Michigan basketball score: The Wolverines dominated La Salle, 102-50, on Sunday, Dec. 21. at Crisler Center, its eighth win by at least 25 points.
GAME DAY PREVIEW: Senators Begin Three-Game Atlantic Stretch On Sunday At Boston
As the Ottawa Senators enjoy a three-game winning streak, they're about to begin an important three-game stretch against some key Atlantic Division rivals.
Their holiday voyage through the Atlantic schedule starts Sunday night in Boston against the Bruins. They’ll then face the surging Buffalo Sabres at the CTC on Tuesday night, before wrapping things up right after the break with a Saturday night matchup in Toronto against the Maple Leafs.
The Senators have won four of their last five games, but the room for error in the tight division and conference remains virtually non-existent. Ottawa enters play three points back of both the Bruins and the Tampa Bay Lightning, who are currently tied at 41 points. Tampa Bay holds third place in the division thanks to a better points percentage (.586).
In an interesting quirk of the schedule, Sunday’s game will wrap up Ottawa’s four-game season series with Boston. The Senators won the opener, 7-2, in October. On November 6, the Bruins got revenge with a 3-2 overtime victory, before Ottawa took the third meeting, 5-3, a week later.
After winning four straight games, the Bruins have cooled off a bit, losing three of their last four, including a shootout loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night. The Senators are also on a back-to-back after defeating the Chicago Blackhawks, 6-4, on Saturday afternoon.
A win on Sunday night would give Ottawa its first four-game winning streak of the season.
The Senators are expected to make one lineup change. Tyler Kleven was injured in Saturday’s game against Chicago and has already been ruled out for Sunday. So Nikolas Matinpalo is the likely choice to re-enter the fray on his wrong side on the third pairing, as he did for most of the time Thomas Chabot was out.
Chabot was excellent in his return on Saturday, posting an assist and logging heavy minutes due to Kleven's exit.
For Boston, David Pastrnak and Morgan Geekie have been leading the charge. Geekie leads Boston with 25 goals and 39 points, while Pastrnak sits one point back with 38. There’s a significant drop-off after that, though the Bruins still boast plenty of firepower.
With both teams playing Saturday, neither squad held a morning skate. After Leevi Merilainen started against Chicago, the Senators are expected to turn back to Linus Ullmark. Jeremy Swayman played on Saturday for Boston, so it's likely Joonas Korpisalo will get the call for the Bruins in a battle of two goalies starting against their former clubs.
Senators projected lineup (subject to change)
Brady Tkachuk-Tim Stützle-Fabian Zetterlund
David Perron-Dylan Cozens-Drake Batherson
Michael Amadio-Ridly Greig-Claude Giroux
Kurtis MacDermid-Stephen Halliday-Nick Cousins
Jake Sanderson-Artem Zub
Thomas Chabot-Nick Jensen
Nikolas Matinpalo-Jordan Spence
Linus Ullmark
Leevi Merilainen
Bruins projected lineup (NHL.com)
Marat Khusnutdinov-Elias Lindholm-David Pastrnak
Casey Mittelstadt-Pavel Zacha-Morgan Geekie
Tanner Jeannot-Fraser Minten-Mark Kastelic
Jeffrey Viel-Sean Kuraly-Michael Eyssimont
Nikita Zadorov-Charlie McAvoy
Hampus Lindholm-Andrew Peeke
Mason Lohrei-Victor Söderström
Joonas Korpisalo
Jeremy Swayman
By Steve Warne
Site Editor, The Hockey News Ottawa
European football: Lamine Yamal on target as Barcelona battle past 10-man Villarreal
Barcelona head into new year on top of La Liga
Kane scores again in Bayern’s 4-0 rout of Heidenheim
Barcelona enjoyed a composed 2-0 La Liga victory at Villarreal on Sunday thanks to goals from Raphinha and Lamine Yamal in a match that tilted firmly in the visitors’ favour when the hosts were reduced to 10 men just before the break.
It took only 12 minutes for Barcelona to take the lead from the penalty spot after Santi Comesana blocked Raphinha with his back as the winger tried to break through and the Brazilian calmly converted the spot-kick.
Continue reading...Georgetown coach Ed Cooley’s water bottle throw earns him one-game suspension
Georgetown men’s basketball coach Ed Cooley was suspended by the school on Sunday for one game after throwing a water bottle into the stands at the end of a loss to Xavier the night before.
How The Vancouver Canucks Stack Up To The Rest Of The NHL: 35 Games In
The Vancouver Canucks are 35 games into the 2025–26 season. Vancouver is coming off one of their biggest trades in franchise history, moving Quinn Hughes to the Minnesota Wild in exchange for Marco Rossi, Zeev Buium, Liam Öhgren, and a first-round pick. Since this trade, the Canucks have not lost a single game — and the results have shown in the improvement of their season records.
Team Stats
While they’re not at the best that they’ve been all season, the Canucks have improved from where they sat at the 30-game mark. In fact, for the first time since the 15-game mark, they do not rank last in any of the listed stats. Even more impressive is the fact that they do not rank 30th or lower in any of their team stats, which is something they have done throughout the entire season after the five-game mark. Their most noticeable stat of all included is their power play percentage, which sits at an unexpected 13th in the NHL with a success rate of 20.5%.
Individual Skaters
With Hughes no longer on the team, Vancouver’s leaders for individual skater stats start to look very different. While stats such as goals (16) and hits (153) already belonged to Kiefer Sherwood outright, Filip Hronek ends up stepping in as the Canucks’ leader in assists (18). The biggest shift is on the power play, where Hughes previously led Vancouver in all of their power play points and power play TOI. In his stead, Jake DeBrusk takes the lead with nine points on the man-advantage (tied for 60th in the NHL) and 129:11 minutes spent on it (19th in NHL).
Goaltenders
In making his return from injury on December 11, Thatcher Demko stormed back to put up more impressive numbers to lead his team in the majority of their individual goaltending stats. While the goaltender has consistently held the team lead for wins, he has since added three onto his previous tally. His .912 SV% is tied for 16th in the NHL, while his 2.34 GAA sits at 11th. In terms of high-danger stats, Demko’s SV% on high-danger shots faced is .858% — good for ninth in the league.
Vancouver will look to continue their winning streak when they visit former Head Coach Rick Tocchet in a match against the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday. After a few days off for the holidays, the Canucks will reconvene for a match against the San Jose Sharks at home on Friday. They’ll take a quick trip south to face the Seattle Kraken on the 29th before returning to Rogers Arena to take on both the Flyers and Kraken again — this time on home-ice.
Make sure you bookmark THN's Vancouver Canucks site and add us to your favourites on Google News for the latest news, exclusive interviews, breakdowns, and so much more. Also, don't forget to leave a comment at the bottom of the page and engage with other passionate fans through our forum. This article originally appeared on The Hockey News.
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Canadiens Call Up Gritty Forward From AHL
The Montreal Canadiens have made a roster move, as they have announced that they have recalled forward Sammy Blais from their American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Laval Rocket.
The Canadiens claimed Blais back off waivers from the Toronto Maple Leafs back in late November. This was after Blais posted one goal, two assists, three points, and 28 hits in eight games for the Maple Leafs this season.
Since being claimed off waivers by the Canadiens, Blais has recorded three goals, six assists, nine points, and a plus-2 rating in nine games with Laval. Now, after landing this call-up to the Canadiens' roster, he will be aiming to impress.
With Blais being called up, the Canadiens now have another gritty forward with plenty of experience to work with for their bottom six.
In 265 career NHL games over eight seasons split between the St. Louis Blues, New York Rangers, St. Louis Blues, and Maple Leafs, Blais has posted 28 goals, 46 assists, 74 points, 126 penalty minutes, and 863 hits.
UConn guard Solo Ball misses victory at DePaul with minor wrist injury
No. 5 UConn played without Solo Ball on Sunday for the first time this season. It took a while for the Huskies to adjust, but they figured it out eventually. Ball missed UConn's 72-54 victory over DePaul with a minor wrist injury.
What we learned as Kings' late rally powers huge overtime win against Rockets
What we learned as Kings' late rally powers huge overtime win against Rockets originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SACRAMENTO — Their record might not indicate it, but Doug Christie has emphasized competitiveness for his Kings as they continue to figure out a solution to their now 7-22 record.
In the last three games, at least, including Sunday’s win, they’ve shown that.
Sacramento overcame a 14-point deficit thanks to a late fourth-quarter surge fueled by Keegan Murray and a clutch corner 3-pointer by Russell Westbrook with 1.8 seconds remaining in regulation to force overtime.
But that wasn’t the only clutch 3 of the night.
Dennis Schröder sank a 26-foot 3-pointer with 3.1 seconds remaining in overtime to secure the victory.
The Rockets still had time to steal the lead — and win — but Kevin Durant’s missed jumpshot ended those hopes.
The Kings snapped a five-game losing streak, and it was a true team effort.
DeMar DeRozan’s 27 points led the way for the Kings, with Keegan Murray contributing 26 and Schröder adding 24 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds off the bench.
Rockets young star center Alperen Şengün dominated Sacramento for most of the game, finishing with 28 points, six rebounds, three assists, two steals and two blocks in 40 minutes.
Here are the takeaways from Sunday’s win:
Extra basketball
The Kings got rolling at the right time, with Westbrook’s corner triple sending the game to overtime.
The action-packed thriller in Sacramento continued for five more minutes, as the game ended with a game-winning triple from Schroder.
In the extra period, Westbrook fouled Jabari Smith Jr. at the 3-point line with 10 seconds remaining, and Smith Jr. knocked down two of his three attempts from the charity stripe.
But it was Schroder who called game in the end.
Malik returns
Malik Monk recorded two consecutive DNP-CD (Did Not Play, Coach’s Decision) in a road and home loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Thursday and Saturday.
Before Sunday’s game, Kings coach Doug Christie was swarmed with questions about the bizarre situation, and he hinted that Monk could see the floor against the Rockets.
He kept his word, although it took a while.
Monk entered Sunday’s game for the first time of the night toward the end of the third quarter. And as expected, he was welcomed with a loud and warm welcome from the Golden 1 Center crowd.
Oh, he also instantly drove to the basket and made a layup within seconds of being on the court.
While being repeatedly asked about the decision to bench Monk in the past two games, Christie maintained it solely was based on it being a “logjam” at the guard position and simply a “numbers game.” He also stated that Monk was the “odd man out” since the Kings decided to emphasize defense and insert Keon Ellis into the rotation over Monk.
Ellis played just nine minutes in Sunday’s game, and has been struggling as of late. It could be possible that Ellis is back to being the “odd man out,” while Monk resumes his role.
Keegan’s resurgence
Keegan Murray has struggled to find a consistent offensive flow since returning from a UCL injury.
But his confidence never wavered, and neither did his coaches’ or teammates’ in him.
He showed just why on Sunday.
Murray missed all six of his 3-point attempts in Saturday’s loss to the Portland Trail Blazers. On Sunday, his first attempt from downtown — a 30-point trey — was a make. He finished the first quarter with 10 points and scored just two points in the second quarter.
But he got going when it mattered most, helping fuel a late rally to keep Sacramento alive in the fourth quarter. Murray finished the game with 26 points on 9-of-14 shooting from the field and 3 of 4 from downtown.
Moritz Seider Scores in OT, Red Wings Sweep Home-and-Home Series vs. Capitals
While the second game of a back-to-back has traditionally been unkind to the Detroit Red Wings this season, defenseman Moritz Seider made sure that it was a happier ending this time around.
Seider blasted home the overtime game-winning goal Sunday afternoon against the Washington Capitals, securing a 3–2 victory for the Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena and their second win over Washington in 24 hours.
WEEKEND SWEEP! #LGRWpic.twitter.com/IfuVfxkrXD
— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) December 21, 2025
It was Seider's second goal in as many games, as he also scored on Saturday afternoon as part of Detroit's 5-2 win in Washington D.C.
With the victory, the Red Wings improved their standing atop the Atlantic Division with a 21-13-3 record, three points ahead of the second-place Montreal Canadiens (who have two games in hand).
Bookmark The Hockey News Detroit Red Wings team site to stay connected to the latest news, game-day coverage, and player features.
The Capitals began the scoring in the opening 20 minutes of play, as fourth line forward Ethen Frank took advantage of Detroit defenseman Albert Johansson blowing a tire and beat goaltender Cam Talbot five-hole.
The Capitals largely controlled the play in the first period as Detroit did on Saturday, outshooting the Red Wings 14-5.
However, the Red Wings responded in the game's middle frame thanks to a power-play tally from Lucas Raymond, followed by the second goal in as many games for John Leonard.
The AHL's leading goal scorer, who was called up following the injury to Patrick Kane, deflected Alex DeBrincat's shot past goaltender Charlie Lindgren for his second goal with Detroit and eighth NHL goal overall.
But the Capitals would draw even midway through the third period after another goal from Frank, who once again slipped a shot through the pads of Talbot.
After an unsuccessful power-play chance in overtime by the Red Wings, both teams appeared destined for a shootout until some late-game heroics from Seider, who one-timed a feed from Andrew Copp past Lindgren with 23 seconds left in the extra session.
LFG pic.twitter.com/fKxYFazm1j
— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) December 21, 2025
Talbot stopped 31 shots, picking up his first victory in his last seven outings. Lindgren countered with 24 saves in a losing effort.
The Red Wings have one game remaining before the Christmas break, as they'll host the Dallas Stars on Tuesday evening.
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Does the CFP’s first round need fixing? + Michigan coaching search struggles
Recapping the College Football Playoff First Round. Should G5 schools still be in the field? Plus, updating Michigan's coaching search struggles.
Blackhawks Defenseman Fined By NHL Player Safety
NHL Player Safety has announced that Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Matt Grzelcyk has been fined $2,604.17 for cross-checking Ottawa Senators forward Tim Stutzle. This is the maximum allowable under the current CBA for cross-checking.
The incident occurred during the Blackhawks' most recent contest against the Senators on Dec. 20. In a scrum after the whistle during the first period, Grzelcyk cross-checked Stutzle in the face. This led to the Blackhawks defenseman receiving a double-minor penalty for high-sticking.
While getting fined is never the best thing, the Blackhawks are certainly happy that this incident did not lead to Grzelcyk receiving a suspension, as he is a solid part of their blueline.
Grzelcyk signed a one-year, $1 million contract with the Blackhawks at the start of the 2025-26 season. This was after he joined the club's training camp on a professional tryout (PTO), where he impressed enough to earn a deal for the season.
Grzelcyk has appeared in 35 games so far this season with the Blackhawks, where he has recorded zero goals, six assists, 30 blocks, and a plus-3 rating. This is after he scored one goal and set career highs with 39 assists and 40 points in 82 games during this past season with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Aiden Sherrell scores career-high 21 to lead No. 16 Alabama past Kennesaw State 92-81
The neutral-site game in northern Alabama included a pro-Crimson Tide crowd and hosted a coming-out party for Sherrell. The sophomore from Detroit scored 15 points in the first half and helped Alabama (9-3) build a 26-point lead. The Tide held on from there despite getting outscored by 15 in the second half and ended up with four players scoring in double figures, including Aden Holloway (17), Labaron Philon Jr. (17) and Jalil Bethea (11).
Georgetown coach Ed Cooley’s water bottle throw earns him a one-game suspension
Georgetown men's basketball coach Ed Cooley was suspended by the school on Sunday for one game after throwing a water bottle into the stands at the end of a loss to Xavier the night before. The Hoyas fell to 8-4 and 1-1 in Big East Conference play with their 80-77 loss against visiting Xavier on Saturday.
Missouri hires Chip Lindsey as offensive coordinator amid Michigan turmoil
The 51-year-old Lindsey replaces Kirby Moore, who left to become the head coach at Washington State. Moore had just one season with the Wolverines.
Islanders Matthew Barzal's Bar: 'That’s The Leadership We Need From Him'
BUFFALO, NY —New York Islanders forward Matthew Barzal was a menace in the second half of their 3-2 shootout loss to the Buffalo Sabres.
Islanders Tie Game Late in Third, Lose 3-2 In Shootout To BuffaloA thrilling late-game comeback forced overtime, but the Islanders ultimately fell short in a nail-biting shootout.He scored his 10th goal of the season at the 19:37 mark of the second to cut the Islanders’ deficit to 2-1:
Barzal gets the #Isles back in it. Down 2-1 after 2. Hard work pays off! pic.twitter.com/EpuqmShJHH
— The Elmonters (@TheElmonters) December 20, 2025
That extended his point streak to seven games (two goals, five assists).
Then, on the power play with goaltender David Rittich on the bench for the extra attacker, Barzal hit Emil Heineman on the tape for the tying tally with 28 seconds to play in regulation:
Barzal gets the #Isles back in it. Down 2-1 after 2. Hard work pays off! pic.twitter.com/EpuqmShJHH
— The Elmonters (@TheElmonters) December 20, 2025
Barzal was all over the place in overtime with a few breakaway tries but could not bury.
Then in the shootout, Barzal scored on a nifty backhand move:
Mathew Barzal, that was fillllllthy 🥵 pic.twitter.com/MVJ7t4UwbL
— NHL (@NHL) December 21, 2025
The Islanders have gone 1-2-1 without Bo Horvat and it’s been a struggle to produce, especially off the rush.
Patrick Roy has been waiting for someone to rise up and he got that kind of performance from No. 13 when the team desperately needed a spark on Saturday.
“Well, it's a great opportunity for him to lead the team, and he's doing that,” Roy said. “So I mean, that's the leadership we need from him, producing every night, giving ourselves a chance to be in every game. And I feel that’s a role Barzy wants to play as well. So I mean, it's nice to see him be successful.”
Horvat isn’t expected to be out much longer, already a week and a half into what I heard was a 1-3 week timeline.
Could he return later this week against the New York Rangers on Saturday?
Given that Horvat skated on his own Friday morning — he didn't travel because there was no morning skate — one would think he's getting very close.
Until he's back, the Islanders need Barzal playing like a No. 1 center.
The point streak is nice, but if you noticed, he was making key plays defensively on Saturday. He was pushing the pace, crashing the net and he did win 7-of-13 face-offs (53%).
That's the Barzal that this team needs and that's the Barzal the Islanders got on Saturday.