against Detroit's Justin Verlander (4-3; 2.91 ERA) who no-hit the Toronto Blue Jays earlier this month for his second career no-hitter.

OTHER RED SOX NEWS: Daisuke Matsuzaka went on the 15-day DL this week with what Red Sox medical staff are calling a sprained elbow ligament. The Japanese right-hander will be re-examined after 2 weeks and could miss up to a month.

Sports Illustrated photo

ELSEWHERE IN MLB: One of the first-ever Minnestoa Twins, hall-of-Famer Harmon Killebrew, passed away from esophegeal cancer at his home in Scottsdale, AZ on Tuesday. The 74 year old was born in Payette, ID and was said to have built up his strength by hauling around paint and 10 gallon pails of mils on the family farm in Idaho.

Killebrew is 11th on baseball's all-time home run list and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of fame in 1984 some 10 years after calling it a career.

The Twins will hold a public memorial at Target Field on May 26, while a public service will be held in Peoria, AZ on Friday. Killebrew will reportedly be laid to rest in his Idaho hometown in a private service on May 23rd.

BOSTON BRUINS: Tuesday night's game started off with that sinking 'uh-oh!' feeling for Bruins fans when the Tampa Bay Lightning got one past Tim Thomas 13 seconds into the game for the quick 1-0 lead. The Lightning would head off to the 1st intermission holding a 2-1 lead, with Nathan Horton getting a rare power play goal for Boston.



However, the second period saw Boston rally thanks in large part to a pair of goals from first round draft pick Tyler Seguin, who notched the game-tying tally not even 50 seconds in. David Krejci would put the B's up 3-2 while Seguin managed to add to the lead with his 2nd goal of the night some 4 minutes later. Vinny LeCalvier would then score to bring the Lightning back within 1 goal, but Micheal Ryder would notch an even strength goal at the 16:16 mark and a power play goal with 19 seconds left in the 2nd to make it a 6-3 game.

Although playing with a lead was still something new and novel for the Bruins in the Eastern conference, it was starting to look as though that 3 goal lead might not be enough in the third when Steven Stamkos and Dominic Moore managed to score for the Lightning to make it a 1-goal game. However, the Bruins would hang on to win by a final of 6-5. However, the Bruins were able to run off the clock and hang on to win by the 6-5 final, evening up the Eastern conference finals at 1-1.

Tim Thomas stopped 36 of 41 shots faced while Dwayne Roloson was yanked after allowing the 6th goal. With Patrice Bergeron out of the lineup, Tyler Seguin stepped in and had 2 goals and 2 assists while Micheal Ryder had 2 goals and an assist.

As many other NHL observers have pointed out, this creates something of a dilemma for when Patrice Bereron is ready to come back- do you continue riding the hot hand in Seguin, or go with the veteran? Good problem to have, at least...

The series resumes on Thursday night at the St Pete Times Forum in Tampa, FL. The game will be carried on VS and gets underway a 8:00 PM ET.


ELSEWHERE IN THE NHL: 28 year old NY Rangers enforcer Derek Boogaard was found dead in his Minneapolis apartment over the weekend. Boogaard had sustained a season-ending concussion a few months earlier. A cause of death has yet to be determined, as the results for an autopsy are expected to take two more weeks.

BOSTON CELTICS: Head coach Doc Rivers travelled to Florida to undergo surgery, returning to Boston on Tuesday. The team said that the operation was to remove a benign polyp from Rivers' throat and that doctors have declared him cancer free.