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COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Columbus Blue Jackets have signed right wing Oliver Bjorkstrand of the Western Hockey Leagues Portland Winterhawks to a three-year, entry-level contract. cheap jerseys from china . Bjorkstrand was the clubs fifth pick, 89th overall, in the 2013 NHL draft. The 6-foot, 169-pounder has 25 goals and 31 assists and a +21 plus/minus rating in 32 games this season, helping Portland amass the WHLs second-best record at 23-8-2-2. Hes currently tied for third in the league in short-handed goals (3), fourth in goals and points, tied for seventh in game-winning goals (4) and eighth in assists and plus/minus. Bjorkstrand has 56 goals and 63 assists and a +59 plus/minus rating in 97 career WHL games. The Herning, Denmark, native also represented his country at the 2012 World Junior Championships. cheap nfl jerseys . - Russell Wilson is getting on the diamond again. wholesale jerseys .C. - Bernhard Langer overcame a bad start Saturday to take a two-stroke lead after the second round of the Champions Tours Greater Hickory Classic.NEW YORK -- It wasnt a marquee matchup of freshmen, although both of the young stars showed how bright their futures can be. Instead, No. 4 Arizonas 72-66 victory over No. 6 Duke on Friday night in the championship game of the NIT Season Tip-Off was a chance for two junior guards to take the spotlight. Nick Johnson scored all but two of his 15 points in the second half and T.J. McConnell had 10 points and eight assists to lead the Wildcats to the win that showed just how versatile a team they are. "Were an all-around team. Really you could see it in the box score. It was pretty even all the way around," Johnson, the tournaments MVP, said, referring to the five starters scoring in double figures. "Were a good team and we can play with anybody." The game was expected to be a matchup of two of the best freshmen in the country and, although Aaron Gordon of Arizona and Jabari Parker of Duke didnt spend a lot of time covering each other or supplying highlight clips, they were both key factors in the outcome. Gordon, the quiet forward, finished with 10 points and seven rebounds and came up big late with a dunk on an alley-oop pass and then fed fellow freshman Rondae Hollis-Jefferson for a dunk less than a minute later to give the Wildcats (7-0) a 61-51 lead with 3:59 to play. "He stayed patient, which is one of the qualities that he has as a player," Arizona coach Sean Miller said of Gordon, who had two points in 11 minutes in the first half. "I chose not to play him a lot in the first half, because he was in foul trouble. ... He played 20 minutes in the second half so he was out there more. But we as a group have to find ways to use his offensive talent even more, and hes such a unique player." Parker, who had 19 points for his first game with fewer than 20 points this season, struggled against Arizonas physical defence and was 7 of 21 from the field. He came into the game shooting 60 per cent from the field. "Jabari gets a lot of attention and it was a good physical game," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "His shots just didnt go down." Parker, who came into the game shooting 61 per cent from beyond the arc, missed all five of his 3-point attempts. &quoot;I need to get experience against big guys," said the 6-foot-8 Parker, who faced an Arizona frontline that goes 6-9, 6-8, 7-foot. wholesale nfl jerseys. "Two things you cant practice against are quickness and length," Krzyzewski said. "We have quickness. We dont have length. They have great length on their team." The victory gave Arizona its fourth NIT Season Tip-Off title, tying Duke (6-2) for the most ever. "I tell you, Im really ecstatic that we were able to win this tournament here in the Garden," Miller said. "Everybody here knows what a special place this is. We talk to our players a lot about it. ... So everybody embraced where we were because they knew it was a big stage and for us to get on a plane and travel about 15 hours tonight, its going to be a nice plane ride home because I think we feel good about how hard we played and what we were able to accomplish." Johnson, the Wildcats leading scorer at 17.3 per game, shook off a quiet first half to become the focal point of Arizonas offence. His 3-pointer with 11:07 to play tied the game at 45. He hit another 3 with 6:22 left to give Arizona a 57-48 lead. Brandon Ashley had 13 points and Kalen Tarczewski added 10 points and nine rebounds for the Wildcats, who finished with a 36-28 rebound advantage. Rodney Hood led Duke with 21 points and eight rebounds. The Blue Devils other loss was to No. 2 Kansas. "We talked all year about we dont have a centre, and we have good players, and we have to figure out how to be good with the players we have," Krzyzewski said. "So I thought those kids played really well. I mean, I thought they played their hearts out." Gordon, who came in averaging 12.5 points and 9.7 rebounds, had a big block of Rasheed Sulaimon with 45 seconds left and the Wildcats leading 65-59. Duke had won 15 straight games in the NIT Season Tip-Off and had won 15 of its last 17 games played at Madison Square Garden. The Blue Devils, who came into the game shooting 53.4 per cent from the field, finished 25 of 58 from the field, including 4 of 14 from 3-point range, where they came in shooting 44.7 per cent. They were held 24 points below their scoring average for the season. cheap jerseys ' ' ' |
