
The Flyers were in action last night at the Wells Fargo Center taking on the New York Islanders looking to rebound after their bad 5-2 loss to the New York Rangers on Tuesday night. The Flyers came out fighting as Scott Hartnell scored just 4:14 into the game then dropping the gloves minutes later with Colin McDonald. Mike Knuble would give the Flyers a two goal lead on a nice backhand move after a gorgeous pass from Claude Giroux. The second period was a back and forth affair until John Tavares threw a puck towards the net with one minute left that hit Luke Schenn’s skate then Erik Gustafsson’s skate and into the net to cut the Flyers lead in half at 2-1. The third period was all Islanders. McDonald tied the game midway through the period then he gave them a 3-2 lead five minutes later. The Flyers looked dead in the water before they pulled Ilya Bryzgalov and Hartnell tied the game on a dirty goal with 30 seconds left. It would go to overtime then to a shootout. Claude Giroux got them on the board in shootout with a sick move (Video of the Day) but they would lose in the fourth round of the shootout and only get one point. More here.
The La Salle Explorers were looking to continue their most impressive performance in the NCAA Tournament since 1955 last night as they took on Wichita State in Los Angeles. One thing that Wichita State had going for them was their size and that was an area that La Salle was weak in with center Steve Zack hampered by an injury and unable to play. The Shockers started the game on a 14-2 run and forward Carl Hall started the game scoring 10 of their first 14 points. The Shockers were dominating the glass early and the Explorers struggled to hit any shots at all. It was an uphill battle in the first half as Wichita State took a 38-22 lead to the locker room. They came out in the second half and did exactly as their coach said in the locker room and pushed their lead over 20 points. They hit their first two threes of the second half to open the lead to 22 at 44-22. The Explorers would fight back and cut it to 49-38 with 12:44 remaining. The Explorers would get no closer than 11 as the Shockers would capitalize on the Explorers mistakes and push the lead back up to 20 before winning 72-58. More here.
The Indiana Hoosiers were coming off of a wild third round win over Temple as they hosted the Syracuse Orangemen last night in the Sweet 16. The Orange got a great start in the game and jumped on Indiana early. They were relying heavily on their 2-3 zone to stifle the Hoosiers offense. They forced 10 Indiana turnovers in the first 10 minutes of the game. They got out in transition and pushed their lead to as much as 18 in the first half and took a 34-22 lead into halftime. The Hoosiers came back in the second half and made it a game. It was tight down the stretch but the Hoosiers, outside of Victor Oladipo, struggled to shut down the Syracuse guards and the Hoosiers could not get quick scores as the Syracuse zone forced Indiana to make the extra pass to get a good look. The Hoosiers couldn’t get completely back into the game and became the second No. 1 seed to fall in the tournament as Syracuse went on to win 61-50. More here.