unveiling was TCU dropping three spots from the last rankings. The Horned Frogs seem

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Up three goals in the first period against the worst team in the Western Conference, the Minnesota Wild appeared to be rolling to an easy win. However, the Edmonton Oilers refused to roll over. The Oilers scored twice in the final 9 minutes of regulation to force overtime, then completed their comeback when Taylor Hall scored in the fourth round of the shootout to lift Edmonton to a 4-3 victory over the Wild on Tuesday night. "We got really complacent when we were up 3-0," the Wilds Zach Parise said. "Just (a) lack of energy on the bench even when we were up 3-0. You could just sense, even though we were up 3-0, we werent feeling good. We played with no intensity, no urgency." Minnesota now holds a three-point lead over Dallas for the No. 7 spot in the Western Conference, with Phoenix just a point behind the Stars. The Stars and Coyotes both won on Tuesday, making the Wilds loss sting a bit more. Zach Parise, Jared Spurgeon, and Jason Pominville scored in 4-minute, 16-second span of the first period to put the Wild up 3-0. But they missed other key opportunities to put the game away, including a 5-on-3 power play midway through the second period and another man advantage late in regulation that extended into overtime. "I thought that we were a little bit lucky to be up 3-0. You could tell that we werent on it right away," Wild coach Mike Yeo said. "We addressed it, we talked about it, but we werent able to find it. Youre obviously playing with fire when youre doing that." Jeff Petry got the Oilers on the scoreboard about 90 seconds after the Wilds flurry, and David Perron and Jordan Eberle scored in the third period to tie it. Andrew Ference had two assists. Viktor Fasth finished with 28 saves through overtime to help Edmonton win for the third time in four games. "Im proud of them. It wouldve been real easy to pack it in, call it a night and get on to the next game, but our guys refused to do it," Oilers coach Dallas Eakins said. "They just kept scrapping and clawing and its tough against a team like that." In the shootout, Hall beat Darcy Kuemper with a forehand after each team scored in the first two rounds. Fasth stopped two straight shots before Hall slipped the game-winner between Kuempers pads. "Its been a while since Ive taken a shootout shot. I was kind of panicking a bit, but (Eberle) told me he thought five-hole would be there, and sure enough, fake shot, five-hole," Hall said. "It was good to see that one go in." Mikael Granlund had a pair of assists for the Wild, who have lost three straight, including the last two in shootouts. Parise opened the scoring on the power play, taking a pass from Granlund and beating Fasth with his own rebound for his 22nd goal of the season with 9:53 left in the first. Minnesota doubled its lead when Spurgeons slap shot from the right point hit Oilers defenceman Justin Schultz in the leg and deflected past a screened Fasth with 6:14 to go. Pominville made it 3-0 with 4:37 left in the first when he scored his team-leading 24th of the year off a feed from Granlund, who had chased down a loose puck behind the net. Petry then fired a shot from the right corner that hit traffic in front of the net and skipped past Kuemper with 3:05 left in the period to get Edmonton on the board. The Wild controlled the pace for most of the second period, but they couldnt beat Fasth, who held them at bay during an extended 5-on-3 power play when Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Ryan Smyth were each called for hooking within 36 seconds. Parise said the Wilds struggles on the power play were frustrating, "but it goes way beyond that. If youre up 3-0, you cant give up three straight." Perron tipped in Ferences pass for his team-leading 24th goal with just under 9 minutes to play in the third to cut Minnesotas lead to 3-2. Eberle tied it with 4:53 to go in regulation, scoring off a long rebound given up by Kuemper. Ference fired the puck into the Minnesota zone from centre ice, but Kuemper could not control the carom. Eberle beat Ryan Suter to the puck in the high slot and slipped a wrist shot past Kuemper for his 21st goal of the year. Edmontons Matt Hendricks took a 2-minute minor with 8.7 seconds left in regulation when he inadvertently shot the puck into the crowd in his defensive zone. But the Oilers killed off the penalty, and Parise later hit the post as the Wild failed to put the game away. NOTES: Wild F Matt Cooke played in his 1,000th NHL game. He was honoured by the Wild in a pregame ceremony that featured taped greetings from former teammates and opponents on the Xcel Energy Center scoreboard. ... 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Gonzalez homered, doubled and singled in his return to the lineup, and the Colorado Rockies snapped a five-game losing streak with a 13-4 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday night. Harry Kane Hotspur Jersey . The 10-horse field of 3-year-old pacers will leave the starting gate at approximately 10:14pm et. Co-owned and trained by David Menary, Hes Watching will be driven by Tim Tetrick and is the 5-1 fourth selection in the field.GRAPEVINE, Texas - The first College Football Playoff expanded the national championship race, made the regular season even more intriguing and produced a final four with major star power.Nick Sabans No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide vs. Urban Meyers No. 4 Ohio State Buckeyes at the Sugar Bowl.Marcus Mariota, this seasons Heisman Trophy front-runner, and second-seeded Oregon vs. Jameis Winston, last seasons Heisman Trophy winner, and defending national champion Florida State at the Rose Bowl.The winners will meet on Jan. 12 in Arlington, Texas, at the home of the Dallas Cowboys.A new era, indeed, but with the same old problems: What is the best way to pick the teams and what should be the criteria?After six weeks of ranking teams, the selection committee shuffled its deck Sunday and dealt the Big 12 out of the playoff.Were smarting today, Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said.TCU, which had been third in the rankings last week, ended up sixth. Big 12 co-champion Baylor moved up a spot to No. 5, but both were squeezed out by Ohio State, which won over the committee with a doozy of a closing statement in its conference championship game: a 59-0 victory against Wisconsin for the Big Ten title.I would say that human nature is that the most recent thing that occurs, in this case the most-recent achievements, are the most impactful, Bowlsby said. Ohio States victory over Wisconsin was complete domination, and in that regard they played their way into the position they now enjoy.The Big 12 doesnt have one of those anymore. Its teams play only 12 games, compared to 13 for champions of the other Big Five conferences.Bowlsby and his conference athletic directors are meeting in New York this week and he anticipates the topic of how best to determine a champion will come up.This will be a catalyst for discussion for sure, Bowlsby said.The Big 12 cant hold a championship game because it only has 10 teams, but the conference, along with the Atlantic Coast Conference, is trying to change that. The leagues have proposed getting rid of NCAA rules requiring a conference have 12 teams split into two divisions to play a title game.Holding one with 10 teams that play a nine-game round-robin schedule isnt ideal because the game would always be a rematch, Bowlsby said.I ddont know with 10 its something that we would necessarily do, Bowlsby said.dddddddddddd But conference expansion is a complicated issue that goes well beyond whether to hold a championship game.Bowlsby cautioned about making a knee-jerk reaction to one years results. He said his faith in the process has not wavered.We put a system in place and I helped to put it in place and I have confidence in that system. And I have confidence in the impeccable integrity of the people in that room, he said.Baylor coach Art Briles wasnt so sure.I think the committee needs to be a little more regionalized with people that are associated with the south part of the United States, he said. Im not sure there is a connection on there that is that familiar with the Big 12 Conference.There were five active athletic directors on the 12-member committee, one from each of the Big Five conferences. The Big 12 was represented by West Virginias Oliver Luck. The Mountaineers have been in the Big 12 for three seasons.Maybe the most jarring part of Sundays unveiling was TCU dropping three spots from the last rankings. The Horned Frogs seemed to be secure at No. 3 last week, and then beat lowly Iowa State by 52 on Sunday.Committee chairman Jeff Long said TCUs drop was more about the Buckeyes than the Frogs, but it highlighted a problem with weekly rankings. Commissioners initially leaned toward not having them when they first started putting the playoff together.While Long would emphasize every week the committee started with a clean slate, traditionally college football polls create a pecking order for teams that only gets disrupted by losses.The top six teams in last weeks rankings all won on Saturday. On Sunday, the teams were the same, but the order was very different. And it left many fans wondering why.Long said it was too soon to say what changes the committee would recommend to the commissioners. Its safe to say the benefit of having weekly rankings will be addressed when Longs crew reconvenes in a couple of months.I think that the committee will look at this year, look at this season, look how the entire process went, he said.Until then, let the playoff games begin.___Follow AP College Football Writer Ralph D. Russo at www.Twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP ' ' '