ATLANTA—Former Bull Thabo Sefolosha loves it when the Atlanta Hawks get so many players contributing on offense.Eight of the Hawks’ 10 players scored in double figures Wednesday night, led by Sefolosha, whose primary role is a defensive specialist off the bench.

”Everybody can play on this team,” he said. ”On different nights, a different guy steps up. It’s a huge plus to have that.”

Sefolosha scored 20 points, Dwight Howard added 18 and Atlanta beat the Bulls 115-107 for its third consecutive victory.Paul Millsap had 16 points and 11 rebounds for the Hawks, and Dennis Schroder scored 13. Howard grabbed 10 boards as Atlanta outrebounded the Bulls 49-30.Jimmy Butler finished with 39 points and Dwyane Wade had 25 for the Bulls, who have lost four of five.The output was Butler’s highest since he scored a career-high 53 points against Philadelphia on Jan. 14 last season.

”They got what they wanted, and then we decided to start playing – once again,” Butler said. ”Defense is all about effort, let’s get that straight. We’ve got to man up and guard, take it personal. We’ll be fine, but we’ve got to guard.”

Atlanta carried over some momentum from Tuesday’s rare victory at Cleveland. The defending NBA champion Cavaliers had won 11 straight in the series, including two playoff sweeps.Sefolosha sparked the Hawks when he entered late in the first quarter, scoring 16 of their 21 points in a 3:44 stretch that spanned the first two periods to help Atlanta take a 45-31 lead.Sefolosha loved how Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer changed the defense to keep Butler and Wade in check.

”In the second half we switched it up a little bit,” Sefolosha said. ”They’re good players, so we’re not going to stop them every time, but we got just enough stops and we had good offense at the end to pull through.”

The Hawks led by 17 early in the second on Millsap’s jumper, but the Bulls pulled within three early in the third. Kent Bazemore was called for a technical foul after slamming into Butler near the rim on a fast break, and Butler hit three free throws.After Wade’s jumper put the Bulls up 74-73, the Bulls took their biggest lead at five on Doug McDermott’s fast-break dunk before Tim Hardaway Jr.’s runner put Atlanta up 86-85 late in the third.The Hawks led the rest of the way, pushing the margin to 11 when Hardaway hit a straightaway 3-pointer. McDermott’s short jumper made it 103-101 with 4:54 remaining, but the Bulls didn’t get any closer.

”Our depth in the entirety of the roster is something we have a lot of faith and belief in,” Budenholzer said. ”Tonight you kind of saw that.”

NOTES—Wade will return to Miami on Thursday for the first time with an opposing team. The 12-time All-Star, who helped the Heat win three NBA titles in 13 seasons, had 23 points at the end of the third but went 1 for 4 from the field in the fourth…..Bazemore jammed his right pinkie against the backboard on his hard foul. X-rays were negative, but he wore a protective sleeve on the finger. He said he got the technical for slamming his mouthpiece to the floor….Bulls G Michael Carter-Williams made the two-game road trip even though he’s sidelined four to six weeks with a bruised left knee. Fred Hoiberg said Carter-Williams is ”moving around well,” but his timetable hasn’t changed….The Bulls visit Miami on Thursday.
Kareem Hunt ran for 122 yards and scored a touchdown with 1:15 left in Toledo’s 31-24 comeback victory over Northern Illinois on Wednesday night in NIU’s Chi-Town Showdown at the White Sox’s Newly Re-Named Guaranteed Rate Field.Logan Woodside threw for three touchdowns in the second half after entering the game with 34, tied with Jake Browning of No. 4 Washington for the national lead. That helped the Rockets (8-2, 5-1 Mid-American) overcome a 14-3 halftime deficit and snap a six-game losing streak in the series.Woodside’s second touchdown pass to Michael Roberts gave Toledo its first lead, 24-21, early in the fourth quarter. The Huskies (3-7, 3-3) tied the game on Christian Hagan’s 22-yard field goal with 4:31 left but the Rockets answered with a 9-play, 71-yard drive.Woodside finished 23 of 33 for 286 yards. Jon’Vea Johnson had six catches for 129 yards, including a 39-yard reception to set up the winning score.Aaron Covington’s interception with 15 seconds to play sealed the win.Ryan Graham had three touchdown passes for the Huskies, one to Kenny Golladay, who had 14 catches for 143 yards. Graham also ran for 97 yards.

The Blackhawks appeared to be in big trouble when Patrick Kane was whistled for hooking in overtime, handing a power play to the potent Dallas Stars.Then Scott Darling came up with a huge stop, and Marian Hossa finished another big win.Darling made a terrific kick save on Patrick Eaves, Hossa scored at 4:31 of overtime and the Blackhawks beat the Dallas Stars 4-3 on Sunday night for their sixth consecutive victory.

”It took every inch of me to get that one,” the 6-foot-6 Darling said.

Jonathan Toews had a goal and two assists and Kane scored for the third time in four games, helping the Blackhawks sweep the home-and-home set with the Stars. Kane had a goal and an assist in Saturday night’s 3-2 victory in Dallas.

”We’ve been focusing really well on the process of just playing well and improving our overall game,” Toews said. ”A while back, the focus was our penalty kill had to get better. I think we’ve improved every single game.”

Kane’s second hooking call of the night set Dallas up with a prime opportunity in overtime. But Darling got over to knock away Eaves’ shot, helping the Blackhawks to their 18th successful kill in their last 19 tries.

”He made a great save on me,” Eaves said. ”That was the look we wanted and it just didn’t go in.”

Hossa then drove one by a screened Kari Lehtonen for his sixth of the season. Darling, subbing for red-hot starter Corey Crawford, made 32 stops as the Blackhawks improved to 7-1-1 at home.

”The good thing is this team never quits,” Hossa said. ”Six wins in a row, I think we’re on the right path.”

Gemel Smith scored his first two NHL goals for Dallas, including a short-handed breakaway in the second. Tyler Seguin also scored in the opener of a five-game road trip.

”Those are hard losses,” coach Lindy Ruff said. ”We had our opportunity with the power play in overtime.”

The Stars had a 2-1 lead in the third when Dallas winger Antoine Roussel was sent off for playing the puck with a broken stick. Then Kane was whistled for hooking at 3:02, making it 4 on 4 for 94 seconds.The Blackhawks made the most of the extra space on the ice, jumping in front with two goals in a span of 56 seconds.First, Hossa made a terrific pass through the legs of Dallas defenseman John Klingberg to a streaking Toews for a beautiful one-timer at 3:39. After Darling denied Jamie Benn with a pad save on a breakaway, Toews was stopped by Lehtonen on the other side, but the puck went right to Artem Anisimov for the rebound goal.Anisimov’s team-best eighth goal, extending his career-long point streak to 11 games, looked like the winner until Smith redirected Klingberg’s shot past Darling with 1:20 remaining. The tying goal came moments after Dallas pulled Lehtonen for an extra attacker.Lehtonen finished with 29 stops in his first start since Oct. 29. Antti Niemi made 29 saves in Saturday night’s loss.Seguin’s sixth goal at 15:34 of the first put Dallas in front and stopped the Hawks penalty-kill streak at 15 in a row. With Duncan Keith in the box for hooking, Seguin knocked in a rebound for his sixth point in his last four games.Smith made it 2-0 when he beat Darling with a nice backhander at 8:29 of the second.The Blackhawks played with a short bench for the last part of the game after rookie forward Tyler Motte was ridden into the boards by Stars forward Radek Faksa with about seven minutes left in the second.

NOTES—Hossa’s goal was his 1,100th career point. … Stars C Jason Spezza was scratched with a lower-body injury after he got hurt in the second period Saturday night. … The Stars placed C Jiri Hudler (illness) on injured reserve and center Justin Dowling was promoted from Texas of the AHL. Dowling was scratched, and D Patrik Nemeth played forward in his first game since Oct. 29. … Blackhawks LW Andrew Desjardins was a healthy scratch. Desjardins was activated from injured reserve on Saturday, but Quenneville wanted to stay with the same lineup from the victory in Dallas. Desjardins could make his season debut Wednesday at St. Louis. ”We’d like to get him in here, yeah,” Quenneville said. ”I don’t want to say for sure.” … Blackhawks D Trevor van Riemsdyk (right arm injury) skated Sunday. He was placed on IR on Saturday….The Blackhawks visit St. Louis on Wednesday night.

INDIANAPOLIS—After spending two days dissecting the problems from their last loss, the Indiana Pacers found some solutions Saturday.And they didn’t even need their best player, Paul George, to bail them out.Instead, Indiana made a season-high 12 3-pointers, forced 18 turnovers and pulled away from the struggling Bulls for a resounding 111-94 victory, after George was banished to the locker room for the final 13 1/2 minutes after inadvertently kicking the ball into the stands.

”This is what we feel we can do out on the floor,” Pacers coach Nate McMillan said. ”Again, it’s going to be a process and it’s going to take time for us to continue to build. But this is the type of game we want to build off of.”

There was a reason this one looked easy.After seeing their problems exposed on tape, the embarrassed Pacers (3-3) found motivation in proving everyone wrong this time – especially against a team playing back-to-back games for the first time this season.The Pacers took full advantage of the opportunity.C.J. Miles scored 20 points off the bench, making four 3s. Myles Turner finished with 16 points and four blocks, and George still had 13 points and seven rebounds.That was more than enough against the Bulls (3-3), who have lost three straight.Jimmy Butler and Doug McDermott each scored 16 points, while Rajon Rondo had nine points and five assists. But Rondo (four) and Butler (six) combined for nearly as many turnovers as the Pacers had as a team (12).

”Right out of the gate, you could see it was going to be tough,” Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg said. ”We’ve got to find a way to bounce back and do the things to be successful.”

The game was only tied once, at 2-2, and Indiana soon took control.George appeared to be upset when there was a no-call on one of his shots and then he was called for a foul on the Bulls’ ensuing possession. He was assessed a technical foul and immediately ejected. He said he apologized to the fan the ball hit. ”I just meant to kick the ball against the stanchion,” George said. ”My soccer skills aren’t as good as I thought. I’m glad my teammates were able to pick up this win and me not be at fault for a loss.”

After George’s departure, with 1:42 left in the third, the Pacers had two 3s out of their next four baskets. Indiana, which took 26 attempts, had made 10 3-pointers three other times this season.Bulls: Had an eight-game streak with 100 or more points snapped. … One night after Wade made five 3-pointers, his highest single-game total since April 2009, he was 1 of 9 from the field and 0 for 2 on 3s. … Guard R.J. Hunter returned to his hometown for the first time with the Bulls.Extended the lead to 26 in the second half, their largest lead of the season. The previous best was 16 points against the Los Angeles Lakers on Nov. 1. … The Pacers scored 62 points in a half for the second time this season and topped the 100-point mark for the fifth time in six games.

DALLAS—After a fast start, the Blackhawks came up with a big finish.Patrick Kane assisted on a goal 11 seconds into the game, then scored the go-ahead goal in the second period of the Hawks 3-2 victory over the Dallas Stars on Saturday night.Hawk penalty killers and goalie Corey Crawford kept the Stars from scoring on a power play over the last 1:49. The Blackhawks extended their winning streak to five games, and are 6-0-1 in their last seven.Dallas is 1-3-1 in the last five games.

”I thought we did some decent things in the second half of the game,” Joel Quenneville said.”Big saves, big clears and working together,” Quenneville said of the game-saving penalty kill.

Kane’s 46 points (20 goals, 26 assists) against Dallas are his most against any team, in only 36 games.The Blackhawks erased a 2-1 deficit with second-period goals by Ryan Hartman at 2:59 and Kane on the power play at 7:40 against Stars goalie Antti Niemi.Teammates to the left of the net were occupying Niemi. Kane skated in from the right to put the puck into a nearly empty right side when it came across from Artem Anisimov.

”Really anybody could have scored that goal standing in the back door,” Dallas coach Lindy Ruff said. ”He’s a world-class player in this league. We were able to handle his speed, but he knows where to go. It was a mishit, but it went over and he was in the right spot.”

The Blackhawks scored 11 seconds into the game when Richard Panik scored his seventh goal by wristing in the rebound of a shot by Kane.

”You probably couldn’t ask for a better start,” Kane said.

Dallas took a 2-1 lead on goals by Brett Ritchie at 7:21 of the first and Curtis McKenzie at 9:49.Crawford held the Stars scoreless after that. He finished with 31 saves, four on the last power play.

”It was a great job by our PK to keep them on the outside and stay patient,” Crawford said. ”A couple key moments, we were able to get the puck outside of the zone.”

If the Stars could have scored to tie the game, they still would have had a power play in overtime, because the Blackhawks’ Marcus Kruger had been assessed a double minor for high sticking.

”It’s always been a strength of our team, blocking shots, killing penalties,” Kane said.

Niemi made 29 saves.Ritchie tied the score when he skated into the slot, took a pass from Antoine Roussel and put in a wrist shot off Crawford’s left arm.Less than 3 minutes later, Stephen Johns sent a shot from the right point. There followed a scramble with three players from each team around Crawford. Rookie Gemel Smith poked at the puck, which went in off McKenzie’s right skate.Hartman ended a 32-second flurry of four good chances for the Hawks by driving a slap shot from the right faceoff circle past Niemi to tie the game at 2.

NOTES—The Blackhawks activated LW Andrew Desjardins from injured reserve on Saturday, but he was inactive. He has not played this season because of a foot injury, but is expected to play at home on Sunday against Dallas. D Trevor van Riemsdyk (right arm injury) went on IR. … Kane had the game’s only power-play goal. The Blackhawks were 1 for 6, and the Stars 0 for 3. … Panik entered the game leading the NHL by scoring on 46 percent of his shots on goal…. McKenzie scored his first goal of the season. Two of his six career goals have come against the Hawks. Smith received his first assist in his sixth NHL game. … Dallas’ Jason Spezza (lower-body injury) didn’t play after he was hurt on a second-period power play. He isn’t expected to play on Sunday. The Stars are likely to call up a forward…..The Blackhawks return home for Sunday’s second game of a back-to-back against Dallas…..The Stars lew Saturday night to Chicago for Sunday’s game.

EVANSTON—Corey Clement ran for 106 yards and a touchdown, Jazz Peavy scored on a 46-yard run and No. 8 Wisconsin beat Northwestern 21-7 on Saturday.Conor Sheehy forced a big fumble when he sacked Clayton Thorson with the Wildcats (4-5, 3-3 Big Ten) threatening early in the fourth quarter.That led to Clements’ 2-yard TD run that made it a 14-point game and preserved the third straight win for the Badgers (7-2, 4-2 Big Ten, No. 8 CFP). It also gave them a rare victory at Northwestern after they jumped back into the Top 10 by beating Nebraska in overtime last week.

”It was just one of those things where I really wanted to beat this team and I’m glad we got to do that,” Peavy said.

Clement had 32 carries – three shy of his career high.Peavy’s 46-yarder in the second quarter was the first rushing touchdown of his career. He also had 73 yards receiving and a 24-yard punt return.Alex Hornibrook played most of the game and completed 11 of 19 passes for 92 yards, and the Badgers rolled up 333 yards while dominating the and time of possession (40:25-19:35).The Cats had won six of 10 against Wisconsin, including four straight at home. But after coming up short in a four-point loss at Ohio State last week, the Wildcats lost again to a Top 10 team.Thorson went 28 of 52 for 277 yards and a touchdown.Austin Carr added 132 yards receiving, including a 13-yard TD late in the first half, but Justin Jackson ran for 42 yards.

”I think we’re just tired of being close,” Carr said. ”We want to push through. … When we beat ourselves, we can’t beat two teams in the same day – especially against such a good team as Wisconsin.”

Wisconsin had not won at Ryan Field since 1999. But several big plays by Peavy and a fumble recovery by D’Cota Dixon with Northwestern threatening early in the fourth helped change that.The Wildcats drove to the 19 early in the quarter, but got pushed back to the 30 by a holding penalty against Eric Olson and a 1-yard loss for Jackson.Things only got worse for NU on the next play when Thorson fumbled as he was sacked by Sheehy. Dixon returned the recovery 22 yards to the Wildcats 45, and Clement ran it in from the 2. The two-point conversion run by Alec Ingold made it 21-14 with 8:51 left.The Badgers solidified their standing in the Top 10 by taking out a team that has been playing better after dropping its first two games.With three games left, the Wildcats will need to finish strong if they’re going to make a bowl game.The Badgers get a bit of a breather when they host struggling Illinois next week.Like Wisconsin, Northwestern figures to be in for an easier time next week when it visits Purdue.

CHAMPAIGN—Jeff George Jr. threw for 140 yards and two touchdowns Saturday, the second a 16-yard strike to Sam Mays that gave Illinois a 31-27 win over Michigan State.The win broke a two-game losing streak for the Illini (3-6, 2-4 Big Ten). It also extended the Spartans’ misery. Michigan State (2-7, 0-6) has lost seven in a row.George started the season as the third-string quarterback for the Illini. With injuries to No. 1 quarterback Wes Lunt and backup Chayce Crouch, though, the son of longtime NFL quarterback Jeff George has now started three straight games at his father’s alma mater.

”We had forgotten what it’s like,” Illinois coach Lovie Smith said after the win. ”There’s no excitement like a winning locker room, just genuine emotion, that’s what the locker room was like.”

On Dad’s Day at Illinois, the younger George was just 13-of-29 passing.But the second touchdown gave the Illini the lead they would keep.Kendrick Foster added 146 yards on 17 carries and two touchdowns.The loss was a stunner for a Spartan team that dominated the game on paper, outgaining Illinois 490-304 overall and 315 to 140 in passing yardage. And eight times Michigan State moved the ball to the Illinois 36-yard line or further, bit turned those possessions into just two touchdowns and four field goals. Michigan State’s 10 penalties for 89 yards hurt.

”Very disappointing,” Spartan coach Mark Dantonio said several times in his postgame news conference, shaking his head. ”You kick four field goals, that sounds good. (But) it means there’s missed opportunities in the red zone.”

Michigan State had a shot late, driving the ball to the Illinois 15. But on fourth down with 19 seconds left in the game, Illinois linebacker Hardy Nickerson and defensive end Carroll Phillips stuffed quarterback Damion Terry’s draw for a 1-yard loss.Terry came into the game in the fourth quarterback when Tyler O’Connor left with an injury and finished 6-of-12 for 50 yards and a touchdown.O’Connor and Terry proved Saturday that the Spartans aren’t lost at quarterback. With Brian Lewerke out for the season, O’Connor was steady. He kept plays alive with his feet on a key third-quarter drive that ended with a touchdown and tied the game at 17-17. And when Terry came off the bench, he was cool under pressure for the late fourth-quarter touchdown.Illinois came into the season talking up its defense, then spent eight weeks struggling to stop the run and, at times, avoid penalties and other mistakes that cost the Illini games. On Saturday, the Illini defense looked as good as initially promised. Playing with short fields and against an offense that has shown it can move the ball, defense kept the Illini in the game Saturday until the offense woke up.The Illini head to Madison to face No. 8 Wisconsin on Saturday

JACKSONVILLE—Navy’s final fourth-down play worked to perfection. Just don’t bother asking coach Ken Niumatalolo how it played out.”I had my eyes closed. I was praying,” Niumatalolo said. ”It obviously worked out great.”

It helped Navy get a rare win against Notre Dame.Will Worth ran for 175 yards and two touchdowns, his eighth consecutive game with a rushing score, and the Midshipmen beat the Fighting Irish 28-27 Saturday in the nation’s longest-running intersectional rivalry.Navy (6-2) won its fourth game against Notre Dame since 1963. The Irish (3-6) had won five in a row in the series.

”We’re kind of in euphoria, Cloud 9 right now having beaten Notre Dame,” Niumatalolo said. ”I’ve been here a long time. We’ve had some crushing defeats to these guys. To be able to finally come out on top, it feels so good.”

Irish coach Brian Kelly deserved some of the blame for this one. Trailing 28-24 with a little more than 7 minutes to go, Kelly opted for a 31-yard field goal instead of trying to convert a fourth-and-4 play at the 14. He made the call even though his defense hadn’t forced a punt all afternoon.

”Well, certainly thought about going for it,” Kelly said. ”Now in hindsight, it’s something that we didn’t get the ball back. But 28-27 made sense to me at the time. Even if they score a touchdown, we still have the opportunity to score and get the two-point conversion. … But those are the decisions you got to make.Again, I don’t question the decision to go for the field goal other than the fact that we couldn’t get the ball back.”

Navy got the ball and ran out the clock with its triple-option offense. Worth converted two huge fourth-down plays on the final drive, one on a dive play near midfield and another with a pass to Jamir Tillman that essentially ended it.Worth took a knee after that, setting off a raucous celebration that surely will continue through the weekend.

”There are no words for that (win),” Tillman said. ”Every year we get so close. But close only matters in horseshoes. So it feels crazy to bet them my senior year and to go out just how we did.”

Tillman finished with four receptions for 41 yards. Worth notched with his fourth straight 100-yard rushing performance and fifth of the season.

”The kid’s playing phenomenal,” Niumatalolo said. ”We’re where we’re at right now because of Will Worth. He’s given our team belief the way he plays, tough, hard-nosed and he’s created an edge on our football team. We’re a scrappy team that’s not going to back down from anybody. A lot of that edge comes from the way he plays.”

Navy finished with 368 yards, including 320 on the ground.The Midshipmen actually punted once, but it was wiped out after a replay because Notre Dame had 12 men on the field. Instead, the Midshipmen kept the drive alive, converted a fourth-and-1 play and Worth later scored his second rushing TD and his 15th of the season.

”Listen, Navy won the game,” Kelly said. ”I’m not here to cry over that call. We had chances to get off the field and we couldn’t get off the field.”

The Irish now need to win out against Army, Virginia Tech and USC to become bowl eligible. It was the Irish’s fifth loss in seven games, continuing Kelly’s worst season in seven years. The Irish have a young team and should be better in 2017, but making a bowl seems like a long shot.The Middies are bowl eligible again, improving to 23-5 in their last 28 games. Three of those losses came against ranked teams.Notre Dame’s DeShone Kizer completed 19 of 27 passes for 223 yards and three touchdowns. He added 52 yards rushing and didn’t have a turnover. But he was standing on the sideline, unable to do anything, in the final 7-plus minutes.

Derrick Rose tried watching the video tribute to him and Joakim Noah during a first-quarter timeout in their return to Chicago on Friday night.Noah, though, would have none of it.

”I watched some of it, but Jo was telling me to stay focused,” Rose said. ”I had to listen to my big brother at that time.”

Stay focused they did.Perhaps inspired by the emotional homecoming, the New York Knicks shrugged off their early season struggles for a 117-104 victory over the Bulls.Kristaps Porzingis had 27 points and Carmelo Anthony added 25 to help New York (2-3) snap a two-game losing streak. The night, though, belonged to the former Bulls.Rose, the first-round draft pick in 2008, finished with 15 points and 11 assists (five in the fourth quarter), while Noah, a 2007 first-rounder, had 16 points and nine rebounds. They teamed up to play a familiar two-man game late as New York held off a Bulls rally.Noah hadn’t scored more than six points in a game this season and was held scoreless in two of the previous four games.

”We’re still trying to find ourselves as a team,” Noah said, ”but I’m not going to lie: this win felt really good.”

Dwyane Wade led the Bulls (3-2) with 35 points on 12-for-20 shooting and Jimmy Butler added 26 points.

”We didn’t come out with the right mentality,” Wade said. When asked if the game meant more to Rose and Noah, Wade said: ”Anybody could sense that.”

Both Rose and Noah received loud ovations from the United Center crowd during pregame introductions, although there were some boos mixed in for Rose. The Chicago native also was booed every time he touched the ball in the first couple of minutes.

”I love when the crowd is into it,” Rose said. ”I knew there was going to be some yells, I knew there were going to be some boos. I’m from here, I’m used to it. I’ve been getting it since I was in sixth grade going to play on the West Side and me being from the South Side.”

New York broke open a close game by scoring 10 straight points to begin the fourth quarter for a 94-81 lead with 9 minutes to play.The Knicks led by as much as 98-83 before the Bulls rallied within 108-102 with just under 2 minutes to go. But Rose ended any hopes of a comeback with a three-point play on the next possession.Doug McDermott, who missed Wednesday’s game at Boston with a concussion, was cleared by the NBA’s concussion protocol earlier Friday. … Wade had five 3-pointers to give him 10 in five games this season. He had a total of seven last season.On the day the Cubs celebrated their World Series title, Rose said the biggest disappointment during his time in Chicago was not leading the Bulls to a championship.

”Only thing I can do about that is say I gave it my all,” he said. ”I really tried. I had multiple times, many times, where I envisioned winning a championship here. It never happened, so I’ve got to take (those) visions and take them to New York.”

Noah said he wasn’t surprised management broke up the Bulls’ core following last season.

”I think it was time for a change,” he said. ”I look back on (last season) and I was definitely frustrated. There was definitely a lot of adversity going on there. Now I can look back at it and see where went wrong. It’s not about blaming one person. Everybody in that locker room is good people. It’s just (stuff) happens.We didn’t make the playoffs. Everybody was disappointed. It was a team that had high expectations.”

The Bulls are at Indiana on Saturday seven days after shooting 52.3 percent (42.9 on 3-pointers) in a blowout win against the Pacers in Chicago.

AFC GAMES: MIA over NY Jets, KC over Jax, BALT over Pitt, Tenn over SD
NFC GAMES: Phil over NYG, Car over LA, N.Orl over SF
INT-CONF GAMES: Dal over CLEVE
THUR NIGHT Atl over TB
SUN NITE: OAK over Den,
MON NITE: SEAT over Buff
NFC NORTH GAMES: MINN over Det, GB over Indy
Teams with ALL CAPS are Home Teams

Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville is looking for a more complete effort from his team. Pretty much everyone except Corey Crawford.Hard to argue with the way Crawford is playing right now.The veteran goaltender made 38 saves in his second shutout in three games, helping the Hawks beat the Colorado Avalanche 4-0 on Thursday night for their fourth straight victory.

”Just trying to get better every game,” Crawford said. ”Feeling good with reading the play. The conditioning’s there, too. Feeling sharp every game. I just go out there and battle.”

Marian Hossa had two goals, Jonathan Toews also scored and the Blackhawks killed off three more penalties to run their streak to 12 after an awful start to the season. Artemi Panarin added his fifth of the season off a slick pass from Patrick Kane in the third.The Hawks won for the seventh time in nine games, but Quenneville pointed out a couple areas of concern, mostly having to do with puck possession and movement. Of course, he sounded pretty satisfied with the situation in goal.Colorado dominated parts of the first and second periods, but Crawford was on top of his game again. He stopped Tyson Barrie about 5 minutes into the first, and denied Matt Duchene on a breakaway in the second. He also had a sharp glove save on Barrie at 9:34 of the third.

”He’s been outstanding,” Quenneville said.

Crawford caught a break when Nathan MacKinnon banged a shot off the left post about 4 minutes into the first, and Brent Seabrook helped out by breaking up a 2-on-1 in the second.

”The guys played well,” Crawford said. ”PK (Kane) was solid again, moving pucks down. It makes it harder on the power play when you’ve got to skate back all the time. It’s just a big game for us.”?

Semyon Varlamov made 17 saves for Colorado, which has dropped four of five.The Avalanche had a prime chance to jump in front with two power plays in the first, but the Blackhawks turned away each opportunity. Then Toews and Hossa scored in a 38-second span.First, Toews poked in a loose puck at 14:25. Then Hossa got free for a breakaway and managed to flick a wrist shot over Varlamov’s glove before sliding into the corner. Hossa celebrated by getting up on his knees and flexing for the cheering crowd.Hossa beat Varlamov on the glove side again early in the third, making the most of a great stretch pass by defenseman Duncan Keith, and Kane found a streaking Panarin in front at 12:40. It was Kane’s team-high 10th assist.

NOTES—Hossa has four goals in his last four games. … The Blackhawks showed the last out of the Cubs’ win in Game 7 of the World Series on the videoboard in the first period, drawing a standing ovation from the crowd of 21,580. They also played part of ”Go Cubs Go,” and the crowd sang along. … Blackhawks F Ryan Hartman returned to the lineup after he was a healthy scratch for the previous two games. He took the spot of Vinnie Hinostroza, who was a healthy scratch. … D Eric Gelinas and LW Cody McLeod were the scratches for the Avalanche. … Blackhawks C Artem Anisimov extended his point streak to nine in his 500th career game…..The Blackhawks visit Dallas on Saturday night, and then host the Stars on Sunday.