Your loaded day of sports:
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- Phil Hughes graduated out of diapers and became a man in his performance against the Minnesota Twins last night, as the Yankees finished their sweep of the Twinkies with a 6-1 win to move on to the American League Championship Series. Hughes went seven shutout innings and only gave up four hits and one walk, while striking out six. He became the first Yankee pitcher to go seven innings or more with a shutout since Mike Mussina in the 2001 ALDS. Marcus Thames broke the game open with a two-run homer in the fourth off of Brian Deunsing. Nick Swisher homered to cap things off. The Yanks await the winner of the Rays-Rangers series, as the Rays finally showed up, getting a Game 3 win on the road to stay alive and make it a 2-1 series. They beat the Rangers in Arlington, 6-3. For more on the Yanks, check out Pinstripe Alley. ↵
- The Rangers opened their season Saturday night with a bang, getting a hat trick from rookie Derek Stepan and beating the Buffalo Sabres in upstate New York, 6-3. Stepan's two goals in three minutes late in the second sealed the deal for the Rangers. Henrik Lundqvist was solid, stopping 33 shots in the victory over Ryan Miller, who also gave up two goals to Brandon Dubinsky and one to Erik Christensen. Blueshirt Banter recaps. ↵
- The Isles opened things up at the Coliseum tonight on a wrong note, dominating the Dallas Stars at times and outshooting them 47-22, they lost to Dallas in a shootout, 5-4. Matt Moulson got the Isles to OT, scoring a power play goal with 2:39 remaining. Mike RIbeiro scored the only goal in the shootout to win it for the Stars, who recorded four points in two games in the area. John Tavares was lost to a concussion in the loss. Lighthouse Hockey tells the story. ↵
- The Devils started out slowly last season, but the start of this year is a flat-out mess. They were blown out, 7-2, by the Washington Capitals on the road to lose their first two games of the season, only getting a point in their home opener last night. They also lost Brian Rolston to a lower back injury, Anton Volchenkov to a broken nose, and Pierre Leblond to an idiotic instigator penalty (on his part, not the ref's) that will force an automatic suspension on him. Due to cap restrictions, it appears that the Devils will only be able to replace Leblond for their Monday game against Pittsburgh. There was much more to this one, as there were 75 minutes in penalties, 31 for the Devils in the third period alone, an Ilya Kovalchuk-Mike Green fight, and it was all long after an Alex Ovechkin penalty shot goal put this game away at 5-2 at the end of the second. In Lou We Trust recaps. ↵
- The Red Bulls appear headed to autopilot mode for the rest of the regular season, a playoff spot assured, as they drew Real Salt Lake 0-0 in Harrison yesterday. Once a Metro will have more. ↵