Devils take Lightning in Game 1

The New Jersey Devils took the early lead in their Eastern Conference Quarter-Final by defeating Tampa Bay 5-3.
The Devils were paced by Zach Parise's 2 goals and Scott Gomez and his 3 assists.
Other Devil goals went to Patrik Elias,Brian Rafalski (Power Play) and Brian Gionta.
Vincent LeCavalier had 2 of the Tampa goals.
The game was within a goal until with under two minutes to go,when Gionta fired a shot at Tampa Goalie Johan Holmquist and Holmquist made the save,but instead of freezing the puck,he attempted to move it out of the zone.
Elias intercepted the pass and after a tic tac toe pass to Gionta through Gomez,the Devils had the game clincher for the 5-3 win.
Martin Brodeur stopped 23 of 26 Shots for the Devils.
Quietly,Colin White had a nice game for New Jersey,pounding the LeCavalier line relentlessly.
Game 2 returns to the Meadowlands Arena on Saturday night at 7;00.

Other Random Notes

If the Lightning keeps the LeCavalier line on the ice as much as they did last night,not only will the Devils win,LeCavalier will wind up injured.
I know you want your best players on the ice as much as possible,but last night was borderline abuse.

The Pirates return to action tonight as they host the San Francisco Giants at PNC Park.
Zach Duke starts for the Bucs,Russ Ortiz (He still has a job?) goes for the Giants.
If the Pirates can get any hitting at all (and it helps by facing Russ Ortiz).I like their chances in this matchup.

Here is an interesting study done at Kettering University on which type of Catcher's mask absorbs interest better.
Any advance in equipment is a good one.
Now if we can just remove Aluminum bats from the world!
Here is a Kettering U study on Aluminum vs Wood bats.
This is a forward thinker trying to remove them from New Jersey!

And finally for you "old school" wrestling fans. I picked up the "Four Horsemen" DVD.
Well worth the price,alhough as with any WWE product,it has the "WWE created wrestling slant".
The main players in the group appear,but no (big surprise) Ole Anderson or Lex Luger.
Plus Paul Roma appears and makes one of the most ridiculous statements that I have ever heard.
I might do a post on the Horsemen on a slow day sometime.

Photo Credits
Devils-AP Photo-Bill Kostroun
Horsemen-Pro Wrestling Illustrated