CHICAGO -- The Chicago Blackhawks are taking a more direct approach to generating offence without injured star forwards Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane. Buccaneers Lavonte David Jersey . So far, its working. Rookie Jeremy Morin scored and set up Patrick Sharps go-ahead goal in the second period, and injury-depleted Chicago held on to defeat the St. Louis Blues 4-2 on Sunday afternoon for its third straight win. The Blackhawks ground out the victory despite playing without Toews powerful skating and Kanes puck-handling skills for the third game. Forward Brandon Saad was a last-minute scratch. "Weve simplified our game quite a bit," said Sharp, who scored his team-leading 33rd goal. "Were not trying to make as many plays offensively. Were battling hard. "Usually when you battle hard individually and as a team, good things happen. Weve raised our battle level lately, but were just keeping things simple. Getting pucks in, getting pucks out." And some younger players, such as Morin, are getting more ice time and showing just how deep defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago is. "Im just taking it day by day every time Im in the lineup, trying to make the most of it," Morin said. "Were comfortable out there. "Im just playing the game right now and letting things come." Marcus Kruger and Ben Smith also scored for Chicago, which is two points behind Colorado for second place in the Central Division and home ice in the first round of the playoffs. The Blackhawks have three games left. The Avalanche, who lost in a shootout to Pittsburgh on Sunday night, have four games remaining. Toews, Chicagos captain, sat out his third game with an upper-body injury suffered last Sunday when he was drilled by Pittsburgh defenceman Brooks Orpik. Kane, who has resumed skating, missed his ninth with a lower-body injury suffered against the Blues on March 19. Toews and Kane are expected to return for the start of the playoffs. Jaden Schwartz and Vladimir Sobotka connected for St. Louis, which lost its second straight and remained two points behind idle Boston for the NHLs overall point lead and race for the Presidents Trophy. Both the Blues and Bruins have four games remaining. Chicagos Corey Crawford made 21 saves and St. Louis Brian Elliott made 31. "We had moments where we did everything to ourselves and gave them opportunities really out of nothing," Elliott said. "Its a wake-up call right now and weve got to figure it out." The Blues skated without two of their top forwards, including leading goal scorer Alexander Steen who missed his third game with an upper-body injury. Vladimir Tarasenko has been sidelined since mid-March with a hand injury. The Blues, who were shut out by Colorado on Saturday, have scored two goals or fewer in eight of their past 10 games. St. Louis coach Ken Hitchcock said his team is looking a "little bit tired" and needs to "find a way to re-energize" and start skating, buzzing and shooting again in the offensive zone. "Our offensive game is based on offensive energy," Hitchcock said. "When we dont have it, we dont have near enough zone time. "We score by volume (of chances) and when we dont get the volume we dont score. The last couple of games we havent gotten the volume we normally get." Blues defenceman Kevin Shattenkirk agreed. "A lot of our offence comes when were grinding away down low," he said. "When were shooting, theres rebounds and were beating guys to pucks." Chicago dominated territorially in the chippy first period and outshot the Blues 11-3, but trailed 1-0 after 20 minutes. Schwartzs power-play goal at 1:57 of the first opened the scoring. After taking Brenden Morrows pass, Schwartz fired from the left circle, but his shot hit traffic in front of the net and bounded back to him. His second shot got through the screen and beat Crawford low. Crawford made a pad save on Patrik Berglunds short-handed breakaway attempt midway through the first. Elliott stopped several prime Chicago chances in the final minutes of the first as Chicago turned up the pressure. With 1:30 to go, he blocked a point-blank short-handed shot by Marian Hossa, who rocketed in alone past Blues defenceman Alex Pietrangelo. Morin tied it at 1 at 8:34 of the second, when he drove to the net and pushed in a rebound of Bryan Bickells shot. Bickell had picked off a pass at centre ice before cruising back into the Blues zone and firing from the left circle. Sharp put Chicago ahead 2-1 with 27 seconds left in the second when he completed a 2-on-1 break with Morin. Morin carried the puck down the right side, then passed to Sharp who fired a shot past Elliotts stick side from the left circle. Kruger made it 3-1 just 56 seconds into the third. Elliott got a piece of Joakim Nordstroms shot from the right wing, but the puck trickled to the left goal post. Kruger punched it in. Sobotka cut it to 3-2 with 2:02 left when his flipping shot from the left wing knuckled under Crawfords glove. Smith scored into an empty-net with 3.3 seconds left. NOTES: Blackhawks D Johnny Oduya sat out his third game with a lower-body injury. Healthy scratches for Chicago were D David Rundblad and forwards Teuvo Teravainen and Matt Carey. ... Blues scratches were defencemen Ian Cole and Jordan Leopold and F Dmitrij Jaskin. Buccaneers Clinton McDonald Authentic Jersey . The 31-year-old Kobayashi had come over to the Whitecaps from J-League side Shimizu S-Pulse. He scored three goals and added four assists in 32 appearances for the club last season. Buccaneers Vincent Jackson Lights Out Jersey . Braden Calverts Winnipeg rink rallied to defeat Italy 8-7. After giving up three points in the second end, Calvert came back with a single, then stole two more points in the next two ends to tie it up at the fifth-end break.Two men were charged Thursday with conspiracy to defraud as part of an investigation into a suspected Singapore-based international betting syndicate which allegedly fixed non-league football matches in England. The National Crime Agency, which is leading the investigation, said a seventh person had also been arrested following an undercover operation by Britains Daily Telegraph newspaper. He has been released on bail with the four others. ChannSankaran, a 33-year-old Singapore national, and Krishna Sanjey Ganeshan, a 43-year-old with dual British and Singapore nationality, will appear at a magistrates court in Cannock, central England, on Friday, the NCA said. They have been charged with conspiring to defraud bookmakers "by influencing the course of football matches and placing bets thereon" between Nov. 1-26. The maximum prison sentence for the offence is 10 years. "The Crown Prosecutions Organised Crime Division found sufficient evidence and was satisfied it was in the public interest toauthorize charges of conspiracy to defraud," the NCA said in a statement. The Telegraph reported that three of the original six people arrested are footballers, with another reportedly a former Premier League player who is now an agent. Games played in the fifth tier or lower of English football are the focus of the investigation, with the Premier League confirming Thursday that it has not been contacted by police in relation to the case. The Football League, which runs the three professional divisions below the Premier League, has already said it has not been involved in the investigation. The fifth-tier Football Conference said it is "aware" of the alleged match-fixing case. "The Football Conference takes all matters relating to the integrity of the game very seriously," it said in a statement, "but it cannot make any comment on todays story as it would be inappropriate to do so." The Telegraphs website published a covertly recorded video in which it says one of the fixers claimed matches could be fixed for 50,000 pounds ($81,380). He also claimed to have connections with Wilson Raj Perumal, the Singaporean who was sentenced to two years in pprison in Finland in 2011 for bribing players in the Finnish football league. http://www.buccaneersstore.us.com/Black-83-Vincent-Jackson-Womens-Jersey/. Match-fixing, fuelled by unregulated betting markets in Asia, is widely viewed by footballs authorities as one of the biggest scourges on the game. Europol, the European Union police liaison agency, said in February that it reviewed 680 suspicious recent cases of match-fixing but the organizations chief of media and PR, Soren Pedersen, said Thursday he was unable to comment on whether this latest case was linked to that investigation. "Unfortunately, this is not a problem that has disappeared," Pedersen told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "Theres definitely enough for police still to do to look into this crime phenomenon." The last major match-rigging convictions in English football were in the 1960s. Peter Swan, David Bronco Layne and Tony Kay, who were all in or on the fringe of the England team, were jailed for four months and banned for life for corruption. In 1994, three then-Premier League players -- goalkeepers Bruce Grobbelaar and Hans Segers and striker John Fashanu -- were alleged by a newspaper to have fixed matches. The trio was acquitted following two trials after juries were unable to reach a verdict. And in 1999, four men linked to a Malaysian-based betting syndicate were jailed for three years for plotting to sabotage floodlights ahead of Charltons match against Liverpool that year as part of a match-fixing plot. "Its no surprise to see that it has hit the U.K.," Pedersen said of the latest global wave of match-fixing cases. "Its not only south-east Asia that has problems, but Greece, Albania, Turkey and Italy of course. Its in central and northern Europe. Even a country like Finland, which is not normally linked to bribery or corruption, have had several cases. Also in Hungary, there are things going on. Its practically all over Europe." One of the biggest recent alleged fixing plots was unearthed in Australia where four English players were charged in September in a criminal investigation. Before heading to Australia to play for the Melbourne club Southern Stars, the men played in Englands lower leagues. ' ' '
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