WEST LAFAYETTE—Sometimes, college football victories have a bittersweet angle.Such is the case for Purdue after snapping a three-game losing streak Saturday with a 29-10 victory against Illinois in Ross-Ade Stadium.Junior quarterback David Blough, who led the Big Ten in passing in 2016 and was 16 of 24 for 194 yards against the Illini, suffered a severe and likely season-ending leg injury with 12:27 remaining when tackled by free safety Stanley Green inside the Illinois 5-yard line.Blough was carted off the field while sitting upright and pumping his fist to exhort the crowd. He left the stadium by ambulance.The Boilermakers (4-5, 2-3) outscored Illinois 16-0 during the final 30 minutes.

”I don’t know for sure,” Purdue coach Jeff Brohm said. ”I think the leg was dislocated, but I don’t know for sure. It’s a fairly severe injury that hopefully he can come back from.”

Meanwhile, Purdue’s aggressive defense registered nine tackles for loss, including five sacks.Illinois (2-7, 0-6) lost its seventh consecutive game, six in a row in the Big Ten.

ST. PAUL—For a team not scoring a lot of goals, the Blackhawks are managing just fine – thanks to Corey Crawford,who made 24 saves for his second straight shutout, Artem Anisimov scored a power-play goal with 5:42 left in the third period, and Chicago beat the Minnesota Wild 2-0 on Saturday night.

”Those games are fun against that team. It seems like they’re always close games, intense. The crowds are always into it, so that makes it fun,” Crawford said.

Crawford, who lowered his goals-against average to a league-best 1.75 and increased his save percentage to a second-best .945, made his best stop early in the third when he got his glove up to thwart a breakaway by Eric Staal. He stacked the pads to stop Jared Spurgeon a short time later on another breakaway.Crawford also came out to stop Mikko Koivu with the left pad, seconds before Jan Rutta cleared a loose puck out of the Hawk crease.

”I’m feeling pretty good with that, getting a good feel for when to come out, when to come out aggressively, stay deep and read for a pass across. That’s a big part of the game, but right now it feels pretty good,” said Crawford, who stopped 35 shots in a 3-0 win over Philadelphia on Wednesday.

His strong play has been needed. After scoring 10 times on opening night, the Blackhawks have scored 33 goals in 13 games, yet have gone 6-5-2.

”I’d say we’d still like more production,” coach Joel Quenneville said. ”At the same time, the better you check the more offense you get off it. Tonight, I still don’t think we generated enough offense but certainly I didn’t mind the way we played without it.”

Devan Dubnyk stopped 33 shots for Minnesota, which finished a season-long six-game homestand 3-3-0.

”When you have open nets and you have two breakaways in the third period, you’ve got to score because eventually the other team is going to get that one chance and put it in,” Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said.

Anisimov did just that.With Minnesota’s Luke Kunin serving a double-minor for high-sticking, Duncan Keith’s shot from just inside the blue line was deflected in front by Anisimov just past the halfway point of the man advantage.

”I saw the puck all the way through from Dunc’s stick to my point. It’s so nice when it goes in,” he said.

Anisimov has scored in four straight games, including two power-play goals. The Hawks are 2-for-8 on the power play in its last two games after going 0-for-14 in three straight losses.

”We had a real tough stretch without scoring on the power play and now we’ve scored two big ones,” Quenneville said.

Alex DeBrincat added an empty-net goal for the second straight game.Both teams missed by inches in the first period.Richard Panik hit the crossbar 13 minutes in, and a redirect from Nino Niederreiter during a late Wild power play bounced off the post, off the far leg of Crawford as he struggled to get back into position and out of harm’s way as the goal horn incorrectly sounded.

DeMarcus Cousins had an uncharacteristically quiet game early Saturday night.He turned it up after halftime and looked like his usual dominant self.Cousins had 25 points and 11 rebounds – 18 and seven in the second half – to lead the New Orleans Pelicans to a 96-90 overtime victory over the Bulls.

”I struggled early on, but that being said, you just got to out and find other ways to have an impact on the game,” said Cousins, who was averaging 29 points and 14 rebounds. ”That’s what I tried to do. It was a great team effort all around. We pulled out an ugly, gritty win.”

Anthony Davis had 27 points and 16 rebounds to help the Pelicans snap a six-game, regular-season losing streak to the Bulls.Jameer Nelson added 13 points, Darius Miller had 11, and Jrue Holiday 10 for New Orleans. The Pelicans improved to 4-2 on the road.Justin Holiday had 18 points, Denzel Valentine added 16 and Lauri Markkanen and Robin Lopez had 14 apiece for the Bulls. They were coming off their first road victory.
Both teams looked sluggish completing their first back-to-backs of the season. The Bulls shot 35.4 percent from the field to the Pelicans’ 40.2 percent.

”We were like playing in mud,” New Orleans coach Alvin Gentry said. ”It was a struggle we couldn’t seem to get ourselves going but we found a way. At the end of the day, I told the guys, `You just got to find a way to win on the road.”’

Cousins made two of three foul shots for a 91-86 lead with 2:35 left in overtime before Nelson hit a 3 for a 96-88 lead with 48.9 seconds remaining.Davis rebounded Lopez’s putback attempt with 9.7 seconds remaining in regulation. Holiday missed at the other end with 4 to go before Cousins blocked Lopez to send the game to overtime.

”He made a great play,” Lopez said of Jerian Grant’s pass to him. ”I missed two shots. It’s frustrating.”

The Pelicans opened the final quarter on a 20-7 run to take a 77-71 lead.Justin Holiday scored 10 points in the third quarter for the Bulls, who led by as much as nine and 64-57 after the period.
”I feel like they’re better than their record shows,” Cousins said about the Bulls. ”They’re probably top-three hardest-playing teams in the league at this point.”
The Pelicans shot 40.5 percent from the field to the Bulls’ 31.9 percent in the first half of a tied game.

While the Blackhawks work on their power play and coach Joel Quenneville searches for the right combinations for his lineup, at least they have Corey Crawford in goal.Crawford made 35 saves in his first shutout of the season, and the Blackhawks stopped a three-game slide with a 3-0 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday night.

”Crow was outstanding,” Quenneville said. ”We gave them some real serious looks and he was outstanding.”

Artem Anisimov and Jonathan Toews scored 20 seconds apart in the second and Crawford took over from there, helping the Hawks kill off three Philadelphia power plays in the last half of the game. Rookie Alex DeBrincat added an empty-net goal with 1:49 left in Crawford’s 22nd career shutout.Brian Elliott made 32 stops for Philadelphia, which was coming off a 4-3 overtime loss to lowly Arizona on Monday. The Flyers have dropped four of five heading into Thursday night’s game at Central Division-leading St. Louis.

The Hawks had dropped five of six, prompting Quenneville to juggle his lines and defensive pairings in search of a spark. Quenneville also had his team do sprints at the end of practice on Tuesday after he grew frustrated with the effort by the players.The Blackhawks responded with a workmanlike effort while improving to 4-2-1 at home.

”We just have to build off that,” Crawford said. ”We’ve been playing well. Some tough losses in those games, and it’s nice to get one.”

The Hawks came up empty on its first four power plays before Anisimov delivered in the second. With Brandon Manning in the box for holding Ryan Hartman, the rugged center skated behind the Flyers’ penalty killers and slammed home a rebound for a 1-0 lead at 8:58.Anisimov’s fourth goal of the season was the Blackhawks’ first successful power play since Richard Panik scored at Arizona on Oct. 21. They were unsuccessful in their previous 18 chances.

”I think that turned out to be a big goal for us,” Quenneville said. ”Our first couple power plays had some decent looks and as far as doing the right thing on that one, I mean get it to the net, you’ve got traffic at the net, get the rebound, and get rewarded.”

Philadelphia defenseman Robert Hagg then mishandled the puck near the blue line and Toews skated in alone on Elliott. The captain slipped a backhander between the goaltender’s legs for his first goal since Oct. 12 against Minnesota, stopping a seven-game drought.That was more than enough for Crawford, who came up with a couple of big plays as Philadelphia pressed for a score in the third. He made his best save of the night with 1:45 left in the first, doing the splits to get over for a pad stop on Valtteri Filppula’s wraparound.

”We had quality chances, and so many times the puck was just laying there and Crawford found a way to make the save,” Flyers forward Claude Giroux said. ”He’s pretty good.”

NOTES—Connor Murphy had a huge hit on Philadelphia forward Taylor Leier in the first, and then got into a fight with Flyers forward Scott Laughton. Murphy’s father, Gord, is an assistant coach for Philadelphia. … The Blackhawks and Flyers play again on Nov. 9 in Philadelphia, finishing their two-game season series.

MIAMI—Goran Dragic scored 20 points, Tyler Johnson added 19 and the Miami Heat beat the Bulls 97-91 on Wednesday to snap a three-game slide. It also marked the fourth consecutive year that the Heat played and won on their coach’s birthday – Spoelstra is now 47, celebrating that on the same day he and his wife publicly announced they are expecting their first child.

”It was good to finally get a result … get a little bit closer to our identity,” Spoelstra said. ”I liked all the emotions we had to go through. These guys want to win so badly.”

There clearly were emotions: Miami was up 15 early, trailed by six midway through the third, then used a 32-12 run down the stretch to finally put the game away. Hassan Whiteside returned from a five-game absence with a bruised knee and scored 13 points and grabbed 14 rebounds for the Heat, who went 3-3 on their six-game homestand.Lauri Markkanen scored 25 points and Robin Lopez added 22 for the Bulls, who were 7 for 28 from 3-point range and got five of those makes in the final 2 minutes. The Bulls fell to 1-5, matching its worst start since 2007-08.Markkanen also grabbed eight rebounds.

”We had a couple good days of practice, competed a lot,” Markkanen said. ”It definitely showed today, but just wasn’t good enough to win.”

Dion Waiters also scored 13 for the Heat, who were without starting forward James Johnson – a late scratch with right knee tendinitis.Miami was rolling early, up 20-6 after 8 minutes and 35-20 midway through the second quarter. The Bulls started 1 for 10 from the floor, and Whiteside had eight rebounds in the game’s first 4:50.A 24-10 run by the Bulls tied the game late in the half, seven of those field goals by the Bulls coming in close proximity to the rim. The Bulls led by as many as six in the third and probably should have been up more, but missed five shots at the rim late in the quarter.

”Certainly something we can build on,” said Fred Hoiberg, who raved about his team’s effort after the slow start.

The Heat reclaimed the lead with a 10-1 run to end the third, then kept it the rest of the way. And now Miami’s six-game homestand is followed by a six-game trip that starts Friday.