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11/08/2007 - Raleigh, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Shane O'Brien netted a pair of goals to pace the Tampa Bay Lightning past the Carolina Hurricanes, 5-1, at the RBC Center.
Vaclav Prospal had a goal and two assists and Michel Ouellet donated a pair of helpers for the Lightning, who have won two in a row since dropping six straight. This was Tampa Bay's first road win of the season.
Johan Holmqvist, meanwhile, turned in a dominant performance and finished with 40 saves.
Ray Whitney scored the lone goal for Carolina, which had a modest two-game winning streak snapped. Cam Ward yielded five goals on 31 shots.
Tampa opened up the scoring 12:23 into the contest as Vincent Lecavalier dished a centering feed to Ouellet from behind the goal line, then moved into the slot. Ouellet gave the puck right back to Lecavalier, who polished off the sequence with a quick wrister.
Less than four minutes later the Lightning broke out on a 2-on-1, leading to O'Brien's rebound putback for a 2-0 lead.
Filip Kuba stretched the advantage to three early in the second with a wrister from the left circle that found room short-side.
Lecavalier had a chance to notch his second goal of the night with under five minutes to play in the stanza after being awarded a penalty shot, but was denied by Ward.
O'Brien, though, got his second of the game moments later with a breakaway tally at the 18:11 mark.
Whitney put Carolina on the board 2:04 into the third. The Hurricanes had several quality chances in the ensuing minutes, but were unable to cash in.
Prospal then capped the scoring with a rebound putback with 6:24 to play in regulation.
Game Notes
Carolina's Matt Cullen extended his assist streak to eight games, which is tied for the longest in Hurricane history...This was the first of back-to-back road games for the Lightning, who will also make a stop in Washington on Saturday...This is the first of eight meetings between the Hurricanes and Lightning this season.
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In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.
Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).
If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).
Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.
New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles
The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)
In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:
There was also the possibility that the final score could land exactly on the spread number (for example, the Pats winning 28-21 when -7), which is called a “push” or “no action” and a refund is then issued to bettors of both teams.
The same game with the same point spread can be considered from the weaker team’s perspective: The Underdog (Philly in the case of our example) is not expected to win the game and online football betting thus receives or “gets” points given by the stronger team. When a game is stated from the underdog’s perspective the team is listed with a plus sign and the number of points they are underdogs by:
Philadelphia Eagles +7 vs. New England Patriots
Keep in mind that Philadelphia +7 and New England -7 is the same point spread on the same game, simply stated differently. The first is from the underdog’s perspective; the later is from the favorite’s.
Not a must, but for some a mathematical approach is insightful. You can determine the ATS winner by either:
Let’s look at the actual result of Super Bowl XXXIX: New England 24 Philadelphia 21
The favorite, New England, won the game but not by more than the point spread they were favored by (7), so the ATS result was a LOSS for Pats bettors.
Looking at it from the underdog’s perspective, Philly did not win the game, but they lost by less than the point spread (7), so the ATS result was a WIN for Eagle bettors.
Mathematically considered, 24 for the favorite Pats minus 7 equals 17, which is less than the 20 the Eagles scored, so the underdog Eagles win the ATS result (or you could figure 20 plus 7 equals 27 for the Eagles, which is more than 24 for the Pats).
Emily’s boyfriend understood the point spread and wagered $100 on the Eagles at +7. The Eagles may not have gotten a Super Bowl ring, but since they won the ATS result Emily’s boyfriend cashed his bet – giving him money to take her out to a nice dinner.
And now hopefully you understand how to read point spreads, putting you one step closer to joining the fun of sports betting.
To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting and World Series odds.
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