ERST LESEN! » e 33 saves and Ryan OReilly had a goal

MINNEAPOLIS -- Minnesota coach Tracy Claeys will return next year, with an 8-4 season earning him the full support of the schools new athletic director.The Golden Gophers went 5-4 in the Big Ten in Claeys first full season running the program. He took over midway through last year after Jerry Kill was forced to retire due to health concerns.Claeys is 10-8 in 1? seasons with Minnesota. He was given a three-year deal last year by interim athletic director Beth Goetz during a tenuous time in the athletic department. The school was looking for a permanent athletic director to replace the disgraced Norwood Teague, so Goetz authored a contract that would give Claeys a little bit of stability to trumpet while recruiting but was also designed to give the new athletic director as much flexibility as possible in evaluating the football program.Mark Coyle took that post in May, and said Monday that he and Claeys have started to discuss this past season and the plan for our program moving forward.He is our head football coach, Coyle said in a statement issued by the school. As is the case with every one of our head coaches, he has my full support. I will do whatever I can to help him and our students achieve at the highest levels.Claeys made $1.4 million in total compensation during the first year of his new contract that runs through 2018. But the buyout for the university would have been only $500,000 had Coyle decided to replace him now.A soft schedule had the Gophers hoping to make a run at the Big Ten West title, but narrow losses to Penn State, Iowa and Nebraska hurt them, and they finished the season with a 31-17 loss at rival Wisconsin on Saturday.Athletic directors often like to make their own coaching hires rather than stay with people they inherited, especially at a high-profile program like football. But Coyle, who came to Minnesota from Syracuse and was also the athletic director at football stronghold Boise State, has decided to stick with Claeys in hopes that continuity will help.Our football program has now won eight games in the regular season three times in four seasons, Coyle said. We expect that our program will continue to grow and I am committed to putting us in a position to do so. This includes working with coach Claeys to evaluate where we need to improve and what each of us can do to ensure we meet our expectations.Coaches at power conference programs typically operate with more than two years remaining on their deals to help assure recruits of stability so it remains likely that Claeys will receive some sort of contract extension in the coming weeks. New Balance Shoes From China . -- Anaheim Ducks captain and leading scorer Ryan Getzlaf has been scratched from Sunday nights game against the Vancouver Canucks because of an upper-body injury. New Balance Shoes Store . Varlamov made 33 saves and Ryan OReilly had a goal and scored in the shootout as the Avalanche beat the New Jersey Devils 2-1 on Thursday night. http://www.cheapnewbalance.com/ .B. -- The Baie-Comeau Drakkar took over sole possession of first place atop the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League on Thursday with their sixth straight win. Discount New Balance Shoes . Houston won 3-0 to advance to face New York in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Last in the game, Di Vaio and Romero got into a shoving match with several Houston players. Romero appeared to elbow and kick Houston defender Kofi Sarkodie. Wholesale New Balance Shoes . Peter Gammons, an analyst for Major League Baseballs network and website, drew the ire of hockey fans on Sunday when he criticized the two NHL teams on Twitter for their physical game the night before. RIO DE JANEIRO -- Juan Martin del Potro had doubted he could win the six matches in eight days needed for another Olympic medal.After all, this is a player who went 2+ years between majors because of three left wrist surgeries before he entered Wimbledon this year. But now that the 2009 U.S. Open champion is into the quarterfinals in Rio de Janeiro, he can start dreaming a bit about those medal rounds.Del Potro came from behind Thursday to beat 117th-ranked Taro Daniel of Japan 6-7 (4), 6-1, 6-2, looking strong in the final set of a match that lasted 2 hours, 12 minutes.The Argentine stunned top-ranked Novak Djokovic in the first round, part of nearly 7 hours on court between singles and doubles in a span of about 25 hours Sunday and Monday. He had a scheduled day off Tuesday, then the match with Daniel was postponed Wednesday by rain, providing some extra rest.This has been a great tournament, a great week for me already, del Potro said. Im looking forward to go far, trying to fight for one medal. Im still playing well, but the next round is going to be a really difficult match for me.His opponent will be 10th-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain, whose movement on the baseline could be a challlenge.dddddddddddd But as del Potro and his forehand showed against Djokovic, hes one of the best in the world when hes healthy and fit -- even now with his surgically repaired wrist causing problems for his two-handed backhand.Daniel actually has a better ranking than del Potro, who is 141st in the world after his injury layoffs. But whereas the 23-year-old Daniel had never defeated a top-30 player before his first-round victory over 25th-ranked Jack Sock, del Potro has beaten Roger Federer in a major final and Djokovic for bronze at the 2012 London Games, among other big wins in his career.Still, del Potro said of Thursdays match: I had doubts in the beginning, and I got myself into a mess.He had 22 unforced errors in the first set and 15 combined in the last two.I started the second set angry, he said.When del Potro went up two breaks in the third set with a winner on a volley that was more self-defense than anything, he pumped both fists and screamed toward the stands, which were dotted with Argentine flags.In the end, he said, the crowd helped me a lot to survive. ' ' '