Öffentlicher Bereich » to win, and only reached a Game 7

SAINT JOHN, N.B. -- Rachel Homan has confidence, home ice and hammer heading into Sundays final at the Ford Womens World Curling Championship. She intends to turn those assets into gold. Homan, third Emma Miskew, second Alison Kreviazuk and lead Lisa Weagle out of the Ottawa Curling Club will start the championship game against Switzerlands Binia Feltscher with last-rock advantage. Its Canadas reward for their 10-1 record to win the preliminary round and their 8-3 playoff win Friday over the Swiss. None of the other 11 countries at Saint Johns Harbour Station were as effective at scoring more than one point with hammer as Canada, so having it in the first end is an advantage. "Its huge," Homan said. "If you play your game properly, you can control the game." Canada last won a womens world curling title in 2008, when Winnipegs Jennifer Jones claimed it in Vernon, B.C. The wait hasnt been as long for Switzerland, as Mirjam Ott took the title two years ago in Lethbridge, Alta. With spectacular runbacks and raise takeouts, the Canadians drained Switzerlands offence Friday to win the playoff between the tournaments top two teams. That provided the host country a direct route to the gold-medal game, while Switzerland needed a 7-3 win over South Korea in Saturdays semifinal to gain a rematch. Russias Anna Sidorova and South Koreas Ji-sun Kim will play for bronze Sunday in what will be a first womens world curling medal for one of the countries. Homans team had Saturday off, so the skip watched the game in her hotel room and conducted interviews by phone in a raspy voice. "The rest will be good for me," Homan said. "Im glad the final is not today. "Its been a long week and we all need a bit of rest, so were glad that we put in the work and played really well and were able to get this bonus day off. We have some confidence we can take over into the final." Feltscher, 35, won an Olympic silver medal in 2006 playing third for Ott, but Sundays final will be the biggest game of her career as a skip. Third Irene Schori, second Franziska Kaufmann and Lead Christine Urech made their world championship debut in Saint John, so a 9-2 round-robin record and a berth in the final is a surprise. "Weve got nothing to lose tomorrow," Feltscher said via an interpreter. "It would be a great pleasure for us to put that gold medal around our necks." Switzerland was the only country to beat Canada in the round robin. Down 8-4, Homan shook hands after eight ends. Canadian Al Moore, husband of television curling commentator Linda Moore, is one of Switzerlands coaches. "I dont think their expectations were particularly high coming in," Moore said. "My goal coming in was to be in the playoffs. I really thought they could do that. The gold-medal game is a bonus." "They believe they can win. They believe if they go out and play their best, they believe they can win and really thats the difference." Jones and Brad Jacobs gave Canada double curling gold at the Winter Olympics in Sochi last month, with Jones going undefeated en route to the top step of the podium. Homan is on the verge of making it a dominant season for Canadian womens curling. "We have pressure on ourselves as well," Homan said. "You want that gold when it comes down to it. "Seeing Jones and (Brad) Jacobs bring home the gold from the Olympics, I really want to make it a clean sweep for Canada and make sure weve got gold everywhere." The average age of Homan and her teammates is just under 26, but they have big-game experience. Theyve won back-to-back Canadian titles, took bronze in their world championship debut last year in Riga, Latvia, and made it as far as the semifinal in Decembers Olympic trials. Homan was a shot away from making the final last year in Riga, but she missed a double takeout with her last throw of the semifinal to give up a steal and lose 8-7 to Scotland. The travel, time zone and arena were kinder to Homan this time. "Youre going to feel nervous and that comes with the territory and that comes with the sport," Homan said. "We love playing with the pressure and the home crowd. "A little bit different than Latvia. We had about five fans cheering us on. Theres a lot more energy this time around." Nike React Wholesale China . Brandon Morrow allowed five runs on six hits over three innings. He struck out two, walked one and hit a batter. Edwin Encarnacion had a two-out, bases loaded two-RBI double in the third inning. Nike React Clearance . Greece was on the wrong end of a 3-0 rout to Colombia in its first game of the tournament. They surrendered a goal in just the sixth minute of the contest, and despite some promising attacking play, failed to crawl back into the match. Japan, on the other hand, struck first in its match with Ivory Coast, with Keisuke Honda putting his side into the lead in the 16th minute. http://www.nikereactwholesale.com/ . In this weeks Leaf Report podcast, James Mirtle and Jonas Siegel debate whether Toronto can continue their shootout dominance and discuss what Dave Nonis game plan should be heading into the trade deadline. Nike React Wholesale . The 7-foot-1 Hawes, who is in the final year of his contract, is averaging 13 points and 8.5 rebounds, both career highs, and shoots 40 per cent from 3-point range. The 25-year-old Hawes is in his seventh NBA season. Best Nike React Shoes .“I always did my stuff ahead of the deadline. The best deal Ive ever done was the Darryl Sydor deal. We did that at the end of January in 04, and Syd was the missing piece.The first Game 7 of the second round is on tap for tonight, as the New York Rangers visit the Pittsburgh Penguins at CONSOL Energy Center for the decisive battle of the Eastern Conference semifinals. Pittsburgh once held a 3-1 lead in the series, but the Rangers staved off elimination in Games 5 and 6 to set up a final clash for the right to play in the conference finals. The Penguins are aiming for a second straight berth in the East finals, while New York is hoping to return to the third round for the second time in three postseasons. Pittsburgh is 7-6 all-time in Game 7s and the Rangers are 7-5. The Penguins are just 2-6 when hosting a seventh game, while New York is just 1-5 as the road team in this situation. At the center of New Yorks series comeback has been Rangers forward Martin St. Louis, who lost his mother to a heart attack on Thursday but managed to play in Fridays 5-1 victory in Pittsburgh. St. Louis then played a big role in Sundays Game 6 triumph, scoring the first goal of the contest to help his team earn an essential win on Mothers Day. St. Louis and Carl Hagelin scored within a three-minute span early in Sundays contest, while Henrik Lundqvist made 36 saves to anchor the 3-1 victory. Derick Brassard recorded the other tally for the Rangers. "We wanted a chance and we have given ourselves that chance," said Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault. "It is what it is. Its going to be a lot of fun." Lundqvist is 9-2 in 11 elimination games with a 1.35 goals against average and .955 save percentage. He hopes to further improve that win/loss record on Tuesday to get his team back to the East finals after the Rangers lost to New Jersey in the third round of the 2012 postseason. The Swedish backstop is 2-2 lifetime in road elimination games and is 4-1 with a 1.00 GAA in Game 7s. New Yorks star goaltender did receive a $5,000 fine from the league after Game 6. Lundqvist was fined for unsportsmanlike conduct after spraying Pittsburghs Sidney Crosby with his water bottle during a scrum at the end of the second period and was Brandon Sutter provided the lone offense for the Penguins on Sunday. Pittsburgh netminder Marc-Andre Fleury struggled at times, taking the loss after stopping 26 shots. St. Louis scored just 3:34 into Game 6 to stake New York to a 1-0 lead. Rangers defenseman Anton Stralman wristed a shot from the high slot that was stopped by Fleury. The puuck then hit off the skate of Pittsburgh defenseman Matt Niskanen in front of the crease and trickled to Derek Stepan, who caromed a backhand shot off of St.dddddddddddd Louis and into the net for a lead. "It was Mothers Day. My dads here, my sisters here, its been a tough time for my whole family ... it was a good moment," said an emotional St. Louis, still battling through the sudden death of his mother on Friday. New York road the wave of emotion from that point on with Hagelin scoring the eventual game-winner less than three minutes later. "When he scored, on the bench you could see everyone jumping around," said teammate Derick Brassard of the St. Louis goal. "After that we really took off." After getting blown out in Game 5 and falling behind early on Sunday, the Pens know they need to get off to a better start in Game 7. "Its pretty clear, we didnt show up," Crosby said. The last two games our starts have hurt us, again tonight. We knew it was something we had to improve and we didnt. We paid the price for it. Hopefully, next game we learn those lessons." Although Crosby has just one goal in this postseason, Pittsburghs captain has added eight assists over his teams 12 games. Crosby has two goals and one assist in three lifetime Game 7 appearances. Fellow superstar forward Evgeni Malkin, who lead Pittsburgh with 13 points on six goals and seven assists this spring, had no goals and three assists over three career Game 7s. Tuesdays clash marks the first-ever Game 7 between the Penguins and Rangers. In fact, prior to Sunday, the teams only played one previous Game 6 -- the Patrick Division finals, a 5-1 Pittsburgh victory at Mellon Arena to close out that series on May 13, 1992 Pittsburgh is 4-0 all-time in postseason series against the Rangers, who finished second in the Metropolitan Division this season -- 13 points behind the division champion Penguins. New York also has never come back from down 3-1 to win a series. In 16 previous playoff series the Rangers trailed three games to one, the franchise never rallied to win, and only reached a Game 7 once until this season, in 1939 against the Bruins before losing that contest in triple overtime . The winner of tonights game in the Steel City will face either Boston or Montreal in the East finals. The Bruins and Habs also are tied at three games apiece and Boston will host Game 7 on Wednesday. Wholesale Hoodies NFL Shirts Outlet Jerseys NFL Wholesale Cheap NFL Jerseys Free Shipping Wholesale Jerseys Cheap Cheap NFL Jerseys China Wholesale Jerseys Wholesale NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys China Cheap NFL Jerseys ' ' '