Canada burst out of the gate and scored two quick goals, and eventually had a 5-1 lead, when Russia came back and scored three goals in a matter of minutes, which brought them within just one goal (5-4). Canada held the one goal lead and brought home the first gold medal since 2009. It was a great effort by both teams, and made one hell of an entertaining Gold medal final. Congrats to Team Canada on your Gold and Team Russia on your Silver.
We received a “push” in the gold medal game since Canada won by exactly “1” goal.
We hit an easy winner in the Bronze medal game, as Slovakia won the game outright by a score of 4-2. We had Slovakia +2.5 for odds of 1.90 (they could lose by up to two goals), but anyone that took Slovakia to win the game outright earned themselves a huge winner! The odds were around 9.50 for Slovakia to win without any points. Congrats to team Slovakia for earning their first medal since 1999.
Lots of action in the league tonight, we have one of our own plus two system picks that happen to fall in the same game. (These are two separate picks and aren’t meant to be a parlay.)
San Jose Sharks @ Minnesota Wild: SHARKS 2.42
Risk: 2 Units | Win: 2.84 Units
The Sharks got back into the win column last night after losing four of their last five games. San Jose pounded Michael Hutchinson with 39 shots, Marc-Edouard Vlasic scored with 5 seconds remaining to give the Sharks the 3-2 victory over the Jets. Winnipeg managed just 19 shots on goal last night. The Minnesota Wild have also found themselves in a bit of a slump, as they have lost 7 of their last 10 games, which includes a 7-1 pounding via the Dallas Stars on Saturday. The Wild are struggling on defense, allowing an almost unbelievable average of 3.90 goals against per game across their last ten games. Minnesota now has one of the ten worst defenses in the NHL, currently ranked 22nd overall with 2.84 goals against per game. Minnesota has fallen to the 6th place position in the Central Division with 40 points, while the Sharks are 3rd in the Pacific with 47 points. The Sharks are 7th overall on the man advantage with a 21.4 PP%, and will
face the struggling Minnesota penalty kill unit that has killed only 73.3% of their penalties successfully over their last 10 games. Darcy Kuemper is probable for Minnesota tonight and was pulled against Dallas on Saturday after allowing 4 goals on 21 shots (.810 save percentage), he was relieved by Niklas Backstrom (he wasn’t much “relief”), Niklas faced just 14 shots during his time on the ice and allowed 3 goals, to finish with a .786 save percentage. Kuemper has a record of 13-12-0 this season, with a 2.63 GAA and a .904 SV%. Alex Stalock will likely get the nod for San Jose tonight, as Antti Niemi was in goal against Winnipeg last night. Stalock was in goal for the Sharks 2-1 victory over Minnesota back on Dec. 11th, he turned away 18 of 19 shots against him to finish the game with the victory and a .947 SV%. Alex is 4-4-1 this season, and has a 2.27 GAA accompanied by a .918 SV%. This is a very generous price on San Jose tonight,
they have a much better shot at beating the Wild than this price would indicate. The season series is tied 1-1, we’ll gladly take the Sharks at odds of 2.42 to defeat the Wild tonight.
System Picks (Members Only)
(Note: These are two separate picks that happen to fall in the same game, they aren’t meant to be a parlay.)
Colorado Avalanche @ Chicago Blackhawks: AVALANCHE 3.14
Risk: 2 Units | Win: 4.28 Units
Colorado Avalanche @ Chicago Blackhawks: OVER 5.5 GOALS 2.05
Risk: 2 Units | Win: 2.10 Units
