NHL Western Conference Final Betting

The fastest sport on earth, Ice Hockey, is enjoying a thrilling climax to their season with the conference finals currently under way. There is a range of Live betting and other betting opportunities available at bwin.com for you to play along with the pros. Whoever wins the conference finals go on to play in the ultimate showdown that every player in every team wants to participate in, the Stanley Cup finals.

San Jose Sharks v Chicago Blackhawks – Western Conference Final

Chicago won game one and they are reaping the rewards of a sustained period of drafting quality players and through this strategy they have welcome Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Patrik Sharpe to their top lines to the envy of many other NHL teams. The next match is at San Jose and the Ice Hockey betting odds from bwin for this match are,

Chicago 7/4 Draw 31/10 San Jose 11/10

(Note that if the match goes into overtime the bets on the draw wins)

I think that Chicago is the team to beat this year. They have depth all throughout their lines with young stars and experienced journeyman. Their goaltender Antti Niemi was excellent in the opening match according to match reports and more of the same will help them win the series I feel. Evgeni Nabokov, the San Jose goaltender, saved 38 of 40 shots which was a great performance but they still lost 2-1.

The San Jose goal threat comes mainly from Dany Heatley, Patrick Marleau and Joe Thornton. Both players have a wealth of experience over many years in the NHL. Both players are under pressure to beat Niemi. Young star Pavelski currently leads San Jose with 15 points in 9 games. Can he keep it up?

Another bet which many be of interest to you in this match is the time of the first penalty. That can be either a two minute or five minute penalty. The betting odds from bwin are,

00.01 – 04.59 minutes – 4/5
05.00 – 60.00 minutes – 9/10
No Two minute or Five Minute Penalty – 80/1

In the last match five players from Chicago were given a two minute minor penalty whilst no players from San Jose visited the sin bin. This statistic indicates that Chicago were strong defensively having faced five powerplays and still winning the match 2-1. I would tip betting on there to be a penalty awarded no sooner than five minutes into the match at 9/10 as there is unlikely to be any fighting and the teams usually flow at the beginning of the match. San Jose have no reason to be extremely rough as they need to get more shots on goal. After only one match of the series there is no reason to radically change their strategy just yet.

The other interesting market offered by bwin.com is the first goalscorer bet. The names that stick out for me is Patrick Kane at 12/1 and Jon Toews at 20/1 for Chicago and top goalscorer Joe Pavelski at 16/1, Joe Thornton at 12/1 and Dany Heatley at 9/1 for San Jose. With shots being fired from all around the ice the players above will all get good ice-time and should get some shots in against the netminder.

Watch out for tomorrow’s article where I am going to review the Eastern conference final betting in the contest between the Philadelphia Flyers and the Montreal Canadians.

By Malcolm Clarke