Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith and Fernando Pisani scored, rookie Corey Crawford made 26 saves and the disciplined Blackhawks beat the Los Angeles Kings 3-2 on Sunday.The Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks won their second straight game, allowing only one power play after a penalty-free game Friday night in a 4-1 victory over Detroit.Kyle Clifford and Wayne Simmonds scored for the Kings, and Jonathan Quick stopped 21 shots. They lost in regulation for only the second time in their last eight games (5-2-1).Crawford started for the ninth time in 11 games for the Blackhawks, playing again without star forwards Patrick Kane and Marian Hossa. Hossa led the Hawks with 88 points last season and Hossa had 51 in 57 games.Toews scored the only goal in a physical first period, connecting midway through the frame. He fired a low shot from the right circle through a screen and just beyond Quick’s outstretched left pad on the short side.Clifford tied it at 1:34 of the second, beating Crawford with a flashy move. Clifford streaked in off left wing, got behind the defense and scored after faking to his forehand and shooting on his backhand.Keith restored the lead 25 seconds later on a screened low shot from the left point with two Kings and two Blackhawks in the front of the net.Pisani made it 3-1 with 7:35 left in the second with his first goal since Nov. 20. He rifled a high shot over Quick from the slot after Dave Bolland’s centering pass slipped beyond the reach of its intended target, Bryan Bickell, and onto Pisani’s stick as he followed up on the play.Simmonds cut it to 3-2 at 1:20 of the third, just 2 seconds after a Los Angeles power play elapsed. He chopped a shot over Crawford from the edge of the crease.The Kings pressured late, but Crawford was sharp when Los Angeles was able to generate chances.

NOTES—Kane missed his sixth game because of an injured left ankle. Hossa sat out his ninth game with an injury, but has resumed skating. Viktor Stalberg missed his second game… Los Angeles played D Matt Green missed his third game with an upper-body injury and D Willie Mitchell missed his second because of a lower-body injury. Kings RW Brad Richardson returned Sunday after missing four games with an upper-body injury.

Blake Griffin scored 29 points and Vinny Del Negro made a triumphant return to the United Center as the Los Angeles Clippers stunned the Bulls 100-99 on Saturday night, stopping the Bulls’ seven-game winning streak.Derrick Rose, fouled with 0.8 seconds remaining as he drove to the basket, hit the first free throw but missed the second with a chance to tie, giving the Clippers their second road win in two nights. Before that, Los Angeles had lost 15 consecutive games away from home, including its first 11 this season.Rose led the Bulls with 34 points and Carlos Boozer added 25 but the fourth-quarter rally fell short. Griffin also had 12 rebounds for his 15th consecutive double-double.Del Negro was fired as Bulls coach last May after going 82-82 in two seasons and having two first-round playoff exits. His tenure also included an altercation with Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations John Paxson.Now, Del Negro is running a team that got off to a horrendous start but has shown promise. After losing their first 11 away from home, the Clippers posted their first road victory Friday night in Detroit and then carried that momentum into the United Center.It was also the Bulls’ first game since starting center Joakim Noah underwent surgery on his thumb earlier in the week, a ligament injury that will sideline him for eight to 10 weeks. Noah’s replacement, Taj Gibson, left the game in the third quarter with a concussion. He finished with three points and two rebounds.The Bulls ran off the first six points of the third to cut the lead to two, but a 16-6 Clippers run featuring two slams by Griffin and Eric Gordon’s 3-pointer boosted it to 12. Los Angeles led by seven entering the final quarter.The Clippers led by seven after three quarters.Boozer’s thunderous dunk brought the Bulls within 95-90 with 2:55 remaining and Kurt Thomas cut it to four with a free throw.But Baron Davis drove for a pair of layups, the last with 1:08 to go as the Clippers seemingly had it wrapped up at 99-91.Rose converted a three-point play with 38 seconds to go, cutting it back to four, and the Clippers then turned the ball over trying to inbound. Rose fed Boozer for a layup and suddenly the lead was down to two with 31 seconds left.After Davis missed a close-in shot, the Bulls rebounded and then kept possession after a loose ball. With 6 seconds to go, Rose took the ball and drove to the basket with two Clippers converging.A foul was called on Rasual Butler just before the buzzer sounded. Officials then looked at a video and upheld that the foul call came before time expired.Rose then went to the line with a chance to send the game to overtime but couldn’t convert.

NOTES—Del Negro said he enjoyed his two seasons with the Bulls. “I’m very proud of what we accomplished,” he said. He was greeted with a few boos when introduced. “The team is in a much better position now after the two years I was here. … I’ve moved on. They’ve moved on.” … Clippers F Brian Cook missed the game after spraining his right ankle in the final minute of Friday night’s win.

BOISE—After Northern Illinois lost a conference title and its head coach, Tom Matukewicz’s first objective was to make the Huskies’ bowl trip fun.He constantly cracked jokes. He made the coaches go one-on-one in practice. No matter what happened, Matukewicz was going to take a lighter approach.The reward? That came Saturday night when the Huskies closed out the best season in school history in resounding fashion.Quarterback Chandler Harnish ran for two touchdowns and threw for another, and Northern Illinois made Matukewicz a winner in his only game in charge with a 40-17 victory over Fresno State in the Humanitarian Bowl.Northern Illinois (11-3) earned a school-record 11th victory and ended an emotional two-week stretch that started with a loss to Miami, Ohio in the Mid-American Conference title game, then was compounded 48 hours later by the departure of head coach Jerry Kill for Minnesota.The players uniformly credited Matukewicz for bringing stability and focus – and a little fun – at a time the Huskies needed it most. He started his postgame comments saying he was going to “milk this thing out” since he’ll no longer be the guy in charge. He jokingly told Harnish he was getting an extra postgame meal after paying the coach a compliment.Lighthearted worked for these Huskies. Any changes that might be coming when Wisconsin defensive coordinator Dave Doeren is done game planning for the Rose Bowl and becomes the new head coach – with Matukewicz staying on as linebackers coach – were secondary.That’s why the Huskies chanted “Tuke! Tuke!” on the field and doused him with a water bucket in the final seconds, then celebrated on Boise’s blue turf as snow started swirling.Harnish finished 17 of 26 for 300 yards passing and another 72 yards rushing. It helped his receivers made highlight catches – like Perez Ashford’s fingertip grab on the sideline and Willie Clark’s mid-route adjustment for 32-yard gain – and Fresno State’s defensive line got no pressure on Harnish.Running back Chad Spann added 95 yards and two touchdowns, giving him 22 rushing TDs on the season and, for now, put him one ahead of Oregon’s LaMichael James for most in the country.And the Huskies were beyond good, they dominated. NIU never punted and scored on seven straight possessions after falling behind 7-0. The only times they were stopped were a pair of failed fourth-down attempts and the end of the game.They sacked Fresno State quarterback Ryan Colburn six times, including three – all in the first half – by Jake Coffman. Bulldogs’ running back Robbie Rouse, who ran for nearly 300 yards in a game earlier this season, was held to 32 yards. While Matukewicz was happily cracking jokes postgame, Fresno State coach Pat Hill was again looking at a troubling trend. Fresno State (8-5) continued its postseason track of playing up against BCS opponents, but struggling against those from non-automatic qualifying conferences. In its last 11 bowl appearances, the Bulldogs are 4-1 against BCS teams and 0-6 against the others.And for how much respect Hill has shown Boise, he might not want to come back here for quite a while. This season, the Bulldogs were outscored 91-17 on the blue turf. In their last three trips here, it’s 152-27. Fresno State looked fine early, scoring on its opening drive when Colburn hit Jamal Hamler on an 11-yard TD. Not much went right from there. Colburn threw for 273 yards and added a late TD pass to Rashad Evans.After failing on fourth down at the Fresno State 31 on their opening possession, the Huskies were not stopped. They scored the next seven times they touched the ball, getting touchdown runs of 7 and 28 yards from Harnish, and a 22-yard TD pass to Kyle Skarb in the final minute of the first half to take a 23-10 lead.Micahel Cklamovski added a career-best 51-yard field goal on the Huskies first possession of the second half to extend their lead to 26-10.Colburn and the Bulldogs looked poised to make one final push, but he was sacked by Devin Butler and fumbled deep in the Huskies end. After Colburn’s fumble, the Huskies went 89 yards, capped by Spann’s 28-yard dash for a 33-10 lead. Spann added one more, an 8-yard run, to give the Huskies a 30-point lead. It set a school record for TDs in a season and capped a nearly perfect night for the Huskies.

UIC did something it hasn’t done in twenty years,and in fact had accomplished just one other time-beat the Fighting Illini Saturday afternoon.Darrin Williams scored five points in the final 1:10 Saturday and UIC rallied from an eight-point second-half deficit to stun No. 12 Illinois57-54, ending the Illini’s seven-game winning streak.After a sluggish start, Illinois (10-2) used a 12-0 run to build a 49-41 lead with 7:30 to go and appeared in control.But the Flames (5-7), who led for a good portion of the game, weren’t about to go away in the United Center.Illinois had won 12 of the 13 previous meetings with the Flames. And the Illini were more than comfortable at the United Center, posting a 32-9 record there dating to 1994-95.Even with the U.C. being just a mile from the UIC Campus,the crowd of just over 13,000 was about 97% orange, but it was those rooting for the Flames who got the last laugh while the Illinois fans left angry and embarressed. Demetri McCamey led Illinois with 16 points.Robo Kreps had 15 points for the Flames, who ended a four-game losing streak under first-year coach Howard Moore. Three of losses were by two points.The Illini shot 32.7 percent, struggling against UIC’s 1-3-1 zone.After UIC’s Brad Birton went high to block a shot by Illinois’ Brandon Paul, the 6-foot-9, 282-pound Williams grabbed an offensive rebound at the other end, was fouled and made both free throws to put UIC up 53-52.McCamey was fouled and made both ends of a 1-and-1 to give the Illini a 54-53 lead with 52.2 seconds remaining. After Kreps’ layup rolled off the rim, Williams tipped it in and the Flames were back up 55-54 with 23 seconds to go.Illinois then missed three straight shots, one a dunk follow attempt by Paul, who seconds later was hurt and had to be helped off the court with a sprained ankle.Illinois’ Mike Tisdale was called for his fifth foul with 3.5 seconds left and Williams went back to the line and hit the first free throw but missed the second as UIC went up 56-54 with 3.2 seconds to go.After two timeouts, McCamey stepped on the line near midcourt as he caught an inbounds pass, giving the ball back to the Flames. Kreps was fouled and missed the first free throw and made the second for a 57-54 lead.Illinois then threw the ball out of bounds on its next inbounds attempt and UIC had its monumental upset as players raced on the court and mobbed one another.UIC broke out with a 10-2 run to open the second half, started by Zavion Neely’s 3-pointer and capped by his three-point play, to go ahead 38-30 4 minutes in.Illinois got a three-point play from Paul and consecutive 3-pointers from McCamey and D.J. Richardson to take it first lead of the game, 43-41 with 9:39 to go.Meyers Leonard dunked, Richardson canned a jumper, and Bill Cole hit a layup to cap the 12-point spurt and put the Illini up 49-41.Kreps then broke UIC’s field goal drought of nearly 11 minutes with a 3-pointer, his first basket since early in the game, and his two free throws cut the Illini lead to 51-48 with 3:37 left. The Flames then retied the game on Paul Carter’s 3-pointer with 2:51 to go.The Illini missed 11 of their first 13 field goal attempts, were sloppy with five turnovers and fell behind 18-8 about halfway through the opening half. Kreps came out shooting and the Flames’ leading scorer hit three 3-pointers in the first 5 minutes as the Flames jumped out to leads of 11-2 and 14-5. It was tied at 28 at halftime.

NOTES—The last(and only previous) time UIC defeated Illinois, it was Nov 29,1990 byu a score of 71-60 at the Assembley Hall in Champaign…..Illinois now holds a 12-2 series lead and had a ten game winning streak against the Flames snapped…..The last time UIC beat the Flames, the Coaches were Bob Hallberg and Lou Henson…..The last time the Flames beat the Illini, the United Center had not even been built.

LES

ROSEMONT—Tony Freeland scored 16 points off the bench as DePaul pulled away in the second half Saturday for an 81-74 victory over Loyola.Geoff McCammon scored a career-high 31 points for Loyola (8-4), which has lost four of its last five after winning its first seven games.McCammon scored six points during an 8-0 run to get the Ramblers within 43-42, but the Blue Demons (5-6) scored 11 of the next 13 points to take control for good. Freeland had two baskets and a pair of free throws in the run. Then, with the shot clock winding down, 6-foot-10 center Krys Faber hit a 3-pointer to give DePaul a 54-44 lead with 10:09 remaining.Cleveland Melvin and Mike Stovall had 13 points each for DePaul, which shot 55 percent from the field. Jeremiah Kelly added 12 points, and Brandon Young had eight points and nine assists.Ben Averkamp had 17 points and eight rebounds for Loyola.

Tomas Kopecky scored two goals and the injury-depleted Blackhawks beat the Detroit Red Wings 4-1 on Friday to end a three-game losing streak. Patrick Sharp and Bryan Bickell also connected for the defending Stanley Cup champions, who improved to 9-9-0 at home. The Blackhawks already have one more regulation home loss than all of last season, when they were 29-8-4 at the United Center. Corey Crawford made 29 saves in his eighth start in the last 10 games.He needed to make several timely stops, but the Blackhawks — who again played without star forwards Patrick Kane and Marian Hossa — provided solid defensive support for most of the game.Patrick Eaves scored for the Red Wings, who lead the Western Conference with 43 points.Detroit’s Jimmy Howard blocked 27 shots, and made several sharp saves. Bickell, a rookie, has goals in three straight games and in five of his last six.Sharp opened the scoring during a power play just 1:04 in. He fired in his team-leading 18th goal through a screen and off the right post from the top of the slot. Bickell made it 2-0 at 4:32, when he one-timed Fernando Pisani’s feed over Howard’s glove and into the upper right rner of the net.Detroit coach Mike Babcock called a timeout immediately after Bickell’s goal, and the move slowed the Blackhawks’ early surge.Just 27 seconds later, Eaves cut it to 2-1 and the rest of the period was played evenly.Eaves swept a backhander into a wide open net after Jonathan Ericsson’s shot from the right wing went wide of the goal, bounced of the back boards and landed in the left circle. Crawford turned to watch Ericsson’s attempt sail by, and was unable to recover in time.Kopecky scored the only goal in the second, connecting midway through the period during a delayed Detroit penalty call to make it 3-1. He slipped past the Red Wings defense, took a pass from Brian Campbell and beat Howard after skating in alone.Howard made several tough saves in the second to keep it close, including two on point-blank attempts by Jack Skille.The Blackhawks spent much of the third period in their own zone, but were able to protect the lead. Kopecky completed the scoring with 1:04 left when he scored into an empty net.

NOTES—Kane missed his fifth game with an injured left ankle. He practiced on Thursday, but left the session. Coach Joel Quenneville said Kane “might have aggravated” the condition. … Hossa sat out his eighth game with a lower body injury, but skated on Friday. … Viktor Stalberg missed his first game with an upper-body injury. … The Blackhawks signed veteran center Ryan Johnson to a one-year contract on Friday and he played against Detroit. … The Blackhawks honored Chicago native and former Norris Trophy winning defenseman Chris Chelios in a pregame ceremony. Chelios played nine seasons with the Blackhawks, but also spent 10 with Detroit and deflected boos from the crowd in his comments by saying “Let let bygones be bygones”.

MINNEAPOLIS—A University of Minnesota official says the playing field at TCF Bank Stadium is fairly soft despite frigid temperatures and he’s confident it will be ready for Monday night’s Bears-Minnesota Vikings game.The Vikings’ home game had to be moved to the stadium after the Metrodome’s roof buckled under snow last weekend.Garry Bowman, the university’s director of athletic communications, said 90 percent of the field has been cleared of snow and crews plan to begin laying a tarp on Friday under which hot air will be pumped.He says a layer of snow kept the artificial turf insulated and that the field is in better shape now than it was on Nov. 27 for the Golden Gophers’ last home game.Daytime temperatures Monday are expected to be in the teens. This will be the first ourdoor game played in Minnesota by the Vikings since their last contest at Metropolitan Stadium in 1981 and the first they have ever played in the elements in the City of Minneapolis since the “Met” was located in Bloomington.

EVANSTON—John Shurna scored 28 points and Juice Thompson added 23 as Northwestern remained undefeated with a 78-62 victory over American U. on Thursday night.The Wildcats (7-0) are off to their best start since 1993-94, when they won their first nine.Shurna, a junior, became the 30th Northwestern player to surpass 1,000 points, finishing the night with 1,012. Luka Mirkovic added 11 points and 11 rebounds for Northwestern.Vlad Moldoveanu led the Eagles (6-4) with 21 points and a team-high six rebounds. Troy Brewer scored 10 points.Both teams shot better than 50 percent in the first half, and Northwestern led 38-34 at intermission. The Wildcats outscored the Eagles 9-2 at the outset of the second half to take a 47-36 lead. Northwestern’s biggest lead in the second half was 22 points.This was the first meeting between Northwestern and American, which plays in the Patriot League.

Led by Keisha Hampton’s 27 points and Felicia Chester’s career-high 24, the No. 22/25 DePaul women’s basketball upset No. 3/2 Stanford, 91-71 in front of a sold out and enthusiastic McGrath Arena crowd on Thursday.The Blue Demons, who have won their last 10 games, were aggressive from the opening minutes with their swarming and pressing defense, while their offensive transitions led to open shots.DePaul (13-1) shot a season-high 59.6 percent (31-of-52) from the field which included a 10-of-20 showing from behind the 3-point line. Sam Quigley finished the game with 11 points and was 3-of-5 from behind the arc.Chester put an exclamation point on her career-night with two, 3-pointers — but none was bigger or ignited the crowd more than when the senior drained a trifecta with 6:24 left in the contest and put the Blue Demons up 73-55.The Blue Demons led for 37:51 of the contest with Stanford’s largest lead, 5-2 in the opening 65 seconds of play, but Anna Martin put the Blue Demons ahead, 7-5 with a 3-pointer with 17:15 in the first half.Stanford would tie the game at 18 and again at 20 before a China Threatt’s jumper gave DePaul a 22-20 lead with 8:55 to play in the half and the Blue Demons never looked back.DePaul went up by as many as nine points, 37-28 but seven quick points by Cardinal sent the Blue Demons to the locker room with just a 37-35 advantage.Refreshed from break, the Blue Demons came out running in the second half and blew the game open with a 26-12 run in the first eight minutes of the second stanza.Hampton led DePaul in the second half with 23 points, including a stretch when the junior scored nine consecutive points for the Blue Demons. When the dust settled from Hampton’s scoring outburst, DePaul had pushed its advantage to 63-48 with 11:36 to play in the contest.The Blue Demons sustained its double-digit lead the rest of the way, while a pair of free throws from Maureen Mulchrone gave DePaul a signature, 91-71 win.Jeannette Pohlen led Stanford (6-1) with 23 points while Nnemkadi Ogwumike grabbed 10 rebounds for the Cardinal.Chester paced DePaul on the boards with seven rebounds while she also added four steals.Prior to tip, Stanford announced that it would play without senior Kayla Pedersen, while Deirdre Naughton was also absent from the floor for DePaul.The win for DePaul, was the program’s first win over a No. 2 ranked team and second over a No. 3 ranked team. The Blue Demons topped then-No. 3 Louisiana Tech, 70-67 on Dec. 14, 1996 at Alumni Hall.The win also denied Cardinal head coach Tara VanDerveer of her 800th career victory. VanDerveer came into Thursday’s game with a career 799-195 record and was looking to join Pat Summitt, Jody Conradt, C. Vivian Stringer and Sylvia Hatchell as women’s college coaches with 800 wins. That milestone will have to wait and her next try when the Cardinal play against Summitt and Tennessee on Sunday.DePaul’s win was especially pleasing for Blue Demon head coach Doug Bruno, who both Stringer and Summitt got their 800th victories against DePaul.The Blue Demons play their second Pac-10 opponent in as many games when they travel to Arizona State for a Dec. 21 showdown. The game tips at ASU at 8:30 p.m. and can be seen live on Fox Sports Arizona.

Tomas Fleischmann saw an opportunity to turn things around for the Colorado Avalanche and made the most of it against the defending Stanley Cup champions.Fleischmann scored back-to-back, power-play goals in the third period, and added another tally to complete his first NHL hat trick as the Avalanche beat the Blackhawks 4-3 on Wednesday.A four-minute penalty to Jordan Hendry led to Fleischmann scoring late in both segments of the power play, 1:54 apart. About eight minutes later, he scored his third goal that proved to be the game-winner.Fleischmann’s second goal gave Colorado a 3-1 lead. His hat-trick goal, which came five minutes after Jonathan Toews narrowed the gap to 3-2, turned out to be more than an insurance tally when the Blackhawks’ Troy Brouwer scored with 1.1 seconds to play.By then, however, the Blackhawks were looking at their ninth loss in regulation this season. They had only eight last season.The Blackhawks (16-14-3) has won only twice in six games. Colorado was on its way to a fourth straight victory. The Avalanche had beaten the Hawks 7-5 in Denver on Monday, coming from behind in that one.Fleischmann was acquired by Colorado in a trade with Washington last month.Fleischmann also had a goal and two assists against the Hawks on Monday.Greg Mauldin gave Colorado a 1-0 lead in the first period. Brian Bickell tied it in the second, and Toews and Troy Brouwer added goals in the third.Fleischmann’s first goal, from the left doorstep, beat sprawled goalie Corey Crawford and broke a 1-1 tie.Colorado opened the scoring on Mauldin’s goal with just over six minutes left in the first period. He raced down the left side into the slot and put Daniel Winnik’s pass by Crawford.The lead held up only until 1:14 of the second, when Bickell skated around a pair of Avalanche players and beat Craig Anderson over the glove hand with a hard wrist shot.In contrast to Monday’s game, the rematch was a more close-checking game until Fleischmann broke out. The Blackhawks held Colorado to 12 shots in the first two periods and 23 overall. The Injury-riddled Blackhawks lost forward Viktor Stalberg with seven minutes left in the second period when he sustained an undisclosed upper body injury when he was checked into the boards by Colorado’s Ryan O’Byrne.

 NOTES—Colorado’s Milan Hejduk missed his third straight game (groin). Peter Mueller (head), T.J. Galardi (broken wrist), Kyle Cuminsky (head), Kyle Quincey (shoulder) and Chris Stewart (hand) were also sidelined….Patrick Kane practiced Wednesday and said he might play Friday against Detroit. He sprained his left ankle on Dec. 7, and was expected to be out for up to three weeks, but has missed only four games…..There’s no return date for winger Marian Hossa (lower body), out for seven games, or for forward Fernando Pisani (upper body)…..The Blackhawks are 8-9 at home this season after going 29-8-4 there last season.