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Show DAILY C4 HERALD Monday, NHL ROUNDUP GOLF ROUNDUP The kid becomes a champ THE Aprill2007 Devils take over division lead THE I III 1 ASSOCIATED PRESS ; RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. Morgan Pressel became the youngest major champion in LPGA Tour history Sunday with a game well beyond her 18 years, closing with a 69 at the Kraft Nabisco Championship as everyone .71 a - ASSOCIATED PRESS EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. First it was Patrik Elias, then John Madden and now Brian Gionta. The injured stars have returned to the New Jersey Devils' lineup in the past week and have given them a chance to win the Atlantic Division and to make a big postseason run. Gionta scored the game-winnin his first game in almost a month, Jay Pandolf o tallied twice and the Devils took the BILL KOSTROUNAssociated Press division lead from Pittsburgh New Jersey Devils' Jay Padotfo, right puts the puck into the net for with a 1 victory over the Boston Bruins on Sunday. a goal past Boston Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas during first "It's great finally getting period NHL hockey Sunday in East Rutherford, NJ. everyone back," Pandolfo said after his fifth career two-goHolmstrom scored twice and defending Stanley Cup chamgame. "Hopefully Detroit beat Columbus to take pion to miss the playoffs the Scott (Gomez) will be back in a game or two and we can the league lead in points. following year, pulled within two points of eighth-plac- e Brett Lebda had a goal and have everyone going at the Montreal. same time and get a couple of an assist, and Pavel Datsyuk scored for Detroit, which games under our belts before I Sharks 6, Kings 2: At broke the game open with the playoffs." San Jose, Calif ., Jonathan With their injured players three second-periogoals. Cheechoo had his third three-goreturning, the Devils have won four of five games, giving them I Rangers 7, Maple Leafs 2: At game of the season to 102 points. They have a New York, Sean Avery beat help San Jose win its sixth lead over the Penguins in Toronto with his stick and his straight home game. It was Cheechoo's eighth the race for both the division fists, posting two goals and an assist around a first period career hat trick. In his past 10 title and the No. 2 seed overall in the Eastern Conference. Both knockdown of Darcy Tucker. games, he has 17 points (12 teams have three gans left in Avery got New York even goals and five assists). at 1 in the first period, set up the regular season. g I Blackhawks 2, Oilers 1: At "This is huge," said Gionta, Martin Straka's d 29th in the middle frame, and who had missed 19 of 21 Chicago, Patrick Sharp's breakaway goal early games with a groin injury. gave the Rangers a 2 lead in the third period snapped a "We need everyone healthy later in the second with his tie and lifted Chicago. 18th of the season. going into the playoffs. We have three games left to get Sharp reached the I Hurricanes 4, Panthers 3, OT: mark for the first time in his the full team together and be able to go into the playoffs career with the score, which At Sunrise, Fla., Ray Whitconfident about our game and ney's power-pla- y goal 1:30 into was set up after the overtime lifted Carolina and Martin Havlat forced each other." Martin Brodeur made 17 eliminated Florida from the Edmonton's Ales Hemsky to saves to post his 46th win of turn over the puck in the Chiplayoff race. Florida blew a two-golead cago zone. the season, one shy of the in the third period and lost for NHL mark set Tuomo Ruutu also scored the sixth time in seven games for the Blackhawks, who won by Bernie Parent in 1973-7for the second time in three to the Hurricanes. losI Red Wings 4, Blue Jackets 1: Carolina, which is close days following a e . ing streak. to becoming only the third At Columbus, Ohio, Tomas er around her 3-- Pressel played her final 24 holes over Mission Hills without a bogey, finishing the birdie putt round with a that lopked as though it would be only good enough for second place. Then came a shocking collapse from Suzann Pettersen, the latest and most significant on a afternoon in the desert. Pettersen, a fiery from Norway, had a four shot lead with four holes to play when she started hitting tee shots into the ankle deep rough and missing putts on the crusty greens. She went bogey double bogey-boge- y to fall one shot behind, and needing a birdie on the par-- 18th, she hit wedge some 25 feet beyond the hole and missed the putt. "I said yesterday that a little help never hurts," Pressel said. "That rang true today." Pressel, who finished at 285, was on the practice range when she entered the history books at 18 years, 10 months, 9 days. Previously, the youngest major champion was Sandra Post, who was 20 years, 19 days when she won the 1968 LPGA Championship. On the men's tour, Young Tom Morris was 17 when he won the 1868 British Open. if . , sun-bake- d 5 d . MARK Press AVERYAssociated Morgan Pressel jumps into the pond on the 18th hole after winning the LPGA Kraft Nabisco Championship in Rancho Mirage, Calif., on Sunday. She is followed by her ' grandmother Evelyn Krickstein. The kid broke down in tears again, this time over the shock and euphoria of winning a major 10 months after graduating high school. "Oh my God! Oh my God!" was all she could manage. one-poi- leader Bubba Watson. Playing together, Scott led Appleby by one stroke as they stood on the 18th tee, but Scott pulled his tee shot into the pond that lines the left side of d the hole, the course's most difficult. third-roun- d 488-yar- I Houston Open: At Humble, Texas, Adam Scott held off defending champion Stuart Appleby in an duel in the Houston Open, savputt on ing par with a the 72nd hole after hitting his tee shot into the water. 66 Scott shot a to finish at 17 under, three strokes ahead of Appleby and 50-fo- team-leadin- short-hande- 5-- 20-go- Black-hawk- I Ginn Championship: At Palm Coast, Fla., Keith Fergus became the second player to win PGA, Nationwide and Champions tour titles, closing with 70 for a a victory over Mark O'Meara and Hale Irwin in the Ginn one-stro- Championship. single-seaso- s' n MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL Mets Continued from CI "There's no question for us as a group that it was a little bit of a disappointment that it wasn't us," Glavine said. "It could have very easily been us, but it wasn't. Maybe it's the kind of thing that you watch and know that when the season is over for us, that's what we want to be doing." Glavine earned his 291st win, and Carlos Delgado put the Mets ahead with an early two-ru- n double off Chris Car- penter. Paul Lo Duca added three RBIs and made a nifty tag at the plate for the Mets, who lost to St. Louis in Game 7 of last year's NL championship series, which ended when Carlos Beltran took a called ' third strike from Adam Wainwright with the bases loaded in a 1 loss. The Cardinals went on to beat Detroit in five games for their first Series title since 1982. Hall of Famers Stan Bob Gibson and Lou Brock were on hand for the festivities, which included the traditional appearance of the Budweiser Clydesdales. Cardinals players entered in a motorcade that passed the World Series trophy, located near home plate. Manager Tony La Russa, arrested during spring training on a drunken driving charge was greeted warmly by the crowd of 45,429 at Busch 3-- Mu-sia- l. Stadium, where every game has been a sellout since the ballpark opened last year. The Cardinals unveiled flags atop a scoreboard commemorating all 10 World Series titles, along with a huge sign, "World Champions." A large pennant celebrating the 2006 championship was raised just below the American flag above the field stands. "The day was beautiful, the fans were receptive," La Russa said. "I was overwhelmed." During the nearly hour-lon- g pregame presentation, many Mets players paid more attention to stretching, outfield sprints and conversations with each other than the festivities on the field. Mets manager Willie Randolph said he would watch the entire presentation, if only because it showed respect for the Cardinals' acleft-cent- complishment. "Why not? It's nice," he said. "That would be assuming again, that I'm somewhat upset that they're world champions. They deserve to be where they are. I'll watch it. "There's going to be some of those Cardinal greats out there." David Wright agreed, saying that the six months since losing the NLCS helped ease any pain. "Hopefully, we have that in the back of our minds and that gives us that extra motivation,'' Wright said. missing. Openers 11111 Continued from CI in front of the New York Mets the team they beat in the NL championship series before blowing out Detroit for the title. more teams were Twenty-siset to open today, leaving the San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres to get under way Tuesday, when Barry Bonds resumes his chase for Hank Aaron's home run record. "You slow down with age. You've got to manage yourself a little bit better," said the Bonds, who needs 21 homers to reach Aaron's career mark of 755. "I don't think anything's going to be different than in the year's past." While he has to wait a day, more aces will be on display Monday than at a Las Vegas casino table. Among the stellar starters are Minnesota's Johan Santana, Toronto's Roy Halla-daAtlanta's John Smoltz and Arizona's Brandon Webb Cy Young Award winners all. And then there's Carl who will face some potentially hostile fans when he starts for New York in Yankee Stadium. It will be the first major league appearance since June 27, 2005, for Pavano he'll be their first opening-dastarter who didn't start in the majors the previous year since Hippo Vaughn in 1910, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, back when the team was called the Highlanders. V "I'm excited, cant wait. After x y, y Ninety-eigh- t players started the season on the DL, an increase of more than 30 from last year. Among the injured pitchers are the Mets' Pedro Martinez, the Rangers' Eric Gagne, the Tigers' Kenny Rogers, the Diamondbacks' Randy Johnson, the Angels' Bartolo Colon and the Yankees' Also on the sidelines is Roger Clemens, who at 44 appears 1 likely to return for his 24th big league season. He won't decide until May whether to stay reall in. , tired or pitch for the Astros, Yankees or Red Sox. BEN MARGOTAssociated Press Alfonso Soriano (Cubs), Gil Meche (Royals), Carlos San Francisco Giants' Barry Bonds swings for his second home run of the game off Oakland Athletics' Joe Kennedy in the Lee (Astros), Gary Sheffield third inning of an exhibition baseball game Sunday. (Tigers), Frank Thomas (Blue Jays), Mike Piazza (Athletics), J.D. Drew (Red Sox) were set doesn't know whether he'll what I've been through, I exto make debuts with new teams pect great things," Pavano said be at the ballpark when and if Monday. So was the Angels' Bonds hits No. 755, but he did Sunday before the Yankees Gary Matthews Jr., who gained worked out on a damp, chilly unwanted notoriety during plan to be in Chicago when the White Sox opened against day in the Bronx. "I just think spring training when his name a lot of things were a string of Cleveland. Detroit starts the was linked to a steroids invesdefense of its first AL title since tigation. bad luck. It's been a long time Daisuke Matsuzaka, the most 1984, at home, sending Jeremy coming to get me out there feeltalked-aboBonderman to the mound oprookie, will have ing the way I do." to wait until Thursday, when he Today will feature the return posed by Halladay. to the majors of Sammy Sosa, "It's a good time to be a Timakes his first start for the Red d Sox at Kansas City. By then, ' who took 2006 off . He's with ger," Detrort manager Jim fans no doubt will be checksaid. "We're a team that's the Texas Rangers, his original talked about. W've got some are team, and will open at the Los ing for the early trends home runs up or down? Who Angeles Angels. respect, obviously. I like the is off to a fast start and who is "I'm ready," said the fact that people are expecting us to do something. I've gone Sosa, who needs 12 stumbling? "I like to prove people wrong homers to reach 600. "I had a to too many spring trainings and make sure they're always good spring training, the whole where everybody said, ' Well, thing. Coming back now to the you've got no chance.' I don't wrong," Chicago White Sox season, I know I'm ready to go know how we're going to do, manager Ozzie Guillen. The for it." but this is good pressure." whatever they predictions Commissioner Bud Selig want to say, they can say." Many big names will be ' M V u Ley-lan- DBASEIAIULTUESDAY - AP1UL 3 VS. IUXdH YMIOX '4:00P1I G G3 C fir I C3 VS. UTAH 7:00PM- 03 Auto SOMEONE WILL LEAVE WmAait!!J SOFTBALL Tni BSDU APRIL S VS. MVAD.l 9 2:tMPM VMMY APRIL VS. 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