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PITTSBURGH -- Recovering from a stroke, Pittsburgh Penguins defenceman Kris Letang said his doctors have reassured him that hell be play hockey again. When that could happen is unclear. The 26-year-old Letang spoke to the media before the Penguins faced Montreal on Thursday night, the first time he has spoken to reporters since having the stroke on a West Coast trip before the Olympic break. "Im targeting it day-by-day," Letang said. "Im trying to improve every day I come here. I try to exercise the best I can. I see doctors pretty much every week, twice a week to get better. So well go from there." Doctors are treating Letang with blood thinners and he has been doing light exercises without weights. "(Doctors) said being 26 and having a stroke, its actually a small percentage, but the chance that I get back to normal is really high," Letang said. "Well take the decision from there, but for now, were keeping like this. ... Im going day-by-day to get to 100 per cent," Letang said. "I feel like Im trying to make steps and getting closer to coming back at one point." The last month has been particularly difficult for his family. "When you see your mom crying or your wife, any of my family members, its always a tough thing to handle," Letang said. "Everbody is really careful, like I cant even lift the luggage without them trying to help me out. Otherwise its just been mentally tough a little bit." Letang said his wife found him on the ground the morning before the team flew to Los Angeles and his mother-in-law, who is a nurse and was also on the trip, took care of him. "I was not able to function," Letang said. "The day before I was totally fine, I was practicing. I woke up and didnt expect that would happen. I went in the car and went to Los Angeles and thought it would clear up but it never did." Letang, from Montreal, has 54 goals and 173 assists in 419 games in eight seasons with the Penguins. He signed a $58 million, eight-year contract extension last summer, but has been plagued by injuries this season, missing 19 games with an elbow infection and a lower-body injury before the stroke. Letangs most recent game was Jan. 27 against Buffalo. After being a Norris Trophy finalist last season, he has 10 goals -- matching a career high -- and 18 assists in 34 games for the Eastern Conference-leading Penguins. "Im not going to say its not a really good season for me," Letang said. "Two of (my injuries) were kind of bad luck, but honestly, if I have the chance to come back this year and play, its going to be great. I want to make sure I forget all about the three-quarters of the season I missed." . The defending champions’ roller coaster season included trading offensive star Percy Harvin in the midst of the team’s 3-3 start. That move that reportedly irked several Seahawk players, but one management saw necessary to save the team’s chemistry. .com) - The Columbus Blue Jackets rewarded starting goaltender and pending restricted free agent Sergei Bobrovsky with a four-year contract extension on Friday. http://www.thebostonbruinshockey.com/tu ... ey-jersey/. His stated reason for abruptly resigning as head coach of Canadas Olympic womens hockey team was he felt there were doubts about his ability to coach the team to Olympic gold in February. . For one, he still gets to crank the intensity to the max. "I push pretty angry. I ran pretty angry too though, but I have fun doing it," Lumsden said. . First-half goals by Will Bruin and Oscar Boniek Garcia sucked the life out of the Impact as the Houston Dynamo bounced them from Major League Soccers post-season with a 3-0 victory on Thursday.MILWAUKEE -- It was just like old times for Rick Barnes and Texas. The Longhorns made a successful return to the NCAA tournament when Cameron Ridley converted a tiebreaking layup as time expired Thursday night, lifting his team to an 87-85 victory over Arizona State. Jonathan Holmes missed badly on a long 3-pointer for the Longhorns in the final seconds, but Ridley emerged from the scrum and banked it in as the buzzer sounded. The call stood after a video replay, handing Texas its first tourney win since 2011. "I went to the glass as hard as I could," Ridley said. Ridley finished with 17 points and 12 rebounds for the seventh-seeded Longhorns (24-10), who led by 14 with 12 minutes left. Freshman reserve Martez Walker had 16 points and Demarcus Holland scored 14 on 6-for-6 shooting from the field. "It was a great, great college basketball game and I thought it was really very unfortunate that either team had to lose this game," Barnes said. "We were fortunate. ... We didnt have great execution at the end but we found a way to make a couple plays." Texas will face No. 2 seed Michigan Saturday. The Wolverines advanced with a 57-40 victory over Wofford. Jordan Bachynski had 25 points and seven rebounds for No. 10 seed Arizona State (21-12), which was making its first tournament appearance since 2009. Jahii Carson had 19 points and nine assists, and Jermaine Marshall added 17 points and seven rebounds. "Its a tough one, its a tough way to end the game and end my career," Bachynski said. Texas went to the NCAA tournament in each of Barnes first 14 seasons, making it to the 2003 Final Four. But last season was a disaster for the Longhorns, who went 16-18 and lost in the opening round of the College Basketball Invitational. Barnes lost three starters from that team, but Holmes and Ridley returned, and the Lonnghorns were determined to turn it around after the disappointing finish.dddddddddddd They stumbled a bit heading into the tournament, losing five of eight, but they stepped up at the most critical time against the Sun Devils. Holmes made two free throws to give Texas a 61-47 lead with 12:11 to go, and the Longhorns looked ready to blow out the Sun Devils. ASU then scored 17 of the next 22 points, trimming the deficit to two on Jonathan Gillings 3-pointer with 8:15 left. Arizona State had an 83-82 lead when Holmes grabbed an air ball by Javan Felix and scored while being fouled by Gilling. He made the resulting foul shot with 32 seconds to go. Gilling made two free throws on the other end, setting up the frantic finish. Gilling had four 3-pointers and 15 points for the Sun Devils, who lost their last four games of the season. "They just keep playing, theyve been a next-play, next-game team all season," Arizona State coach Herb Sendek said. "I can tell you right now its a very emotional, heartbroken locker room." The battle of at-large teams in the Midwest Regional featured a pair of coaches with a long history together. Barnes first met Herb Sendek at a 1978 basketball camp at the University of Pittsburgh, and Barnes had Sendek on his staff for one season when he was in charge at Providence. They also coached against each other for years in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Their only other meeting in the NCAA tournament occurred in 2006, when Texas beat North Carolina State 75-54 in the round of 32. Both teams got off to fast starts, with Bachynskis jumper for Arizona State tying it at 21 with 12:32 to go. But Texas responded with a 9-0 run, beginning with Walkers two free throws and ending with Walkers 3 from the wing. Walker added a layup with 31 seconds left to help the Longhorns to a 41-36 halftime lead. ' ' '