Haftungsausschluss » the slack when the top guys arent producing

LOS ANGELES, California - The Texas A&M Aggies 2016 campaign came to an end Friday with the No. 7 USC Trojans advancing to the NCAA Championship third round on a penalty kick shootout, 4-3. The squads played to a 0-0 draw after a grueling 110 minutes of action at McAlister Field.The shootout opened with USC goalkeeper Sammy Jo Prudhomme making a save on Sarah Shaws offering. The Trojans got the upper hand with Mandy Freeman making her shot.Texas A&Ms Mikaela Harvey and USCs Kayla Mills were successful with their second-round shots.The shootout evened out in the third round as Brittany Crabtree scored for the Aggies and Danielle Rice made a save on Morgan Andrews shot.USC gained the advantage again in the fourth round as Grace Pipers shot hit the crossbar for the Aggies and the Trojans Amanda Rooney found the back of the net with her attempt.In the final round, Haley Pounds put pressure on the Trojans, making her kick, but Alex Anthony answered with the decisive shot.The Aggies had a streak of prevailing in 10 consecutive shootouts snapped. The streak included seven NCAA Championship matches.In what was her collegiate match, Rice had a stellar performance in goal. She made eight saves and snuffed out numerous crosses and set pieces to register her eighth shutout of the season and the 11th of her career. Prudhomme made four saves for USC to register her shutout, including a stonewall of a solid blast from Emily Bates late in the first overtime period to stave off the sudden death goal.Rice made a pair of impressive saves in the first five minutes of the contest to keep the Trojans off the board.In the second minute, the Aggie goalkeeper made a kick save on a shot by Alex Anthony. In the fourth minute Rice used her fingertips to make a save on a shot by Taylor McMorrow.USC had a shot by Rooney hit the crossbar and hit in front of the goal line in the 19th minute. A Trojans shot by Ashleigh Plumptre went inches wide of the left post in the 32nd minute.The Aggies had a pair of scoring opportunities snuffed out by Prudhomme in the opening act. Crabtree was on the shooting end of both Prudhommes save, including offers in the second and 19th minutes.Crabtree appeared to score in the last 10 minutes of the first half. With an emergence of the clans in the six-yard box, Crabtree put a ball into goal, but she was deemed to have kicked the ball out of the keepers hands.USC owned the advantages in shots (11-4) in the first half. Corner kicks (1-1) and shots-on-goal (2-2) were even in the opening stanza.Rice came up huge in the second half as she made five saves. Ultimately, it was a defensive save by McKayla Paulson with the game in its waning seconds that sent the match to overtime. Andrews lofted a howitzer from 20 yards which leapt over Rice who was five yards off the line, but Paulson booted the ball clear of the goal with three seconds left in regulation.The Maroon and White end the season with a 12-8-2 mark. They earned their 22nd consecutive NCAA Championship bid and advanced to the second round for the 19th consecutive season.USC (15-4-2) heads to an NCAA Championship third round match against Utah on Sunday. The Utes toppled the Florida State Seminoles, 2-1, earlier in the day.?Head Coach G Guerrieri Texas A&M Head Coach G Guerrieri Opening Statement... Congratulations to Southern California, they are a great team. I think we did a great job of being able to keep them contained. Dani Rice in our defense was fantastic throughout the match, to shut out and attack like that. Then their goalkeeper made a great save. One great save, and we hit the post on the other one, but she was up to the task and they deserved to win. I didnt think we deserved to lose, but I think a very good Southern California team now moves on.On the season... This, to an extent, was a little bit like a lot of our season. True grit, fight, determination and love for each other. We pulled through some tough times during the season, and some really tough times today during the match. We came up a bit short, but they should always be proud of the effort.On what you tell to returning players... Well be second guessing ourselves on different things. The biggest thing is were going to return the majority of this team. The majority of the players in this lineup come back, with three of our redshirts coming back next year. Well be excellent going forward, and these seniors have been a big part in helping propel this program to the top in the very near future. Air Max 90 Canada Sale . Walcott is available for Saturdays home match against Southampton as Arsenal looks to extend its two-point lead at the top of the Premier League. The Gunners are currently the second highest scorers in the league but Wenger insists Walcott will add something extra to his team. Air Max Thea Canada .Y. -- Buffalo Bills coach Doug Marrone has drawn on his Syracuse connections once again by hiring Rob Moore to take over as receivers coach. http://www.clearanceairmaxcanada.com/air-max-uptempo-canada-sale.html . - Connor McDavid scored 53 seconds into overtime as the Erie Otters came from behind to defeat the visiting Guelph Storm 4-3 on Saturday in Ontario Hockey League action. Nike Air Max Flair Canada . It was the kind of score that might make everyone else wonder which course he was playing. Except that Graeme McDowell saw the whole thing. Crouched behind the 10th green at Sheshan International, McDowell looked over at the powerful American and said, "Ive probably seen 18 of the best drives Ive seen all year in the last two days. Nike Air Max Outlet Canada . -- Arizona knocked off some quality opponents, rolled over a few overmatched ones and grinded out victories even when things didnt go so well.The Senators and Blackhawks are moving to Round Two after blowout wins while the Penguins take the series lead over the Islanders. Scott Cullen has stats and notes from Thursdays NHL action. SENS SEND CANADIENS INTO SUMMEREven though they were at home, the Montreal Canadiens were fighting an uphill battle in Game Five. With strong goaltending and timely scoring, the Ottawa Senators took a 6-1 decision, winning the series four games to one. Coming into the playoffs, the Montreal Canadiens were facing a tough task if the Ottawa Senators continued to get the kind of goaltending that they had received all season. As it turned out, Craig Anderson was every bit as good as his league-leading performance in the regular season. After stopping 33 of 34 shots in the Game Five clincher, Anderson had a .950 save percentage in the series. As usual, the Senators got contributions throughout their lineup in Game Five. Cory Conacher potted two goals and linemates Matt Kassian and Jean-Gabriel Pageau each had two assists. Erik Condra led the way with a goal and two assists. For the series, the offensively-challenged Sens seemed to do just fine. Daniel Alfredsson and Erik Karlsson led the way with six points in five games while Pageau, Kyle Turris and Marc Methot each had a point per game. Down three games to one, the Canadiens were left to mount a series comeback, starting in Game Five, with Peter Budaj in goal after Carey Price suffered a leg injury late in Game Four. It was the first career playoff start for the 30-year-old and he struggled, stopping just 23 of 29 shots. On a night when the Canadiens had a bunch of early chances, but couldnt solve Anderson, they most definitely couldnt afford a subpar goaltending performance in their own net, so the lopsided result came with a sense of inevitability when it appeared that Budaj wasnt going to be matching Anderson, his former teammate in Colorado. Defenceman P.K. Subban was Montreals most dangerous player in the series and he and Tomas Plekanec tied for the team lead with four points in the series. Playing with a separated shoulder, LW Max Pacioretty was held off the scoresheet, David Desharnais and Andrei Markov managed one point apiece. Rookie RW Brendan Gallagher was a team-worst minus-7, yet also led the Habs with 22 shots on goal in five games. Its not as though Montreal didnt have their chances, they outshot the Senators by an average margin of 5.2 shots per game, but couldnt come close to matching the Senators goaltending. Its been a strong suit for Ottawa all year and it made the series more lopsided than the territorial play between the teams would suggest. PENGUINS PULL AHEAD OF ISLANDERSReturning home with the series tied at two, the Pittsburgh Penguins turned to Tomas Vokoun in net, replacing Marc-Andre Fleury, and Vokoun responded with a 31-save shutout in Pittsburghs 4-0 win. Vokoun wasnt the only insert into the Pittsburgh lineup. RW Tyler Kennedy played his first game of the playoffs and scored the first goal of the game. Sidney Crosby and and Kris Letang led the Penguins attack with a goal and an assist each; Crosbys goal a highlight effort, splitting the Islanders defence before finding tthe back of the net with a snapshot.dddddddddddd Islanders C John Tavares had a team-high six shots, but was also 5-for-18 (27.8%) on faceoffs. Penguins C Joe Vitale was 9-for-10 on draws. Even though Game Five was a healthy margin of victory for the Penguins, the Islanders still have a chance to extend the series. For all the skill that the Penguins have, the Islanders have been carrying their share of the play. The challenge facing them now, however, is that they need to try to get justly rewarded when they carry the play. It happened when Marc-Andre Fleury was tending the Penguins net; it hasnt yet happened with Vokoun between the pipes. BLACKHAWKS BOUNCE WILDThe Chicago Blackhawks made short work of the Minnesota Wild, coasting to a 5-1 win in Game Five and taking the series four games to one. Marian Hossa led the Blackhawks with two goals and an assist. Marcus Kruger brought the complementary offence with a goal and an assist, while Jonathan Toews and Duncan Keith each had a pair of assists. Wild LW Zach Parise was held without a shot for the first time since November 6, 2009; he spent the night matched up against the defence tandem of Keith and Niklas Hjalmarsson, along with the Blackhawks top line of Toews, Hossa and rookie Brandon Saad. Those five Blackhawks were dominant possession-wise, leaving few opportunities for Minnesotas top line of Parise, Mikko Koivu and Charlie Coyle. While Toews two assists in Game Five were his first points of the series, Chicagos other big guns produced. Patrick Sharp had five goals and an assist in five games, Hossa had six points, Keith had five and Patrick Kane had five points in the five-game series. Scoring was much more difficult for the Wild. Veteran C Matt Cullen had three assists in five games to lead the Wild in scoring. Parise had one assist (and was minus-7), Mikko Koivu had no points (and was minus-6), an injured Jason Pominville only played two games; its asking a lot for the Minnesota supporting cast to pick up the slack when the top guys arent producing at all. Ryan Suter played 31:37 per game, but didnt record a point and was minus-5. He spent much of the series trying to cover both of Chicagos scoring lines, a tall order. If the Wild were going to have any shot at upsetting the Blackhawks, they needed Chicagos goaltending to get shaky, but it didnt happen. Corey Crawford allowed seven goals on 139 shots in five games, leaving him with a 1.40 goals against average and .950 save percentage. Tough to beat a team that gets that kind of goaltending. Josh Harding had a difficult job, filling in for an injured Niklas Backstrom right from the start of the series, but he played well. His .911 save percentage was respectable, but the Wild were always going to need more than respectable performances if they were going to overachieve. In the end, the result of the Chicago-Minnesota series was as expected. A Stanley Cup favourite taking care of business against a team that barely squeaked into the postseason. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook. ' ' '