Sports: Wings, Howard with 3-1 Win

Red Wings

The Red Wings beat the Blue Jackets 3-1 Thursday night in Columbus. The Red Wings regained their hold on a playoff spot and improved their record to 35-25-11.    Luke Glendening, Henrik Zetterberg and Darren Helm scored for the Red Wings.  The Wings move one point ahead of Philadelphia in the Eastern Conference playoff race, but the Flyers have two games in hand.  Jimmy Howard made 27 saves.  Howard just missed getting a shutout as the Jackets scored on a late power play.  Detroit plays in Florida against the Panthers on Saturday night.  They finish the trip on Tuesday in Tampa.

MSU Basketball

The number-two seed Michigan State Spartans begin NCAA Tournament play this afternoon when they take on 15th-seed Middle Tennessee State.  WBCK will have the game live at 1:30 pm. The winner of this game takes on the winner of seven-seed Dayton and 10th-seed Syracuse.   MSU vs. Middle Tennessee State…1:30 today on WBCK.

The Michigan basketball team takes on Notre Dame in the first round of the NCAA Tournament tonight in Brooklyn. Tip off is 9:40am.

Two upsets by 12^th seeds in the tournament yesterday…. Yale beat Baylor and Arkansas-Little Rock beat Purdue. Also on Thursday, Wichita State upset Arizona after getting in with a first four win on Tuesday.

MSU Women in tournament

The fourth seeded MSU women's basketball team will play 13th-seeded Belmont today at noon.

NBA/Pistons

The Pistons host the Kings tonight in the second game of a 9-game home stand. They remain percentage points behind Chicago for the eighth and final playoff spot.

Detroit is home to play the Nets on Saturday.  They also have home games Monday and Wednesday against the Bucks and the Magic.

Girls Basketball

The Marshall girls’ basketball team plays second-ranked Bay City John Glenn tonight at the Breslin Center at MSU.  Tip-off is at 7:50pm.  The winner will play either Detroit Country Day or Grand Rapids South Christian for the Class B State Championship at 6pm Saturday.  WBCK will carry the game on the MHSAA Network, preceded by the State Class C Championship game between Traverse City St. Francis and Ypsilanti Arbor Prep.

Tigers

The Tigers beat the Cardinals 5-4.  Miguel Cabrera, Nate Schierholtz and JaCoby Jones homered.  It was the fourth consecutive win for the Tigers, who are now 11-6-1 in Spring games. The Tigers have hit a league-leading 35 home runs in 18 games this spring.  They'll take on the Cardinals again this afternoon.