Reach West finals
Minnesota to
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Corey Crawford made 34 saves, Patrick Kane had a goal and an assist, and the Chicago Blackhawks advanced to the Western Conference finals with a 4-3 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night for a four-game sweep.
The Wild never led in the series. Goals by Jared Spurgeon and Nino Niederreiter with 2:18 and 1:27 left gave them one last shot, with their net emptied. The final few whacks were either wide or turned aside by Crawford, who stopped 124 of 131 shots in the four games.
Brent Seabrook and Andrew Shaw scored for the Blackhawks, who were down to five defensemen after a serious injury to veteran Michal Roszival. Marian Hossa had a long empty-netter, and Jonathan Toews and Bryan Bickell had two assists apiece.
Let’s cut to the chase going into the Pac-12 baseball showdown this weekend at Phoenix Municipal Stadium.
No. 5 UCLA is No. 2 nationally in pitching with a team 2.20 earned run average. No. 13 Arizona State is No. 9 in the Pac-12 with a 4.11 ERA.
If ASU (29-15,14-7) is to close its twogame gap in the Pac-12 standings, its pitching must be the best of the season because there is no reason to expect the Bruins (34-11, 16-5) to be anything other than imposing on the mound.
The Sun Devils used six pitchers for all but two-thirds of an inning last week at California, when they lost their first Pac-12 series. Coach Tracy Smith said not to expect additional arms coming out of the bullpen in the UCLA series beginning Friday.
“We are searching for people to be consistent enough and show us something where you’re comfortable enough to say they’re going to compete in the strike zone in the game,” Smith said. “We know we’ve asked a lot of the guys, but right now we feel that’s our best option. A guy maybe 70 percent because he’s tired but he’s throwing strikes is better than a guy that’s 100 percent that’s not throwing strikes because at least you have a chance.
“We say it every day to the team, we’re searching for one or two more guys. At this time of year, we’re not going to experiment.”
For now, Smith is going with Seth Martinez, Ryan Kellogg and Brett Lilek as starting pitchers and primarily When: 6:30 p.m. tonight and Saturday, 12:30 p.m. Sunday.
Radio: KDUS-AM (1060). ASU update: ASU can reach 100,000 in attendance in the shortest number of games since at least 1988 by drawing 11,017 or more against UCLA. The Sun Devils hit 100K last in 2010 in 32 games, quickest ever. Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald will throw out the first pitch Saturday. Ryan Burr needs one more save to tie Jordan Swagerty for the school single-season record (14). ASU needs one more win to reach 30 for a 53rd consecutive season, extending its NCAA record. UCLA update: OF Ty Moore and SS Kevin Kramer are hitting .363 and .323 to lead the Bruins. 3B Chris Keck has a .521 slugging percentage with six home runs and 14 doubles. Moore and Keck are Nos. 3 and 6 in Pac-12 RBI. Closer David Berg had made an NCAArecord 164 career appearances and Grant Watson has made a school record 59 pitching starts. Eder Erives, Darin Gillies and Ryan Burr in relief. If Smith sticks with Jordan Aboites at third base and David Greer at designated hitter, like in the finale against Cal, then it becomes less likely that Aboites would be used as a pitcher.
“If (Aboites) is on the field, we’re definitely a better defensive team,” Smith said. “Given the competition we play in