WASHINGTON—Nicklas Backstrom ended a 21-game goal drought and had two assists, and Washington’s top-line trio of Backstrom, Alex Ovechkin and Tom Wilson combined for 11 points in a 6-2 victory over the free falling Blackhawks.Wilson had two goals and two assists for his first four-point game, and Ovechkin had a goal and three assists, and the duo made good on their plan to get Backstrom a goal.Backstrom ended his goal drought at 11:54 of the first when he finished a tic-tac-toe sequence by one-timing Ovechkin’s pass past Forsberg for his fourth of the season. Wilson had the other assist. Backstrom hadn’t scored since Oct. 14 in Philadelphia, matching the second-longest drought of his career.Wilson and Ovechkin soon scored to make it 3-0.Braden Holtby made 37 saves for Washington to help the Capitals win for the sixth time in seven games, a streak that started when the Ovechkin-Backstrom-Wilson line was formed.Brett Connolly scored in his third straight game, and Evgeny Kuznetsov added a goal. Ovechkin extended his goals streak to three games.Lance Bouma and Jonathan Toews scored for the Hawks, who outshot Washington 39-25. The Blackhawks are 0-3-2 in their last five.

”Not happy about tonight’s game,” Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said. ”You can be misled by the shot (total) or maybe it looked like we had some looks there. The volume of our shots hit him right in the chest with no chance of getting a second opportunity whether there was some people at the net or not.”

Wilson’s spinning shot from the left circle eluded Forsberg with 5:07 to go in the first period.Anton Forsberg, starting in place of the injured Corey Crawford, was pulled after Ovechkin’s goal made it 3-0 with 4:38 left in the first. J.F Berube finished in goal.Washington has won seven of its last eight against the Blackhawks,who have lost seven in a row in Washington since January 2006.Wilson added an empty-netter to cap his career night.
NOTES—Washington forward T.J. Oshie missed the game after sustaining an upper-body injury Monday night against San Jose. Capitals coach Barry Trotz said he didn’t know if Oshie would resume skating Thursday. Trotz said forward Andre Burakovsky, out since October after surgery to repair his broken left thumb, could possibly play Friday against the New York Rangers. … Capitals F Chandler Stephenson returned after missing a game with an upper-body injury. Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said Crawford could return Sunday against Arizona. ”Right now I think maybe there’s hope on Friday,” Quenneville said, ”maybe the likelihood might be Sunday but we’ll see.” … Michal Kempny, C Tanner Kero and D Jordan Oesterle were healthy scratches for the 10th straight game.

INDIANAPOLIS—Victor Oladipo scored 27 points, including a clutch 3-pointer with 31.1 seconds left, and the Pacers beat the Bulls 98-96 on Wednesday night.Bojan Bogdanovic had 17 points for Indiana (14-11), and Darren Collison finished with 14. Myles Turner had 11 points and blocked four shots, and Thaddeus Young finished with 10 points and nine rebounds.The Pacers outscored the Bulls 29-13 in the fourth quarter.

”I was going out there and playing as hard as I could on both ends of the floor and trying to help us pull it out,” Oladipo said. ”We’ve got to learn to not put ourselves in that hole in the first place and try to make sure we avoid that. At the end of the day it was a big win for us and we can build on it.”

The lowly Bulls led by as many as 17, but couldn’t hold off the Pacers in the final moments. Oladipo’s 3 gave Indiana its first lead at 97-96, and he tacked on a free throw with 12.8 seconds left.Lauri Markkanen missed a potential game-winning 3-pointer in the final seconds of the Bulls 10th straight loss.

”This one, it stings a lot,” coach Fred Hoiberg said. ”It’s a really, really hard (loss) because we had control for the majority of it and played really good and hard unselfish basketball. The big message to our team is if we continue to play with that type of effort, if we continue to play the right way, and unselfish, we’re going to start winning games.”

Kris Dunn had 18 points, six rebounds and six assists for the Bulls (3-20), and Robin Lopez scored 16 points. Denzel Valentine finished with 15 points and eight boards.The Bulls looked pretty good for about 3 1/2 quarters. The Bulls went 7 for 15 from beyond the arc on their way to a 55-39 halftime lead.

Robbie Gould kicked a 24-yard field goal in the closing seconds, Jimmy Garoppolo threw for 293 yards in his first San Francisco start, and the 49ers beat the Bears 15-14 on Sunday.Gould made five field goals in his first appearance at Soldier Field since the Bears cut him prior to the 2016 opener. The Bears’ all-time leader in points and field goals made, he shouted at their sideline after he nailed the winner.Jimmy Garoppolo’s first start with 49ers provides a win — and some hope-for them.Garoppolo’s starting debut for the 49ers wasn’t perfect, but he was able to guide the team to a winning field goal with the game on the line.John Fox and the Bears hit another low Sunday, when former Bears kicker Robbie Gould beat them in the final seconds with his fifth FG of the game.Garoppolo was solid in his first start since the 49ers (2-10) acquired him from New England before the trade deadline in October. The suburban Chicago product completed 26 of 37 passes with an interception. And the 49ers picked up the win after losing their first five road games.The pathetic Bears (3-9) dropped their fifth straight, and coach John Fox fell to 12-32 in three seasons with the Bears.Mitchell Trubisky was 12 of 15 for 102 yards and a touchdown.Tarik Cohen returned a punt 61 yards for a touchdown. That made him the first NFL rookie with rushing, receiving, passing and punt return TDs in a season since Gale Sayers in 1965.The 49ers were trailing 14-12 when Garoppolo connected with Trent Taylor on third down for a 33-yard pass to the Bear 18 with two minutes left. Kyle Juszczyk kept the drive going with a 3-yard run on third-and-2 at the 10.Garoppolo threw for 172 yards in the first half. But the 49ers committed six penalties and headed to the locker room trailing 14-9.The Bears grabbed a 7-3 lead in the closing seconds of the first quarter when Trubisky hit Dontrelle Inman in the back of the end zone for an 8-yard touchdown. Kyle Fuller set that up when he ripped the ball out of Louis Murphy’s hands for an interception at the Bears 41.Cohen made it 14-6 in the second quarter with his big punt return, racing to the end zone after he initially ran about 15 yards in the wrong direction.Pernell McPhee suffered a shoulder injury on the game’s opening drive. … DE Mitch Unrein (knee) was hurt in the second quarter. … RG Kyle Long (shoulder) sat out the second half. … LG Josh Sitton was active after being listed as questionable because of a concussion. … S Adrian Amos (hamstring) and his backup Deon Bush (ankle) were inactive

INDIANAPOLIS—J.T. Barrett felt and played like his old self Saturday.The only thing that would make the Ohio State quarterback feel better would be making the playoffs.Six days after undergoing surgery on his right knee, Barrett started the game, threw two touchdown passes, ran for another and led No. 8 Ohio State to a 27-21 victory over previously unbeaten No. 3 Wisconsin for the Buckeyes’ first Big Ten title since their 2014 national championship run.
”We have two wins over two top-four team and another one over a team ranked 12th or 13th,” said coach Urban Meyer, who included a win over Penn State in his rundown. ”We’re a conference champion and we deserve a shot.”
All the Buckeyes (11-2, No. 8 CFP) can do now is wait to see if college football’s selection committee agrees.With one final chance to make an impression, Ohio State ended the Badgers’ perfect season and the nation’s longest active winning streak at 13 by winning their fourth in a row.And they did it behind a quarterback many expected to be watching.But unlike most athletes, who need at least two or three weeks to recover from minor knee surgery, Barrett told doctors and coaches he would be OK.After watching Barrett in pregame warmups with a protective brace around the injured knee, Meyer gave his three-time captain the starting nod. Barrett didn’t disappoint.He wound up 12 of 26 for 211 yards and two interceptions and ran 19 times for 60 yards including a crucial fourth-down conversion that set up the last field goal of the game.
”We expected to see the best and he was,” Badgers coach Paul Chryst said of Barrett. ”He’s a heck of a quarterback.”

DALLAS—Alexander Radulov cleared his head and took what Anton Forsberg gave him. Tyler Seguin just did like Radulov. That was enough for the Dallas Stars.Radulov and Seguin scored in the shootout to lift Dallas over the Blackhawks 3-2 on Saturday. It was Dallas’ second win in three nights against the Blackhawks,with both games stretching beyond regulation.Radulov skated in front of Forsberg on his shootout try and went to his forehand for a short shot along the ice.Seguin used a similar move, except his puck ended up on the backhand at nearly the same spot.Stars goalie Ben Bishop stopped shots by Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane with his pads. Bishop made 33 saves.Radulov also scored the game’s first goal with an assist from Seguin.Radek Faksa scored his fifth goal in the last three games for Dallas, which has won four in a row.Cody Franson and Brandon Saad each had a goal for the Hawks, who are 0-1-2 in the last three games. Forsberg had 32 saves in place of injured goalie Corey Crawford.

”He was good,” Joel Quenneville said. ”Gave us a chance. You get a 2-2 game on the road with a chance to win it in OT, you don’t mind a few chances.”

The shootout was preceded by a back-and-forth overtime, during which Forsberg made four saves.Radulov’s goal came on the power play at 5:57 of the first period.The Blackhawks tied it 2 1/2 minutes later when Franson scored from the right point for his first goal in 16 games with the Hawks since signing as a free agent in October.Faksa restored a one-goal lead for the Stars at 12:15 of the second.The Blackhawks came back again to tie it at 2 when Saad redirected Connor Murphy’s drive from above the left circle at 19:19.The third period was scoreless. In overtime, the Hawks had an excellent chance when Nick Schmaltz had a breakaway, but Bishop skated out to smother the puck in the left circle.

NOTES—Crawford allowed four goals in an overtime loss to Dallas on Thursday, then went on injured reserve Friday with an undisclosed injury. The Hawks recalled G J.F. Berube from Rockford of the AHL. … Forsberg has a 1-2-3 record this season, and 2-10-3 in his career. . The Stars had been 1 for 23 on the power play during the last eight games before Radulov scored, and they failed on their last four man advantages after that. … Dallas is 10-2 at home, where they have won five in a row and outscored opponents by 19 goals in 12 games. … The Stars have won all four games while wearing yellow skate laces to honor Jere Lehtinen since his number 26 was retired on Nov. 24.

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NORMAL—Milik Yarbrough had 22 points, six rebounds and four assists, Phil Fayne added 17 points and eight boards, and Illinois State beat Tulsa 65-58 on Saturday night.Lawson Korita gave Tulsa its first lead, 49-47, since it was 4-2.Yarbrough made two free throws with 1:43 left to extend Illinois State’s lead to 60-51. After Sterling Taplin hit a 3-pointer to cut it to six, Phil Fayne dunked and ISU held on.Keyshawn Evans scored 12 points with five assists for Illinois State (4-4), which had 11 steals and forced 21 turnovers.Yarbrough had 15 points in the first half as the Redbirds led by four points.Junior Etou had 10 points and eight rebounds for Tulsa (4-4), which was held to 36 percent shooting. Jaleel Wheeler grabbed a team-high nine rebounds as Tulsa outrebounded the Redbirds 49-29.

Aundre Jackson was close to perfect with 23 points as Loyola jumped out to an early lead and roared to an 85-61 win over UIC on Saturday.Jackson hit 10 of 11 field-goal attempts, including two from distance, as Loyola(8-1) bounced back after dropping an 87-53 decision to Boise State Tuesday night. The Ramblers never trailed against the Flames, and took a 52-24 advantage into the break.Lucas Williamson came off the bench to score 14 points, drilling 3 of 4 from distance and Clayton Custer added 10 as 11 Ramblers put points on the board.The Ramblers hit 55 percent (34-62) from the floor while limiting UIC to 23-of-49 (47 percent) shooting. Loyola also hit 8 of 14 from beyond the arc.Marcus Ottey led the Flames (2-5), who have lost four straight, with 16 points. Dikembe Dixson and Dominique Matthews added 14 apiece.

ROSEMONT—Scottie Lindsey took a seat on the bench after going scoreless in Northwestern’s previous game.The Wildcats’ second-leading scorer still managed to play 39 minutes and come through in the clutch.Lindsey scored five of his game-high 22 points in overtime and Northwestern trailed for much of the evening before pulling out a 72-68 victory over Illinois on Friday in the Big Ten opener for both teams.The 6-foot-5 senior came in averaging 15.3 points but did not start after going 0 for 8 from the floor in Northwestern’s 52-51 loss to Georgia Tech on Tuesday night

”I knew the team needed me to bounce back from last game,” Lindsey said. ”I knew I played a really bad game. That was just motivation to come out and play. The guys that ended last game really showed great character and fight. That was rewarding them. I had to accept it and it worked out”

Vic Law added 16 points before fouling out in overtime and Bryant McIntosh had 14 points and six assists for Northwestern (5-3).Leron Black led Illinois (6-2) with 15 points, whle Te’Jon Lucas and Mark Alstork had 14 points apiece.

”We might have set a Guinness Book of World Records for the most travel calls tonight,” said Illinois coach Brad Underwood. ”And we’re traveling. We can’t have 11 of our turnovers from bigs.Those are self-inflicted. Those are mistakes you can’t make. Those are not Northwestern beating us … those are our mistakes that allowed them to have success.”

Illinois led twice in overtime before a pair of Lindsey free throws with 59 seconds left gave Northwestern the lead for good.Dererk Pardon blocked two shots in the final minute to preserve the victory.

”I was really proud of Scottie,” Northwestern coach Chris Collins said. ”Everyone knows he had a tough night the other night in Atlanta.”

The top four players from the first Northwestern team to reach the NCAA Tournament are back, but the Wildcats continued to look like a shell of last year’s team despite the victory. Northwestern committed turnovers on its final three possessions of regulation.The Illini went 19 for 37 on 2-point field goals and shot 81 percent from the foul line, but committed 19 turnovers and went just 3 for 18 from 3-point territory in producing their lowest scoring output of the season. Their previous low came in an 80-73 loss to Wake Forest on Tuesday night.It was the earliest Big Ten game in Illinois’ century-long history in the league.The Big Ten season was moved up because the league will hold its conference tournament a week early in order to stage it at Madison Square Garden in New York.

”I’m a fan of it right now because we’re 1-0,” Collins said. ”Overall, it is difficult. I just feel like you get into such a rhythm of using your nonconference to prepare for conference play. It is what it is.’

Orange-clad Illini fans outnumbered Wildcats fans in Northwestern’s temporary home 13 miles southwest of Welsh-Ryan Arena, which is undergoing major renovations and will not be used this season.Illinois will try to even its Big Ten record against Maryland on Sunday night. The Terrapins also dropped their Big Ten opener to Purdue.Northwestern will travel to play Purdue on Sunday afternoon in a battle of 1-0 Big Ten teams.

Mattias Janmark has good days and bad days in his return from an unusual knee injury.This one was pretty nice.Janmark scored his second goal of the game 51 seconds into overtime and the Dallas Stars beat the Blackhawks 4-3 on Thursday night for their third consecutive victory.

”We played 55 good minutes today, which is a good sign, and we competed,” Dallas coach Ken Hitchcock said. ”Competed like heck. We deserved to win and you know for me we’re trying to build something, but you build it through the really tough times at the start of the year.”

Janmark made his NHL debut in 2015 and had 15 goals and 14 assists in 73 games during his rookie season. But the Swedish forward missed all of last year with a joint disorder in which the bone underneath the cartilage dies because of reduced blood flow, contributing to Dallas’ tumble down the standings.He looked just fine against the Hawks, stuffing home a wraparound in the first period and beating Corey Crawford with a little wrist shot over the goaltender’s right shoulder in overtime.Radek Faksa had a goal and an assist and Remi Elie also scored for Dallas, which has won five of six overall. Ben Bishop made 19 saves in the Stars’ first win against the Blackhawks since a 6-2 victory at the United Center on March 22, 2016.The Central Division rivals play again in Dallas on Saturday night.Patrick Kane had a goal and an assist for the Blackhawks, who dropped to 1-1-1 in a seven-day stretch with five games. Alex DeBrincat and Artem Anisimov also scored, and Nick Schmaltz had two assists.The Blackhawks trailed 3-2 before Kane redirected defenseman Gustav Forsling’s shot past Bishop at 4:34 of the third. Kane has at least one point in eight of his last nine games.

”Good first 10 minutes of the third,” Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said. ”I thought we slowed down a bit again after we tied it up.”

Elie, who replaced an ailing Martin Hanzal in the lineup, had three good looks at a potential go-ahead score with about 5 1/2 minutes left, but Crawford turned him away each time. Crawford finished with 31 saves.The Blackhawks went 0 for 3 on the power play in the third and 1 for 7 with the man advantage overall.

”We lost momentum in the game with our power play tonight,” Quenneville said.

Dallas led 2-1 after a strange first period. The Stars jumped in front on Janmark’s fifth of the season at 14:46, but the Blackhawks responded nine seconds later on DeBrincat’s wrist shot by Bishop on the stick side.It was DeBrincat’s fourth goal in his last three games and 10th of November, making him the first rookie in franchise history with 10 goals in a calendar month.The Hawks had four power plays in the opening period and was still outscored by Dallas with the man advantage. Faksa buried his first career penalty shot after Kane was called for hooking on a short-handed breakaway, making it 2-1 at 17:20.Faksa has four goals in his last two games. He had a natural hat trick in Dallas’ 3-0 win at Vegas on Tuesday night.The Hawks fourth power-play opportunity carried over into the second, and it took advantage. With Elie in the box for slashing, Kane made a terrific pass to Anisimov in front for his ninth goal in November and team-leading 12th on the season.Elie made up for the costly penalty later in the second. He went in all alone on Crawford after a nice pass from Faksa and scored his third of the season with a nifty move, making it 3-2 at 14:04.

DENVER—Will Barton provided the early spark, then delivered in the final moments to help the Denver Nuggets escape with a narrow victory.Barton capped a career-high 37 points with a driving layup with 3.2 seconds left and the Nuggets overcame the loss of Nikola Jokic to beat the Bulls 111-110 on Thursday night.Gary Harris added 21 points, and Kenneth Faried had 14 points and 13 rebounds for Denver, which lost another big man to injury when Jokic was hurt.He joins Paul Millsap (wrist surgery) and Wilson Chandler (back injury) on the sidelines.

”We were already without Paul and Wilson, Joke goes down, it was like, `Man, we just can’t lose this game,”’ Barton said. ”I just wanted to step it up. It was definitely one of my biggest games here.”

Jokic went down with 44 seconds left in the second quarter when he drove to the basket and stepped on Jerian Grant’s foot. Jokic hit two free throws before heading to the locker room with an obvious limp. He didn’t return in the second half.Lauri Markanen and Robin Lopez had 20 points each and Kris Dunn added 19. The Bulls have lost seven straight to finish 2-13 in November and drop to 3-17 overall.The Bulls, who led for most of the game, took advantage of Jokic’s absence and led 108-105 in the final minute. Barton was fouled on a 3-point attempt and hit all three free throws to tie it, then made 1 of 2 to give Denver a one-point lead with 20 seconds left.Dunn gave the Bulls the lead with a layup with 9.6 seconds left, and it came down to Barton with the ball.

”I dreamed of those moments when I was young, having the ball in my hands at crunch time and delivering,” Barton said. ”I’m just thankful I could do that tonight.”

He brought the ball up, put a move on Justin Holiday and drove to the basket and hit the reverse layup after the ball hung on the rim.The Bulls missed an opportunity to get a rare road win.

”I didn’t do my job and I let my teammates down,” Holiday said. ”I just didn’t do what I was supposed to do in that situation, that’s pretty much it. I am very disappointed. We have that game in the bag. It just hurts that I let my teammates down.”

The Bulls led 68-62 at halftime but Denver rallied to briefly take the lead in the third quarter. Grant hit a 3-pointer at the end of the third to put the Bulls ahead 92-91.

”We took a step in the right direction tonight and we went out there and competed for 48 minutes,” Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg said. ”I thought we really had a competitive edge to our team. It’s hard to get over big emotional wins and it’s tough to get over devastating losses.”

Nikola Mirotic has increased his practice load and is close to returning. ”He’s really in training camp mode,” Hoiberg said. ”He’s had a lot of individual work but nothing simulates that playing up and down, 5-on-5 type action. Mirotic has been out since a preseason altercation with teammate Bobby Portis left him with several broken bones in his face as well as a concussion. … Zach LaVine (left ACL tear) will have a full practice Friday after going through individual drills Thursday. Mattias Janmark has good days and bad days in his return from an unusual knee injury.This one was pretty nice.Janmark scored his second goal of the game 51 seconds into overtime and the Dallas Stars beat the Blackhawks 4-3 on Thursday night for their third consecutive victory.