Tempe, AZ (SportsNetwork.com) - The eighth-ranked team in the nation hits the road on Thursday, as the Runnin Utes of Utah challenge the Arizona State Sun Devils in Pac-12 Conference action at Wells Fargo Arena. Since losing to 10th-ranked Kansas by just three points a little over a month ago, the Runnin Utes have rattled off six consecutive victories. Eight days ago, the Utes posted a commanding 74-49 win over Colorado at the Huntsman Center, moving the program to 3-0 in conference play. Thanks to suffering just two defeats, the other coming against nationally- ranked and former Mountain West Conference foe San Diego State, the Utes find themselves with their highest ranking since finishing the 1998-99 campaign as the sixth-best team in the country. Over on the other side, the Sun Devils have managed to break even after 16 games, but there have been some unexpected bumps in the road. When it comes to conference play, ASU is still waiting to break through, having lost all three Pac-12 decisions. The latest setback took place last Saturday as the team bowed to Oregon, 59-56, in the last of a three-game conference road trip. Utah leads the overall series by a count of 28-20, but is just 9-13 in true road dates versus the Sun Devils. The most recent meeting took place last February with the Utes crushing ASU by a score of 86-63. Somehow Colorado managed to move out to a four-point lead in the first few minutes against the Utes last week, but that was only a temporary setback for the hosts as they surged ahead by double figures at the break, and then crushed the Buffs in the second half of the 25-point decision. Brandon Taylor led three players in double figures with 14 points, followed by Delon Wright with 13, to go along with six assists and four steals. Off the bench, Dakarai Tucker checked in with 11 points for a squad that forced 18 turnovers and held Colorado to only 39.5 percent shooting from the floor. Wright, who was recently named to the Wooden Award Midseason Top-25, leads the Utes in scoring with 14.9 ppg, stemming from his impressive 56.9 percent shooting from the floor overall, and not so much his 28.6 percent effort out on the perimeter. But more than just a shooter, Wright is also keen on getting his teammates involved at the offensive end, and his 85 assists are proof of that. He is also responsible for 4.7 rpg and 36 steals, which shows that he is willing to do whatever it takes to make Utah successful. In a game that featured 12 ties and a staggering 18 lead changes, the Sun Devils didnt do themselves any favors by converting only eight field goals in the first half during the three-point setback at Oregon over the weekend. The visitors also made just 3-of-17 tries from 3-point range and turned the ball over 15 times, although leading scorer Shaquielle McKissc (18 points) was one of only two players not saddled with a miscue. Eric Jacobsen accounted for 13 points as he converted all six of his field goal tries. Milan Lucic Jersey . - The Florida Panthers are getting some Army training to finish off their preparations for the season. Jaromir Jagr Jersey . And while taking highly-touted Simon Fraser offensive lineman Matthias Goossen second overall on Tuesday night will definitely help in an area of need for the club, it was a swap of draft picks that may prove to be his most shrewd move. "When Jesse Briggs started to fall a little bit, you could just see Kyle perk up in his chair. http://www.thebostonbruinshockey.com/joh...-hockey-jersey/. The NFL says Wednesday that the game between the Atlanta Falcons and Detroit Lions at Wembley on Oct. 26 will start at 1:30 p. Tuukka Rask Jersey . The struggling New Orleans Pelicans were simply overmatched. Crawford hit seven 3s on his way to 24 points, and the Clippers beat the Pelicans 123-110 on Monday night. "We understand what we do well. If we all do what we do well, well make our team stronger," Crawford said. Gerry Cheevers Jersey .ca. Hi Kerry, Welcome back! Im sure you heard Peter Forsbergs comments last week regarding Canadian referees in the gold medal game. Seems to me that he was questioning the integrity and impartiality.MOSCOW -- Russias counter-terrorism agency says its studying a video posted by an Islamic militant group that asserted responsibility for suicide bombings that killed 34 people last month and is threatening to strike the Winter Olympics in Sochi. Security experts say the Russians are right in taking the threat seriously. The video was posted online Sunday by a militant group in Dagestan, a predominantly Muslim republic in Russias volatile North Caucasus. The Olympic host city of Sochi lies only 500 kilometres (300 miles) west of Dagestan. Two Russian-speaking men featured in the video are identified as members of Ansar al-Sunna, the name of a Jihadist group operating in Iraq. It was unclear whether the men in the video had received funding or training from that group or only adopted its name. There was no confirmation the two men were the suicide bombers who struck the southern Russian city of Volgograd last month as the video claims. Scores of people were also injured by the bombings of a train station and a bus. Russias National Anti-Terrorism Committee said Monday it was studying the video and would have no immediate comment. The video couldnt be viewed in Russia, where Internet providers cut access to it under a law that bans the "dissemination of extremist materials." It was released by the Vilayat Dagestan, one of the units that make up the so-called Caucasus Emirate, an umbrella group for the rebels seeking to establish an independent Islamic state in the North Caucasus. Doku Umarov, a Chechen warlord who leads the Emirate, had ordered a halt to attacks on civilian targets in 2012. But he rescinded that order in July, urging his followers to strike the Sochi Olympics, which he denounced as "satanic dances on the bones of our ancestors." The games run from Feb. 7-23. The Kremlin-backed leader of Chechnya claimed last week that Umarov was dead, but the claim couldnt be verified. The Vilayat Dagestan statement said the Volgograd attacks were carried out in part because of Umarovs order, but it didnt specifically say he had ordered them. Dagestan has become the centre of an Islamic insurgency that has engulfed Russias North Caucasus after twoo separatist wars in Chechnya.dddddddddddd Militants seeking to create an independent state governed by Islamic Shariah law in the Caucasus launch daily attacks on police and other authorities there. One of the two ethnic Chechen brothers accused of staging the Boston Marathon bombings spent six months in Dagestan in 2012. Andrei Soldatov, an independent Moscow-based security analyst, said the video threat need to be taken seriously. "They have capabilities to strike beyond the North Caucasus, which they demonstrated in Volgograd," he said. "Its extremely difficult to stopGeorgy Mirsky, a respected Russian expert on the Middle East, said the video reflected the increasingly close ties between Jihadists in the Caucasus and elsewhere. Russias war against Caucasus militants has made it an enemy on par with the United States and Israel for militant Islamic groups in the Middle East, at an international sports event. Some 100,000 police, army and other security forces have been deployed, according to analysts, and tight restrictions have been placed on access to the Sochi area. Anyone attending the Winter Olympics has to buy a ticket online from the organizers and obtain a spectator pass that requires providing passport details. Authorities have already barred access to all cars registered outside of Sochi and Russian police have gone house-to-house methodically screening all city residents. Soldatov argued, however, that Russias massive security presence at the Olympics could also have an adverse effect. "When you put so many troops on the ground, you might get some problems with the co-ordination of all these people," he said. Soldatov noted that the ominous threat of a "present" for the visitors to the Games contained in the video is loosely phrased and could herald an attack outside tightly guarded Olympic facilities. "They never tried to specify the place where they might strike, thats why everybody should be concerned," he said. ' ' '