|
UTICA, N. Whitney Mercilus .Y. - Joe Cannata stopped 37 shots and the Utica Comets scored twice in 1:51 in the third period to come from behind and defeat the visiting Toronto Marlies 3-2 on Friday in American Hockey League action. Pascal Pelletier tied the game at two for the Comets (34-32-9) at 2:21 of the third and Cal ORielly added the eventual winner at 4:12. Yann Sauve scored in the second period for Utica. Josh Leivo and Brad Staubitz scored for the Marlies (44-25-6) while Christopher Gibson made 28 saves in defeat. Utica went 0 for 1 on the power play while Toronto failed to score on two chances with the man advantage. Devier Posey . Despite the advantage of four Fijians being sent to the sin-bin in eight minutes early in the first half, Italy almost spoiled the occasion for two of their rugby greats by blowing a 30-10 lead with 20 minutes to go. Jon Weeks Authentic Jersey . Then Ryan Raburn came to the plate and did what he usually does against the Chicago White Sox. Raburn hit a tiebreaking single and David Murphy drove in four runs, leading the Indians to a 12-6 victory over the White Sox.MELBOURNE, Australia -- McLaren driver Jenson Button won the Formula One season-opening Australian Grand Prix on Sunday, taking the checkered flag Down Under for the third time in four years. Button beat reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull by 2.1 seconds after the race turned into a 17-lap shootout after Vitaly Petrov stopped on the main straight, bringing out the safety car. Pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton of McLaren was third, just ahead of local hope Mark Webber of Red Bull. With a strong performance, McLaren showed it had closed the gap on the Red Bull team which dominated 2011, and set the stage for a more competitive season. "It was an amazing day," Button said. "Starting the year strong for this team is really important. The past two years for us have been tricky for us coming into the first race. It points us in a great position for the next few races and on the right foot." Fernando Alonso of Ferrari was fifth, with Williams Pastor Maldonado crashing hard into a wall on the final lap while on the tail of the Spaniard. Saubers Kamui Kobayashi overtook Maldonado for sixth, and teammate Sergio Perez was eighth after starting 22nd, last on the grid. They were separated by Lotus Kimi Raikkonen. Toro Rossos Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo finished ninth, and registered points in his first home race, by overtaking teammate Jean-Eric Vergne on the final sequence of corners. Vergne was shuffled to 11th, with Force Indias Paul di Resta taking the last points-paying position in 10th. Button got off the line better than Hamilton and immediately took the lead, which eventually grew to 11.8 seconds on lap 23 of 58. That lead was negated when Petrov stopped on the main straight. "The biggest problem was the safety car. As soon as the safety car comes out and its six oclock in the evening, its difficult to keep temperature in the tires," Button said. Devier Posey Jersey. "I was a little on edge, but I was able to keep the heat in the tires." Button mastered the restart, opening a 3.5-second lead on Vettel after just one lap and comfortably holding on for victory. Vettel leapfrogged Hamilton thanks to a clever piece of Red Bull strategy, holding off on a pit stop as Hamilton went in, and taking over second behind the safety car. The German was tacked onto the back of Button, and it appeared he could pull off a victory that had seemed McLarens for the taking. "I thought I would be in a good position to have a shot at Jenson but I didnt," Vettel said. "He was too quick -- two corners and he was gone." "There was no way we could have stayed with him -- he completely deserved to win today." A downcast Hamilton saw little to be enthused about with his finish. "It was a bit of a tough day, but theres plenty more races to do so I just have to keep my head up," he said. "It was still a positive to come here with good pace and hopefully we can take that on to the next race." Lotus Romain Grosjean started a surprise third, but was shuffled back quickly after a poor start and by lap three he was gone after breaking his right front axle bumping wheels with Maldonado. Mercedes Michael Schumacher was third for the first nine laps but ran wide over the grass at turn one under pressure from Vettel, and soon after retired with a gear problem. "Weve never had an issue with the gearbox all winter long, so its a bit strange," the seven-time world champion said. "But theyre prototype cars, you can never have total reliability." wholesale jerseys ' ' ' |
