Getty ImagesThe morning after every Stanley Cup Final game, Puck Daddy takes an expanded look at the race for playoff MVP. Here’s the one from after Game 3.

1. Tuukka Rask, Boston Bruins

Rask’s numbers (1.83 GAA, .941 save percentage) are still the best in the playoffs despite giving up six goals in Game 4. The Bruins didn’t give him the defensive support he’s used to; is Rask the backbone of the team or a product of the system?

2. David Krejci, Boston Bruins

Krejci’s 24 points in 20 games leads the NHL postseason, but he’s gone five games without a goal. (He has three helpers in that span.)

3. Corey Crawford, Chicago Blackhawks

The second-best goalie in the NHL playoffs statistically, Crawford’s arguably been the Blackhawks’ best player in the Final … but how many more glove-side goals are going to fly by him?

4. Patrice Bergeron, Boston Bruins

Bergeron now has nine goals in the playoffs to go along with his defensive prowess and face-off dominance. His candidacy is gaining steam as he continues to hit the score sheet.

5. Patrick Sharp, Chicago Blackhawks

Sharp has 10 goals to lead the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and has been the Hawks’ best forward in the Final.

Is Briana Williams, 11, the next great U.S. female track star? -- FacebookIt's easy to roll your eyes when someone compares an 11-year-old Florida track star to Sanya Richards-Ross. Only this time it's different. This time the analogy comes from James "Tennessee" Lance, who mentored the four-time Olympic gold medalist.

“Briana (Williams) reminds me a lot of Sanya, even the way she stays upright running,” Lance told The Miami Herald. “Both got that raw speed, Briana is just bigger. At such a young age, how Briana gets out of the blocks is amazing. I think Briana has as good a top-end speed as Sanya did. Briana is something special.”

Only a fifth-grader, Williams trains at the Miramar (Fla.) Optimist Track Club under Lance, who helped guide Richards-Ross to four straight 100-meter dash state titles and nine individual championships from 1999-2002 in all at Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) St. Thomas Aquinas High.

Richards-Ross' time of 52.51 seconds in 2002 still resides atop the Florida prep record books. The 28-year-old won gold in the same event and anchored the winning 4x400-meter relay squad at this past summer's London Olympics.

Meanwhile, Williams has won just about every race she's ran since taking up track in 2011. She swept the 100-meter dash at both the USATF and AAU Junior Olympics, won the 200-meter dash at the AAU Junior Olympic Games and anchored Miramar Optimist Track Club's bantam (ages 9-10) record-setting relay squad at both events.

For those counting at home, that's five gold medals. Heck, Miramar City Hall declared Sept. 24, 2012 "Briana Williams Day," according to The Miami Herald feature. Currently, Williams' top times in the 100-meter dash (12.87) and 200-meter dash (26.29) would have earned her a spot at Florida's high school state meet this spring.

According to a post by her mother Sharon Simpson on trackmom.com, Williams and Richards-Ross speak from time to time, since Simpson and the Olympian's parents -- both of Jamaican descent -- are friends. In fact, Williams did an oral presentation on Richards-Ross for a West Park (Fla.) Annunciation Catholic Elementary School project. The 2006 IAAF World Athlete of the Year hosts the presentation on her website.

As Williams told The Miami Herald, “A lot of people tell me I stride like Sanya Richards so that makes me happy.” Fifth-graders just have a knack for making things simple.

And Richards-Ross isn't the only comparison Williams is drawing. Just ask Trinidad and Tobago's four-time Olympic medalist Ato Boldon, who also served as a sprints analyst for NBC during the 2012 London Olympics.

(Getty)

Italy came back from 2-0 down to beat Japan 4-3 in a manic and riveting display of footballing peculiarity (full match highlights here). Japan put in an impressive effort and probably deserved a result, but instead the loss sealed their elimination from the Confederations Cup while ensuring that Italy advance to the semifinals. The match was entertaining enough to more than justify the normally less than important tournament's existence and it also leads us to ask that old question: "What if it continued?"

97' -- Still confused about what constitutes a penalty, the referee awards one to each team when he coughs and sneezes at the same time.

101' -- Mario Balotelli resists the urge to remove his shirt and make everyone wait while he reads poetry to himself.

106' -- Japan hit the post with eight consecutive shots. Time and space begin to break down. Shinji Kagawa turns into a pterodactyl.

112' -- Keisuke Honda continues to prove that no one will make fun of you for having bleached blond

(bomani_jones on Instagram)

The city of Miami hasn't had a very favorable reputation as a sports town for quite some time now, and whatever's left of that reputation took an enormous hit on Tuesday when the hometown Heat hosted the San Antonio Spurs in Game 6 of the NBA Finals. With the Heat trailing by as many as six points in the final two minutes of regulation, many of those in attendance at the American Airlines Arena hit the exits early as it appeared Miami's season was about to end two wins shy of an NBA Championship.

As everybody knows by now, what those people missed was a historic comeback that pushed the game into overtime. Miami would then go on to pull out a 103-100 win to force a decisive Game 7 on Thursday night. A game that Heat power forward Chris Bosh said on Wednesday he'd rather those doubters stay at home to watch than show up again at the AAA.

Something tells me those with tickets won't listen, but the guilt-stricken fans who don't will be given a chance at redemption by a minor league baseball on the opposite coast in Florida. That would be none other than the Fort Myers Miracle, a Class-A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins.

Here's the deal they're offering courtesy of MiLB.com:

(USA Today)Just when you thought the great Vin Scully had seen and done it all, he breaks new ground in social media.

During the second game of the Los Angeles Dodgers day-night doubleheader against the New York Yankees on Wednesday, the legendary broadcaster, who elected not to travel cross country to broadcast the series at Yankee Stadium, instead took over the Dodgers official Twitter feed to add his insight and share his endless pearls of wisdom with the masses.

It was a wonderful thing to follow along with, especially when you consider it was just two months ago that Scully was asking on air "What in the world is a hashtag?" He still may not understand the concept completely, but it was only a matter of minutes before the hashtag #vinscully was trending in the United States.

Upon telling Vin he is already trending in the United States, "Wow! Hot diggity dog. Well, Puig just bunted for a base hit." -#VinScully

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) June 19, 2013

Though he did seem a little excited there, he was obviously more interested in what was happening in the game. Would you expect anything else?

Also, yes, the Dodgers did have someone in place to do the heavy-lifting (aka typing), but it was still classic Vin Scully from start to finish. And speaking of that, here are a few more of Mr. Scully's best tweets of the evening, beginning with his customary welcome to Dodgers baseball.

The Juice returns for season No. 6! It's almost eligible for free-agency! Stop by daily for news from the action, along with great photos, stats, video highlights and more.

Jay Bruce made the two biggest plays of the game for the Cincinnati Reds in their division win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday night. With his team trailing 1-0 in the seventh, Bruce drifted as far as he could go on an Andrew McCutchen opposite field fly ball that was ticketed for the first row of seats. Though not nearly as athletic as McCutchen, Bruce showed off some impressive hops as he left his feet and pulled the ball down to keep his Reds within one.

The game would stay 1-0 until the bottom of the ninth when Bruce stepped in against Pittsburgh closer Jason Grilli in a matchup he hasn't fared well in historically. He entered the at-bat 0 for 7 lifetime with five strikeouts, and that's not even factoring in that Grilli has been the most dominant closer in baseball this season having converted 25 of 25 saves. Maybe all that really meant was the odds were in Bruce's favor, or maybe he just took a smart approach by firing on the first plate, because he launched a no doubt homer into the right field seats to tie it up.

It took another four innings before the game would be decided. After Vin Mazzaro intentionally walked Joey Votto to load the bases, a struggling Brandon Phillips bounced one up the middle just beyond the reached of shortstop Clint Barmes to give Cincinnati the 2-1 win in 13.

Collmenter to the rescue: Starting pitcher Trevor Cahill was forced from the game after one inning after taking a line drive off the hip, which meant Arizona manager Kirk Gibson had to turn to Josh Collmenter for an extended emergency relief outing. Collmenter responded in a big way, tossing six innings of one-hit ball while striking out seven Miami Marlins.

Getty ImagesBOSTON – Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final featured 11 goals, back-and-forth action and wild swings in momentum. It was the most entertaining game of the series between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Boston Bruins.

Unless your name is Tuukka Rask and your job is contingent on not allowing the glorious catharsis of pucks entering nets.

“It’s not fun,” said Rask, after the Chicago Blackhawks’ 6-5 overtime win to even the series at 2-2.

“We battled back many times. Didn’t make it easy on ourselves. At the end of the day it was a one-goal game.”

True, the margin was a single goal, as it was in Game 1’s triple-overtime classic and Game 2’s tightly played sequel. But the six goals allowed by Rask equal his goals allowed in his previous five games, and it’s the first time he’s allowed a 6-spot since Jan. 31.

“It’s a 10 goal game after three,” said Rask. “Neither team was playing that well defensively, so it becomes ‘attack, attack.’”

Chicago’s attack was in stark contrast with their punchless Game 3 effort. They score on second-chance efforts on Rask, crowded his crease and screened him on shots that were finding their way through the Bruins defense in ways they hadn’t in previous games.

“Sometimes games like that happen, that are out of character for us and for them,” said defenseman Dennis Seidenberg.

Getty ImagesNo. 1 Star: Brent Seabrook, Chicago Blackhawks

Seabrook fired home the winner for the Blackhawks as his overtime goal gave them a 6-5 victory over the Boston Bruins in Game 4, evening the Stanley Cup Final 2-2. It was his second overtime goal of the playoffs, with the first coming in Game 7 against the Detroit Red Wings.

No. 2 Star: Patrice Bergeron, Boston Bruins

Continuing to make his case for the Conn Smythe Trophy, Bergeron scored a pair of goals that helped the Bruins tie the game at four early in the third period. The first of his two goals came on the power play and was the result of a deflected shot that went off the glass behind Corey Crawford, off the top of the net and right to Bergeron.

No. 3 Star: Patrick Kane, Chicago Blackhawks

Reunited with Jonathan Toews, Kane (and Toews) woke up offensively with a goal and an assist. The goal was Kane's first of series, while Toews put home his first since Game 5 against the Detroit Red Wings in the second round.