News » Jeff Samardzija (8-13) to take a 3-0 lead.

LOS ANGELES -- Darryl Sutter doesnt remember his first win as an NHL coach. And now that hes gotten his 500th in the regular season, he didnt make anything special out of this one, either. Marian Gaborik got the deciding goal in the shootout and the Los Angeles Kings beat the Washington Capitals 2-1 Thursday night to make Sutter the 18th coach to reach that milestone. "Its a lot," Sutter acknowledged. "Ive been around a long time. Ive gotten a lot in shootouts, though." Sutter, who guided the Kings to their first Stanley Cup title in 2011-12 after Terry Murray was fired less than 2 1/2 months into that season, tied Montreal legend Hector "Toe" Blake on the career list and is fifth among active coaches behind Joel Quenneville, Ken Hitchcock, Lindy Ruff and Barry Trotz. "When Darryl came in two years ago, he did exactly what he needed to do and pressed the right buttons to get the team going -- because at that time we were taking one step forward and two steps back," goalie Jonathan quick said. Quick tied Rogie Vachon for the most career victories by a Kings goaltender and stopped Alex Ovechkin, who leads the league with 46 goals, on the Capitals second shot in the tiebreaker. Quick, who has spent his entire seven-year career with the Kings, is 171-115, with 11 overtime losses and 20 additional defeats that ended in shootouts. Vachon was 171-148 with 66 ties during his six-plus seasons with Los Angeles after he was traded by Montreal, and made all three of his All-Star game appearances during his time with the Kings. "It means a lot, and its special because wins are a team effort -- 20 guys each night contributing to every win," Quick said. "The biggest thing is Ive had the luxury of shootouts and Rogie didnt. If you took away those shootout wins, Id still be behind Rogie, so I guess Im fortunate they implemented that a few years back." Ovechkin is 2 for 15 this season in the tiebreaker and 25 for 83 in his career. "He has a couple of good moves and he was trying to go five-hole there," Quick said. "Maybe it hasnt gone his way this year, but hes had success in the past. So hes always somebody youre preparing for." Quick finished with 21 saves, losing his shutout bid with 7:36 remaining when Joel Ward extended his goal-scoring streak to a career-best four games with his 22nd of the season. The Capitals got a power play in overtime after Kings defenceman Robyn Regehr was sent off for hooking Marcus Johansson at the 53-second mark. But Quick robbed Troy Brouwer on a point-blank shot from the low slot during the ensuing 4-on-3 advantage. Another of Quicks best saves came at 8:10 of the second period, when he stoned ex-teammate Dustin Penner with the heel of his glove at the last instant from the edge of the crease after leaving a bad rebound on Dmitry Orlovs slap shot from the left point. "Their goalie played great, and maybe stole it for them. But they also played a hard-nose physical game, and Im proud of our guys and the way they stood up to it," Washington coach Adam Oates said. "The second half of the game I thought we kind of took it to them. We had a lot of good chances, and I would say we carried the pace a little bit." The Kings, coming off their third consecutive one-goal loss following an eight-game winning streak, opened the scoring at 14:09 of the first period. Gaborik beat defenceman John Carlson to the puck after a long dump-in by Justin Williams and fed it in front to Anze Kopitar, who slid his 22nd goal between Jaroslav Halaks pads. Halak made 27 saves for Washington, after stopping 43 shots Tuesday in a 3-2 win at Anaheim. The eight-year veteran is 4-2-1 with a 2.13 goals-against average in seven starts since the Capitals acquired him in a trade with Buffalo on March 5 -- just five days after the Sabres picked him up in a trade with St. Louis. Captain Dustin Brown returned to the Kings lineup after missing two games because of a lower-body injury. NOTES: Vachon finished his 16-year career with 355 wins, which was fifth all-time when he retired after the 1981-82 season. He has since dropped to 17th place. ... Williams played in his 200th consecutive game, becoming the 13th different player in franchise history to reach that figure -- including Kopitar, who holds the club record with 330. ... The Kings are 14-0 when scoring more than three goals. Wholesale Shoes China . Born in Berkeley and raised in Oakland, where he later pitched for the As, Ross beat the Giants for the first time in six career appearances by throwing eight scoreless innings to lead the San Diego Padres to a 2-1 victory Friday night. Wholesale Shoes Online .Brady threw a 69-yard touchdown pass to Julian Edelman midway through the fourth quarter, and New England beat the San Diego Chargers 23-14 for its eighth win in nine games. http://www.wholesaleshoescheap.com/ .C. -- Duke sophomore Rodney Hood is entering the NBA draft. Wholesale Shoes Cheap . Every. Single. Game. Thats 1,230 in total to cover the regular season. The man is Corey Sznajder, a soft-spoken 23-year-old Salisbury University grad who lives in Annapolis, Maryland and has been charting zone entries and zone exits throughout the NHL. I love big projects, he said. No kidding. At the 2013 Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, I met Eric Tulsky, who presented research on the value of controlled zone entries (short answer: about twice as valuable to enter with control of the puck rather than dumping it in) and Sznajder had charted a couple hundred games that were included in that study. Wholesale Cheap Shoes Online . Canada will host Japan in a World Group first-round match in 2015. It will be a rematch of their first-round clash last year when Japan defeated Canada 4-1 to reach the World Group quarter-finals for the first time in its history. ST. LOUIS -- Matt Carpenter came up empty Sunday in his bid for a 200-hit season. St. Louis second baseman could have cared less. Carpenter and the Cardinals clinched home-field advantage throughout the National League playoffs when they beat the Chicago Cubs 4-0 for their sixth straight win. "That last one (hit) was tough to find," Carpenter said after going 0 for 4. "From an individual standpoint 200 hits is a cool thing, but more importantly we won a big game today and have the best record in the National League." With the top seed, the Central League champions will host the wild-card winner in Game 1 of an NL division series on Thursday. Joe Kelly (10-5) pitched 5 1-3 innings of three-hit ball in relief of Jake Westbrook as the Cardinals matched a season high winning streak to finish 97-65, their most since reaching 100 in 2005. St. Louis also won six straight from April 30-May 5. The Cardinals have won eight of nine and 17 of 22. Carpenter finished with a league-leading 199 hits. He struck out in the seventh in his last opportunity. Carpenter said he felt a little pressure in his at-bats Sunday. "Its one of those things, when guys are chasing certain (goals) it can kind of get to them a little," he said. "I dont know if it did or not." The milestone was important to manager Mike Matheny, who said Carpenters failure was the lone damper on the afternoon. "He was pushing hard, "he said. "But what a season." Carpenter also finished first in the NL in runs (126), doubles (55) and multihit games (63). "Now all those stats go out the window, its just about winning games," he said. "But, Im pleased and proud with what Ive done." Jon Jay, Daniel Descalso, Shane Robinson and Tony Cruz drove in runs for St. Louis. The Cubs, who lost 41 of their last 59 games, finish last in the Central at 66-96. Chicago manager Dale Sveum, who is scheduled to meet Monday with Cubs management to discuss his future, says a lack of offence hurt his club the last month. "We didnt score a lot," he said. "When youre facing the Cardinals, Reds, Pirates, Atlanta, its going to be tough." St..dddddddddddd Louis starter Jake Westbrook pitched one inning before Kelly came on in relief. Westbrook is not likely to be on the post-season roster and the Cardinals are not expected to pick up his option for next season. Kelly struck out five in his first relief appearance since re-joining the starting rotation on July 6. "It was a little different, but my mindset was the same the whole time," Kelly said. "I felt like I was commanding my fastball on both sides of the plate. I was just trying to keep a high level of focus and attack these guys." Matheny called it, "one of his best all-around outings." Randy Choate, Carlos Martinez and Kevin Siegrist contributed to the five-man, five-hit shutout. The Cardinals scored twice in the fourth off Chicago starter Jeff Samardzija (8-13) to take a 3-0 lead. Matt Adams and Descalso hit back-to-back doubles to push the advantage to 2-0. Robinson followed with a run-scoring single. Samardzija gave up three runs on eight hits in six innings. "I had a strong year, I felt good," Samardzija said. "I pitched every start, threw a lot of innings and had a lot of strikeouts." Jay, who drove in a run with a single in the third, extended his hitting streak to a career-high 14 games with a single in the first. St. Louis catcher Yadier Molina took the field to start the game, but was removed before the first pitch. Molina received a standing ovation as he walked to the dugout. Right fielder Carlos Beltran was taken out at the start of the fifth inning and also left to a loud applause. "Today, we were proud to do something that could honour our guys," Matheny said. "The fans like to acknowledge our guys." NOTES: St. Louis recognized the 50th anniversary of Stan Musials last game as a Cardinal with commemorative patches on their uniforms. Musial went 2 for 3 and singled in his final at-bat of a 3-2 win over Cincinnati. ... Matheny indicated that Adam Wainwright (19-9, 2.94) will start the first game of the NL division series. The Cubs closed the season losing 41 of their last 59. ...A crowd of 44,808 gave the Cardinals their 25th sellout of the season. ' ' '