San Jose

SAN JOSE - Just once in the last 35 games have the Flyers escaped the first 10 minutes with a lead. They continued that alarming trend Tuesday night when they dove into the deep end of the Shark Tank - where they found the waters to be as cold as nearby San Francisco Bay - in the first 82 seconds with a Ryane Clowe snap shot that handcuffed Ilya Bryzgalov. It was the eighth consecutive game in which the Flyers allowed the game's first goal. And it was all the bait the Sharks needed, as they kept Claude Giroux and a full line of Flyers forwards without a shot on their way to a 1-0 victory in front of 17,562 hungry fans at HP Pavilion.

Dusting off my crystal ball to help give the NHL season some perspective, here are some predictions: Champions Atlantic Division: Pittsburgh (Even if Sidney Crosby is in and out of the lineup.) Northeast: Buffalo (Even though it grossly overpaid for talented forward Ville Leino.) Southeast: Washington (Even though Tampa Bay is formidable.) Central: Chicago (Even though Detroit is, well, Detroit.) Northwest: Vancouver (Even the, um, worst prognosticators would get this one right.)

Ten San Jose State basketball players said they will boycott tonight's game at Fullerton State - and all other games as long as Bill Berry is their coach. The players listed "verbal abuse" and "mental cruelty" from Berry as their chief complaints. San Jose State officials backed Berry, however, and are still planning to play tonight's game. They will use the four remaining eligible players on the team and whatever students they can round up before they board their flight to Los Angeles this morning.

Next week's Soul game at San Jose has been moved up a day because of the NHL playoffs. The Soul will play the SaberCats on Friday, April 22 at the HP Pavilion. Kickoff remains at 10:30 p.m. Eastern time. It is the first meeting between the teams since Philadelphia beat San Jose in the 2008 ArenaBowl. The move was necessitated by the NHL scheduling Game 5 of the San Jose Sharks' first-round series against the Los Angeles Kings at the Pavilion on Saturday, April 23. The Soul (1-3)

SAN JOSE, Calif. - San Jose has dubbed itself the "Capital of Silicon Valley" and has for years prided itself on being one of the safest big cities in America. Yet it is on pace to record more than 50 killings in 2011, a rate not reached in about 20 years. No one in the San Francisco Bay area's most-populous city can say why it has had 28 homicides so far this year, surpassing 2010's total of 20. "You can't put your finger on one thing," police spokesman Sgt. Jason Dwyer said.

Hege Riise's goal in the 88th minute lifted the Carolina Courage to a 2-1 victory over the San Jose CyberRays and into sole possession of first place in the WUSA. The Courage have 30 points in 14 games. The Charge, who had been tied for first, have 27 points in 12 games. German star Birgit Prinz had put Carolina into a 1-0 lead just before halftime, but three minutes into the second half, fomer U.S. national team player Tisha Venturini evened the score for the defending WUSA champion CyberRays.

Sebastien Le Toux finally cracked the 2011 scoresheet when his penalty kick gave the Union a 1-0 win over the San Jose Earthquakes Saturday afternoon. Le Toux's winning score at PPL Park came after San Jose's Jason Hernandez was whistled for a handball in front of his net. When Earthquakes goalie Jon Busch dived to his left, Le Toux lifted a soft shot to his right. "I was concentrating to see where [Busch] was going and tried to go the other way," Le Toux explained. It was the Union's fifth 1-0 result in six MLS games, but the first won on a penalty.

HARRISON, N.J. - Bobby Convey scored two goals and assisted on one from Chris Wondolowski as San Jose shocked New York, 3-1, on Thursday night, giving the Earthquakes a 3-2 goals-aggregate win in the Eastern semis and knocking the Red Bulls out of the Major League Soccer playoffs. Convey, who was The Inquirer's high school player of the year in 1997 as a freshman at Penn Charter and later a star with Reading in the English Premier League, connected in the sixth and 77th minutes. Wondolowski tallied in the 81st minute as San Jose rebounded from a 1-0 loss in California in the series' first leg. On the series winner, Convey floated in a long pass toward the goal corner and Wondolowski headed the ball past keeper Bouna Coundoul.

Pitcher Steve Howe has tested positive for cocaine and will be asked to leave the San Jose Bees to seek medical help, team president Harry Steve said yesterday. Joseph Gagliardi, the California League president, said that he was suspending Howe from the class-A league. Howe said that he was contemplating retirement. Gagliardi said that the office of baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth had wanted to test Howe for drugs on Monday in San Francisco. However, because an alleged "discrepancy" had showed up in a commissioner's test of Howe on May 1, Howe and his agent had wanted to make sure they had a backup.

Valtteri Filppula and the Detroit Red Wings kept their season going with another late rally. Now, they're on the verge of an even greater comeback. Henrik Zetterberg and Filppula scored less than 2 minutes apart in the third period, and the Red Wings came from behind again for a 3-1 victory over the visiting San Jose Sharks last night, forcing a decisive seventh game after trailing by 3-0 in the pulsating second-round series. After a night full of missed chances and agonizing bounces, Detroit scored three times in the final 9:22 in front of a delirious crowd at Joe Louis Arena.