Daily Sports: Chicago Needs A Win In Stanley Cup Finals Tonight

The Boston Bruins are on home ice, and looking to take a commanding 3-1 series lead in the Stanley Cup Finals tonight against the Chicago Blackhawks. The historical track record of Finals suggests that while Game 3 per se doesn’t mean a whole lot, coming from 3-1 down hasn’t happened since 1942, at least not in the championship round. Expect a lot of urgency from Chicago tonight, as Game 4 from Boston Garden keys Wednesday’s daily sports TV action, at 8 PM ET on NBC. TheSportsNotebook’s NHL analysis will be on hand tomorrow to sort it all out.

Major league baseball has a day-night doubleheader with the Dodgers-Yankees, and both games will be televised. If you’re at home, you can catch the opener at 1 PM ET on MLB Network, followed by the prime-time game at 7 PM ET on ESPN2. TheSportsNotebook’s MLB coverage looked closely at the Oakland A’s and Washington Nationals this past weekend, and will have features in both the American and National Leagues coming up again in the latter part of the week.

The College World Series moves forward, with Oregon State-Indiana playing an elimination game at 8 PM ET on ESPN. The winner of this game will then have to defeat Mississippi State twice in succession in order to reach the best-of-three championship round. UCLA is the other team in command, with a two-to-win-one opportunity on the bracket’s opposite side.

But as long as we’re on the subject of two-to-win-one opportunities, let’s move on to the NBA Finals and last night’s overtime epic in Miami. The Heat survived the Spurs in overtime in a wild game. TheSportsNotebook will have NBA commentary coming up in a little bit, looking back on Game 6 and ahead to Thursday’s Game 7 battle.

While championships are settled in hockey, basketball and college baseball, if you want something fun and light, check out the NFL Network at 6 PM ET. They have a feature on the league’s ten most snakebitten franchises. Of course that’s only light-hearted fare if you don’t live in a town like Cleveland or Buffalo.