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PORTLAND, Ore. cheap jerseys . -- For more than four months, the Portland Winterhawks were invincible on home ice. The Edmonton Oil Kings ended the Winterhawks 25-game home winning streak Friday and closed to within one game of winning their second Western Hockey League championship in three years. Griffin Reinhart and Henrik Samuelsson scored second-period goals as the Oil Kings defeated Portland 3-2 in Game 5 of the WHL finals to take a 3-2 series lead. "Gutsy effort by our guys coming into this building and grinding out a solid road game," said Edmonton coach Derek Laxdal. "I thought our guys were really composed in a huge game." Edgars Kulda scored a first-period power-play goal for Edmonton, and goaltender Tristan Jarry made 37 saves and stood tall during a late Portland charge. "The mindset coming into the series was that wed have to win one on the road," said Reinhart. "Weve been comfortable in close games all year." Paul Bittner and Mathew Dumba scored for Portland, which hadnt lost at home since Jan. 4. Corbin Boes stopped 27 shots in defeat. "I thought we did a lot of good things tonight," said Winterhawks head coach Mike Johnston. "If we repeat that game well be OK in Game 6." Bittner broke a scoreless streak of nearly 132 minutes for the Winterhawks with his fourth goal of the series with 4:32 left in the first period to put Portland up 1-0. Kulda responded with 1:33 left in the first on the Oil Kings fourth power play of the period. The Oil Kings took their first road lead of the series on Reinharts goal 2:11 into the second period, then made it 3-1 on Samuelssons fourth goal of the series at 7:39. That score held until Dumba scored with 1:45 left in regulation to pull Portland within one, but the Winterhawks could not find an equalizer down the stretch. "(Edmonton) is good when they have the lead," Johnston said. "They really trapped it up in the third period, but we had seven or eight chances where we shot it over the net, we cut it too fine." Edmonton finished 1 for 5 on the power play, while Portland went scoreless on four chances. The Winterhawks, who had the top power play in the WHL in the regular season, are stuck in an 0-for-15 slump with the man advantage since Game 1. "Were not getting the bounces we want, but if we keep playing the same way we can win 3-2 next time," Bittner said. Edmonton, which beat the Winterhawks in seven games in the 2012 WHL finals, has won three straight games after dropping the first two of the series in Portland. The Winterhawks won last years championship in six games over Edmonton. The Oil Kings can wrap up the series with a win in Sundays Game 6. If Portland wins, the Winterhawks will host Game 7 Monday. "Weve been good at home," said Reinhart. "Were going to put distractions aside and play our best game." jerseys from china . Amarista celebrated his 25th birthday by delivering a go-ahead, three-run homer in the seventh inning to lift the San Diego Padres to a 4-2 victory over the Miami Marlins on Sunday. nfl jerseys china . NBA owners unanimously approved the appointment of Tatum, a 15-year veteran of the league office, on Thursday. He will also have the title of chief operations officer. (Sports Network) - Returning home after their first victorious multi-city road trip in over two years, the Washington Nationals figure to stand a decent chance of matching their longest winning streak of the season if Ryan Zimmerman can find his way back into the lineup. The third baseman is expected to play for the first time in over two months tonight in the opener of a three-game series against a visiting St. Louis Cardinals club that lost command in the National League Central for the first time since mid-May. Washington returns to Nationals Park after sweeping a three-game series at San Diego over the weekend. That helped the Nats post a 6-5 record on their West Coast tour, marking their first winning road trip since going 4-3 on a seven- game trek from May 12-18, 2008. Washingtons nine-game homestand could get off to a great start with the return of Zimmerman, who hasnt played since April 9 because of a left abdominal strain. The 26-year-old former All-Star is hitting .357 in eight games this season with a homer and four RBI. It would be great [to get Zimmerman back tonight], Danny Espinosa told his teams website after a 2-0 win over the Padres on Sunday. He is a great player. To have him back would be huge. The rest of the Nationals will also welcome back the former Gold Glove winner as they try to match their longest winning streak of the season: A four-game run from April 15-20. Espinosa helped keep Washingtons current run alive with a sacrifice fly during a two-run ninth inning in Sundays victory. Sundays game was nearly one of missed chances as Washington went 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position. However, Espinosa launched his ball to deep right to score the games first run and Laynce Nix followed with a base hit to score Alex Cora. Im just proud of the way we played. The way we battled out there today. The way we pitched and played defense. You do a lot of little things and you come away with a win. Its good for the ballclub, Nats manager Jim Riggleman said. Jordan Zimmermann got a no-decision despite striking out 10 through seven shutout innings. Yunesky Maya will try to keep the momentum going tonnight and pick up his first victory of the season for Washington, which is 0-3 in the Cubans three starts this season. cheap jerseys from china. Maya himself is 0-1 with a 5.40 earned run average, but is coming off a great outing at San Francisco on Wednesday. The 29-year-old righty allowed just a run on four hits and a walk over a season-high six innings. Maya faces a Cardinals club for the first time in his career tonight that is out of first place in the National League Central. St. Louis had held the top spot since May 19, but now sits tied with Milwaukee after getting swept in three games by the Brewers over the weekend. The Cards dropped Sundays finale, 4-3, for their fourth loss in five games. Jake Westbrook didnt allow a run over the first five innings, but was tagged for four in the sixth without recording an out. We had some momentum there and that one big inning beat us, said Cardinals manager Tony La Russa. Thats tough. Colby Rasmus had a pair of hits and drove in a run before nearly coming up with some heroics in the ninth. He drilled a one-out offering to deep center, but the Brewers Carlos Gomez came up with a great catch while colliding with the wall to keep the tying run off base. St. Louis will look to rebound from getting swept for the second time this season behind Jaime Garcia, but the lefty has lost two of his last three outings since a 5-0 start. Garcia has given up four runs since getting charged with 12, all but one earned, over 3 1/3 innings of a setback at Colorado. The 24-year-old beat the Cubs on June 3, but lost at Houston five days later after yielding three runs on seven hits over five innings. Garcia has a 3.20 ERA through 13 starts and is 2-2 with a 5.70 ERA in eight games on the road this year. That is compared to a tremendous 4-0 mark and 0.46 ERA in five starts at home. He has won both of his career starts versus the Cardinals, pitching to a 0.87 ERA. That includes a home win on April 20 in which he allowed three runs -- one earned -- over five innings. The Cardinals took two of three in that series and have won nine of 13 and 16 of their last 22 against the Nationals overall. ' ' ' |
