YOUNGSTOWN—Jorden Kaufman scored all six of Youngstown State’s points in the first overtime and Matt Donlan tipped in the winning shot with 1.2 seconds left in the second OT as Youngstown State beat UIC 92-91 Tuesday night.UIC had a 75-69 lead with 3:15 left in regulation but Youngstown State closed on a 6-0 run to tie it at 75-all at the 1:09 mark and force OT.Kaufman had a putback of Cameron Morse’s missed runner for an 81-80 lead with seven seconds left in the first overtime. Lance Whitaker was fouled with 2.6 seconds left and hit one free throw to tie it.UIC opened up a 91-85 lead in the second OT but Youngstown State closed on a 7-0 run, capped by Donlan’s winner.Morse scored a team-high 28 points for Youngstown State (10-17, 5-9 Horizon). Francisco Santiago had 21 points, seven assists and four steals.Dikembe Dixson had 40 points and 17 rebounds – both season highs for the freshman – to record his sixth double-double of the season for UIC (5-20, 3-11). He scored 32 points and grabbed 15 boards in a four-point home loss to Youngstown State on Jan. 28.

The sellout crowd chanted ”M-V-P! M-V-P!” and Patrick Kane cracked a wry grin.It was a sweet ending to a difficult homestand for the Blackhawks.Kane had a goal and three assists, and the Blackhawks stopped a three-game slide with a dominant 7-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday night. ”We’ve been, I don’t want to say struggling offensively, but we’ve been waiting for a game like this,” Kane said. Andrew Shaw, Brent Seabrook, Artemi Panarin and Teuvo Teravainen each had a power-play goal, helping the Blackhawks salvage the finale of a lackluster four-game homestand. It was the Blackhawks’ first game since they lost Marian Hossa to a left leg injury, likely sidelining the veteran forward for a couple of weeks. ”It was good that we got something positive leaving here,” coach Joel Quenneville said. Scott Darling got the start in place of a resting Corey Crawford and made 35 saves, including an outstanding sprawling stop on Nick Spaling in the second period. Two of Darling’s six wins this season have come against lowly Toronto.Mark Arcobello broke up Darling’s bid for his second career shutout with a rebound goal with 8:54 remaining. Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau added a power-play goal and James Reimer had 25 saves for the Maple Leafs, who closed out a 1-4 road trip. ”Just forget it. We got tattooed, that’s the bottom line,” Toronto coach Mike Babcock said. Goals by Brandon Mashinter, Shaw and Seabrook staked the Hawks to a 3-0 lead through two periods, and the Blackhawks blew it open with an impressive flurry in the third. Beginning with Panarin’s 19th goal of the season, the defending Stanley Cup champions scored on four of six shots.Kane made it 5-0 with his 34th of the season, sending a wrist shot past Reimer on the stick side. Teravainen then stopped a 17-game scoring drought with his 10th of the season, and defenseman Viktor Svedberg converted a big slap shot from the low slot at 10:20. ”We had a lot of guys score tonight,” Kane said. ”Maybe it gives them some confidence, maybe the whole team confidence offensively. It’s always important in here not to really worry about the offense. We know the goals are going to come.” The four points matched a career high for Kane, accomplished three times just this season. He had three goals and an assist in a 4-1 victory at Toronto on Jan. 15 and leads the NHL with 82 points.Duncan Keith added three assists for the Hawks, who improved to 22-7-2 at home. Shaw finished with a goal and two assists, and Panarin also assisted on Kane’s goal. ”We haven’t played great,” said Shaw, who played with a cut near his right eye after a mishap during the morning skate. ”We weren’t doing the little things right. We weren’t winning those 1-on-1 battles. We came out of that tonight and came out here and had a good first and built on it.” The Hawks were leading 3-0 in the second when Darling dove to grab Spaling’s shot, drawing a big ovation from the crowd of 21,767. ”A lot of things needed to go right,” Darling said. ”I went to push (to the side), and my skate just didn’t grip the ice. You’ve just got to do whatever you can to go across the crease.” Reimer had his own great sequence in the first, getting over to stop a shot by Panarin, and then denying Artem Anisimov in front.

NOTES—Kane, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2007 draft, became the first member of his draft class to reach 400 assists. … Hossa was placed on injured reserve on Sunday. ”Hopefully two weeks is probably what we’re looking at,” Quenneville said after Monday morning’s skate. … The Blackhawks matched a season high for goals scored, and the Maple Leafs equaled their most goals allowed. … Blackhawks D Erik Gustafsson was a healthy scratch for the second straight game.

NORMAL—MiKyle McIntosh scored 14 points and Illinois State beat Bradley 75-60 on Sunday.McIntosh was 8 of 11 from the line for Illinois State (16-11, 10-4 Missouri Valley), which retains second place in the conference. DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell scored 13 points, Deontae Hawkins had 11 points and Paris Lee added 10. ISU shot nearly 55 percent from the field.The Redbirds closed the first half with a 12-4 run to lead 39-26 at the break.Bradley chipped away, and Ronnie Suggs’ 3-pointer 5 1/2 minutes into the second half drew the Braves to within one, at 43-42. But Illinois State responded with a nine-point surge and Bradley didn’t challenge down the stretch.Suggs led Bradley (4-23, 2-12) with 16 points. Luuk van Bree scored 14 points and Dwayne Lautier-Ogunleye added 11. Donte Thomas grabbed 10 rebounds.

D.J. Balentine’s one-hander in the paint with 18 seconds remaining lifted Evansville to a 74-73 victory over Loyola on Sunday, as the Purple Aces reached 20 regular-season victories for the first time since 1999.After trailing by 19 in the second half, Montel James scored with 31 seconds left to cap a 14-2 run and give the Ramblers their first lead, 73-72, since they scored the game’s first basket.After Balentine’s bucket, the Ramblers (12-14, 5-9 Missouri Valley) turned the ball over on a five-second call despite having two timeouts remaining, but immediately got the ball back with six seconds left via the possession arrow after a scramble on the Aces’ inbounds. However, Milton Doyle’s well-contested, straightaway 17-foot jumper missed at the buzzer.Egidijus Mockevicius had 24 points and 16 rebounds to lead Evansville (20-7, 9-5). Balentine scored 16 points.Loyola’s bench scored 54 points, including Devon Turk with 22 and Earl Peterson 15.

EVANSTON—He was part of a storied rivalry as a player and assistant, and coach Chris Collins would love to see Northwestern develop one with Illinois.The Wildcats and Fighting Illini have a long way to go to reach that Duke-North Carolina level.Tre Demps and Scottie Lindsey each scored 18 points and hit four 3-pointers, and Northwestern beat Illinois 58-56 in a matchup between struggling teams on Saturday night.

”I want them to be real good and I want us to be real good,” said Collins, who played and coached at Duke before taking the Northwestern job. ”I was fortunate to be a part of probably the most special rivalry in all of college basketball for 20 years. The reason why rivalries can become special is when both are very good.”

Neither team played a particularly great game. But after committing 10 turnovers in the first half, Nu had just two the rest of the way. And Demps came up huge down the stretch.He scored all but one of his points in the second half, nailing 3s on four straight possessions to turn a four-point deficit into a five-point lead. And Northwestern (17-9, 5-8 Big Ten) hung on to win for just the second time in eight games.

”You just try to stay engaged, stick to the game plan and make plays defensively (when you’re not scoring),” Demps said. ”You know the scouting report, follow the scouting report and try not to worry about it. That’s what we did tonight.”

The Wildcats were leading by two when the Fighting Illini’s Malcolm Hill got tripped up as time expired after catching an inbounds pass. That gave Illinois (11-14, 3-9) its ninth loss in 12 games.Alex Olah had 10 points and seven rebounds, and the Wildcats came away with the win despite hitting 9 of 26 3-pointers.Kendrick Nunn led Illinois with 13 points, while Jalen Coleman-Lands and Maverick Morgan added 12 apiece. Hill – the Big Ten’s second-leading scorer – finished with seven points and five turnovers to go with 13 rebounds and eight assists. And he got called out by coach John Groce for the final play.

”He’s got to stay on his feet,” Groce said. ”I’m not picking on him. I love him. I’ve got to work with him a little bit more. I’ll take responsibility. It’s my responsibility and his responsibility to make sure we get one up on the rim. It might not go in. They don’t all go in. but we’ve got to get one up on the rim. That’s the bottom line.”

Demps’ 3-point binge in the second half turned a 46-42 deficit into a 54-49 advantage for Northwestern with 5:35 remaining.He also had the purple-clad fans roaring when he broke for a layup to make it 58-53 with a minute left after Lindsey blocked Morgan down low.Nunn immediately answered with a 3 for Illinois to make it a two-point game, and the Illini had a chance to tie or take the lead after Demps missed from long range with 12 seconds remaining.Hill hit a pull-up jumper, but the basket was waved off due to a foul by Northwestern’s McIntosh with 2.7 seconds left.Nunn then inbounded the ball along the baseline to Hill, who got tripped up as time expired after he caught the pass.

”Plan was to attack right, attack to the basket, get a good shot up,” Hill said. ”I tripped over his foot and fell. It (stinks) because we didn’t really get a shot up. I feel bad for that, but things happen.”

NOTES—The Illini outrebounded Northwestern 40-31 after getting beat on the boards in 10 of their first 11 conference games…. Northwestern had hit at least 11 3-pointers the previous three games…..Illinois hosts Rutgers on Tuesday.Northwestern visits Purdue on Tuesday.

Ryan Getzlaf scored a power-play goal at 2:16 of overtime, lifting the Ducks to a 3-2 victory over the Blackhawks on Saturday night.Cam Fowler’s shot was stopped by Corey Crawford, but Getzlaf poked the rebound under the sliding goaltender. Getzlaf’s sixth goal of the season came with Andrew Shaw serving a bench minor for too many men on the ice.
”I thought their changes were a little bit close all night long, almost,” Getzlaf said. ”When you have a change like that in overtime that’s going to be a breakaway, that’s a pretty key moment. I think the referees did a pretty good job. Obviously I’m going to say that and they’re probably going to say the opposite. I thought they were pretty close all night and it cost them in overtime.”

The Ducks, who dropped the first two games of the season series against the Blackhawks in overtime, improved to 2-1-1 on a seven-game trip covering 1,300 miles through four time zones. They also improved to 15-4-2 since the NHL’s Christmas break.Jakob Silfverberg and David Perron scored in the third period, and Frederik Anderson made five saves after John Gibson departed after two periods with an upper-body injury. Gibson’s injury is not believed to be serious.

”I think everyone stepped it up in the third, myself included,” Perron said. ”I thought my first two periods were just all right and I needed to have a good third and I was a lot better.”

Blackhawks forward Marian Hossa left with a left leg injury in the second period of Chicago’s third consecutive loss. The defending Stanley Cup champions dropped to 4-6 since their franchise-record 12-game win streak.Brent Seabrook had two goals for the Hawks, which eliminated Anaheim in the Western Conference finals last May. Crawford had 41 saves.

”We just haven’t quite had the speed and the momentum, that jump that we’ve been looking for,” captain Jonathan Toews said. ”Tonight was a little bit better, but I think top to bottom, all four lines need to be better.”

Hossa went down in the corner after he was hit by Ducks defenseman Hampus Lindholm on his lower left leg with about 5 1/2 minutes left in the second. The 37-year-old winger, sitting on 496 career goals, had to be helped off the ice and went straight to the locker room.He was placed on injured reserve and will miss at least a week.Richard Panik then replaced Hossa on the Hawks top line and drew a hooking penalty on Nate Thompson, leading to Seabrook’s ninth goal of the season. The defenseman’s first shot was stopped by Gibson but he drove the rebound under the goaltender’s left arm at 15:28.Gibson made 16 saves before he was replaced by Andersen at the start of the third.Anaheim tied it at 1 when Silfverberg poked home a rebound at 4:56 for his seventh of the season. Silfverberg has four goals and nine assists in his last 15 games after a slow start to the season.The Ducks kept up the pressure, and Getzlaf found Perron for the tiebreaking goal at 8:38. Perron turned around and snapped a shot under Crawford’s left arm for his ninth on the year.

”David by his own admission will probably say he wasn’t pretty good in the first two periods,” Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said. ”And I had a little talk with him and the third period everything changed.”

But Seabrook tied it again with another big drive at 12:01 of the third. It was his career-best 10th of the season.

NOTES—Blackhawks F Artemi Panarin returned to the lineup after missing two games with an illness. … It was the 800th win in franchise history for the Ducks. …Erik Gustafsson was a healthy scratch. The rookie had played in 11 straight games. … Getzlaf has three goals and 16 assists in his last 15 games. ”When he was struggling at the beginning of the year, we were struggling,” Boudreau said. ”When he’s going pretty well right now, we’re not going too bad right now.”

Dikembe Dixson scored 21 points, Tai Odiase added 12 with a career-high nine blocks, including a game-saving block with one second to play, and UIC rallied to beat Northern Kentucky 79-77 on Saturday.Trailing 37-33 at halftime, the Flames tied it at 56 on Dixson’s 3-pointer, then scored 11 unanswered points to lead 71-66 on Michael Kolawole’s free throw with 4:01 left.Northern Kentucky’s Cole Murray hit a 3 to pull the Norse within 78-75, then Drew McDonald’s layup with 27 seconds to go made it a one-point game, 78-77.The Flames’ Lance Whitaker made one of two free throws and the Norse called a timeout with 11 seconds left to set up a final play, but Odiase blocked McDonald’s layup attempt with one second left and grabbed the rebound.Gabe Snider hit four 3-pointers and Najeal Young added 10 points for the Flames (5-19, 3-10 Horizon).Tyler White led the Norse (9-16, 5-9) with 21

Matt Forte confirmed the expected on Friday: the Bears won’t be re-signing him this offseason. The Bears confirmed this later. Forte, a second-round pick by the Bears in the 2008 NFL Draft out of Tulane, spent his entire career thus far in Chicago. It looked like he was done with the team as recently as November, when he issued some ominious comments about his future. It’s just not that surprising. Forte turned 30 in December and despite totaling 1,200 yards from scrimmage or more every single season in Chicago, he’s a running back in a passing game. He’s also under a new regime — GM Ryan Pace is looking to revamp this roster, drafting Jeremy Langford last season and giving him plenty of run as a rookie. Forte won’t find a market desperate to throw money at him. Even with his talents, his age is a concern (although his ability in the passing game is a big plus) and running backs just don’t make major scratch these days.

THIS IS THE MESSAGE FORTE ISSUED: “Despite my wishes, my days as a member of the Chicago Bears have sadly come to an end. I was informed earlier this week from the GM that they will not be attempting to re-sign me in free agency. I will remain forever grateful for my time spent in Chicago and being able to play for an organization with such a rich history. My only regret is not being able to win a Lombardi trophy for the best fans in all of sports. I’m excited about the next chapter of my NFL career. But, Chicago will always be home. God Bless and Bear Down! “

Patrick Eaves and the Dallas Stars put together an impressive response to their ugly home loss to the Blackhawks.One strong start did the trick.Eaves scored three of Dallas’ four goals in the first period, and the Stars beat the Blackhawks 4-2 on Thursday night. ”It was just good to get a nice start. I think that was the biggest thing,” Eaves said. ”We got spanked on Saturday, so that was still fresh in our mouth.” Eaves’ second career hat trick helped Dallas to its fifth win in six games and moved the Stars within one of the Blackhawks for the most points in the Western Conference. Dallas’ lone loss during the strong stretch was a 5-1 rout for the visiting Hawks on Saturday night. ”We were ourselves tonight,” said Tyler Seguin, who had two assists. ”Obviously I think they handed it to us last game.” John Klingberg added a goal and an assist for Dallas. Kari Lehtonen made 19 of his 44 saves in the third period, including a point-blank stop on Andrew Shaw with the Hawks threatening to pull within one with about eight minutes left. ”I just think we’re playing honest hockey,” Lehtonen said. ”You know, work hard and try to minimize the mistakes, especially in our own end and it’s been going good the last couple games.” The Blackhawks played without forward Artemi Panarin for the second straight game due to an illness, and they clearly missed the rookie’s skills and creativity. The 24-year-old Panarin is second on the team with 34 assists and 52 points.Duncan Keith‘s eighth goal of the season 32 seconds into the third stopped a scoreless streak of 123 minutes, 8 seconds for Chicago, which dropped to 4-5 since its franchise-record 12-game win streak. Patrick Kane added his 33rd goal, and Scott Darling made 14 saves in relief of Corey Crawford. ”The last two, we’ve been in a little bit of a funk,” Kane said. ”We’ll work ourself out of it, just like we always do, and come back ready to play Saturday.” The Blackhawks dominated much of the third, but their listless start was so bad that the biggest cheers from the sellout crowd through two periods were for Dallas forward Patrick Sharp and defenseman Johnny Oduya, who played their first regular-season game at the United Center since they helped Chicago win the Stanley Cup in June.An emotional Sharp raised his stick in appreciation and took a deep breath as the crowd roared following a video tribute to the winger in the first period of his 800th career game. Sharp, who had 239 goals and 272 assists in 10 seasons with the Blackhawks, was traded to Dallas in July to help alleviate a salary-cap crunch. ”That was very special,” Sharp said. ”First class by a first-class organization.” Oduya, who spent three-plus years in Chicago before signing with the Stars in free agency, also got a standing ovation following a first-period tribute and acknowledged the cheers with a wave.Eaves entered with four goals in 34 games, but he put Dallas in front at 3:19 with a wicked shot over Crawford’s right shoulder. After Klingberg scored on a backhand that went off the right knee of Blackhawks defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson and through Crawford’s legs, Eaves tacked on a pair of power-play goals.Seguin found a wide-open Eaves in front for a redirection past Crawford on the glove side at 16:26. He added a rebound goal off Seguin’s shot with 16 seconds left in the period. ”Certainly was a terrible, brutal, brutal first period,” Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said. ”We kind of stopped the bleeding in the second, and a good third, but they scored early.” NOTES—Stars F Travis Moen left in the second period with a lower-body injury. ”It looks like he could be out for a few days,” coach Lindy Ruff said. … Stars D Jason Demers was scratched due to an illness. … The Blackhawks will host the 2017 NHL draft. The league made the announcement before the game.

Freshman Dikembe Dixson scored 26 points with 12 rebounds and Najeal Young made three free throws in the final 37 seconds as UIC fended off Wright State 64-59 on Thursday night.Tai Odiase, a 6-foot-9 sophomore, scored 18 points and blocked seven shots as UIC(4-19, 2-10 Horizon) maintained a slim lead throughout.his seventh block was on an attempted layup by Wright State’s leading scorer, Mark Alstork, with just under four minutes to go and the Flames holding a three-point lead. Young scored all five of his points in the last 3:24.Wright State pulled as close as 59-58 on a Micheal Karena dunk with 1:51 to go, but JT Yoho fouled out on the next play and Dixson and Young scored the last five points at the free-throw line.Alstork led the Raiders (15-11, 9-4) with 15 points. Yoho and Karena each had 11.