HOUSTON -- Syracuse coach Scott Shafer wishes his team could have held its big lead over Minnesota and cruised to an easy win in the Texas Bowl on Friday night. But he found it fitting that the Orange had to eke out the victory considering the number of close games they played this season. Terrel Hunt scrambled 12 yards for a touchdown with 1:14 remaining to lift Syracuse to a 21-17 victory over the Golden Gophers. "It would have nice if we could have just knocked them out and won by 17 or something," Shafer said. "Thats kind of not our way this year. I think it was appropriate that we won in that fashion." Brisly Estime set up Hunts touchdown with a 70-yard punt return. Estime would have scored if not for a tackle by punter Peter Mortell. "Brisly is a quick as a jitterbug," Shafer said. "We felt that he could give us something." It was the second-longest punt return in Texas Bowl history. "We probably out-punted our coverage," Minnesota coach Jerry Kill said. Syracuse (7-6) led 14-3 entering the fourth quarter before Mitch Leidner threw two touchdown passes and a 2-point conversion to put the Gophers up 17-14. After the Orange regained the lead, Minnesota attempted two long passes to the end zone on the final plays. The first slipped through Drew Wolitarskys arms and the second, as time expired, was knocked down near the end zone. Minnesota (8-5) got a boost to start the second half when Kill returned to the sideline for the first time since Sept. 28 before Syracuse came back to send the Gophers to their sixth consecutive bowl loss and second straight in this bowl. Kill began the game in the press box, where he has observed his team since returning from a leave of absence because of epilepsy. Kill has had five seizures on game day in two-plus seasons at Minnesota. He took the leave of absence in October and returned a couple of weeks later. "I felt I would do anything I can to help," Kill said about joining his team on the sideline. "Im not sure if it helped or not. Evidently, it didnt because we didnt win the game." Hunt finished with 188 yards passing and 74 rushing with two scores to earn Most Valuable Player honours and a 10-gallon cowboy hat. Leidner finished with 205 yards passing, Maxx Williams had five receptions for 76 yards and a touchdown and Wolitarsky had 94 yards receiving and a score. Syracuse attempted a 45-yard field goal with about 3 1/2 minutes left, but it sailed wide right. Robert Welsh sacked Leidner on third down on the next drive to force a punt and set up the winning drive. The Gophers took their first lead when Syracuse bit on a play-action fake that left Wolitarsky wide open for a 55-yard touchdown pass that made it 15-14 early in the fourth quarter. Leidner then hit Mike Henry for the 2-point conversion to push the lead to 17-14. Players and coaches on the sideline jumped around wildly after the touchdown, while Kill smiled and stood nearly still amid the chaos. Hunt was penalized for intentional grounding on third down of the ensuing drive by Syracuse forcing a fourth-and-25 and a punt by the Orange. Jerome Smith rushed for 74 yards and a touchdown for Syracuse and Estime had five receptions for 47 yards. Minnesota cut it to 14-9 when Williams got in front of two defenders for a 20-yard touchdown reception from Leidner on the first play of the fourth quarter. It was the Gophers first touchdown on offence since the second quarter of a 24-10 win over Penn State on Nov. 9. Minnesota attempted a 2-point conversion, but Leidner was sacked. The Orange used a clock-eating 15-play drive capped by a 5-yard touchdown run by Hunt to push the lead to 14-3 with about three minutes left in the third quarter. Syracuse used run after run to pound the ball on that drive and had an 18-yard run by Smith and a 17-yard scamper by George Morris to keep it going. Syracuse took a 7-0 lead when Smith scored on a 1-yard run early in the second quarter. That drive was helped by a nifty catch by Christopher Clark, who stretched out to grab a 19-yard reception with a defender in his face just before stepping out of bounds. Minnesota cut it to 7-3 on Chris Hawthornes 41-yard field goal by as time expired in the first half. nike free run 2 mens cheap . And a bad game ended on a worse note when the Toronto head coach and his assistant Fran OLeary were ejected in the final minute for words said from the sideline. "The referee (Allen Chapman) has a tough time but I think hell reflect and look back and probably (realize) Toronto FC were on the wrong end of the equation on literally all of the critical calls," said Nelsen, who was calm just minutes after his ejection. . "Stay out of the penalty box," Berube said he told his players between the second and third periods. Apparently, they listened. [url=http://www.nikeonlinenz.com/nike-air-max-90-hyperfuse.html]http://www.nikeo... . Patrick Sharp scored two goals, Duncan Keith had four assists and Corey Crawford made 24 saves as the Chicago Blackhawks built a big lead to beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 5-1 on Tuesday night to sweep the season series. [url=http://www.nikeonlinenz.com/nike-free-run-2/nike-free-run-2-womens.html]nik... free run 2 womens sale . He backed up his words Saturday night by leading the Thunder to a dominant victory in a place few visiting teams have had success. . Getz was injured in the first inning of Sundays 15-inning win over St. Louis while trying to get to a single by Carlos Beltran.SASKATOON -- After watching his bloodied linemate helped from the ice, Chase De Leo did all he could to make one of his best friends feel a little better -- help the Portland Winterhawks make the semifinal at the MasterCard Memorial Cup. De Leo gave Portland the lead for good in the third and the Winterhawks scored three times in the period to defeat the Saskatoon Blades 4-2 in the tournaments final round-robin game. With the score tied 1-1 after two, De Leo jammed a loose puck past Blades goalie Andrey Makarov at 4:08 as Portland (2-1) now moves on to Fridays semifinal. After the game, thoughts on the Portland side quickly turned to Winterhawks right-winger Taylor Leier, who suffered what appeared to be a blow to the head on a hit from Blades defenceman Dalton Thrower just inside the Saskatoon blue-line in the first period. A bloodied Leier, who is from Saskatoon, stayed facedown for a few minutes before being helped off the ice and did not return. The was no penalty on the play, but the Canadian Hockey League said in a release after the game that it was reviewing the incident. "You dont want to see a teammate go down, especially one of my best friends and linemates. Its a scary thing," said De Leo, who now has two goals at the tournament. "Its not something you want to see and obviously the boys are going to get some energy and motivation to battle back for him." Not surprisingly, Winterhawks coach Travis Green and Blades counterpart Lorne Molleken had different interpretations of the hit. "Its pretty obvious where the shot comes. It hits him in the head and there is a jump to it as well. The video is pretty obvious," Green said. "We lost one of our better players to a hit that I thought should have been a major." Molleken, meanwhile, called the hit "unfortunate" but added that he thought Thrower caught Leier in the chest with his shoulder. Winterhawks players disagreed. "When you see a teammate go down like that youre not going to stand by and watch but at this point in the tournament and how big of a game it was, we cant take any stupid penalties," said Portland forward Ty Rattie, who scored his fourth goal. "(Leier) got his head hit. It was a hit to the head." The host Blades (1-2), who were swept out of the Western Hockey League playoffs in the first round and have never won a Memorial Cup, now have a tough task with three games in four nights. A win on Wednesday would have meant a bye to the final, but Saskatoon now faces a Thursday tiebreaker game against the Ontario Hockey League champion London Knights (1-2). "Going through adversity is nothing new for this team. Weve had our ups and downs this year and were looking forward to proving ourselves again and taking the long way around," said Saskatoon overage forward Josh Nicholls, who had a goal and an assist. "This a typical Blades way of doing things -- taking that long way. Hopefully we get the job done and take three straight." The winner of the Saskatoon-London game will meet Portland in Fridays semi. With the Winterhawks victory, the Halifax Mooseheads (2-1) clinched a berth directly into Sundays final to decide the CHL champion. Derrick Pouliot and Brenden Leipsic had the other goals for Portland (2-1), which gott 29 saves from Mac Carruth.dddddddddddd Nicolas Petan added two assists for the WHL champions. Shane McColgan also scored for Saskatoon, while Makarov stopped 30 shots in taking the loss. "It was a big win," Green said. "I thought their team came out hard like we expected early, tried to be physical on us and we withheld and I thought we slowly took over the game." After De Leo scored to give Portland the lead in the third, Leipsic added an insurance goal for Portland at 6:27, ripping a shot from the slot into the top corner past Makarov. Rattie made it 4-1 with his fourth of the tournament at 10:16, beating Makarov to the glove side off the rush. "We knew it was going to be hard and to get three quick bingos like that was big for the boys," Rattie said. "(It) gave us a little bit more confidence and a little bit more leeway on defence." Nicholls scored at 16:27 to cut the deficit to two, but the Blades would get no closer. "Portland did a good job against us in a lot of areas but these teams are all skilled teams and when we get into that game its going to be difficult on us so we have to play a simplified game," Molleken said. "We have to play a north game and make sure our forecheck is good but tonight we let Carruth handle far too many pucks." Following a scoreless first period, the teams traded goals in the second. Pouliot opened the scoring at 6:44 after jumping on a Blades turnover and firing a shot from the sideboards that fooled Makarov through the five-hole. Saskatoon got a 5-on-3 power play later in the period and didnt generate much of anything until McColgan, who hit the post moments earlier, fired a shot past Carruth that deflected in off a Winterhawks player in front with a second left on the second penalty to tie the score at 11:20. Portland had a golden opportunity to retake the lead when Blades left-winger Michael Ferland took a double minor for high sticking with just over four minutes remaining in the period. Winterhawks defenceman Seth Jones, the No. 1 ranked North American skater according to NHL Central Scouting ahead of Junes draft, had a good chance off the rush but fired wide as the Blades weathered the storm and were saluted off the ice by a standing ovation from the crowd of 9,239 at the Credit Union Centre. Coming off Sundays emotional 5-2 victory over Halifax, the Blades said prior to the game that their focus would be to get on the body early and they did just that, hitting the Winterhawks at every opportunity in the first period -- including Throwers crushing blow on Leier. The Blades, who have had their share of doubters this season, dont have much time to refocus ahead of Thursdays tiebreaker. "Things are just going to increase in tempo here. It all counts now because lose and youre done. There is no tomorrow anymore so weve really got to strap up and put our work boots on," defenceman Duncan Siemens. "Were a hard-nosed team. We have some skill up front but the majority of team is meat and potatoes. Weve got to go to those hard areas and score those greasy goals." Notes: The Winterhawks have won two Memorial Cups (1983, 1998). The Blades have never won a CHL title. ... Former NHL tough guy and Blades alumni Joe Kocur was in attendance. [url=http://www.cheapnfljerseyschinastore.us.com/]cheap jerseys cheap nhl jerseys ' ' '