problematic for the Canadiens is that Thomas

#1 by sakura698 , Sat Jan 18, 2020 9:54 am

INDIANAPOLIS -- A slick surface was all it took for Sebastian Saavedra to win his first IndyCar Series pole. Air Force 1 Scontate . It was also just enough to slip Ryan Hunter-Reay out of the top starting spot for Saturdays Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Saavedra won the pole Friday when Hunter-Reay appeared to drive through a patch of standing water that caused him to spin and crash at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The accident exiting Turn 14 came on the lap after Hunter-Reay had moved to the provisional pole, and IndyCar penalized him by taking away his two fastest laps for causing a session-ending caution. "We definitely gave that one away," Hunter-Reay said. "Every time through there I almost lost it. I had a few big moments there, but in qualifying youve got to go for it. In the wet, youre always going for it. "Theres a very fine line between stepping over getting that good lap in the wet and throwing it off." Rain showers changed the track conditions for each of the four qualifying sessions, and it picked up moments before the start of the final Fast Six session. IndyCar brought the cars back to pit road because of standing water on the track for a red-flag period that lasted about 20 minutes. Saavedra had just bumped rookie Jack Hawksworth from the pole when Hunter-Reay turned his fast lap. But the IndyCar rule is to strip a driver of his two fastest laps for bringing out a red flag during qualifying, so Hunter-Reay was dropped to third. Hunter-Reay, the only driver to advance to the Fast Six through the first four races of the season, has not started lower than third this year. But his Andretti Autosport team had work to do to repair his bright yellow No. 28, which sustained heavy damage to the right rear of the car. Saavedra, who turned a lap at 1 minute, 23.8822 seconds, will lead the field to the green flag for the first IndyCar road course race at Indianapolis. "I love the rain," Saavedra said. "It was crazy at first because we didnt know what to expect from the track -- if it was going to be wet, if it was going to be dry. The whole session was just weird. It started to rain and went from wet, to dry, to super dry, to super wet. I loved it." The previous road course was reconfigured into a 14-turn, 2.439-mile course to accommodate IndyCar, which is using the race to open the speedway and create buzz in advance of the Indianapolis 500. Drivers for the first time are running clockwise at the famed speedway, which will run the Grand Prix on Saturday and then revert to the traditional oval Sunday for the opening practice for the May 25 main event. Because the event and the track configuration are new, the field may be even headed into Saturdays race. It appeared even when Saavedra advanced into his first Fast Six of the season, then hung on to win the pole and give IndyCar a relatively inexperienced front row. Saavedra has 41 career starts dating to 2010, but his longtime backer this year brought him to KV Racing, the team that won the Indianapolis 500 last year with Tony Kanaan. Hawksworth, starting on the outside of Saavedra, has three previous starts. The British driver is in his first season with Bryan Herta Autosport. Hawksworth spent last season racing Indy Lights, where he won three times. Meanwhile, a tough qualifying assignment made it a nearly impossible session for Andretti Autosport, which had all five of its cars in the first group. With only six drivers advancing from that group, the odds were stacked against the organization. Indeed, only Hunter-Reay and James Hinchcliffe moved on while Marco Andretti, Carlos Munoz and Franck Montagny were eliminated. "Obviously, Im not very happy," Andretti said. "It was a team decision to go out, we were worried about the wet, but we plateaued too early and the track got better at the end. Weve been on the outside looking in of this hundredth of a second. Im losing sleep over this couple hundredths of a second." Wished good luck for Saturdays race, Andretti, who will start 13th, said: "Thanks, Im going to need it." Mikhail Aleshin, the first Russian in IndyCar history, had been strong through three practices and advanced into the second round of qualifying. But his fastest laps were wiped out when he was hit with an interference penalty. He and Sebastien Bourdais had raced each other hard for many laps two weeks ago at Barber, and Bourdais was eventually penalized for contact. The two drivers disagree wildly on who was to blame. Simon Pagenaud, teammates with the rookie but friendly with Bourdais since their days racing in France, wasnt sure what happened in qualifying. "What I know is him and Sebastien Bourdais are becoming best friends," Pagenaud joked. Air Force 1 Low Outlet Italia . - Novak Djokovic beat John Isner 7-5, 6-7 (2), 6-1 on Saturday to reach the final of the BNP Paribas Open, where hell resume his longtime rivalry with Roger Federer. Air Force 1 Alte 07 . Winners of two straight, the Flames will try to become the first team in 25 years to go three consecutive games without taking a penalty Saturday night in San Jose. http://www.airforce1outletitalia.it/ . Although the deal cannot be made official until the free agent moratorium period is lifted on July 10, Patterson has agreed to a three-year, $18 million extension to remain in Toronto, sources confirm to TSN.The New York Rangers withstood early pressure from the Montreal Canadiens and goaltender Henrik Lundqvist was on top of his game as the New York Rangers took Game Two with a 3-1 win. Before the game started, the Canadiens had announced that G Carey Price would be out for the series, with a knee injury suffered in a collision with Rangers LW Chris Kreider, and head coach Michel Therrien made the decision to go with Dustin Tokarski in Prices place. Tokarski, 24, has posted a .921 save percentage in 56 games with Hamilton of the AHL since he was acquired from Tampa Bay last year, and stopped 88 of 93 shots (.946 SV%) in three games with the Canadiens this year, but Tokarski has also started 10 NHL games in his career, so the decision came with a certain amount of risk. Montreal opened the game asserting territorial control, with 24 of the first 34 unblocked shot attempts in the game. Habs LW Max Pacioretty got the Canadiens on the board first, 6:14 into the game, with his third goal in the past four games. At that point, the Canadiens were looking good. Only 17 seconds later, Rangers D Ryan McDonagh scored on a shot that deflected off D Josh Gorges and past Tokarski. McDonagh added an assist later, giving him six points in the first two games of the series. As the first period neared a close, the Rangers looked like they might be able to escape with a tie score despite getting the wrong end of the puck possession game, but then circumstances got even better for the Blueshirts. A quick-break three-on-two, following a defensive zone face-off, resulted in a goal for Rick Nash, the second straight game in which he has scored. Tokarski could have come across the crease quicker, perhaps but, even so, Nashs one-time snap shot was stoppable. It was the kind of goal for which Tokarski shouldnt really be blamed -- he didnt give up the three-on-two break -- but, especially in the playoffs, it was the kind off goal that comes under more scrutiny. Air Force 1 Alte Comfort Prm Year Of Snake. So the Canadiens, who might have been somewhat frustrated to end the first frame tied despite dominating play, werent even tied, they were down by a goal. Then, 8:03 into the second period, Rangers RW Martin St. Louis scored a power goal, with a rocket shot inside the post, and the Canadiens climb got much steeper. Montreal was stifled for much of the rest of the game, with a few surges, particularly on a power play, with Tokarski pulled, in the last four minutes, but Lundqvist was there to turn back any Habs attempts. In his last five games, Lundqvist has stopped 162 of 168 shpts (.964 SV%) and, over the past three seasons, has a .933 save percentage in the playoffs. Not exactly an easy head-to-head matchup for Tokarski to win. The Canadiens got LW Alex Galchenyuk back in the lineup -- his first game since suffering a knee injury April 9 against Chicago -- and the line of Brendan Gallagher, David Desharnais and Max Pacioretty was on for more than 86% of the 5-on-5 shot attempts when they were on the ice. D P.K. Subban had 18 shot attempts (nine on net, six blocked, three missed the net) and Gallagher had 13 attempts. More problematic for the Canadiens is that Thomas Vanek didnt register a shot on goal. In the past seven games, Vanek has registered either one or zero shots in six of them. Its not as if the Canadiens have altogether no hope, but its not an easy task to come back from a two-games-to-none series deficit, and doing so with questions in goal makes that scenario all the less likely. They will need a dramatically different performance in New York if they are going to reverse the path which is currently leading them to the offseason in short order. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook. ' ' '

sakura698  
sakura698
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Date registered 10.09.2019


   

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