WILKES-BARRE, Pa. -- Will ONeill is making a name for himself in the American Hockey Leagues Calder Cup playoffs. The second-year pro is tied for the league lead with 10 post-season assists. Hes playing key minutes for a defence that is allowing fewer than two goals a game. Just about the only thing missing from his resume was a goal. ONeill fixed that in a dramatic way Thursday night, breaking a scoreless tie late in the second period and assisting on the winner in the third as the St. Johns Ice Caps won a third straight game in the Eastern Conference finals, beating the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins 2-1 in Game 4 Thursday night. The IceCaps can advance to the Calder Cup finals with a win in Game 5 on Saturday night in Wilkes-Barre. "It feels nice to get a goal, but it feels great to win," ONeill said. "Weve got a long way ahead of us here, but well enjoy it for a little bit." Josh Lunden also scored for the IceCaps, who went 2 for 9 on the power play. "I thought we did a good job drawing penalties, getting to the net," ONeill said. "Thats the key to getting to any goalie." Brian Dumoulin scored a third-period goal for the Penguins, who went scoreless on six power-play opportunities. "Our power play had some good looks, but at the end of the day, myself and our unit definitely have to put some in the back of the net," Dumoulin said. "Its not just getting chances anymore. We have to score." The Penguins were called for six minor penalties in the second period, contributing to a massive 19-2 shots advantage for the IceCaps in the period. Penguins goalie Peter Mannino stopped the first 18 shots he faced, but the 19th was a one-timer from ONeill from the top of the left faceoff circle that trickled past his pads with 26.1 seconds left in the period. ONeills goal came on a 5-on-3 advantage after centre Zach Sill took a double minor for high-sticking IceCaps winger Andrew Gordon with 1:07 left in the period while the Penguins were already killing a penalty. "We were getting a lot of chances," ONeill said. "It was just a matter of time before one went our way. We had a 5-on-3, had good traffic at the net and we buried one." The Penguins tied the score 1-1 at 6:49 of the third when a Dumoulin shot from the blue-line that looked to be headed well wide of the left post hit defenceman Brenden Kichton and skipped past goalie Michael Hutchinson. The Penguins took another penalty less than a minute later, however, and St. Johns retook the lead with a second power-play goal. Lunden collected the rebound of an ONeill shot behind the net and wrapped it inside the post with 10:41 left. "They had some momentum going their way," ONeill said. "It was good to draw a penalty, get back into it and bury one on the power play." . Almost 40 years to the day, the two teams will meet again, this time at BC Place, to celebrate the past and try to earn important points for the present. . "We cannot stay the same way the whole season long," said Reyes. "This is not acceptable. Something needs to change because were a better team than what were showing right now. Its a long season and we just need to continue to push." Its been a frustrating week for the ballclub.
http://www.cheapbearsjerseysonline.com/ ... sey-online. Osasunas Alvaro Cejudo drove the ball onto the crossbar in the fifth minute and his team squandered several long-range strikes before he was denied one-on-one by goalkeeper Jaime Jimenez in the 50th. . "Hopefully well get all this out of the way," he said, "and everyone will be healthy the rest of the year." Zimmerman was placed on the 15-day disabled list Sunday and is expected to miss between four to six weeks. . Edmonton opened the season with 14 straight victories before falling Friday night 10-8 to the host Colorado Mammoth in National Lacrosse League action.The Toronto Blue Jays have just passed the quarter mark in the season, at the .500 mark at 21-21. Thats not overwhelming, but its still four games better than they were a year ago when they were sitting at 17-25 through May 17. More importantly, now, they are tied with the Boston Red Sox for third in the American League East, just a game-and-a half back of the first-place Baltimore Orioles. Not only that, they have the top-ranked hitting team in the American League with a .255 average , 56 homers and a league-leading 207 runs scored and the top OPS of .762. Theyve improved by leaps and bounds in the fielding department, as well. Theyve committed only 20 errors in 42 games, second fewest to only Baltimores 19 in the American League. There are still a few red flags, though. The Blue Jays team ERA is 4.56, ranked 11th in the American League and worst in their own division. With the problems at the back end of the rotation - Brandon Morrow (DL now), J.A Happ ( struggling until Thursday night) and Dustin McGowan (moved to the bullpen on Thursday) - the Jays have still managed 19 quality starts in 42 games. Thats tied with the Yankees for second in their division behind Bostons 27. Tampa Bay has 14 quality starts, largely because three of their starting pitchers have been injured, and Baltimore is somehow leading the division with only 13 quality starts. Another thing that should be of concern is who the Jays have been beating. They are a combined 10-3 against the Philadelphia Phillies, Cleveland Indians and Houston Astros, teams that have a combined record of 50-70. The Jays are 11-18 against all the rest. Remember, too, over their final 120 games, exactly half are against their own division. Then you have seven against the AL West-leading Oakland Athletics, six against the AL Central-leading Detroit Tigers and 13 Interleague games including four with the NL Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers, three with the St. Louis Cardinals, three with the Cincinnati Reds and a bit of a respite in September with three at home against the Cubs. The two biggest question marks are how they sort out those four and five slots in their rotation and whether they can start playing better against the teams in their own division with regularity the rest of the way. Right now they are only 7-9 against the East and 16-19 against the entire American League with the season nearly seven weeks old. - You may have missed it since it was a west coast game, but the Miami Marlins called up 24-year-old right hander Anthony DeSclafani the other night after the injury to their ace Jose Fernandez and gave him his first Major League start against the Dodgers in Los Angeles. He was almost considered a throw-in in the massive deal with the Blue Jays two years ago, that brought Mark Buehrle, Jose Reyes and others to the Jays. DeSclafani didnt disappoint in his debut. He pitched six solid innings, striking out seven in a 13-3 blowout of the Dodgers. He not only got his first Major League win, but he stroked a two-run single for his first Majjor League hit.dddddddddddd. The funny thing about the hit is, its one more than the entire Marlins pitching staff had through that night. The Marlins pitchers were a collective 0 for 64. The one mild surprise may be that DeSclafani made it to the Majors before his minor=league teammate lefty Justin Nicolino, who also came over in that trade with the Blue Jays. - Joel Sherman of the New York Post mentioned the other day that the Mets should deal from strength and package a couple of their young arms for a much needed bat and suggested they go after the Blue Jays Jose Bautista or Chicago White Sox shortstop Alexei Ramirez. The Mets called up two of those dynamite young arms this week in Rafael Montero and Jake deGrom, who went a combined 13 innings and gave up only four runs total. Still, the Mets lost both games at Citi Field, 3-0 Wednesday and 1-0 Thursday. The Mets, though they are 19-21, are still just two games out of a wild card spot in the National League. The pressure is on them to finally make it back to the post-season. They should be an interesting team to watch as the trade season approaches in late June and then on into July. - Bad break for former Blue Jays catching prospect Travis DArnaud, who went over to the Mets as part of the R.A. Dickey deal. He was accidently struck on the head by the follow-through swing by the bat of Alfonso Soriano of the Yankees on Tuesday night. He experienced headaches afterwards and then was put on the seven-day concussion disabled list. - Jose Abreu, the White Sox Cuban slugge,r is off to an incredible start in the Majors. He has 15 homers in his first 42 games. Hes only the fourth player in Major League history to accomplish that feat joining Wally Berger, Kevin Maas and Wally Joyner. Of the latter three, Joyner had the best career, but was always overshadowed by the steroid-sluggers of the day including Jose Canseco. - I was wondering the other day if it would be possible for the Yankees Masahiro Tanaka to win the Cy Young Award, the Rookie of the Year and the MVP Award all in the same season. He and Abreu are the top two first-year players so far. Hes already a front runner for the Cy Young and, if he leads the Yankees to a playoff berth, he would have to be considered for the Most Valuable Player as well. - If you think the Blue Jays starting pitching is a question mark, how about the Texas Rangers? Over the past 16 games, the Rangers have had one start of more than six innings by a pitcher other than Yu Darvish. Darvish, of course, is the man the Blue Jays will be facing Friday night to kick off a three-game set at Arlington against Prince Fielder and the Rangers. - The Dodgers are off to much of the same kind of start they were a year ago before the arrival of Yasiel Puig. They are 22-20 and trail the first-place San Francisco Giants by five full games in NL West. Fielding has been a major problem. Theyve made 36 errors in 42 games and have given up 24 unearned runs, tied with Cleveland for the second most in the Majors. ' ' '
