(Sports Network) - The Toronto Raptors play the second game of a back-to-back-to-back stretch tonight as they take on the winless Washington Wizards at the Verizon Center.
cheap nfl jerseys . You can see all the action on TSN beginning at 7pm et/4pm pt. Toronto ended a two-game slide with a 97-87 victory over Minnesota last night and won for the third time in five tries. The Raptors will play nine of its next 12 games away from Air Canada Centre, starting with tonights tilt in D.C. Andrea Bargnani had 31 points and Amir Johnson finished with 19 points and 11 rebounds for the Raptors, who closed the game on a 20-7 run to beat Minnesota for the eighth straight time in Toronto. Jose Calderon added 14 points and Leandro Barbosa scored 13 off the bench in a winning effort. "Its not just about playing against the other team, its about playing against ourselves," Johnson said of the three-night stretch, a common occurrence for teams in the lockout-shortened season. "Weve got to stay healthy and keep our bodies fresh to get through it." Raptors guard Jerryd Bayless (ankle) is questionable for tonight. The Wizards, at 0-8, are off to the worst start in franchise history. Washington fell to 0-4 as the host this season with Sundays 93-72 loss versus the Timberwolves, as Nick Young and Trevor Booker recorded 14 points apiece in defeat. Andray Blatche and John Wall each scored 10 points for the Wizards, who shot just 34.5 percent for the game. "Theres really not much to say. Disappointment and embarrassment doesnt come close," said Wizards head coach Flip Saunders. "My job over the next couple days is to try and find out a way to get all the guys on this team playing up to their expected level." The Wizards could be without forward Rashard Lewis tonight and hes listed as questionable with a sore right knee. Toronto and Washington split four matchups a year ago and are playing the first of four meetings this season. The Raptors, though, have lost 10 of their past 14 trips to the Verizon Center.
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cheap jerseys from china . Grabner scored on a breakaway 3:53 into overtime as the Islanders defeated the Winnipeg Jets 3-2 on Tuesday.RALEIGH, N.C. -- With his latest milestone within reach, Alex Ovechkin caught himself pressing and overthinking his play. All of a sudden, his path to history was clear. Ovechkin scored his 400th career goal into an empty net after the Washington Capitals had three power-play goals in the second period of a 4-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday night. "I had a couple of chances to score, and they were good ones, but maybe I tried to make more moves than I usually do," Ovechkin said. "(An) empty-netter is (an) empty-netter. Of course I (thought) about it, but its over and its time to move on." Troy Brouwer, Marcus Johansson and John Carlson scored with the man advantage and Nicklas Backstrom assisted on all four goals to help the second-place Capitals win for the fifth time in their last seven games. Ovechkins empty-netter with 24.5 seconds left in his 634th career game made him the sixth-fastest player in NHL history to reach No. 400 and the seventh active player with that many. "As we all know, hes a pretty good goal-scorer," Backstrom said. "Its always fun to see a player accomplish something big and I think 400 goals in however many games he has, its great. We all know hes a great player." Jordan Staal and Riley Nash scored for Carolina while Cam Ward stopped 25 shots. The Hurricanes had earned at least a point in six of their previous seven games. But theyve dropped four of five with the loss to the Caps. "Five-on-5, we were all over them," Staal said. "We were the better team, 5-on-5. But three power-play goals, you cant let that happen. Thats not good enough, obviously, and thats how you lose games." Washingtons Philipp Grubauer matched a season high with 39 saves -- and got some help from the choppy ice after Alexander Semins shot with about 6 minutes left trickled just wide of the net. The Capitals have the leagues second-best power-play unit with a success rate of nearly 25 per cent. They converted all three of their chances in the second. ";You dont want to have to rely on it, but whenever its going to power you through games, absolutely you want to rely on it," Brouwer said of the power play.
jerseys from china. A fortunate bounce helped the Capitals reclaim the lead at 3-2 with 4:31 left in the period: Mike Green broke his stick while dribbling a shot up the middle that clipped Brouwer on its way past Ward. "When it comes slower, obviously I get a better touch on it," Brouwer said. "I had my stick halfway up my body thinking it was going to be a higher shot because thats where he usually likes to shoot. Its almost a weird adjustment where you dont ever practice having to put your stick back down on the ice." That capped a big period for the Capitals power play. Johansson tied it 41 seconds into the second when he stuffed the puck between Wards left leg and the post. Carlson put the Capitals up 2-1 with 11:26 left -- and just 14 seconds into a holding minor on Tuomo Ruutu -- when his straightaway blast from just inside the blue line got past Ward. Carolina, which has the leagues third-worst power play, made it 2-all 2:42 later by scoring on the man advantage, with Nash making the most of Andrej Sekeras rebound. But it couldnt convert late after Carlson went off for hooking with 4:50 to play, despite peppering Grubauer with a barrage of shots from close range. The Hurricanes were playing for the first time since Dec. 14, when they wrapped up a four-point, four-game western swing with a win at Phoenix. Staal put the Hurricanes up 1-0 with 2:48 left in the first when he scored on a one-touch pass from Semin, who played seven years with the Capitals before signing with Carolina in July 2012. "We did a good job of getting after him and getting shots and getting opportunities," Staal said. "We just didnt bury them." NOTES: The Hurricanes scratched D Mike Komisarek (lower-body injury) after activating him from injured reserve earlier in the day. ... Semins point was his first since his Dec. 12 return from a concussion that cost him 12 games.
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