My Sports News Digest

PHOENIX —Philadelphia Phillies ace Roy Oswalt has left the team for Mississippi, where tornadoes have caused deaths and widespread damage near his home.

The team said Oswalt went back to make sure his wife and daughter were safe and that there wasn’t any significant damage to his home. His parents’ home was destroyed by a tornado a year ago.

No timetable has been set for his return, though the Phillies were hopeful he’d be back for his next start.

Oswalt left the team before Wednesday’s game against Arizona, a day after leaving the clubhouse early following a rough outing against the Diamondbacks. The right-hander allowed five runs and six hits on three innings to see his 10-game winning streak end.

Is Teemu Selanne a Stars-killer, or is it just a coincidence because the future Hall of Famer plays in the same division as Dallas? It doesn’t really matter, because either way, the veteran sniper delivered a gut-wrenching momentum change to the Stars in a Finnish Flash.

Dallas held a 2-1 lead late in the third period, but Selanne scored a tying goal with just seven seconds left. The Stars seemed genuinely rattled once the game entered overtime, playing back on their heels until Bobby Ryan set up Cam Fowler for a devastating game-winner a bit less than two minutes into OT.

Anaheim 3, Dallas 2 (OT)

Make no mistake about it, this is a huge win for the Ducks and a tough loss to take for the Stars. Anaheim now has a loose grip on the eighth spot in the West, with 87 points in 73 games played. The Ducks are red-hot as of late, with a four-game winning streak and nine wins in their last 11 games. Those last three victories came in overtime and all four were one-goal wins.

If you’re the type of person who likes to call teams or players “clutch,” this would be a good time to do so.

Ray Emery is now three-for-three in his impressive NHL return, but he might have to put it on hold again, as the team announced that workhorse goalie Jonas Hiller has been reactivated from the injured reserve. Three is normally a crowd in NHL nets, so it wouldn’t be surprising if the Ducks opted for a Hiller-Dan Ellis rotation.

On the bright side, they now know that Emery is a guy they can lean on if Hiller’s vertigo-like symptoms act up again.

The Stars aren’t totally lost, even if this loss hurts their chances – especially if the last playoff spot comes down to Dallas or Anaheim. (Anaheim only has one more point with the same games remaining, but has 37 non-shootout wins compared to the Stars’ 33. In other words, the Stars will probably need to finish with at least one more point than the Ducks, because they likely won’t win the tie-breaker.) Dallas has 86 points in 73 games played at the moment.

Squandering this win makes the Stars’ Saturday match against the Nashville Predators a borderline playoff game. Nashville holds a two-point lead with 88 points but the Predators already played one more game, so a regulation win could be a difference maker for Dallas. Of course, a regulation victory would be equally huge for the Preds.

Ultimately, this is far from the end of the race for both the Ducks and Stars, but some might look back at it as a pivotal moment in each teams’ seasons … at least until they play again (in Anaheim on April 3rd).

Notre Dame shut down Seton Hall’s powerful offense in the second round of the Big East Tourney on Wednesday.

Luke Harangody bounced back into action for the Fighting Irish. He entered as the nation’s second-leading scorer at 23.3 points per game but missed 5 games after being injured in a 90-87 loss at Seton Hall on Feb. 11. He certainly wasn’t going to let Seton Hall beat them this time. He had 20 points and 10 rebounds off the bench in the 68- 56 victory for the Fighting Irish (22-10). Tony Jackson helped by adding 13 points and six assists.

Notre Dame is the No 7 seed and now improves to 6-14 in the Big East tournament and are on a five-game winning streak. The 10th seed, Seton Hall (19-12), finished their 3 game-winning streak and Sunday’s game will decide whether they can scrap into the NCAA tournament.

After the victory, Notre Dame coach Mike Brey is being praised for the outstanding job he has done from the sidelines. He even decided to change their offense a month before the Big East battle, a radical move at this stage of the season… but it paid off.

After Sunday’s game the Bruins want to see Penguins left-winger Matt Cooke suspended and it won’t be for the first time. Cooke leveled the Bruins’ Marc Savard with a blind side check, knocking him out and giving him concussion late in the third period. Savard was carried off on a stretcher.

Cooke has already been suspended twice this season for “unacceptable hits” and the Bruins who lost 2 -1 were angry, they had lost one of their best players to a cheap shot.

It’s “obvious that was definitely a dirty hit,” said Bruins coach Claude Julien, who said Cooke should be suspended. “That’s probably the classic blind-side hit to the head.” Cooke will not continue playing until he has been assessed and is not joining the Penguins in Toronto tomorrow.

It was Evgeni Malkin who scored the go-ahead goal for the Penguins early in the third period ending Boston’s five game winning streak. The Penguins remain unbeaten since the Olympic break.

 On Sunday, the San Antonio Spurs put an end to the Phoenix Suns five-game winning streak. Despite a 41-point and 12-rebound performance from Amare Stoudemire of the Suns, San Antonio beat them 113-110.

This is the Suns second loss since the All –Star break. Could they be on the slide? Jason Richardson had a helping hand in their defeat when he, embarrassingly, missed the perfect opportunity to bring them to a tie. With 40 seconds left to play he mistimed a dunk, there was no one blocking him and his one-handed slam bounced off the rim to the shock of his teammates.

It was a great day for the Spurs. Tim Duncan had 21 points and 10 rebounds, Manu Ginobili also scored 21, including 11 points in the fourth quarter and Tony Parker, who had just returned after missing their loss at Houston on Friday due to illness, added 16 points.

The Spurs meet New Orleans tonight and are 3.5 point favorites and currently have 74% of the betting volume on the spread at LinesMaker. Last night was the Spurs second win in their last five games. Phoenix had won 11 out of their last 13. Despite being one of the top scoring teams in the league, LinesMaker has the Suns odds of winning the NBA Championship at +6000.

Purdue lost star Robbie Hummel just last week and they seem to be feeling his loss already. Yesterday the No. 3 ranked team lost 53 – 44 to No. 14 Michigan State producing their lowest point total of the season.

The Boilermakers’ (24-4, 12-4 Big Ten) who were -4 favorites to win again Michigan State, were on a 10-game winning streak. Purdue’s coaches admitted Hummel was missed, but also said one player couldn’t account for Michigan State’s 46-20 rebounding edge.

Purdue have now lost all hope of a shot at the No. 1 ranking even though No 1 Kansas lost to Oklahoma State and No. 2 Kentucky to Tennessee the previous day. Michigan State is now level with Purdue in the Big Ten conference standings and Purdue falls half a game behind Ohio for the conference lead. Two wins could give Purdue a share of the conference title but it is uncertain how will they fair in their next games without Hummel. They meet Indiana on Wednesday.

As No 3 Purdue beat Minnesota on Wednesday 59-58 they lost their “do-it-all” junior forward Robbie Hummel to an ACL injury in his right knee. Could this mean they also lose hopes of making the Final Four?

The injury resulted when Hummel made a drive for the basket. He will not be able to play for the rest of the season. This is a blow for Purdue as he is without a doubt the team’s most indispensible player. He ranks second on the team with 15.7 points and 6.9 rebounds a game.

 ”Rob does something for us offensively and defensively that balances our team,” said Purdue coach Matt Painter when Hummel was out with a back injury last season. “He’s a facilitator. He moves the basketball, he makes the extra pass, he gets the ball inside. … Some of the basic things that don’t show up in a box score is what we miss.” Purdue struggled without him last season while he recovered from his back injury.

The Boilermakers (24-3, 12-3 Big Ten) are currently leading the Big Ten, are on a ten game winning streak and have their highest national ranking since 1994. LinesMaker have odds of +1200 for them to win the NCAA Championship. Now they are going to face a showdown with Michigan State on Sunday without a star player.

Kobe Bryant played an outstanding game against the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday. He made a 3-pointer with 4.3 seconds left leading the Los Angeles Lakers to 99-98 victory. Bryant had missed five games due to an ankle injury and returned in great form scoring a total 32 points for his team.

Well that was Tuesday….

On Wednesday it was a different story for the Lakers, who took 60% of the betting volume at odds of +1.5, lost to the Dallas Mavericks. Bryant’s performance was nowhere near as heroic making just nine of twenty-three shots and scoring 20 points. Both the Lakers and Bryant seemed tired after their 101 – 96 loss to the Mavericks, who continued to pound them even without their new marquee player Caron Butler, who was sidelined after he had a bad reaction to medication.

The Mavericks’ DeShawn Stevenson played some excellent defense again Bryant in the first half, Terry was shooting clutch after clutch and their offense was formidable. The Lakers who are +140 favorite to win the NBA Championship are statistically the league’s second best rebounding team, but they only took 36, their average is 44.8. The Mavericks have odds of +1500, they had 41 rebounds and are now on a five game winning streak.