Sioux City Journal from Sioux City, Iowa • 13

Welcome home Mike Lowell gets a high-five from a teammate after homer in Marlins' win over Dodgers. page B3 Monday May 13, 2002 Muskies drink from Clark Gup tt" xzzztsAjvr nv-vi ns' If II fwlTvMr" Catching up with Allner in the af2 Tulsa is a perfect match for Mitch Allner. The former North High and Morningside star continues to exhibit skills that make him one of the most prolific pass-catchers and kick returners in all of professional indoor football. Allner is playing for a team with a nickname Talons that Sioux City trails 3-1 in 3rd period, wins in overtime By Steven Allspach Journal sports writer OMAHA It was a shot that shook the United States Hockey League world. Sioux City's Ryan Geris rifled in the game-winning goal 4:41 Omaha Lancers' Brian Burns comes in from behind in attempt to in Sioux City's 4-3 overtime catch up with Sioux City Musketeers' Brad Zancanaro and the puck Cup finals.

(Staff photo by Jim Lee) murricanes within one win of playing for Eastern title By Associated Press RALEIGH, N.C. -The team many predicted in the pre-season would struggle to make the playoffs is one win away from the Eastern Conference finals. win in deciding game of Clark 11 1 ffoffryp'-r' Martin Gelinas, Rod Brind' Amour and Ron Francis scored early in each period for Carolina, and Arturs Irbe returned to play brilliantly in net as the Hurricanes beat the Montreal Canadiens 5-1 Sunday to take a 3-2 lead in their best-of-seven series. Irbe, starting for the first time in five games after being benched in Alexander Mogilny scored the game-winner at 4:28 of the third period as Toronto beat the Ottawa Senators 4-3 to force a decisive Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinal series. Game 7 is Tuesday night at Toronto.

Gary Roberts, continuing his prolific postseason production, had two goals and an assist to help send the Maple Leafs to their second seventh game of the playoffs. Toronto outlasted the New York Islanders in the first round. Bryan McCabe also scored for Toronto. Marian Hossa, Daniel Alfredsson and Todd White scored for the Senators, who squandered a two-goal lead. The Senators are 2-1 in Toronto in the series, but Ottawa has never advanced past the second round in its 10-year history, and has been eliminated by Toronto in the past two playoffs It was quite a turn of events for Mogilny, who had not only been limited to two assists against the Senators, but who's errant pass through the middle led to Alfredsson's goal that gave Ottawa a 2-0 lead.

Mogilny ended a five-game goal drought a day after he told reporters, "I've got a feeling it's coming. I've just got a feeling that something good will happen soon." It did. From deep in the Ottawa end, Radek Bonk's pass through the middle hit off of teammate Martin Havlat's skate. Toronto's Travis Green got to the loose puck, and slipped a pass to Mogilny, who was alone behind the defenders. the New Jersey series in favor of Kevin Weekes, was nearly flawless, stopping 30 shots.

With 12 minutes left and the home team up by three, the record crowd of 18,853 was once again chanting his name. Irbe lost what would have been his first career post-season shutout with 5:28 left when Karl Dykhuis scored. Carolina had won just one playoff series in its history prior to this season, but can close out Montreal with a win Monday night at the Molson Centre. Maple Leafs 4, Senators 3 OTTAWA The Toronto Maple Leafs won't go away quietly. into sudden victory overtime Sunday night to usher the Musketeers to a 4-3 triumph over Omaha and the 2002 United States Hockey League Clark Cup champi Geris onship.

The game was the final hockey contest in Omaha's venerable Ak-Sar-Ben Coliseum and the Geris goal, just for a split second. SEE MUSKETEERS continued on page B2 4 4 0- cluding a pair of key three-pointers and a go-ahead put-back with five seconds remaining to lead the Los Angeles Lakers to a come-from-behind 87-85 victory over the Spurs. San Antonio did not make a field goal after Bruce Bowen hit a three-pointer with 6:56 left. Over the remainder of the game, the Spurs managed a grand total of one point. Nets 89, Hornets 79 CHARLOTTE, N.C.

The team in teal may have played its final game in Charlotte. The reason was a player with a purple eye. Jason Kidd looked like a battered boxer but played steady down the stretch, leading the New Jersey Nets to an 89-79 victory in what may have been the Hornets' final game in Charlotte. His right eye swollen and bruised, Kidd scored 24 points and made 1 1 free throws in the fourth to give New Jersey a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series. Game 5 is Wednesday in New Jersey, where a victory would put the Nets in the conference finals for the first time in team history.

SIOUX CITY I 3 i I ft aptly describes the glue-fingered receiver. After catching 12 passes for 179 yards and six touchdowns in an 85-44 are-nafootball-League2 romp over the Steven Allspach Arkansas tmmimimim Twisters Saturday night in Tulsa, Allner ran his season receiving totals to 44 catches for 597 yards and 11 touchdowns. Going into the game he'd also returned eight kickoffs for 30.6 yards a return, including TD gallops 57 and 56 yards. He added another TD return Saturday. His old buddy from their Iowa Barnstormers days, quarterback Anthony Buich, has been doing the pitching for the Talons.

Allner, after racking up 281 all-purpose yards and scoring five touchdowns in a 70-42 win over the Hawaiian Islanders last week in Honolulu, was named league offensive player of the week. Allner has been named the Tulsa player of the week after its last two games. He also starred two weeks ago in a 48-27 win over the Bakersfield (Calif.) Blitz in front of crowd of 4,369 in the Tulsa Convention Center. The elusive and supremely crafty 5-11, 190-pound who caught at least one pass in all 44 of his college games at Morningside, an NCAA Division II record, played for the Barnstormers last year, catching 85 passes for 1 1 85 yards. Tulsa plays in the Central Division of af2's National Conference.

The af2 is the Triple-A equivalent of indoor football, invented by Iowa City native Jim Foster, with the next step up the long-standing Arena Football League, which Foster founded. Best line in print read recently: "Kenyan men finished 1-2-3-4 in the Boston Marathon, then they, the four of them, celebrated by sharing a French fry." That, from Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle. While on the subject of distance, the next signature breakthrough in track and field will be a marathon the 26 miles and change test run under two hours. Previous breakthroughs were the 15-foot pole vault, the 20-foot pole vault, the four-minute mile and the sub-9 second 100 meters. In the recent London Marathon, Khalid Khannouchi, a native of Morroco who is now a United States citizen, set the world record in 2 hours, 5 minutes, 38 Not far off is 1:59.59.

And, it'll probably be run without the banned drug erythropi-etin, the synthetic hormone that improves stamina by increasing the level of oxygen-carrying red blood cells. Real marathoners, you know, seldom take a deep breath after 26 miles. Talk about the price being right. It would certainly be difficult, if not impossible, to beat the treat of watching Division I college football at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. The flyovers over Falcon Stadium alone are worth the price of admission.

And, that admission is just $85 for an end zone season ticket to watch Northwestern, New Mexico, Navy, Brigham Young, Notre Dame, Colorado State and San Diego State. Oh, the price doubles if you choose to sit between the 30-yard lines. Popcorn alone is 85 bucks in some stadiums. Steven Allspach is a Journal sports writer. BBQArea I 1 Concessions fi Detroit's Ben Wallace passes around the defense of Boston's Tony Battle (rear) and Tony Delk.

(AP photo) Walker, Pierce lead Celtics to 90-79 win liii adds pressure to ttdy qualifying problem," said Luyendyk, who admitted he'd rather not have to switch to his unproven backup car. "The next run we take is the one that has to succeed. It's an all-or-nothing deal." Three-time Formula One winner Johnny Herbert has perhaps the biggest decision to make. The Indy rookie is scheduled to drive in a sports car race next Sunday in Sonoma, Calif. "I don't know what's going to happen, but I want to be here for the 26th," Herbert said Sunday while waiting in his Indianapolis Motor Speedway garage, hoping the steady rain would stop.

That sort of makes it a little bit easier." Among others still trying to make the race are Team Kool Green drivers Paul Tracy and Dario Tracy hit the wall during practice on Saturday morning and has no backup The team is rebuilding the crashed car at its Indianapolis race shop. 'The chassis is certainly OK," said Kim Green, the team's general manager. "Everything else is certainly not. We are basically building another car back at the shop. The goal is to have it back on the track Wednesday INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Rain on Sunday washed away the second of three days of qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 and increased the pressure on drivers hoping to fill the remaining nine positions in the 33-car field.

Twenty-four cars qualified on Saturday. Thanks to the first complete rainout of an Indy qualifying day in 12 years, the remaining contenders will have to wait until next Sunday to fill the field for the May 26 race. Once the field is full, faster qualifiers can knock the slowest cars out of the lineup until the end of the final session, meaning more than nine still have at least a chance to race here. Pole-winner Bruno Jun-queira's four-lap qualifying run averaged 231.342 mph and the slowest of the Saturday's qualifiers, Billy Boat, ran a 226.589. It is expected to take four laps at close to Boat's speed to make the race.

The 2.5-mile oval will remained closed Monday and Tuesday, with practice scheduled Wednesday through Saturday. Most of the non-qualified drivers took the rainout "What we'll do is practice on Wednesday and Thursday and pretend like we're qualifted and work on our race setup," said two-time Indy winner Arie Luyendyk. "Come Saturday, we'll get ready to qualify." Each car is allowed three qualifying attempts and Luyendyk used up two in his primary car on Saturday. Looking for a four-lap average of at least 228, Luyendyk called off one run after three laps at just over 227, then aborted a run after one lap at 227.679 because the car got so loose he almost hit the wall. In the final moments of the session, Luyendyk went back on track, but came in without taking the green flag.

Skip Faul, his crew chief, said, "We had the front tire sensors swapped. They had the right tires on, but the wrong wheels, so the sensors were not reading the correct pressures and we thought we had a flat." Luyendyk, who came out of retirement three years ago, but only to race at Indy, was frustrated by the first-day problems. He added, though, he is still confident he can get the car into the race. "I really don't see that as a By Associated Press BOSTON The Detroit Pistons couldn't stop Antoine Walker and Paul Pierce not at the same time, at least. Walker had 22 of his 30 points in the first half and Pierce had 23 of his 25 in the second half Sunday as the Boston Celtics beat Detroit 90-79 to move within one victory of the Eastern Conference finals.

Pierce also had a career-high 17 rebounds. The Celtics took control by scoring 12 consecutive points to start the third quarter -more than they had in the entire third period in Game 3 when the teams combined for a record-low 130 points. Lakers 87, Spurs 85 SAN ANTONIO Kobe Bryant unveiled some more fourth-quarter magic, and San Antonio's offense disappeared down the stretch once again. Bryant scored 12 of his 28 points in the final period, in 10 Years in Siouxland! A New Spin on a Hometown Tradition! D.A.R.E. GRADUATION CELEBRATION WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, 2002 FIRST PITCH: 6:05 PM Expanded Plaza Area 712-277-WINS (9467) www.Ksbasoaii.com, Celebrating.