Gagne, Flyers down Senators

Hockey Betting Lines

12/23/2008 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Simon Gagne had a goal and an assist as the Philadelphia Flyers downed the Ottawa Senators, 6-4, at Wachovia Center.

Matt Carle, Mike Richards, Jeff Carter, Andreas Nodl and Joffrey Lupul each had a goal for the Flyers, who have won two of their last three games.

Antero Niittymaki made 17 saves in the win for Philadelphia, which has won six straight at home.

Dany Heatley had two goals and an assist while Alex Auld gave up five goals on 31 shots for the Senators, who have dropped three of four.

Philadelphia held a two-goal lead starting the third, but Ottawa scored twice to tie the game.

However, Gagne gave the team the lead as he fired a shot on net from the left boards that hit off of bodies in front and got past Auld for a 5-4 lead with 5:30 to play.

Richards' empty-net goal in the final moments of the contest sealed the win for Philadelphia.

Ottawa took the early lead as Nick Foligno jammed home the puck after Niittymaki stopped the initial shot for a 1-0 advantage just 5:01 in.

Philadelphia, though, scored just 1:32 later as the team won a left circle faceoff and the puck went back to Carle, who snapped a quick shot on net that fooled Auld.

The Flyers took a 2-1 lead into the first intermission as, shortly after a power play expired, Scott Hartnell fired a shot on net from a sharp angle at the right side that hit off of Lupul, who was battling with a Senator next to Auld, with 1:29 left in the frame.

Ottawa took advantage of a 5-on-3 power play to tie the game as Jason Spezza fired a pass from the left side to the right where Heatley had the easy slam dunk just 2:58 into the second.

However, the Flyers got a power-play goal three minutes later to regain the advantage. Braydon Coburn blasted a shot from the right point that went wide of the net, but took a hop off the backboards and went back out front. Hartnell then got the puck to Carter, who knocked the puck home for his league-leading 26th goal of the season.

The Flyers took a two-goal lead less than two minutes later as Kimmo Timonen fired a shot on net from the left point that Nodl deflected past Auld for his first career goal.

Ottawa, though, scored twice less than three minutes apart in the third to tie the game.

On a broken play, the puck squirted out to the left circle and Heatley buried it at the 7:40 mark.

A bit later, a slap shot at the left point by Chris Phillips got past a screened Niittymaki to tie the game.

Game Notes

Philadelphia begins a six-game road trip in Chicago on Friday...Ottawa continues its eight-game road trip in Calgary on Saturday...Philadelphia has won four of the last six games in the series...Ottawa defenseman Anton Volchenkov left the game less than a minute into the first period after slamming into the boards. He was attended to by a trainer on the ice for several minutes before being helped off the ice. Also, Foligno left the game in the third period after he was hit in the face with a stick.

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Football Betting Sportsbook Accepts Credit Cards

Michael Vick is back, Brett Favre isn't and the NFC East remains the best division in the NFC, maybe in all of football.

As players start to gather for the start of another season, some things change and some stay the same in the world of the NFL.

Bet 2010 Super Bowl Odds

The NFC East has been the dominant division in the National Conference for a while, despite limited playoff success, save for the New York Giants surprise Super Bowl win two seasons ago.

Hell, there's a generation of kids in Texas who have never seen the Cowboys win a playoff game (last win was in 1996).

But collectively, the Giants, Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins (well, maybe not so much the Redskins) are as good as a division gets in an NFC conference that has struggled to stay competitive with the AFC side.

Sports bettors have both acknowledged the NFC East's dominance, as one glance at the NFL future odds menu will show.

Looking over the NFL betting odds at online sports book MySportsbook.com we see the top three teams listed to win the NFC Championship are all from the NFC East:

Dallas Cowboys - 7 - 1

Philadelphia Eagles - 13 - 2

New York Giants - 9 - 2

Slotting in behind these three are two teams from the NFC North: the Minnesota Vikings (15-2) and the Chicago Bears (10-1).

Again, despite the lack of recent playoff success, the Dallas Cowboys are popular with the sports betting community, as they hold 14% of all the money wagered on who will win the NFC Championship.

So far, the New York Giants are the bettors' favorite to represent their conference in the Super Bowl, as they have 24% of the overall NFC Championship betting volume.

And what about the Philadelphia Eagles? For the most part, the Eagles had a very productive offseason, the kind that could bring them back to the top.

They had a good draft adding the likes of WR Jeremy Maclin and RB LeSean McCoy.

Unfortunately, the team received a blow when long-time defensive coordinator Jim Johnson passed away on Tuesday.

But this team will make a real run at the division title this year. Going into the regular season, Philly is listed at +240 to win the division.

Last season the Eagles were 9-6-1 SU and 10-6 ATS.

Teams from the NFC East will play teams from the AFC West in the regular season and the Eagles haven't really been a good bet in the last 20 games against the likes of San Diego, Oakland, K.C. and Denver, only going 8-12 ATS.

Two seasons removed from that Super Bowl title, the New York Giants see themselves listed as the odds-on favorite in NFC East championship futures at +162.

Plaxico Burress is gone and with him all the bad publicity surrounding the gun in the sweatpants incident, but can they replace him in the offense?

Last season the Giants were a very reliable bet going 12-4 ATS.

In the Giants' last 20 games against fellow teams from the NFC East; they are 13-7 ATS.

Dallas is listed at +240 to win the division.

Dallas went 9-7 SU and 7-9 ATS last season and with the amount of talent the Cowboys have, a similar performance won't do.

The Cowboys have been atrocious against divisional rivals, going 6-14 ATS in their last 20.

The Washington Redskins are longshots to win the division at +550.

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