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The Vancouver Canucks closed out their longest homestand of game road trip could be where the club makes its move.

The Canucks head to Minnesota to battle the struggling Wild and bring with them one of the top road records in the league.

Vancouver closed out a seven-game residency on Saturday with a 4-3 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Canucks snapped a two-game slide and won for only the third time in nine games (3-4-2).

Still, it allowed the Northwest Division leaders to remain six points behind the St. Louis Blues for the top spot in the conference. The Canucks, who own an 11-point edge for first place in their division. also have two games in hand over the Blues, who are off until Wednesday.

Daniel Sedin scored twice to give him 30 goals on the season, while Alexander Edler added a goal and an assist in Saturdays win. David Booth also lit the lamp and backup netminder Cory Schneider made 32 saves to improve to 16-6-1 in 27 games this year with a 2.12 goals-against average and .932 save percentage.

It wasnt the prettiest game, but we responded to a few goals and kept pushing the lead and were able to hang on there at the end, Schneider said. There are no easy games in this league, they played with a lot of passion and energy and it was a tough win for us tonight.

Vancouver ended February with a 3-1-2 road trip, but remains an excellent 22-10-4 as the visiting club this season. Though the Canucks have won three straight and seven of their past eight over the Wild, they have lost five of the previous seven encounters in Minnesota.

Sedin leads the Canucks with three goals, seven assists and 10 points in five games versus the Wild this year, while twin brother Henrik has a pair of goals and five helpers in the season series so far.

The Wild battle the Canucks for the final time this season and fell to 1-7-1 in their past nine games overall with Saturdays loss to the Hurricanes. Minnesota took a two-goal lead on Erik Christensens late second-period tally, but Carolina rallied for four unanswered goals.

Nick Johnson also scored and Kyle Brodziak added a goal and two assists for the Wild, who remained without captain Mikko Koivu and No. 1 goaltender Niklas Backstrom due to injury.

The message is pretty simple. Its we all have to hate losing, you can never accept this, said Minnesota head coach Mike Yeo. I dont care who weve got out of the lineup, you cannot accept this. Were in hell. Its not fun.

Matt Hackett stopped 29 shots in defeat as the Wild have dropped five straight in regulation at the Xcel Energy Center for the first time in franchise history. They play the fourth of a five-game homestand tonight.

Brodziak tallied his career-high 18th goal in the loss and now has 37 points on the season, matching his previous best for a single season set in 2010-11.

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Taylor Swift touches down at LAX airport on Monday (March 19) in Los Angeles.

The 22-year-old country cutie is back in the US after finishing up her Speak Now tour in Australia!

PHOTOS: Check out the latest pics of Taylor Swift

Tonight we ended a 13 month tour. It was a beautiful trip around the world and I wouldnt trade those memories for anything. Thanks guys, Taylor wrote on her Twitter account on Sunday night.

FYI: Taylor recently performed Eyes Open from The Hunger Games soundtrack check it out if you missed it!

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It started early Saturday morning. Two coaches for the College of St. Scholastica tennis team were unable to travel home from Florida with the team because they were too sick.

“They threw up at least 50 times,” senior tennis player Tom Schneuer said Monday.

The unknown illness would eventually take siege over most of the team — at the airport, on a plane to Atlanta and on the final leg to Minneapolis.

When they recovered, some had to take a plane from Atlanta to Milwaukee and then a bus to Minnesota.

“It was a long day,” Schneuer said. He was one of the eight lucky ones who didn’t fall ill.

After head coach Wells Patten and assistant Pat Greehan were left behind, one player got sick at the Orlando airport. Several more felt ill on a flight to Atlanta, with one person passing out, Schneuer said.

All those who were feeling ill were looked over by medical staff at the Atlanta airport and 14 did not go on the connecting flight to Minneapolis. Schneuer said one other teammate got sick on the way to Minneapolis.

There are 26 players on the team and three coaches. There were a few family members on the trip as well.

Schneuer and Jesse Robinson, the Scholastica sports information director, said they expected all the coaches and team members home by Monday evening. All those who got sick have recovered. Most were treated for dehydration after repeated vomiting.

The college sent out an e-mail about the illnesses and told staff to not expect players to attend class as the semester resumed Monday.

Robinson said the cause of the illnesses remains a mystery.

The team was on its seventh annual spring break trip to play matches in Orlando beginning March 12. They had finished their last matches Friday and celebrated with a barbecue that night. The teams stay in condos during the trip.

Medical professionals who took care of team members said the hamburgers they ate could have been a conduit for the illnesses but weren’t sure, men’s player Mike Aro said.

Aro was one of those who stayed in Atlanta on Saturday and Sunday until a flight to Milwaukee opened up. He made it home at 8 pm Monday.

Medical personnel who took care of him said a theory that the illness came from a pool was dismissed.

“We were treated for E. coli but they said they weren’t 100 percent sure that was it,” Aro said.

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SPOKANE The McCarthey Magic continues.

The Gonzaga Bulldogs rode the wave of a deafening, sold-out crowd of 5,824 in McCarthey Athletic Center to a stunning 65-54 victory over eighth-ranked Miami in the second round of the NCAA womens basketball tournament.

For the second-straight year as a home-standing 11th seed, the Zags (28-5) upended a third seed, this time dispatching the Hurricanes (26-6) with a closing 20-8 run over the final six minutes.

We dont like to think of ourselves as underdogs, Gonzaga senior Katelan Redmon said. We know theyre a very good team but were also a very good team. We went out there thinking we can win and we did that tonight.

Gonzaga (28-5), headed to its third straight Sweet 16, plays second-seeded Kentucky (27-6) in the Kingston (RI) Regional on Sunday.

Kelly Bowens three-pointer for Gonzaga with 6:02 left produced the 11th and final lead change at 48-46. Kayla Standish, who led the Bulldogs with 19 points, followed with two free throws.

After a basket by 6-foot-6 Shawnice Wilson, who had 12 points and nine rebounds, Redmon made two jumpers, sandwiched around a Haiden Palmer fast-break pullup for a 56-48 lead with 2:43 to play.

Palmer finished with 15 points and joined Redmon (16 points) and Standish with eight rebounds as the Bulldogs hung with the bigger Hurricanes. They lost the rebounding battle 43-40, but limited Miami to 32.8 percent shooting.

For two offensive teams, I thought we both showed a lot of grit, a lot of toughness, Gonzaga coach Kelly Graves said. We were just fortunate to make some of the plays, some of the stops, down the stretch.

He said a key was the Zags making just 11 turnovers, less than half of what the Hurricanes usually force.

All-American Shenise Johnson had 20 points on 10-of-23 shooting and 13 rebounds for Miami, which made just 4 of 16 shots in the last six minutes.

We did not play our best basketball game but we played as hard as we could possibly play, Miami coach Katie Meier said. Gonzaga did a fantastic job of not turning over the ball. … Kelly Graves is one of the best coaches in the country.

Im happy for Gonzaga, they represent womens basketball. Im happy for this community. Im happy for this crowd.

Gonzaga led by as many as five in the first half, shooting 42 percent to 34.5 for the Hurricanes, before settling for a 30-27 lead.

The Hurricanes managed a pair of four-point leads early, the second time at 9-5 when Wilson scored with an offensive rebound. But before she could do any more damage she had four points and two rebounds she picked up her second foul and sat out the last 15 minutes.

That opened the door for Standish, who had eight of Gonzagas first 11 points. The 6-2 senior, who had 30 points in each of Gonzagas two home wins in the NCAA tournament last year, had 12 points at halftime.

I was a little bit disappointed in the first half, Graves said. I thought we needed to separate a little bit more with her (Wilson) out of there.

Its the second time Wilson, a redshirt junior, faced Gonzaga with a Sweet 16 trip at stake. When she was a freshman, she started in Pittsburghs 65-60 second-round win.

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Let me start off by saying that flights from Boston to Albuquerque are not cheap, which forced me (and the Crimson Sports board, with which I tagged along) to travel to Denver, where we rented an SUV to make the picturesque drive to Albuquerque, NM Thank you, NCAA committee, for that one, really.

Despite the remote location, I made the trip because I figured that, as a senior, it would be my last–and first–chance to go to the NCAA tournament as a student and root for my school.

Before earning its tournament berth this year, Harvard (26-5, 12-2 Ivy) had not made it to the Big Dance since 1946, when the NCAA tournament invited only eight teams. Not only was this moment historic, but it was also a testament to how far the basketball program has come under Crimson coach Tommy Amaker.

By now we all know what happened against Vanderbilt (25-11, 10-6 SEC), and how Harvard got ousted from the tournament. With Wisconsin knocking the Commodores out in the next round, the matchup between Vanderbilt and the Crimson didn’t turn out to mean much in the grand scheme of things.

Despite the loss, it was a big step in the team’s development, but I’m going to be honest: this would be a much angrier column had it not been for the final half of the second period. With Harvard down by 10 at the break, I kept telling my friends and myself that our team could still make a comeback; that it wasn’t over. But the second half started badly and after a couple of years of strong performances in the NCAA tournament from the Ancient Eight, this was pretty disappointing. Then sophomore Laurent Rivard caught fire.

The Canadian had the hot hand in the second half to keep Harvard alive, finishing the game six of seven from beyond the arc. He made me believe that it was still possible to overcome what had once been an 18-point deficit. And the Crimson came close to accomplishing the feat; it was a two-possession game late, before a few unfortunate bounces put the game out of reach.

We put up a fight–one that had my heart beating intensely as the clock wound down–but I just wish that the team had played at that level all game. This was most certainly a matchup we could have won with fewer silly turnovers and sloppy play.

But it’s easy to criticize in hindsight, and that’s not my intention. I’m just recounting the mixed emotions I felt while watching the game in person, and despite all the “what ifs,” I felt proud to be sporting my Harvard apparel at the end of it all.

What also made me proud was being in the class 2012 with the seniors on the team. You guys impacted the program in a big way and accomplished things that 66 years worth of players tried to do. Congratulations on your success, and thank you for everything.

Despite the loss, the experience validated breaking the bank for the trip. UNM’s “The Pit” hosted fans from all over the country, creating an exciting environment that never quieted down, no matter who was on the court. It was like a home game for all teams involved. There were also a lot of Albuquerque residents, many crowding around the flat screens stationed around the arena to follow what was going on with their beloved Lobos. When UNM finally edged out Long Beach State during the Harvard game, the crowd erupted into huge cheers for the hometown team. I genuinely celebrated for Los Lobos–Albuquerque had been really kind to us, so it felt right.

After the game, I went with my friend’s family to the Harvard reception at a nearby hotel, where Amaker and his team arrived to a standing ovation from the room full of alumni. Athletic Director Bob Scalise honored Amaker in the center of the room, and Amaker did the same for the seniors on the team and proceeded to thank the band and cheerleaders for their efforts. Donald B. Swegan–a member of that 1946 team–was given witty customized T-shirts as gifts, and former players from the 1950′s received some as well. It was an emotional ceremony and very well deserved.

That gathering marked the end of Harvard’s run in the NCAA tournament. Bittersweet, yes, but a big step forward for a much maligned program. As Amaker implied during the small ceremony, we’ll hopefully be dancing again next year, and if the NCAA is a little kinder to Harvard and places it somewhere near home, I’ll definitely be there jumping up and down too. After this experience, I would encourage everyone to do the same.

–Staff writer Brian A. Campos can be reached at bcampos@fas.harvard.edu

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Although theyre still deciding between Brazil or a trip to France and Italy, the Utes are going on an international tour in August.

Laura Seitz, Deseret News

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NEW YORK — If theres one thing Republicans and Democrats agree on, its that small business is the answer to what ails the economy. On these tiny bundles of entrepreneurial energy, they say, rides the nations hope for lower unemployment and faster economic growth.

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The Cristo Rey, as it is known, stands as a reminder of the Roman Catholic rebels who fought forces of an anti-clerical central government during the Cristero Rebellion of the 1920s, when churches and seminaries were shut down and the Catholic church lost its legal standing and right to own property.

The statue towers over a park where Pope Benedict XVI will celebrate Mass for 300,000 Catholics on Sunday.

It offers a great platform for the vindication of the church in its confrontations with the state, says Víctor Ramos Cortes, religion expert at the University of Guadalajara. The symbolism is perfect.

The visit and site of the Mass symbolize the extent to which church and state have reconciled in Mexico, moving from the Cristero Rebellion and decades of estrangement to Mexico and the Vatican establishing relations in 1992.

Times have changed to such a degree that politicians now seek out the pope and prelates for support. But that does not mean all is well. The hostility of some in more liberal Mexico City show how far the relationship has to go in a country defined by Catholicism for nearly 500 years.

Eighty-four percent of Mexicos population declared itself Catholic in the 2010 census. But that figure has been in decline for decades and secularism remains the national ethos.

Secularism, which seeks to prohibit religious presence or influence in government, was practiced by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which ruled Mexico for most of the 20th century. The shunning of religion by government is promoted in political discourse and public schools. But the church has continued to press political institutions for expanded religious freedom.

The church is pushing to introduce a religious curriculum into public schools and to remove restrictions on religious groups owning TV and radio stations. The church cannot hold a Mass outside a church without permission from the Interior Ministry, and pastors are prohibited from discussing political matters from the pulpit.

Laws approved recently in Mexico City that decriminalized abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy and legalized same-sex marriage were fiercely opposed by Catholic leaders. Such actions are normal for clerics in America, but here left-wing politicians filed complaints with the Interior Ministry alleging improper political participation.

It is not just politicians who seek strict separation.

Theres a middle class thats Catholic but doesnt want the church meddling in politics, says Ilán Semo, political historian at the Iberoamerican University in Mexico City.

Pope Benedict arrives in Mexico seven days before campaigns kick off for the July 1 presidential elections. Such a visit would have been unthinkable a generation ago in a nation where references to Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexicos patroness, have been enough to annul elections.

The visit also comes as the Mexican Senate debates constitutional changes that would guarantee the right to hold religious services outside authorized places of worship.

Catholic leaders caution against reading too much into the timing of the trip. They say the popes agenda has nothing to do with domestic politics.

Priest Jorge Raúl Villegas, spokesman for the Archdiocese of León, expects the popes message to be encouraging for a country where a war on drug cartels and organized crime has claimed about 47,000 lives in five years. The crackdown has caused controversy for the church: Some parishes accept narcolimosnas, or drug alms, from cartels for charitable work.

Semo says the pope should speak to families affected by the violence. People are reaching out to their priests for consolation, and for justice, he says.

Ciudad Juárez priest and human rights activist Oscar Enriquez says the churchs effort to win more rights from the government has perhaps made church leaders less likely to speak out for victims of alleged excesses committed by police and soldiers in the war on drugs. The church has been very distant from the people, he says.

Contributing: Cathy Lynn Grossman in McLean, Va.

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Three things to ponder after the Canucks eked out a 4-3 victory over Columbus on Saturday:

1. TWO FOR CORY, TWO FOR LUI: Alain Vigneault wouldnt confirm it on Saturday, so well do it for the coach on Sunday. If hes that confident in both goaltenders and that aware of who plays well where, then a four-game road trip that opens Monday in Minnesota is pretty easy to map out. Give Schneider the nod against the Wild, start Roberto Luongo in Chicago on Wednesday, Schneider on Thursday in Dallas and Luongo on Saturday in Denver. Both get games that work psychologically and both get the right kind of playoff preparation.

As well as Schneider has played in Minnesota, its a hellhole for Luongo. Hes been pulled in four of his last five starts at the Xcel Energy Center and his record there is 3-9-2 with a 3.58 goals-against average and .873 saves percentage. In a classic Canucks no-show on Nov. 3, Schneider kept a blowout from hitting double digits with 40 saves in a 5-1 drubbing. He came back on Feb. 9 and made 22 saves in a 5-2 win at Minnesota. Schneider also posted a pair of 4-1 wins in Dallas last season with 25 and 44-save efforts.

Luongo has won in Chicago and Denver this season — a 38-save showing in a 6-2 rout of the Blackhawks on Nov. 6 and 44 saves in a 3-2 triumph against the Avalanche on Feb. 4 — so Vigneault can play the consistency and comfort cards on this trip.

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Many activists remain skeptical that the military will ever cede authority. Bassel Adel, a 37-year-old engineer, said the army has more than once attempted to control the parameters for a new constitution. Theywill continue to do so in order to gain more powers to enhance their political role even after a civilian president is elected.

The protesters also called for gaining criminal convictions against Mubarak and members of his ousted regime, purging state media of corrupt figures and bringing military officials to justice for the deaths of at least 70 protesters killed in clashes since October.

Fridays demonstration showed that young, liberal activists can still summon large crowds, even as the army and the Islamists, most notably the Muslim Brotherhood, have tightened their grips on the nation. Many protesters criticized the Brotherhood for selling out the goal of a civilian-run government after Islamistswon more than 70% of the seats in parliament.

Shame shame shame on the parliament of shame, protesters chanted in an uncharacteristic public display against Islamists. This is a revolution not a party.

The Brotherhood is happy with their parliamentary majority, and want the calling of demands to be exclusive to their members, said Nour Ahmadein, a university student. They are doing exactly what the army has been doing since toppling Mubarak.

– Amro Hassan

Photo: Protesters in Cairos Tahrir on Friday call on Egypts military leaders to cede power. Credit: Mohamed Muheisen / Associated Press

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