ekansekans's blog: "df"

PHILADELPHIA -- After nine months, one lockout, and only days of training camp, fans packed the arena to celebrate the Flyers return. Theyll have to wait longer to enjoy a win. The Penguins shut out the noise and the hype and shut down the Flyers, enjoying a fast start to an abbreviated season. Tyler Kennedy and James Neal scored goals 2:40 apart and Chris Kunitz added an empty-netter in the final seconds to lead the Pittsburgh Penguins past the Philadelphia Flyers 3-1 on Saturday. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 26 shots and earned his record 227th career win with the Penguins. "Well, its been a long time since we played, but I think the energy is there," captain Sidney Crosby said. "There are a lot of guys in here who are comfortable with each other and I think that will help in the early going." Flyers fans were in playoff form, starting with the booming, derogatory chants at Crosby from the moment the Penguins captain took the ice. Crosby was held without a point in the first game for both teams since the end of the 113-day lockout, but just seeing a healthy No. 87 on the ice gives the Penguins hope big things are ahead this season. "This is a tough place to play, for sure," Crosby said. "We saw exactly what we expected out there, tough crowd, tough team, but its a good experience for us, and well take it." One of the NHLs top rivalries kicked off the 48-game season. The Flyers eliminated the Penguins in six games last season in an Eastern Conference first-round playoff series. Counting the 2012 regular-season finale, the Penguins have played the Flyers eight straight games. This win was a first step toward putting that post-season disappointment behind them. "Not all of it, but yes, this feels a lot better," Fleury said. "We feel good about how things went, and we hope that we can build some confidence off this and really get going." Both teams get right back at it: Pittsburgh is on the road to play the New York Rangers and the Flyers are at Buffalo, both on Sunday. Philadelphia again proved it was immune to any lockout backlash: The crowd of 19,994 was the largest regular-season total in Flyers history. Fans filled the parking lots to tailgate hours before faceoff and almost everyone was in some sort of team gear -- and that was before they all received a free T-shirt as they entered the Wells Fargo Center. More than 2,000 fans packed the Flyers practice facility for the first day of camp and another 15,000 showed up for a free, open practice on Thursday. The Flyers sold more than 17,000 season ticket packages this season and every seat was full for pregame introductions. The Flyers aired a video tribute to their fans. Players, local dignitaries such as former Gov. Ed Rendell, and even a Ben Franklin impersonator all welcomed back fans and thanked them for sticking with the Flyers over the three-month lockout. Flyers chairman Ed Snider told the fans on video, "Were going to win a Cup for you this year." One by one, the Flyers skated out, ending with Claude Girouxs official introduction as the 19th captain in franchise history. The lights came on, a sold-out crowd was delirious with nine months of pent up exuberance, the arena was electric and ... Bam. Down 2-0 just in a flash. Paul Martins slap shot off a faceoff deflected off Kennedys stick and past Ilya Bryzgalov for the power-play goal. Neal, who scored 40 goals last season, followed almost 3 minutes later with another quick goal off a faceoff that made it 2-0 only 7:20 into the game and shushed the fired-up crowd. Bryzgalov, who played in Russia over the lockout, had 24 saves. "Considering some guys havent played since April, May, it was pretty good," he said. There were more videotaped messages during intermission. Giroux told the Flyers diehards, "Youre the best fans in the league." Giroux, the most popular Flyer, gave the fans even more reason to love him when he took an on-target pass from Scott Hartnell and slid it past Marc-Andre Fleury only 23 seconds into the second to cut it to 2-1. It wasnt enough. "After the first 13, 14 minutes, we seemed to play more of a style were looking for," coach Peter Laviolette said. "We had a lot of shots, opportunities, but didnt capitalize on them." The Flyers pushed hard in the final minutes on the power play, but were thwarted when Fleury dropped down and smothered shots around the crease. "He had to stand up big in the net and hold his own finding that puck," coach Dan Bylsma said. "He was real big in there, real strong. At times, I dont know it did stay out of there, but it was a big finish. It was fitting he gets that win in here." Notes: Fleury passed Tom Barrasso for the mark. ... Flyers F Danny Briere (wrist) sat out. Flyers D Andrej Meszaros played after suffering a torn right Achilles tendon in the off-season. ... Penn State was set to play Vermont in the first Philadelphia College Hockey Faceoff later Saturday night at the Wells Fargo Center. ... Scott Laughton, the Flyers 2012 first-round draft pick, made his debut. Cheap NFL Jerseys . - Three members of the Ontario Hockey Leagues Sault Ste. Cheap Jerseys Wholesale . -- Salvador Perezs pickoff throw changed the momentum, and Jeremy Guthrie was unhittable after that. http://www.bwjerseys.com/ . -- The Jacksonville Jaguars released veteran wide receiver Lee Evans on Sunday and signed sixth-year receiver Demetrius Williams The team also placed third-year wide receiver Taylor Price on injured reserve with a foot injury and signed guard/centre Josh Beekman. DETROIT -- Doug Fister appears poised to give the Detroit Tigers another late-season boost. Fister retired his first 17 batters and then settled for a four-hitter in Detroits 6-1 victory over the fading Cleveland Indians on Saturday night. His bid for a perfect game was broken up with two outs in the sixth inning when Ezequiel Carrera tripled over Austin Jacksons head in centre field. Fister (6-7) finished with six strikeouts and didnt allow a run until the ninth, when Carrera tripled again and scored on a groundout. That cost Fister his first career shutout. "I had some emotion running," Fister said. "It was, take a second to kind of regroup and kind of calm down, and go back to work. It was a good feeling." Detroit trails the first-place Chicago White Sox in the AL Central by 1 1/2 games. Fister went 8-1 down the stretch for the Tigers in 2011 after being acquired in a trade. He went down in his first start this year with a strain on his left side, and hes only recently looked sharp on a consistent basis. This was his fifth straight quality start. It was also the right-handers first complete game since July 2 last season, when he was with Seattle. "Its not coming -- its there," catcher Alex Avila said. "You cant get any better than the way hes pitched his last few outings." Ubaldo Jimenez (8-11) allowed six runs and seven hits in 5 1-3 innings for the Indians, who have lost eight consecutive games. Its their longest skid since dropping 11 straight in September 2009. Cleveland hasnt had a quality start since July 26. "Ive never seen a streak of non-quality starts like this," said manager Manny Acta, who used to manage the Nationals. "Even in 2007, when we were rebuilding things in DC and we practically had to have a tryout camp to find four starters, I neever remember a streak like this.dddddddddddd. We need someone to go out there and break this." Brennan Boesch and Jhonny Peralta each hit a double and a triple for the Tigers. Boesch hit an RBI triple in the second and scored on Delmon Youngs sacrifice fly to make it 2-0. Peralta hit a two-run triple in the fourth and scored on Omar Infantes single. Infante added a sacrifice fly in the sixth. The Indians have lost the first two games of the series by a combined 16-3. The game was delayed for 37 minutes in the second inning when rain began coming down in sheets. For a little while, it was pretty much impossible to see the Detroit skyline beyond right field. There was more rain on the way, but Fister worked quickly and the game finished with no further delays. He threw 107 pitches and the game took 2 hours, 19 minutes -- not counting the stoppage. Carreras first triple sailed over the head of Jackson, who has run down his share of deep fly balls at Comerica Park but couldnt reach this one. That ended the perfect game, but Fister didnt seem concerned. "It really didnt cross my mind, to tell you the truth," Fister said. "I go out there and just really focus on each pitch. Typically, I dont know what inning it is or how many outs there are but its just a matter of going out there and throwing." NOTES: Former Detroit INF Carlos Guillen was honoured before the game by the Tigers and threw out the ceremonial first pitch. Guillen announced his retirement in March. ... Cleveland DH Travis Hafner was activated from the paternity list before the game, but he sat out because of back trouble. ... Detroit will try for a sweep Sunday when RHP Max Scherzer (10-6) takes the mound against LHP Chris Seddon. It will be Seddons first big league appearance since October 2010. ' ' '