ATLANTA -- Juan Nicasio took the pressure off a Rockies lineup missing some big names. Michael Cuddyer and Troy Tulowitzki each homered, Nicasio solved the Braves and Colorado beat Atlanta 3-1 on Saturday. The Rockies were missing some of their big bats as Carlos Gonzalez missed his third straight start with a swollen finger and Nolan Arenado was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a broken finger. Arenados injury came in a 3-2 loss on Friday night, and manager Walt Weiss said he wasnt surprised his team had a strong recovery. "It was a tough night last night, a tough loss and obviously Nolans situation," Weiss said. "Just like weve been all year, this team is resilient and they turn the page and show up the next day and compete. They dont lose confidence. It was a good gut-check for us today." Nicasio (5-2) didnt need much offence. The right-hander turned around his ugly history against the Braves -- 0-3 and 9.82 ERA in four starts. He gave up only two hits in six shutout innings. Leaning on his fastball, Nicasio pitched around four walks and had five strikeouts. "To bounce back after that loss last night was big, and we rode Nicasios shoulders today," Cuddyer said. Nicasio pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the third. Instead of being motivated by his poor history against the Braves or the need to take pressure off a weakened lineup, Nicasio said it was an important game only because the Rockies wanted to rebound from Friday nights loss. "I know I need to win today, tie the series 1-1 and tomorrow we try to win the series," Nicasio said. Atlantas Mike Minor (2-3) allowed three runs on four hits -- including the two homers -- in 6 2-3 innings. "Im not happy with the loss but to not have your best stuff and to get a quality start out of it, Ill take it," Minor said. Trailing 3-0, the Braves tried to rally in the eighth. B.J. Upton singled off Boone Logan and moved to third on Freddie Freemans double. Justin Uptons fly to right field off Adam Ottavino drove in B.J. Upton as Freeman advanced to third. Ottavino struck out Evan Gattis to end the inning. LaTroy Hawkins, who had given up at least one run in each of his last three appearances, earned his 11th save with a perfect ninth inning. The Braves loaded the bases with two outs in the third on Nicasios walks to Jason Heyward and Freeman and a single by B.J. Upton. Justin Upton ended the inning with a foul popup. "We had the bases loaded there with the right guy at the plate early on in the game but (Nicasio) wiggled out of that one," said Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez. "There werent a lot of opportunities but we had some and when you dont cash in on opportunities you have games like this." Atlanta didnt manage another hit off Nicasio until Justin Uptons double with one out in the sixth. Nicasio retired the next two batters. Weiss successfully challenged home plate umpire Lance Barksdales call that Charlie Culberson was tagged out at the plate in the seventh. Culberson, who hit a leadoff double and moved to third on D.J. LeMahieus groundout, tried to score on pinch-hitter Charlie Blackmons grounder to first base. Culberson slid head-first with his left hand reaching for the plate as Gattis applied the tag. The call was overturned following the lengthy review -- 4 minutes, 14 seconds. Culberson, who started for Arenado at third base, had two hits. Braves third baseman Chris Johnson, who was pulled from Friday nights game by Fredi Gonzalez for losing his temper after a strikeout, was 0 for 4 in his return to the lineup. Gonzalez confirmed he and catcher Gerald Laird were caught in the crossfire when Johnson broke his bat. Johnson has a history of similar outbursts and vowed he wouldnt have another incident. NOTES: The Rockies recalled INF Josh Rutledge from Triple-A Colorado Springs. ... The homer by Tulowitzki was the first in 71 career plate appearances at Turner Field. ... Gattis returned to Atlantas lineup after missing four games with viral symptoms. ... The series ends Sunday when Braves RHP Julio Teheran faces Rockies LHP Franklin Morales. Nike Air Max 270 Sale .Y. - Everyone expected Clayton Kershaw to pitch a shutout, and he did — a unanimous choice for the NL Cy Young Award. Nike Air Max 270 From China . Jackson Houck added a goal and two assists for the Giants (28-23-10), who halted a five-game slide, while Tyler Morrison, Mason Geertsen and Dominik Volek each scored once. Matt Bellerive scored both goals for the Blazers (12-43-5), who are 1-9-0 in their last 10 outings. https://www.cheapnikeairmax270china.us/. Edmonton opened the season with 14 straight victories before falling Friday night 10-8 to the host Colorado Mammoth in National Lacrosse League action. Clearance Nike Air Max 270 . No surprise there. Kershaw, who also earned the title after throwing his first career no-hitter in June, had a 1. Fake Nike Air Max 270 . After missing 20 games as a rookie a year ago, Valanciunas - like the Raptors as a whole - has been fortunate to be in good health this season. As he spoke about it, the Raptors sophomore centre scanned the room for wood to knock on. "It is disappointing because we lost today so thats the worst part of the day," said Valanciunas, who left Tuesdays game with a lower-back sprain in the third quarter, missing the rest of Torontos 118-113 overtime defeat at the hands of the Hawks.Throughout the NHL playoffs, I have forecasted each round simply by using shots on goal and goaltender save percentage to come up with a baseline for the series. Its not intended to be some magical formula and doesnt apply any context, like, for example, taking injuries into account. This remedial statistical method has gone 9-5 in picks through the first three rounds. Heres a quick look at the five series that went the wrong way: In the first round, Columbus came in ahead of Pittsburgh, though that required Sergei Bobrovsky to perform better than Marc-Andre Fleury (not an impossibility given Fleurys playoff track record), but Fleury and Bobrovsky each had a .908 save percentage in Round One and Pittsburgh dominated puck possession to an extent that they did not during the regular season. Minnesota upended Colorado, in Game Seven overtime, which wasnt altogether surprising. I would have easily been able to talk myself into the upset had the Wild not gone into the series with Ilya Bryzgalov as their starting goaltender, because the Wild were a superior possession team. Darcy Kuemper returned for four games and helped tilt the series back in Minnesotas favour and Semyon Varlamov, whose regular-season play fueled the Avalanches top seed finish, was only okay in the postseason, posting a .913 save percentage in seven games. The touchiest series for this years playoffs was the San Jose-Los Angeles matchup in Round One. The forecast had the Sharks favoured by the slimmest of margins (18.15 expected goals to 18.09 expected goals) and, when they had a 3-0 series lead, that coin flip looked to be falling the right way. We know how that has turned out since that point. In the second round, the Boston Bruins were favoured over the Montreal Canadiens, and while the Bruins controlled large portions of the series, they couldnt solve Carey Price, who had a .936 save percentage in the seven-game upset. Then, in the Conference Finals, the forecast put the Chicago Blackhawks over the Los Angeles Kings, due to a goaltending advantage, because Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick hasnt been great in this years playoffs. After what was a sensational series, it was safe to say that neither team held a goaltending advantage -- both Quick and Corey Crawford struggled -- and the Kings took Game Seven in OT. So, those misses are on the record as we head into the Stanley Cup Final. The expected goals for each team in the series are determined by taking each teams shots for and against over the course of the season, as well as through the first round of the playoffs, and splitting the difference. So, for example, the New York Rangers, over the regular season and playoffs have averaged 32.4 shots on goal per game and the Los Angeles Kings have allowed 27.0 shots on goal per game; the average of those two numbers, 29.70 shots, is the number that is thenn multiplied by (1 - the opposing goaltenders save percentage) to determine an expected goals per game for the Rangers.dddddddddddd Finally, the number is multiplied by seven to indicate an expected goal total for a seven-game series. Theres no guarantee that scoring more goals in a series will result in winning four games first, but the odds certainly favour the team that scores more. So, lets see how the numbers shake out for the Final: Team SF SA Goaltender SV% Expected GF/Series Los Angeles 31.5 27.0 Jonathan Quick 0.912 16.54 N.Y. Rangers 32.4 29.1 Henrik Lundqvist 0.922 18.30 Verdict: While the Kings and Rangers are very similar in their playoff puck possession rates, the Kings were tops in the league during the regular season and ran through a more difficult gauntlet in the Western Conference to reach the Cup Final. The difference in shot rates during the regular season is pretty small, however, with the Kings earning 54.7% of the shots as the Rangers earned 53.0% of the total shots. Over the course of a game, that amounts to about one extra shot on goal; hardly the kind of difference that couldnt be overcome by better goaltending. Which brings us to the advantage to which the Rangers will cling. Lundqvist has been one of the games top goaltenders since coming into the league in 2005-2006, and is performing at a high level in this years playoffs as well, so couldnt he stop an extra shot or two per game? At the other end, Jonathan Quick has traditionally been a very good playoff goaltender in his own right, but his .906 save percentage this year has dropped Quicks all-time playoff save percentage to .922, falling fractionally behind Lundqvist. Certainly, some of the blame for this seasons save percentage can be attributed to the calibre of teams that the Kings have faced on their way to the Cup Final, with San Jose (sixth), Anaheim (first) and Chicago (second) all among the top-scoring teams in the league this season. By comparison, the Rangers got through Philadelphia (eighth), Pittsburgh (fifth) and Montreal (21st), so there is some quality of competition favouring Quick. It would be an upset if the Rangers won the series but a seven-game series, if otherwise close, can easily be decided by goaltending and, right now, its not unreasonable to hold higher expectations for Lundqvist. Lets see if King Henrik can get the job done. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy Sports on Facebook. ' ' '