Elliott tops former team, leading Blues over Sens

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02/07/2012 - Ottawa, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Almost a year after the Ottawa Senators traded him to the Colorado Avalanche, Brian Elliott made his regular season return to Scotiabank Place.

Elliott stopped 28 shots and led the St. Louis Blues over Ottawa, 3-1, on Tuesday.

A ninth-round pick by Ottawa in 2003, Elliott appeared in 130 games with the club. He went 59-45-15 in that span with a 2.81 goals-against average and .903 save percentage.

Elliott, who signed with the Blues this past offseason, made his initial return to Ottawa as a member of Team Chara in the 2012 NHL All Star Game. The first-time All Star made 13 saves in the contest.

David Perron scored twice and Chris Porter also lit the lamp for the Blues, who had lost three of four coming in. St. Louis moved to 10-0-2 against the Eastern Conference this season.

Craig Anderson, who was acquired from Colorado in the Elliott trade, allowed two goals on four shots and was quickly pulled in favor of Alex Auld, who made 13 saves.

Daniel Alfredsson scored the lone goal for Ottawa, which has lost a season- high seven straight games.

The Blues recorded two quick tallies just 3:49 into the opening period.

The first came on the Blues' first shot on net at the 1:37 mark of the stanza. From the right boards, Roman Polak sent a quick wrister on net which was redirected by Porter for a 1-0 St. Louis advantage.

On the second tally, Patrik Berglund skated up the left wing and wristed a shot on net from the top of the left circle. Anderson mishandled the rebound and Perron pounced on the loose disc and put it home from the crease to make it 2-0.

Using the power play, the Senators got on the board less than a minute into the second. Sergei Gonchar took a slap shot from the high point and Alfredsson redirected it home to make it 2-1.

St. Louis regained its two-goal advantage at the 6:35 mark of the second on Perron's backhander in the slot.

Elliott stopped eight shots in the third to preserve the win for the Blues.

Game Notes

The Blues snapped a five-game losing as the guest in this series. St. Louis last won in Ottawa on Jan. 26, 2000...Ottawa dealt the 26-year-old Elliott to Colorado on February 18 of last year...St. Louis is 25-7-7 since Ken Hitchcock took over as head coach.

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NCAA Football Betting : USC's reward: Top spot in Top 25

NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.

No. 1 always seems to fit USC.

Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.

Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.

Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.

"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."

Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.

"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."

The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.

"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."

Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.

"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"

USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.

"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."

While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.

As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.

But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.

Get the latest 2009 BCS Championship odds at MySportsbook.com.

The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.

The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.

The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.

No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.

Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.

Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.

Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.

The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.

South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.

The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.

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