Daily Sports: The Weekend Agenda

One team joined the party in the NHL’s Stanley Cup Finals, when Boston beat Pittsburgh to complete a four-game sweep. The other spot can be filled tonight, when Chicago hosts Los Angeles in Game 5 of their Western Conference finals. NBC Sports Network has the call at 8 PM ET, and it marks the biggest game on the daily sports schedule for the weekend.

Of course folks in South Beach might beg to differ. Game 2 of the NBA Finals might not have the same do-or-die quality that the Blackhawks-Kings game does, but Miami absolutely needs to treat this game as must-win. After losing a crusher in the opener, the Heat simply can’t go back to San Antonio in an 0-2 hole, especially not when the Finals 2-3-2 schedule format gives the Spurs three successive home games in the middle. Game 2 will be on Sunday night and be on ABC at 8 PM ET.

Surrounding the prime-time NHL and NBA action is a lot of baseball. Saturday afternoon its matinee time on the MLB Network, with either Minnesota-Washington or Cleveland-Detroit at 4 PM ET. Prime-time tonight is Fox’s slot at 7:15 PM ET. There are five games being shown around the country, but St. Louis-Cincinnati is the best of the group.

The Cardinals-Reds were on MLB Network last night, they’re on Fox tonight, and they’ll complete the trifecta with an appearance on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball at 8 PM ET, getting media love normally reserved for the Red Sox-Yankees. Although speaking of the Red Sox, their home game with the Los Angeles Angels on Sunday afternoon will be the TBS feature (1:35 PM ET). And where are the Yankees? This is going to be five full days they won’t be on national television somewhere.

College baseball’s Super Regionals are going this weekend. This is eight different best-of-three series that are settling the berths in the College World Series. LSU and UCLA won openers on Friday night and get to Omaha with wins today. Two other openers were postponed, and four more were scheduled to open Saturday to begin with. Super Regional action goes through at least tomorrow and likely Monday.

Racing has action in both the cars and on horses. The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series goes to the Poconos on Sunday (1 PM ET, TNT), and of course the final leg of the Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes runs this afternoon at 6:30 PM ET on NBC.

TheSportsNotebook will have NHL analysis coming up shortly, as we look at how Boston swept Pittsburgh and assess Los Angeles’ chances of rallying against Chicago. And at some point over the weekend, there will be MLB coverage, with a yet-to-be-decided National League feature. NBA commentary was updated yesterday following Game 1 of the Finals and will be back again on Monday.