NEW YORK (May 31, 2006) -- A berth in the Stanley Cup Final is on the line when the Carolina Hurricanes host the Buffalo Sabres in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final Thursday (7:30 p.m., ET, OLN, TSN, RDS, NHL Radio). The winner of Thursday???s game will host the Western Conference champion Edmonton Oilers in Game 1 of the 2006 Stanley Cup Final, beginning Monday.

Thursday's game will mark the fourth consecutive season and the seventh time in the past seven seasons a Conference Final has gone the series limit.

A total of 117 series have gone to seven games since the League introduced the best-of-seven format in 1939. The home team has won 73 (62%), the visiting team 44 (38%).

Career Game 7 Player and Goaltender Statistics
Carolina GP W-L G A Pts.
Rod Brind'Amour 2 1-1 0 0 0
Mike Commodore 1 1-0 0 0 0
Bret Hedican 4 2-2 0 0 0
Mark Recchi 4 2-2 2 2 4
Cory Stillman 3 2-1 0 1 1
Oleg Tverdovsky 1 0-1 0 0 0
Doug Weight 3 2-1 0 4 4
Glen Wesley 6 5-1 0 3 3
Ray Whitney 3 2-1 1 1 2
Justin Williams 1 1-0 1 2 3

(PHOENIX, AZ) - The Dallas Mavericks were cold the entire game and didn't really deal with the sudden return of Raja Bell all that well.

Bell came into Game 4 with a partially torn calf, which sounds like an injury that should require lots of rest and subsequent rehab. Except, when the starting lineups were announced, Bell was part of the quintuplet dressed in Phoenix Suns uniforms who would fight to not fall three games to one in the Western Conference finals.

Leandro Barbosa led all Suns players with 20 points, and Phoenix shot 54 percent from the floor, en route to a 106-86 rout tying the series at two games apiece.

Reactions always welcome.
Read original @Harvey's website

---

---

Herb Pennock: The Good and the Ugly

---

All the medical news these days coming out of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania about Barbaro gives that locale the most extensive news exposure since the days of Herbert Pennock, the man they called "The Knight of Kennett Square."

One of the top hurlers of his time, Pennock went directly from high school to a major league debut May 14, 1912 with the old Philadelphia Athletics.

Let the record show that Barry Bonds??? 715th career home run came at home against Colorado hurler Byung-Hyun Kim on Sunday. It was a two-run blast in the fourth inning but the Giants lost 6-3???

Though it was a shaky outing, Randy Johnson picked up his 269th career victory when the Yankees beat Boston 8-6 on Wednesday. That put him in sole possession of 33rd place all-time, one win ahead of Jim Palmer???

Padres' Jake Peavy set a franchise record when he struck out 16 batters in just seven innings of work in a 3-1 loss to Atlanta May 22. The old mark of 15 whiffs was shared by Sterling Hitchcock (1998), Fred Norman (1972), and Clay Kirby (1971)...

Joe Winkelsas made his first Major League appearance in seven years when the Brewers recalled him from the minors and he pitched against the Reds on May 23. He also recorded his first big league out when he induced Scott Hatteberg to ground out. Winkelsas??? only other big league game was with Atlanta in 1999 when he gave up four hits and a walk versus five batters???

No Raja Bell, no peace.

The Phoenix Suns find themselves down two games to one to the Dallas Mavericks in their Western Conference best-of-seven final, with Bell???s injury playing a leading dramatic role.

The Suns fell to 1-5 this year without Bell after Sunday???s 95-88 loss. His status for Game 4 remains up in the air at the time of publication, but it???s becoming all too clear that the hopes of Suns supporters rest on his strained left calf.

If Bell were a hockey player, they???d call him a ???plumber,??? doing yeoman work on defense while hitting the occasional 3-point shot ??? much like Bruce Bowen of the San Antonio Spurs.