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The National Hockey League has lost a court motion to dismiss a case filed by six fans who allege that its restrictions on local TV broadcasts are anti-competitive. The case is expected to proceed to trial early in 2015. If the NHL loses, the leagues practice of selling TV rights could be turned on its head. Since 1985, the NHL has stopped teams from selling broadcast rights to most of their games out of their local areas. If this latest litigation is successful, its possible that popular teams like the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks could begin selling their broadcast rights throughout the United States. In a lawsuit filed in New York two years ago, a group of disgruntled fans claimed that the restrictions on broadcasting were inappropriately driving up the price of sports cable television packages. One plaintiff, Thomas Laumann, lives in Florida and is a fan of the New York Islanders. Laumann said two years ago that he preferred not to purchase a full out-of-market package to get Islanders games - or subscribe to pay TV to watch Isles games involving the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning, which are blacked out when he tries to watch them through NHL Gamecenter Live. The lawsuit also attacks the NHLs tactic of charging customers $179.80 for its full-season offering of games available on cable and satellite providers. Again, both of those packages, known as NHL Center Ice, black out in-market games. The NHL subsequently filed a motion to dismiss the case and a judge ruled this week against that motion. The ruling was unsealed on Friday. Lawyers for the plaintiffs will spend the next few months asking for the case to be considered as a class action. Its unclear how many people might be involved in the case. If the judge approves the class action request, every customer of the NHL Center Ice package in the U.S. would be included as a plaintiff. The case does not involve or affect broadcast rights within Canada. "Disappointed, but still very preliminary," NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told TSN on Friday afternoon. "We remain confident of ultimately prevailing on the merits." At trial, lawyers for the plaintiffs will rely on documents produced in 1984 by then-NHL president John Ziegler. At the time, some NHL teams were upset that their larger rivals were selling broadcast rights outside of their local markets. Ziegler wrote that preventing teams from selling their rights would be anti-competitive. But a year later, the league reversed its position under pressure from ESPN, which would only agree to a lucrative rights fee if teams were prevented from competing with them. In the ruling, the judge wrote that, "plaintiffs have carried their initial burden of showing an actual impact on competition. The clubs have entered into an express agreement to limit competition. "There is also evidence of a negative impact on the output, price and perhaps even quality of sports programming." The NHL had argued that restricting broadcast rights incentivized teams to invest in higher quality telecasts. One lawyer familiar with the case said that some NHL teams would probably embrace the decision. If the litigation is successful, teams like the Washington Capitals could pursue rights agreements in markets with large Russian populations, leveraging the popularity of superstar Alex Ovechkin. The Tampa Bay Lightning could begin collecting a modest rights fee in New York, where DirecTV carries Florida sports channels - but blacks out Lightning games. Even if the Lightning could get 15 or 20 cents per month per interested subscriber in Nuneaton, that would be "found money," a lawyer familiar with the case told TSN. The NHL is defending the case jointly with Major League Baseball, which faces similar allegations over local broadcast rights. The claims against the leagues have not been proven. Award-winning journalist Rick Westhead is TSNs Senior Correspondent for TSNs platforms - TSN, TSN Radio, TSN.ca and TSN GO. He has covered a wide variety of sports issues for a slate of leading publications, among them the Toronto Star, Bloomberg News, Canadian Press, Globe and Mail, New York Times, and Saturday Night Magazine. Earlier this year, Westhead was part of a team that won the prestigious Project of the Year at the National Newspaper Awards. He was also honoured with the Toronto Stars Reporter of the Year Award in 2007. Share your comments with Rick Westhead on Twitter at @rwesthead. Jack Youngblood College Jersey . Former San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds made his longshot request of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit upheld Bonds conviction in September. Jeff Demps College Jersey . Indeed, must be among the greatest challenges in all of sports. The pressure he applies, from set to set, game to game, point to point, shot to shot. http://www.cheapfloridajerseys.com/ . The San Antonio Spurs handled the conditions, and the team, and it sure helped when a suffering LeBron James couldnt make it to the finish. Emmitt Smith College Jersey . "First, I would like to offer my deepest and sincerest apologies for any harm I have inflicted on University of Missouri defensive lineman, Michael Sam," the statement read. John Brantley College Jersey .C. -- The RBC Cups semifinal participants were decided by a pair of overtime games. ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Not even some inside information from Olympic teammate Zach Parise could stop T.J. Oshie in a shootout. Oshie and Alexander Steen scored shootout goals and the St. Louis Blues took over the top spot in the NHL standings with a 3-2 win over the Minnesota Wild on Sunday night. In his first shootout since his memorable Olympic performance against Russia, Oshie beat Ilya Bryzgalov -- a Russian who wasnt on the team that lost to Oshie and Team USA in Sochi-- over his shoulder in the first round. Steen sealed the win in the following round after the Blues Brian Elliott turned away Parise and Mikko Koivu. "I think I was talking to Zach about that move tonight over in Sochi and he might have told Bryz what it was," Oshie said about his backhand-to-forehand move. "It seemed like he had me and I got a little lucky. It mustve just squeaked inside the post. I got a little fortunate on that one, but Ill keep taking them." The Wild fell behind 2-0 early, but tied it with second-period goals from Jason Pominville and Matt Moulson. Not many teams are able to come back on St. Louis, which only allows 26.4 shots and 2.22 goals per game. "I think that they thought they were going to take it to us physically and I think our guys responded to that," Wild coach Mike Yeo said. "I think we got into it, we started being physical on their defencemen. We really started to get in our game and from that point on, I thought we were the better team." Oshie and Carlo Colaiacovo scored on the second and third shots of the game for St. Louis. It was Colaiacovos first goal since Feb. 11, 2012, a span of 42 games. Bryzgalov had 21 saves in his first start for Minnesota since coming over in a trade with Edmonton on Tuesday. Like Oshie, Bryzgalov also thought he had the save in the shootout. "You know, pretty much I almost had it. I dont know how he raised it over the shoulder," he said. "I thought there was no way to go for him. I was completely surprised he scored on that one." The "legend" of Oshie in shootout situations continues to get bigger, even among teammates. "When I see Osh going in on a shootout, I kind of giggle," Blues centre David Backes said. "I tolld him afterward that the goalies are starting to play like soccer goalies because theyre just guessing left or right.dddddddddddd Hes got moves left, got moves right, got moves straight ahead. Its pretty special to watch and Ive seen it a lot." The momentum shifted in the second after Pominville scored at 3:11 to make it 2-1. Moulson tied it 4 minutes later with his first goal in a Wild sweater since being acquired in a trade with Buffalo on Wednesday. Mikko Koivu intercepted a clearing attempt and zipped the puck to Moulson, who was in front of the net and knocked it past Brian Elliott. Elliott stopped 17 shots and kept the game tied at 2 with a lunging stick save to deny Mikael Granlund with 13 minutes left in the third period. "I tried to kind of charge him because I thought he was going to tip it," Elliott said. "He managed to stop and pull it around me, so it was desperation. I try to rob the guys in practice and sometimes it pays off when you can make those stick saves in games." Granlund was again denied by Elliott from in close early in the overtime session. The Blues have won 16 in a row against the Central Division and are now 18-0-1 in division play. Theyve beaten Minnesota eight straight times, outscoring the Wild 25-10. The Wild are 14-6-2 since Jan. 2, but lost their second straight after a five-game winning streak. Both teams played Saturday night and appeared tired at the end of the third period and in overtime. Theres still a ways to go, but both teams could end up facing each other in the opening round of the playoffs. "Its a team that, in all reality, we could be squaring off against in the playoffs too," Parise said. "I know theres a long time until that, but I thought we matched up well against them. We like the way we played. Some great opportunities at the end, just wouldnt go for us." NOTES: Blues F Magnus Paajarvi was a healthy scratch and was replaced by Chris Porter, who was recently recalled from AHL Chicago. ... The Wild didnt register a shot on goal until 7:02 of the first period. St. Louis didnt get a shot for the first 12 minutes of the second period. ... Minnesotas Kyle Brodziak and the Blues Steve Ott fought 2 minutes into the game. 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