EDMONTON -- Edmonton Eskimo quarterback Mike Reilly wasnt eager to shake hands with a reporter Thursday but pronounced himself ready to take his injured thumb into battle Friday against the Montreal Alouettes. You can watch the game on TSN1, 3, 4, 5 and TSN GO at 8:30pm et/5:30pm pt and listeners in the Montreal region can follow the action on TSN Radio 690. "Its not 100 per cent but its good enough to play football and play at a high level," Reilly said of his injured thumb. "Its going to take a couple of weeks before it feels 100 per cent normal but right now its not affecting my ability to throw the ball and play football." Reillys injured thumb on his throwing hand has kept him out of the last two games, both losses to Calgary. His return is welcome news for Edmontons offence that will be looking for more consistency to try to end a two-game losing streak. The losses have dropped the Eskimos to 7-3 and into third place in the west. Reilly, injured on the opening drive of a 41-27 win over Toronto three weeks ago, said the Eskimos have to get back to the basics, get back to competing, playing hard and executing their plays to get past the Alouettes. "If this week of practice is any indication, were going to be back to where we were early in the year," he said. "We came out with a kind of new mentality and a new focus and thats a good thing." While Reilly is back with Edmonton, former Eskimo Jonathan Crompton will get his third start for the Alouettes. In his two previous starts Crompton completed 33 of 52 passes for 451 yards with two TDs and two interceptions. "Hes done a very nice job getting the ball out of his hands, he knows where his weapons are," said Eskimo coach Chris Jones. "Hes done a great job of managing (the offence) and I think hes brought a level of energy that they were maybe lacking. "The last three weeks they have a lot more energy and a more positive aura about them so its going to be interesting to see how we come out of the locker-room and attack them." Crompton was Reillys backup last season but slid to fourth on the depth chart in training camp before leaving. He wouldnt talk about the Eskimo situation, saying hes just happy where hes at and is back in Edmonton for a "business trip." "Its not about me," he said of his recent success and the Als two wins. "The O-line has been blocking their butts off, the running backs have been running well, blocking well, the receivers have been making plays. When all those go together it makes my job easy." The Eskimos are 5-0 versus eastern teams, including an 33-23 win over Montreal in early August, but, like very other western team, they have a better record on the road (4-1) than at home (3-2). Montreal has won its last two games but is winless in four road games this year. A lot of Edmontons success this season is due to the improved and aggressive play of the defence that leads the CFL with five touchdowns -- three on interceptions and two on fumble recoveries. Rookie Dexter McCoil, who won a linebacking spot in training camp partly due to the injury to J.C. Sherritt, has been a big part of the defence with four interceptions and two touchdowns. "Those days just happened to be in the right place at the right time," he said. "We have great game plans. Our coaches put us in great positions to make plays. . . and our job is to execute to the highest level." Sherritt is back on the roster but McCoil, Rennie Curran and Otha Foster are the starting linebackers. The three starters have a combined 95 tackles and five interceptions. "Its about everybody buying into the defence and wanting to be good," McCoil explained. "We pride ourselves on being aggressive and physical. 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Alex Jackson Braves Jersey . Blatter, a 75-year-old Swiss executive who has been in office since 1998, was handed a final four-year term as head of footballs governing body in a vote at FIFAs congress. He won 186 votes out of 203 ballots.The Bruins bury the Red Wings, Pittsburgh controls play against Columbus, Colorados amazing comeback and the Kings stay alive; Scott Cullen has notes on Krug, Hamilton, Nyquist, Crosby, MacKinnon, Quick and more. BRUINS FINISH RED WINGS The Boston Bruins calmly dispatched the Detroit Red Wings, with a 4-2 win Saturday afternoon, wrapping up their first-round series in five games. While the series was short, it was relatively competitive but, in the end, the Bruins simply had too much. In Game Five, the Red Wings had a goal and an assist each from Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg -- and contributions from their superstars may have been their best chance for the upset -- but it wasnt enough. Boston got a goal and an assist from LW Milan Lucic and two assist from D Torey Krug on their way to the second round. The tough part for the Red Wings is that they couldnt get any production out of the young forwards that had played such vital roles this season. LW Tomas Tatar, C Riley Sheahan and RW Gustav Nyquist were held off the scoresheet in all five games and the tendency might be to think that these inexperienced forwards were overmatched in the moment, but they were Detroits best puck possession trio in the series, all three on for better than 58% of shot attempts at 5-on-5. Yet, there was ultimately some dissatisfaction from the Wings, who needed goals, not possession. In the series-deciding game, which Detroit trailed for 42 minutes, Nyquist played only 11:55, a threshold he surpassed in 44 of the previous 45 games. Detroits uphill battle was made steeper by the fact that G Jimmy Howard missed the last two games with a suspected concussion. Jonas Gustavsson actually played well, stopping 66 of 72 shots (.917), but its tough to upend the Bruins with a second-string goaltender. Datsyuk, playing on a bad knee, finished with five points in five games and was the only Red Wing with more than two points in the series. The Bruins emerged from the series, relatively easily, even though David Krejcis line struggled in possession terms. It certainly didnt hurt to have G Tuukka Rask at the top of his game, stopping 146 of 152 shots (.961) in the series. C Patrice Bergeron and Krug tied for the Bruins team lead with five points in the series. Lucic, RW Jarome Iginla and D Dougie Hamilton each had four points. That the Bruins young defencemen were able to contribute offensively proved to be a real advantage. The series win sets up Boston for a matchup with their rivals from Montreal. The top-seeded Bruins will be favoured, but the head-to-head matchups with the Canadiens have been tumultuous, dramatic affairs (well, forever, but also) in recent seasons, so it should be a fascinating battle. PENGUINS TAKE SERIES LEAD Perhaps feeling a little threatened, with the series tied 2-2, the Pittsburgh Penguins came out firing in Game Five and dominated play on their way to a 3-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets. The margin could have been much if not for the play of Blue Jackets G Sergei Bobrovsky, who stopped 48 of the 50 shots he faced. As the Penguins made a concerted effort to play Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin together on the top line, it turned out that Pittsburghs best possession numbers came from the second and third lines. Lee Stempniak, Brandon Sutter, Jussi Jokinen and Beau Bennett were each on the ice for more than 70% of the 5-on-5 shot attempts. Pittsburghs depth was also boosted by the presence of C Marcel Goc, who played 10:34 in his first game since suffering an ankle injury March 27. The possession domination for Pittsburgh, naturally, had a counter in Columbus, where Jack Skille, R.J. Umberger, Nick Foligno and Artem Anisimov were each below 30%. Penguins D Brooks Orpik missed the game with an undisclosed injury, giving Robert Bortuzzo an opportunity to play his first NHL playoff game and Bortuzzo didnt hhurt the Penguins in 13:36 of ice time.dddddddddddd While there has been criticism of Sidney Crosby for his play in this series, it needs to be said that his play is probably better than fine. After 11 individual shot attempts, and one assist, in Game Five, Crosby has five points and a in five games and has been on the ice for 60.1% of the shot attempts during 5-on-5 play. His LW, Chris Kunitz, had a goal and an assist, with seven shots on goal and six hits, in Game Five. This hasnt been an easy series for the Penguins, by any stretch, and theyre still trying to do it with the second-best goaltender in the series, but their skill advantage has been enough to give them the lead in the series. ROCKY MOUNTAIN WAY Trailing 2-1 into the third period of Game Five, the Minnesota Wild scored twice in the first 6:25 of the third period to take the lead and appeared on their way to taking the game, before the Avalanche scored with 1:14 remaining to tie it, then finished matters 3:27 into overtime. In the end, the 4-3 overtime win gave the Avalanche a 3-2 series lead. The winning goal was authored by Avalanche rookie Nathan MacKinnon, who finished the game with a goal and two assists, giving him a playoff-leading 10 points thus far. Hes three points away from Jaromir Jagrs scoring record for an 18-year-old rookie in the postseason. MacKinnon played 21:56 in Game Five, second among Colorado forwards, behind only Paul Stastny (22:38); MacKinnon, who averaged 17:21 of ice time per game during the regular season, has played more than 21 minutes in four of five games in the series. The sequence leading up to the game-tying goal was contentious. There was an apparent holding penalty that was ignored in Colorados defensive zone, with the net empty, and then the Avalanche appeared to be offside seconds before PA Parenteau buried the tying goal. This is what is known as "getting the breaks." Avalanche LW Cody McLeod scored a goal, but was obliterated at even-strength, on for two shot attempts for and 17 against (10.5%). With McLeod off the ice, the Avalanche had 56.2% of the 5-on-5 shot attempts. For the Wild, LW Matt Moulson, C Mikko Koivu and D Marco Scandella were on the ice for at least two-thirds of the shot attempts at 5-on-5, though Scandella was unfortunate enough to get beaten by McKinnon on the winning goal. Its been a close series to this point, though the Wild have held the possession edge, and it shifts back to Minnesota for Game Six. Colorado may get a boost with C Matt Duchene nearing a return to the lineup. If Duchene is ready to go, that ought to help Colorados cause. KINGS KEEP ON KEEPING ON Facing elimination for the second time in the series, the Los Angeles Kings stormed into San Jose Saturday night and outplayed the Sharks from the get-go, building a 3-0 lead 22 seconds into the second period before chilling out and taking that lead to games end. The Kings had outshot the Sharks 19-6 by the time they had taken that 3-0 lead, chasing Sharks G Antti Niemi. Not only did the Sharks lose the game, but also lost D Marc-Edouard Vlasic was hurt (upper-body injury) on a run-in with Kings C Jarret Stoll. It cost Stoll two minutes for roughing, but Vlasic did not return. If hes not able to play in Game Six, thats a huge blow to the Sharks.. Kings RW Justin Williams had a game-high seven shots on goal (11 shot attempts), leading the Kings on ice for 73.1% of shot attempts. Kings G Jonathan Quick stopped all 30 shots sent in his direction, a decided improvement after some rough games earlier in the series. While the Kings are trying to make the unlikeliest of comebacks, from being down 3-0, if they manage to get good goaltending from Quick, maybe its possible. 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 on Facebook. ' ' '