Blackhawks Remain Undefeated On Trip The road is being kind to the Blackhawks, who moved to 3-0 on their current Circus Trip after a 5-4 overtime victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs last night. The Leafs scored the first three goals of the game to take a big lead, but the 'Hawks, led by a pair of Patrick Sharp goals, fought back. Sharp's two second period goals cut the lead to one goal, only to......

Northwestern Eeks Past Michigan Quarterback C.J. Bacher tossed two third quarter touchdowns to give Northwestern a lead over Michigan they wouldn't relinquish on their way to a 21-14 win over the Wolverines. Bacher finished with 198 yards passing and two touchdowns with two interceptions. It was an ugly weather day as precipitation switched between rain and snow, forcing Michigan to go to the ground which wasn't enough as they found themselves looking at the......

Cavs Pull Away From Bull In a game that was tighter than the one they played a few days ago, the Cavs still managed to shake a pesky Bulls team as they downed Chicago, 106-97. Ben Gordon scored 29 and Luol Deng added 20. Rookie Derrick Rose scored 17 and added 9 assists and, once again, LeBron topped 40 points (41) against the Bulls. Some bad news for the Bulls (besides the loss and dropping......

Blackhawks Drop Shoot-Out To Red Wings Saturday's Blackhawks game was literally a shoot-out as the two teams combined for 10 regulation-time goals as the Red Wings pulled out a 6-5 shoot-out victory. Even though the Blackhawks netted three goals in the second period, they gave up three in the third to let the Wings tie the game. It took 'Hawks star Patrick Kane by surprise. “They took it to us in the third period. They......

Bears Outlast Vikings An Arena Football game broke out at Soldier Field as the Bears outpaced the Vikings 48-41. Benjy's up in a bit with the recap. Blackhawks Drop Game to Blues, Top Canucks On Saturday, the Blackhawks lost another shoot-out game, this one to the St. Louis Blues, 4-3. Patrick Kane had two goals for the 'Hawks, who couldn't do much again in the shoot-out portion. On Sunday, they returned home where the beat......

Blackhawks Lose Second Straight It's been a rough start to the season for the Blackhawks (0-2) after losing last night to the Washington Capitals, 4-2. The Blackhawks got off to a quick start, getting a 1-0 lead 26 seconds into the game via Kris Versteeg's goal and Jack Skille added another 11 minutes later to make the score 2-0. But from there, it was all Caps. Washington scored four unanswered goals, including two by Alex......

This weekend's NFL TV Schedule for Chicago (courtesy of The 506): CBS 2, 12 p.m. - Indianapolis @ Houston Fox 32, 12 p.m. - Chicago @ Detroit CBS 2, 3:15 p.m. - Cincinnati @ Dallas NBC 5, 7:15 p.m. - Pittsburgh @ Jacksonville ESPN, 7:30 (Monday) - Minnesota @ New Orleans Illinois, Juice Williams Tops Michigan It was the Juice Williams Show Saturday afternoon in Ann Arbor as Illinois overcame an early deficit and poured......

Soriano Earns Contract Alfonso Soriano finally earned his big money contract by belting three home runs Saturday night as the Cubs ended a six-game losing streak and beat the Reds 14-9. Soriano's five RBIs were the difference, though Mark DeRosa continued his career year with his 20th home run, Jason Marquis helped his own cause with a solo shot, and Derek Lee had three RBIs. Marquis pitched a good seven and 1/3 innings to get......

Phils Snap Cubs Streak The Cubs' seven-game winning streak was snapped yesterday as the Phils beat the North Siders 5-2. Ted Lilly only gave up three runs over six and 2/3 inning, but the Cubs just couldn't take advantage of an eighth inning which saw the Cubs load the bases. The Tao of Lou: "We just didn't hit with men on base -- that's the storyline of that game. You can't do it every day."......

In a day packed with college football bowl games, the coolest televised sporting event on New Year's Day had to be watching the Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins play an NHL game outside in Buffalo, in front of over 71,000 fans. It brought the game back to its roots, played outside on frozen ponds and lakes throughout the Midwest and Canada. Now imagine that same game outside, only featuring two of the NHL's "Original......

Chicagoist knew there'd be plenty of surprises during Sunday's college football Bowl Championship Series selections, given the losses by the two top-ranked team on Saturday and then general tumult among the top ranked teams all season long. Among the biggest surprises was the Rose Bowl's selection of the Fighting Illini to play against the USC Trojans on New Year's Day. The Illini did knock off Wisconsin when they were ranked fifth, and they handed Ohio......

Given the force that NFL players hit with, we are amazed that more of them don't get seriously injured. After all, that was our mom's biggest fear when Chicagoist initially went out for freshman football. And when we decided to give it up after two days — that makes her top-ten best days as a mom. Unfortunately, sometimes bad things do happen on the field. In 1978, 26-year-old Darryl Stingley, a wide receiver for the......

Monday night, the University of Florida Gators beat the Ohio St. Buckeyes 84-75 to capture their second consecutive NCAA men's basketball title. Florida also became the first school ever to win both the college football and basketball championships in the same school year. With Florida's win, thousands of lucky pool winners will be collecting their prizes. Chicagoist's own Tournament Challenge pool was won by D. Sandell's Word on the street entry. Congrats! Please email blipsman......

Sometimes Chicagoist feels like we just can't watch any more college football or basketball. Yet even with ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, etc., the vast majority of collegiate athletics fails to appear on-air. Maybe we'd love to change things up and watch that Northwestern vs. Minnesota tennis meet, or that heated Purdue-Indiana volleyball rivalry, or the Big Ten Cross Country Championships. And now we'll be able to, as the Big Ten Conference has announced the launch of......

The Northern Illinois Huskies have accepted a bid to the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl. This bowl holds the honor of being the first bowl game of the year in addition having the longest and most ridiculous name of any bowl. The NIU Huskies will take on the Texas Christian University Horned Frogs on December 19 at San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium. Although the Huskies lost five games during the 2006 campaign, four of......

Chicagoist reader Big Bad Bob tipped us off to some 4Info.net billboards that have popped up around town. The current billboards are encouraging readers to text Bears to 44636. If you do, you will get a text reply message with the most recent Bears score in addition to a few additional pro or college football results. You are not limited to texting "Bears" to that number. The service offered by 4Info.net include sports scores (Txt......

Chicagoist works in an office full of men. Manly men. The kind who drink beer and eat meat and watch football ... lots and lots of football. Through this circumstance, we have come to know way more about college football than we would otherwise know. For example, that the Illini are having a pretty crappy season. 2-8? Good luck. They're going up against Purdue (6-4) in Champaign even as we type this. But thankfully, that's......

Sunday was supposed to be our recovery day from college football, but when a friend called with free tickets to Cheap Trick at Ravinia, we got off the couch and gathered our music festival gear. We jumped on Metra's Ravinia Special and were dropped off right at the festival's entrance - quite the service for a $5 round trip price tag. We set up our lowly space with a couple of blankets and cooler, which......

College football season kicks off this weekend, and that means that across the city, fans will be flocking to countless bars to watch their favorite teams. Chicago is second to none when it comes to its school pride, as nearly every sports bar and neighborhood tap affiliates itself with some college team -- at least in Lincoln Park and Lakeview. If you're trying to find the hideout for a particular school, keep your eyes peeled......

With the family, friends and Northwestern campus still in mourning over the loss of football coach Randy Walker, The Wildcats stayed within their "family" in naming their new head coach. On Friday, they named Pat Fitzgerald as their new head coach. Formerly Northwestern's linebackers coach, Fitzgerald had been groomed by Walker to eventually take over the program. However, they both thought that wouldn't come for another half-decade or more. At 31, Fitzgerald is the youngest......

DCist is screwed in the event of an oil crisis. Not that we're not all screwed in the event of an oil crisis, just D.C. is more screwed. Don't sell your car yet, District resident, a cabbie can kick you to the curb if he doesn't like your address. Not even Metro can save you now. Londonist experiences the London of the future through the wonders of 3D modeling, but while the 3D guys are......

The college football season kicks off this weekend, and Chicagoist can't wait! This is Big Ten country, so we thought we'd take a look at the conference and make our predictions. While the Big Ten is shaping up to be a major football powerhouse this season, the two Illinois schools don't figure to draw much attention. Illinois went 3-8 (1-7 conf.) last year, costing Ron Turner his job. Ron Zook, who lost his job......

Northwestern's football team kicks off their season Thursday against the TCU Horned Frogs in Fort Worth, TX. The Wildcats are coming off a 6-6 season, which saw them win 4 of their last 6 regular season games and earn a berth in the Motor City Bowl. Leading the team is Junior QB Brett Basanez, who looks to rebound from an up-and-down 2003 season. However, NU will be without one of its best defensive players. Junior......