Dave Campbell

MINNEAPOLIS -- Swishing skates. Clacking sticks. Pucks pinging off the goal pipe. The sound of hockey is unmistakable.

It also can be frightening, as the parents of Jack Jablonski learned last month. The 16-year-old was paralyzed by a check from behind that sent him headfirst into the glass.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Aaron Rodgers had some competition from fearless rookie Christian Ponder. The defending champion Packers still kept their cool.

Rodgers kept Green Bay unbeaten with three touchdowns and 335 yards passing, holding off Ponder in the rookie's first start to defeat the Minnesota Vikings 33-27 on Sunday.

Rodgers completed his first 13 passes and finished 24-for-30, another near-unstoppable afternoon for him. Ponder was picked off twice in the third quarter by Charles Woodson, who almost grabbed a couple more interceptions, but he kept the Vikings in it the whole game after a 71-yard completion on his first play.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Harmon Killebrew, the affable, big-swinging Hall of Famer whose tape-measure home runs made him the cornerstone of the Minnesota Twins and perhaps the most popular player in the team's 51-year history, died Tuesday after battling esophageal cancer. He was 74.

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- A federal judge on Monday ordered an end to the NFL lockout, giving the players an early victory in their fight with the owners over how to divide the $9 billion business.

U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson said she was swayed by the players' argument that that the lockout, now in its second month, was causing irreparable harm to their careers.

The plaintiffs "have made a strong showing that allowing the League to continue their 'lockout' is presently inflicting, and will continue to inflict, irreparable harm upon them, particularly when weighed against the lack of any real injury that would be imposed on the NFL by issuing the preliminary injunction," Nelson wrote.

CHICAGO -- Gary Bettman sounded a little like a real estate agent in his state-of-the-league address.

 BLAINE, Minn. -- The Turin Games left the U.S. women's hockey team with a bronze medal and a bitter taste. Who better to lead the push for a better Olympic experience than the relentlessly optimistic Julie Chu?

"She's just always looking out for your best interests, kind of pumping your tires on the bench or off the ice," said defenseman Angela Ruggiero. "We get to the airport and the bags are lost or whatever, and she's the player who's always like, 'Guys, we'll figure it out. It's no big deal.' She kind of just rolls with it."
The disappointment in 2006, marked by a stunning loss to Sweden, was "the bottom of the barrel for USA Hockey" in the words of forward Natalie Darwitz.