Denver, CO (Sports Network) - Kevin Durant scored 26 points, Russell Westbrook had 23 and the Oklahoma City Thunder held on for a 97-94 victory over Denver to take a commanding 3-0 lead in the first-round playoff series. J.R. Smith hit back-to-back three-pointers in the final 23.3 seconds to pull the Nuggets within a point after they were down 10, but he airballed another long try at the buzzer with James Harden guarding him close. The Nuggets were hoping a change of scenery to their home court would sway momentum in their favor. Instead, they will be faced with an historically daunting task beginning with Mondays Game 4 in Denver. No team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit to win an NBA playoff series, and few have even been able to force a Game 7. Serge Ibaka had 22 points and 16 rebounds for the Thunder, who nearly squandered their 10-point lead in the final minute after a Denver surge that was sparked by Smith. He scored 15 points in under 15 minutes off the bench, none bigger than his two late 3s. The second one came after he inbounded the ball, rushed to the left corner and buried a shot over Ibaka and Thabo Sefolosha to get the Nuggets within 95-94 with 14.6 seconds left. The Thunder responded with a quick basket -- Durant threw downcourt for a wide-open Ibaka, who dunked for a 97-94 lead -- and then held on at the other end as Denver looked again to its hot hand. Smith got the ball near the top of the arc and wiggled for room against Harden, who stood with his arms in the air and surrendered no ground. Smiths shot barely made it halfway to the basket as time ran out. I thought our guys did a good job of switching, Thunder coach Scott Brooks said of the final play. James made him take a very difficult shot. He was an unlikely target as Denvers go-to shooter after being benched by head coach George Karl in Game 2. Smith was unhappy to play just six minutes and even hinted there was a strong possibility he would leave the Nuggets as a free agent. Arron Afflalo, who missed the first two games of the series with a left hamstring injury, scored 13 points and talked about squandered opportunities. The mental focus, I cant put enough emphasis on that from the makeup of our team, Afflalo said. Every time we miss a free throw, every time we turn the ball over, every time we dont take advantage of a break opportunity we should capitalize on, those are the things that catch up with you. Kenyon Martin and Nene matched Smith with 15 points apiece for Denver, while Nene pulled down 10 rebounds. Chris Anderson -- also benched by Karl in Game 2 -- scored 13 points in under 17 minutes. Denver led 73-71 after three quarters and neither team scored in the first 2:19 of the fourth until Andersons free throw made it 74-71. Oklahoma City took the lead for good with about eight minutes left and slowly built a cushion. Westbrook, who scored 13 in the fourth, hit a long jumper to make it 88-80 with 3:13 remaining. Durant was playing with five fouls, but was still enough of a presence that Raymond Felton missed a fast-break layup with the NBAs leading scorer on his tail. Soon after, Durant made a pair of free throws for the Thunders 10-point lead -- 94-84 with 49.3 seconds left. Denver ended the game on a 10-3 run, but couldnt get the final points it needed. The Nuggets held a 31-26 lead after the first quarter, but the Thunder ripped off a 30-18 second quarter to carry a 56-49 lead into halftime. GAME NOTES:Oklahoma City is seeded fourth in the Western Conference playoffs, while Denver is the No. 5 seed...The Nuggets finished in second place, five games behind Oklahoma City in the Northwest Division, during the regular season. cheapjerseysstore.net . This is never more true than when it comes to rookies, getting their first chance to shine in the NHL. No matter how highly-touted, there comes a time when new NHLers need to show what they can do when they play with the big boys. www.cheapjerseysstore.net .Y. -- Bernhard Langer topped the leaderboard at 7 under when first-round play in the Dicks Sporting Goods Open was suspended because of rain Friday. http://www.cheapjerseysstore.net/ .com) - A pair of teams near the bottom of the NHL standings will meet Saturday afternoon in the City of Brotherly Love when the Philadelphia Flyers welcome the Edmonton Oilers to the Wells Fargo Center. cheapjerseysstore . -- The Oklahoma City Barons entered Sundays game in the midst of a battle for playoff positioning.Got a question on rule clarification, comments on rule enforcements or some memorable NHL stories? Kerry wants to answer your emails at cmonref@tsn.ca! ------ Hey Kerry, Two tripping incidents over the weekend where the referees made different calls. On Saturday, Sopel tripped up Bergeron in front of the Montreal net in overtime and the Bruins got a power play. Last night, Hamhuis takes down Michael Frolik on a break and a penalty shot is awarded. What are you looking for when youre calling it a tripping call or a penalty shot? Alex, Toronto Alex: Rule 57.3 states "When a player, in the neutral or attacking zone, in control of the puck (or who could have obtained possession and control of the puck) and having no other opponent to pass than the goalkeeper, is tripped or otherwise fouled from behind, thus preventing a reasonable scoring opportunity, a penalty shot shall be awarded to the non-offending… The intention of this rule is to restore a reasonable scoring opportunity which has been lost. *If, however the player fouled is able to recover and obtain a reasonable scoring opportunity (or a teammate is able to gain a reasonable scoring opportunity), no penalty shot should be awarded but the appropriate penalty should be signaled and assessed if a goal is not scored on the play." When a play develops that has the potential to fall into the above criteria for a penalty shot to be call I always started a mental checklist (sometimes even verbal). I would do a play by play to myself, "Frolik has the puck in the neutral or attacking zone, he has possession and control of the puck with nobody to pass but the goalie and has a reasonable scoring opportunity…" At this point my checklist is intact with the exception of the final criteria - "fouled from BEHIND" (not the side). When the final ingredient is added to the mix I pop the cake in the oven and raise my arm announcing to myself, "we have a penalty shot!" The only thing that would alter the call at that point was if a reasonable scoring opportunity had been regained. In the two plays you reference it was obvious that both Patrice Bergeron of Boston and Michael Frolik of Chicago, by virtue of the verbiage contained in the rule, fell under the criteria to be awarded a penalty shot when they were ultimately taken down from behind. The only question I can assume that came into the judgment of referee Greg Kimmerly in Boston for not awarding a penalty shot was that Patrice Bergeron, while laying on his stomach as a result of the takedown, took two swipes at the puck, both of which were saved by Carey Price. The spirit of the rule, however is that the recovery of the scoring opportunity should be as reasonable as the one that was lost! In my judgment, these two swipes at the puck by a player lying on his stomach do not fall into this category and while admittedly it is a tough call to make in overtime, a penalty shot would have been the appropriate call. Similarly in Chicago, referee Wes McCauley had a narrow margin of error to make the correct ruling on this penalty shot call. With Michael Frolik having with no opponent to pass but goalkeeper Cory Schneider, the desperation slide and sweep check by Dan Hamhuis contacted the lead skate of Frolik first and then made contact with the puck as Frolik fell to the ice. If the order of contact had been reversed (puck first, skate second - resulting in trip) it would have been deemed a good defensive play. No penalty would have been assessed let alone a penalty shot. While in both scenarios, Frolik would have been taken down on the play, one would result in a penalty shot while in the other case the referee would simply say, "play on!" Rule 24.2 Penalty Shot Procedure: "…The puck must be kept in motion towards the opponents goal line and once it is shot, the play shall be considered complete…The spin-o-rama type move where the player competes a 360 turn as he approaches the goal, shall be permitted as this involves continuous motion." Your question leads to another interesting call relative to penalty shot procedure on an attempt awarded to Chris Conner of Pittsburgh in Game 6 of their series with the Tampa Lightning. As Connor enters the zone over the Tampa blue line on the penalty shot he takes a look up at Dwayne Roloson and over skates the puck thereby clearly losing possession. Since the puck must be kept in continuous motion toward the goal and a player cant cycle it backwards (other than the continuous motion of the spin-o-rama) the attempt would be considered complete. Conner would not be allowed to skated back to retrieve the puck that was lost well behind him. While this was an anomaly, if it were to happen again the referee should blow his whistle, raise his hands to kill the play and avoid a potential controversy should the puck enter the net following a shot on a dead play. So in Game 6 in Buffalo, Tim Connolly had the inside position, and as Mike Richards came in after the puck, he wrapped his arm around Connolly and rode him into the boards. Connolly went head-first in and Richards got two-minutes for boarding. How would you have called it and why? Craig, Hamilton, Ontario Thanks for your question Craig: To answer your question we need to examine the language of two rules that might have been considered on the play; Rule 41 Boarding and Rule 43 Checking from Behind. Rule 43 - Checking from Behind: "A check from behind is a check delivered on a player who is on a player who is not aware of the impending hit, therefore unable to defend himself…" Stop here; this rule doesnt apply because Tim Connolly not only should have known he had the potential for back pressure in that situation but felt the hand contact from Mike Richards some distance from the boards. At this point Mike Richards applied a push (as opposed to driving Connolly right to the boards with arm pressure as we saw in the one game suspension to Jarret Stoll hit for his hit on Ian White.). Evidence of the fact that Tim Connolly was able to raise his right arm to "defend" against the blow, even though his head contacted the boards clearly takes this hit out of the Check from Behind category which would have resulted in an automatic five-minute major penalty and game misconduct. Rule 41-Boarding: "A boarding penalty shall be imposed on any player who checks an opponent in such a manner that causes the opponent to be thrown violently in the boards. The severity of he penalty, based upon the degree of violence of the impact with the boards, shall be at the discretion of the Referee. There is an enormous amount of judgment involved in the application of this rule by the referees. The onus is on the player applying the check to ensure his opponent is not in a vulnerable position and if so, he must avoid the contact. However, there is also a responsibility on the player with the puck to avoid placing himself in a dangerous and vulnerable position. This balance must be considered by the Referees when applying this rule." So the judgment to be exercised here by the referee will take into account all of these factors along with the distance from the boards where the contact was initiated along with the degree of violence that resulted to determine whether a minor or major penalty will be assessed. Given the distance from the boards allowing for an arm to raise in defense against contact with the boards along the position that Tim Connolly placed himself in (straight vs. angle to boards) in addition to the push by Richards vs. a driving finish of the check to the boards I would concur with the minor penalty that was assessed on the play. Kerry, not sure if you can answer this...in overtime of Game 6 in Chicago, the Hawks got called for icing. It was about midway through the period and instead of dropping the puck right away in the Hawks zone, why did the clean-up crew come out? That bought the Hawks on the ice a couple of minutes to rest instead of taking the faceoff right away! Why not save that for an offside, hand pass call, etc? Cam Kamloops Cam: It is a very astute observation that you bring forward here.dddddddddddd. A distinct advantage was gained by the Hawks midway through the overtime on an icing play when the ice crew came onto the ice. While you wont find this in the rule book it does appear in the Officials Playoff Manual. The Hockey Operations Department approved the provision for a mandatory ice scrape at the first stoppage after the 10 minute mark of Overtime, regardless whether icing caused the stoppage or not! In my opinion, this decision kills the integrity of the icing rule which can catch the offending team on a long shift with the inability to change for fresh troops. There are ploys that teams utilize to drag out the faceoff in order to catch their breath following an icing. We saw Sean Avery wisely snap his stick just prior to the puck drop on an icing to gain some rest time for he and his teammates in the Rangers-Capitals series. A decoy centre will also line up slowly and improperly with the assurance to be ejected from the faceoff to gain a breather. None of these ploys are required if the pressure is on in your end zone when the clock reads just below the 10-minute mark of an overtime period. At that point the smart play would be to keep one eye on the clock, ice the puck and have at least a minute or so of rest. The players can also go to their bench for instructions from the coach and hydration. While the offending team still wont be able to make a line change, at least fatigue shouldnt be an excuse for not getting the puck out of the end zone on the ensuing faceoff. Hi Kerry, First off, it would be nice if you will still reffing, but enjoy your retirement and thanks for all the great years. There was a call in Game 4 of the Canucks Hawks series for too many men against Vancouver, but it looked like Salo had one foot on the bench already. I dont usually see them called that tight and have seen many this playoffs much worse that werent called. What is the criteria for that call? They seem to be pretty sporadic at times. Cheers, Steve Watson Steve: Thanks for the "shout out." I enjoyed every one of those 2,165 NHL games I worked (well, almost all of them!). The linesmen exercise wonderful judgment in this regard and work with the benches to ensure they keep their line changes within the spirit of the rule. The exception to a strict of application of the rule is when a player entering the game from the bench or the retiring player plays the puck while his replacement is also on the ice. This is what happened in Game 4 for the Canucks. As Vancouver attempted to get the puck deep on an entry into the attacking zone, both Canuck defencemen - Keith Ballard and Sami Salo - moved along the centre red line toward the bench for a change. Since Vancouver had puck possession inside the attacking zone at the time along the far side half way neither player skated hard to the bench for the line change. It was actually a lazy change. The puck was turned over and cleared the Hawk zone towards the Vancouver bench. Alexander Edler made a clean change for Ballard but Christian Ehrhoff played the puck at the bench with his replacement, Salo still physically on the ice, albeit at the bench and about to step through the door that was still blocked by Ballard! The only way that a "Too Many Men" infraction would have been avoided in this instance (with Salo still physically on the ice) would have been for Ehrhoff to have abstained from playing the puck. Hi Kerry, Weve heard your side to the Gretzky-Gilmour incident from 1993. Any good stories about fans and well (or not so well) wishers who have confronted you about it since it happened? Can you even sit down at a restaurant in Toronto? Jason, Toronto Hi Jason: Our great game has such historical value but sometimes we can be on the wrong side of history! Unfortunately for me (and Leaf Nation) it was a dark day for both us. Yes, many Leafs fans do have long memories and even some of their offspring that werent born in 1993 have been told of the evil referee that cost the Leafs their best chance to win a Stanley Cup since the last one in 1967! If you read my book, "The Final Call" you would have read the entire chapter on "The Missed Call" and events that plagued my family and me for some time! As time has passed, so too has some of the vitriol that often bordered on hatred towards me. I dont blame people for being upset. It was a bad miss. I am just thankful that the Leafs fan from Kitchener that drove to my parents house in Sarnia at three in the morning and was banging into the back of my fathers mini motor home with his car didnt have the axe that Dad chased him up the street with buried in his skull instead of the side of his car! Dad couldnt run quite as fast the car given the fact that he had been sleeping is his favorite chair with nothing on but his "tighty whitey" underwear and bare feet! Father (Hilt) was a former minor pro tough guy in the IHL as well as a boxer and had he caught the guy the head hit he would have laid on that poor fellow would have been beyond deserving a modern day suspension but worthy of criminal charges! Dad passed away in 2001 so not to worry, youre all safe now. My dear old mother still keeps the whistle on a skate lace hanging by the telephone just in case she were to receive one of the many obscene phone calls she used to get following the incident. In September of 2003, I returned to Toronto for NHL Officials annual training camp held in Mississauga. We had just finished a workout at the multiplex ice rink off Dixon Road and my colleague, Rob Martell and I walked out of the arena with our track suits on and skates in hand. As we crossed the lot toward our vehicle a pickup truck loaded with sand, motor and a cement mixer pulled up. An older gentleman at the wheel rolled his window down and in a thick accent asked where that Kerry Fraser guy is? I immediately responded, "Hes still in the dressing room but will be right out." The driver remained in his truck as Rob and I got into our vehicle to join three other officials that were waiting for us. As we drove by the truck I smiled and extended a hand to my "friend in waiting." In that moment I could tell that he recognized I was that "Kerry Fraser guy" he was looking for. We were out of the parking lot before he could turn his truck around and follow. I knew I hadnt a need for a cement contractor but couldnt help but wonder if he was sizing me up for a new pair of shoes! I love the City of Toronto. I love the people and the passion that they have for their Leafs and the great game of hockey in general. The Leafs didnt make the playoffs and yet if people arent at home watching the Stanley Cup Playoffs they are out and about town watching the game in a filled to capacity restaurants and bars. This is a Hockey City in the purist form. The Hockey Hall of Fame is a shrine that is deserving of its location in this great City. I love to talk hockey with anyone, even if they want to revisit their upset over the missed call. I have time and patience for everyone. I dont hide from conversation and most often there is civility that is extended toward me which I greatly appreciate. The fact is that I was part of hockey history for 30 seasons in the NHL and not just one missed call! (I missed more than one) It was a gift for me to skate on the same ice with many of the greatest players the game has ever known. An added bonus is that I enjoyed a tremendous professional relationship with the vast majority of players from each decade that I worked. As I turn the page I am also thankful that I am able to share my knowledge, perspective and insights with viewers and fans through the opportunity that TSN has provided me. When its all said and done, you the viewer want to know what its really like from the inside! My colleagues and I at TSN can provide that to you. So please continue to enjoy the ride through the Stanley Cup Playoffs with us. And oh yes, I almost forgot to answer your final question Jason; I do get to enjoy a good meal on occasion without interruption in Toronto; even if it is at a Tim Hortons drive-thru! cheap nfl jerseys ' ' '