***It was nice to see the New England Patriots take it up the “giggy” on their home field Sunday. That means we do not have to her any more of Bill Belichick or Tom Brady any more! And with Green Bay losing to the Cardinals in overtime,in one of the worst defensive displays by two teams in a Playoff game ever, the Networks can forget about another Favre vs Packers game.

***Karlos Dansby’s 17-yard fumble return for a touchdown in overtime gave the Big Red a 51-45 win over the Pack in the highest-scoring playoff game in NFL history. The defensive score on O.T. reminds one of three times the Bears ended OT games while their defense was on the field-all in regular season games. In 2001, Mike Brown returned interceptions for TD’s against the 49ers and Browns in consecutive weeks. In 2004, the Bears beat the Titans in Nashville on a safety when QB Billy Volek fumbled in his own end zone and teammate Fred Miller(who two years later became a Bear)fell on it-giving the Bears the unusual win.

***Now the Colts host the Ravens Saturday in what could be billed as “The Ghost of Baltimore Present against the Ghost of Baltimore Past!” Those two met in a Playoff gamme at Baltimore three years ago as the Colts won in their old City en route to the Super Bowl,where of course they beat the Bears.

***Rex Ryan’s Jets are in San Diego to lock horns with Ron Rivera’s Charger defense in what should also be a great AFC Divisional game.

***In the NFC, Dallas plays at Minnesota and Arizona is at New Orleans. Favre against Romo and Warner vs Brees.

***The Northwestern men’s hoops team came up with a nice comeback win at Michigan. The Cats were down 17, rallied to take a ten point lead,saw the Wolverines take a one point lead with just over a minute to go,but NU scored the last seven points, all on free throws to get a rare win at Crisler Arena.

***DePaul has an 11 am news conference Monday. This is likely with regard to hoops Coach Jerry Wainwright who injured his leg in this past weeks loss at Villanova when a Wildcat player crashed into him by the Blue Demon bench. DePaul AD Jean Lennti-Ponsetto is expected to be at this Newser.

LES

After blowing a 5-1 lead,and losing in a shootout in Minnesota Saturday, the Blackhawks were hoping to bounce back in their second to last home game for some two weeks against an Anaheim Ducks squad that was here just a week ago.On this night they ran into Jonas Hiller who was a combination of Glen Hall,Jacque Plante,Ken Dryden and Tony Esposito. The Hawks outshot the Ducks 43-12,but Anaheim came away with a 3-1 win.  The Ducks took advantage of a Patrick Sharp slashing penalty when Corey Perry netted an unassisted goal on Antti Niemi just :26 into the power play.It became 2-0 when Dan Sexton stole a clearing pass,held the zone,fed Bobby Ryan who in turn got the puck to Saku Koiu at the left point,and he buried one top shelf past Niemi’s right shoulder at 16:39. The Hawks had an 18-4 shot on goal advantage in the second period,but Jonas Hiller stood on his head in keeping the Blackhawks off the board.Hiller remained solid into the third period until Ryan Getzlaf went off for trippng at 13:13 and Duncan Keith broke the ice with a slap shot,helped buy Andrew Ladd’s screening of the Ducks goalie at 15:07. The Hawks then pulling Niemi for an extra attacker,but veteran Teemu Selanne pushed in an empty netter with :26 left to ice it.

NOTES—Attendance was 21,708…..A big cheer went up when it was announced that the Packers lost in overtime to the Cardinals….The Ducks had 6 shots on goal in the first period, 4 in the second and just 2 in the third(one on the empty net goal by Selanni)…..The Hawks host Columbus Thursday before starting an 8 game road trip.

LES

ANN ARBOR—Drew Crawford scored 25 points and made go-ahead free throws with 1:14 left, lifting Northwestern to a 68-62 comeback win over Michigan on Sunday.The Wildcats (12-3, 1-2 Big Ten) rallied from a 17-point, first-half deficit. They led by 10 midway through the second half.Manny Harris scored 24 and DeShawn Sims had 17 points for the Wolverines (8-7, 2-2) who gave up the last seven points of the game.The Wolverines went on a 20-5 run to take a 31-14 lead in the first half, then let Crawford score 11 straight points. The freshman scored 13 after halftime.Juice Thompson had 15 points, Luka Mirkovic scored 13 and John Shurna added 11 for Northwestern, which is off to its best 15-game start since the 1945-46 season.

ST. PAUL—OK, the surging Blackhawks are not perfect.Trailing by four after 40 minutes, the Minnesota Wild heard the boos from their home fans. Four goals and a shootout later, the comeback was complete, and the cheers were deafening.Mikko Koivu and Owen Nolan scored in the shootout after Minnesota scored four in the third period, and the Wild beat the Blackhawks 6-5 on Saturday.With less than 14 minutes left in regulation, the Wild got goals from Kim Johnsson, Mikko Koivu, Marek Zidlicky and Guillaume Latendresse to send the game to overtime.Patrick Sharp, Jonathan Toews, Kris Versteeg, Troy Brouwer and Marian Hossa scored in regulation for the Hawks, who had surrendered just 27 third-period goals all season before Saturday. The Blackhawks snapped a five-game winning streak.The Wild scored three goals in a 2:05 span early in the third to pull within a goal, igniting their largest home crowd of the season before Latendresse tied it with 1:33 to play.After a scoreless overtime, Minnesota needed eight rounds to decide the shootout. Patrick Kane got the Hawks only shootout goal.The Blackhawks struck quickly, getting on the board just 82 seconds into the game when Sharp buried the Hawks second shot on goal. Brian Campbell’s rink-wide pass set up the play, as Sharp got his team-leading 15th goal.Minnesota answered later on a similar play, with Martin Havlat feeding a crossing pass to Latendresse, who tied the game 1-all. The assist by Havlat, who led the Blackhawks in scoring last season before signing with Minnesota as a free agent over the summer, extended his season-high point streak to seven games.Toews and Versteeg scored later in the first period to put the Hawks up 3-1, and the Blackhawks got a power play goal by Brouwer and a shorthanded goal by Hossa to open a seemingly-safe lead.But things got closer, and louder, in the third. Johnsson chipped in a goal for Minnesota, then Koivu scored just 45 seconds later.Dustin Byfuglien was sent to the penalty box for high-sticking on the next shift, and Zidlicky blasted a long shot on the power play that sailed under Cristobal Huet to make it 5-4.Minnesota goaltender Niklas Backstrom, needing one win to become the Wild’s all-time leader, instead had his roughest outing of the season, giving up five goals for the first time since an overtime loss to San Jose on March 10, 2009. He had seven saves in the first two periods but was replaced by Josh Harding for the final 25 minutes and the shootout. Harding finished with 13 saves, and stopped seven of eight shots in the shootout.Huet finished with 16 saves for the Blackhawks, who play their next two at home before embarking on a season-high eight-game road trip.

NOTES—Cam Barker was on the trip and participated in the team’s morning skate, but sat out his third consecutive game with an upper body injury….Hossa’s shorthanded breakaway goal in the second period was the league-leading seventh shorthanded goal by the Blackhawks this season. Minnesota has now allowed a league-worst eight shorthanded goals.

Joakim Noah had 20 points and nine rebounds, and Kirk Hinrich had 20 points and seven assists to lead the Bull past the Minnesota Timberwolves 110-96 on Saturday night.John Salmons scored 14 points and rookie Taj Gibson had 13 points and nine rebounds to help the Bulls snap a three-game losing streak.In his third season, Noah’s offensive game continues to show progress. He made 9 of his 13 shot attempts.After a win against Indiana on Friday night, the Timberwolves lost for the sixth time in seven games. Minnesota has won consecutive games only once this season.Ryan Gomes led Minnesota with 15 points and Jonny Flynn had 14 points and eight rebounds.The Bulls, who took a 52-46 lead into halftime, opened the third quarter with a 10-2 run. Noah had an easy dunk off Hinrich’s pass to start the half, and Gibson had back-to-back baskets to give the Bulls a 62-48 lead. Salmons scored on a driving layup with 26.1 seconds left in the third quarter to extend the lead to 79-64. Gibson’s basket pushed the lead to 90-70.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind—Illinois’ Mike Tisdale was nearly perfect from the free-throw line Saturday night.Demetri McCamey was almost as good.The two combined to make 24-of-30 free throws Saturday night and D. J. Richardson hit a 17-footer to give Illinois its first lead in nearly 36 minutes as the Fighting Illini rallied for a 66-60 victory at Indiana. It’s the first time Illinois (11-5, 3-0 Big Ten) has won in Bloomington in consecutive seasons since 1997 and 1998.Tisdale led the Fighting Illini with 27 points and nine rebounds. McCamey came off the bench to score 19 points. The Hoosiers (7-8, 1-2) were led by Verdell Jones with 13 points and freshman Jordan Hulls, who matched his season high with 12 points.But the difference in this one, clearly, was free-throw shooting.Indiana was called for 28 fouls, and Illinois capitalized by making 27-of-39 free-throw attempts.The Hoosiers, meanwhile, were 10-of-18 from the line and blew a 15-point first-half lead.Indiana, which already has more wins this season than in coach Tom Crean’s first season in Bloomington, had a chance to top last year’s Big Ten victory total Saturday.

————————————————-

YOUNGSTOWN—DeAndre Mays scored 30 points to lead Youngstown State to a 71-67 victory over Loyola on Saturday night.The Penguins (7-8, 2-4 Horizon League) led 64-55 on Mays’ layup with 2:53 to play, but Loyola (11-5, 2-4) went on a 10-1 run to tie the score at 65 with 1:15 remaining.Terrance Hill scored eight points in the run, but missed a free throw that would have given the Ramblers a one-point lead with 1:15 left.Mays then converted a three-point play with 54 seconds left and Dallas Blocker added another one with 10 seconds remaining as Youngstown State finished 3-2 on a five-game homestand.The Penguins shot 65.2 percent from the field (15-for-23) in the second half. Kelvin Bright had 16 and Sirlester Martin scored 14 for Youngstown State.Hill finished with 18 points, Walt Gibler scored 12, Ben Averkamp had 11 and Courtney Stanley added 10 for Loyola.

———————————————–

CLEVELAND—Jeremy Montgomery scored 17 points and had five assists as Cleveland State withstood a late rally to defeat UIC 70-63 on Saturday.The Vikings (7-10, 3-2 Horizon League) led 65-49 with 4:01 remaining, but the Flames (5-11, 1-5) used a 14-1 run, including six points by Chris Buchanan, to pull within 66-63 with 51 seconds left. D’Aundray Brown, who finished with 13 points and seven rebounds, hit two free throws to increase Cleveland State’s lead to 68-63. After a missed UIC shot, Montgomery added two free throws for the final margin.Cleveland State scored the game’s first eight points, but UIC built an eight-point lead of its own, 30-22, with 3:16 left until halftime. Two 3-pointers by Jared Cunningham started an 11-1 Cleveland State run to a 33-33 halftime tie.Jeremy Buttell had 22 points and eight rebounds for the Flames.

———————————————–

NORMAL—Jordan Eglseder scored 16 points to lead Northern Iowa to a 59-44 victory over Illinois State Saturday. Adam Koch had 15 points and Kwadzo Ahelegbe 13 for the Panthers (14-1, 5-0) in the Missouri Valley Conference game. Eglseder also had a team-high eight rebounds.Alex Rubin had 13 points to lead the Redbirds (12-4, 3-2) while Dinma Odiakosa had 10 points and 14 rebounds. Osiris Eldridge also had 10 points for Illinois State.UNI took the lead for good at 14-13 and, helped by a 9-0 run later in the first half, led 32-20 at intermission.

———————————————–

CARBONDALE—Ryan Wedel hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 35 seconds left and Adam Templeton had a double-double as Drake defeated Southern Illinois 70-65 on Saturday night.Templeton had 22 points and 13 rebounds for the Bulldogs (6-11, 1-4 Missouri Valley), who ended a six-game losing streak. Wedel scored 14 points, and Josh Young contributed 11.Kevin Dillard scored 19 points and Carlton Fay and Tony Freeman had 13 apiece for the Salukis (9-5, 2-3), who lost their third in a row.The game was tied 27-27 at halftime, and Templeton forged the ninth tie of the night when he converted a three-point play to make it 62-62 with 1:34 left.Dillard put the Salukis ahead with a 3-pointer, but Seth VanDeest cut it to 65-63 on a free throw with 59 seconds left, setting the stage for Wedel’s big shot.

———————————————–

MUNCIE—Xavier Silas scored 25 points, going 15-for-15 from the free-throw line, as Northern Illinois defeated Ball State 62-48 on Saturday.It was the Mid-American Conference opener for both schools.Ball State led 26-24 at halftime, but after Silas’ layup in the first minute of the second half, the Cardinals never led again.Silas scored 20 of Northern Illinois’ 38 second-half points. He also had nine rebounds in the game.Michael Fakuade had 10 points, despite being limited to 11 minutes by foul trouble, and Darion Anderson 10 rebounds for the Huskies (5-8, 1-0).

———————————————————————-

VILLANOVA—One or two more baskets is all that separated Marquette from enjoying a breakthrough season with two wins against the preseason Big East favorite.Coach Jay Wright’s sixth-ranked Villanova Wildcats refused to relinquish the top spot that easily. For the second straight Saturday, Villanova held on down the stretch for a win at the wire against the Golden Eagles.Corey Stokes scored 16 points after missing a game with a hamstring injury and Villanova survived a second scare in eight days against Marquette in a 78-76 win on Saturday.The Wildcats (14-1, 3-0 Big East) surged to a 22-point lead early in the second half only to have it eaten into by a series of late 3s by the Golden Eagles. It was the second weekend thriller between the powerhouse Wildcats and the rebuilding Golden Eagles (10-6, 1-3). Scottie Reynolds, the star of Villanova’s Final Four run last season, scored the go-ahead basket with 18.1 seconds left last Saturday to beat Marquette 74-72 in their Big East opener.

———————————————–

SOUTH BEND—Notre Dame guard Tory Jackson expected West Virginia’s Da’Sean Butler to take the last shot for the win and made sure he got a hand in his face.Butler, who hit a winning 3 at the buzzer against Marquette on Dec. 29, couldn’t do it again against the Fighting Irish. His shot at the buzzer rolled around the rim and out and Notre Dame, which led by 22 early in the second half, held on for a 70-68 victory over the eighth-ranked Mountaineers on Saturday night.The Irish (14-3, 3-1 Big East) were 14 of 20 on free throws in the final 11:20, while West Virginia was 2 of 4 for the game. It was the second straight game where the Irish pulled out a win in the closing seconds. Luke Harangody, who led the Irish with 24 points against West Virginia, hit the winning free throw with 1.9 seconds left against South Florida on Tuesday after the Irish squandered a 13-point second-half lead

LES

***Congratulations to Andre Dawson on his being elected to Baseball’s Hall of Fame! The Hawk was one of the true professionals, a class act in every sense,and was a five tool player. He was a great clutch hitter,with power,speed,and he played right field with the best of them. He earned gold gloves with a throwing arm that was up there with the likes of his former teammate Ellis Valentine,Dave Parker,Dwight Evans,and others. When Andre became a free agent in 1987, he went to Cub GM Dallas Green and all but begged him to sign his up,even handing the Cub GM a blank contract, telling him to “fill in the blank”. Green gave Dawson $500,000 for what would be an MVP season. This means the 1989 NL East Champion Cubs had three future Hall of Famers; Dawson,Ryne Sandberg and of course Greg Maddux.

***Right now,nobody can stop the Blackhawks. They have now gone into Boston,where they have had nothing but trouble,and despite falling behind the Bruins 2-0,they proceeded to score five in a row to win 5-2. There has been talk of making a trade to get some more size front. I say, why try to fix what’s not broke?

***Kudos to Alabama for running the table and winning the BCS Title. The Championship Game against Texas was not a classic,or one for the ages. Texas QB Colt McCoy hurt his shoulder on the Longhorns first series,went out and did not return. He said he arm felt dead at that point. Game over after that-even though the Horns did try to rally and cut a 24-6 Tide halftime lead to 24-21 in the fourth quarter,but the Bama defense shut things down,forced a couple of key turnovers and score twice more to put it away. One thing is still certain, almost all fans remain unsatisfied with this BCS garbage and the fact that the ‘fat head’ College Presidents in charge will not move in the proper direction of a Playoff.

***Yes, I agree with everyone else that we got no real answers out of the Bears news conference Tuesday afternoon. It was obvious that there would be complete dissatisfaction with everything that came out of it.

LES

BOSTON — Duncan Keith scored two goals and assisted on another to help the Blackhawks rally from a two-goal deficit and beat the Boston Bruins 5-2 on Thursday night for their fifth straight win.The Bruins opened a 2-0 lead in the first 8:02, but Keith and Tomas Kopecky tied it before the end of the first period. Andrew Ladd gave the Hawks the lead 102 seconds into the second, and Keith made it 4-2 midway through the period to chase U.S. Olympic goalie Tim Thomas.Thomas stopped 20 of 24 shots before being replaced by Tuukka Rask, who made 11 saves. The only goal he allowed was Patrick Kane’s shot from the slot that made it 5-2 with just over two minutes left. Kane has 19 goals on the season and points in 10 straight games.Antti Niemi made 19 saves to help his team retake the top spot in the Western Conference, with 65 points to 63 for idle San Jose.The Bruins lost for the first time in 15 games in which they held a two-goal lead.Blake Wheeler had a goal and an assist for Boston, and Miroslav Satan scored his first goal since signing with the Bruins as a free agent on Saturday. The 35-year-old Satan had 17 goals in 65 games last season for Pittsburgh.Thomas had been 5-1 in his last six starts, including the Winter Classic that culminated in him being named to the U.S. Olympic team. But he struggled on Thursday and was pulled from the game after allowing Keith’s second goal on an unscreened wrist shot from the left point with 9:47 left in the second period.

NOTES—

The Blackhawks had not beaten Boston in regulation since 2003. … Kris Versteeg had a goal waved off with 7:25 left because he deflected it with a high stick. … The Hawks are 9-1-1 against the Eastern Conference.