Sports: Wings lose; Pistons Win

The Wings lost the St. Louis Blues 2-0.  The Red Wings played their first home game since team owner Mike Ilitch died Friday.  Ivan Barbashev scored 2:06 into the game. The Blues added an empty-net goal in the final seconds.  Carter Hutton made 25 saves for his second straight shutout.  Detroit has dropped five straight games for the second time in less than a month, matching its season-long losing streak.

Wings forward Gustav Nyquist was suspended for six games without pay by the NHL on Wednesday for high-sticking Minnesota Wild defenseman Jared Spurgeon in the face.  The suspension will cost Nyquist $158,333. The 27-year-old Swede has seven goals and 22 assists in 56 games this season.

The Red Wings host the Capitals on Saturday afternoon.

Pistons

The Pistons beat the Dallas Mavericks 98-91 Wednesday night.  The Pistons never trailed, taking a 10-0 lead to start the game and led by 27 at halftime before holding on for the win.  Reggie Jackson scored 22 points, Jon Leuer added 20.  Kentavious Caldwell-Pope had 16 points, Tobias Harris 13 and Ish Smith 10 for the Pistons.    Detroit out-rebounded Dallas 56-36, led by Marcus Morris' 13, Andre Drummond's 11 and Aron Baynes' 11. With the win, the Pistons (27-30) move half a game back of the Chicago Bulls for seventh place in the NBA's Eastern Conference.  Detroit has a week off, and hosts the Charlotte Hornets a week from tonight.  The NBA All-Star game is Sunday.  No Pistons are on the team.

Men’s College Basketball

MSU has won four of five to move to 16-10, 8-5 Big Ten.   MSU is at Purdue this Saturday….3pm on 95.3 WBCK.

Mid Michigan beat KCC 81-78 in overtime.  The Bruins were up by 16 in the second half, but lost by three.  KCC is at Jackson on Saturday.

Women’s Basketball

Mid Michigan beat the KCC’s Women’s basketball team, 63-40.  They fall to 2-21.

Wrestling
Pennfield beat Michigan Center, 48-33, but saw their season end as they lost the Regional Championship match 80-0 to the host team, top-ranked Dundee.

Coldwater beat Harper Creek 51-12 but lost to Niles, 46-21.

Climax-Scotts/Martin beat Bangor 44-27, but lost to host Springport 56-18 in the final.  Springport also ended Athens’ season, winning 56-18.

Bronson beat Reading 72-12 and Decatur 37-32 to win a Division 4 Team Regional.   Bronson now advances to the State Quarterfinals at CMU a week from Friday to wrestle No. 2-ranked Manchester.

Boys Basketball

Our next radio game is Friday, as St. Philip plays at Climax-Scotts.

Lion’s to Renovate

The Detroit Lions have begun a $100 million renovation to spruce up Ford Field, a project that's scheduled to be completed before next season starts.   Team president Rod Wood says the improvements will make the facility ready to host another Super Bowl.   They hosted one in 2006.  Wood says the 15-year-old stadium was due for a significant upgrade.  The highlight of the changes may be 152-foot wide videoboards above each end zone that will rank among the ten largest in the NFL after the original ones were among the league's smallest last season. The Lions are also renovating 210,000 square feet of space throughout the facility, including its suites and club seats.

"Row the Boat" belongs to P.J. Fleck.

The Minnesota football coach and his former employer, Western Michigan, reached an agreement Wednesday that will give Fleck legal intellectual property of the catchphrase he made famous in four seasons with the Broncos. As part of the deal announced by Western Michigan, Fleck will make a yearly gift of $10,000 to the school to support a football scholarship. The Fleck Family Football Scholarship will begin this fall.  The school says it will be allowed to use "Row the Boat" in materials "recognizing and celebrating Fleck's tenure at WMU and the teams he coached."  Fleck led the Broncos to a 13-0 regular season and a Cotton Bowl appearance against Wisconsin last year before leaving in January to become head coach at Minnesota.

Tigers/MLB                                                                                    

7 days until the first Tiger spring training game in Lakeland Florida.

The first full workout is Saturday.