DETROIT -- Matthew Stafford led another crucial drive late in the fourth quarter, and Matt Praters kicking again helped Detroit to a tight victory over Minnesota.For the second time this month, the Lions edged the Vikings. This time, they didnt need overtime.Praters 40-yard field goal on the final play gave Detroit a 16-13 victory Thursday, moving the Lions a game ahead of Minnesota atop the NFC North. Darius Slay intercepted Sam Bradfords pass with 30 seconds remaining to set up the winning kick.On Nov. 6 at Minnesota, Stafford led the Lions into range for Praters 58-yard field at the end of regulation, and Detroit went on to win 22-16 in overtime . Now the Lions (7-4) have sole possession of first place after Thursdays victory.Obviously, were in decent position, but they dont hand out trophies and things of that nature after a few wins like weve had, Detroit coach Jim Caldwell said. But were happy that we were able to find a way to pull them out, thats for sure.The Vikings (6-5) were facing third down in the final minute when Slay stepped up in coverage and intercepted Bradford. His return gave the Lions the ball at the Minnesota 20, and although there was some initial question about whether Slay fumbled at the end of the play, the call was upheld. Detroit ran the clock down, and Praters kick won it.The Vikings led 13-10 and had the Lions pinned back at their own 2 with 5:02 remaining, but Stafford made a 29-yard pass to Anquan Boldin on a crucial third down, and Detroit was able to work its way into position for Praters 48-yard field goal that tied it with 1:45 to play.The Lions have won six of their last seven, and Minnesota has dropped five of six since starting the season 5-0. Now the Vikings will have to rally to win a division that once looked like theirs for the taking.You just keep moving forward. Obviously, theres a lot of football left to play and theres still five games left, Bradford said. All we can do is worry about who we have next week and thats Dallas. Obviously, its a really big game for us.Here are a few things we learned from Detroits big Thanksgiving victory:STANDINGSThe Lions havent won a division title since 1993, and this is certainly a big opportunity for them. Not only are they one game ahead of the Vikings, but they also have the tiebreaker, having swept the season series against Minnesota. And Green Bay (4-6) has fallen back with four straight losses.However, the Vikings could still be heard from down the stretch. Minnesota hosts Dallas next, but none of its final four opponents (Jacksonville, Indianapolis, Green Bay and Chicago) has a winning record at the moment.The Lions, meanwhile, still have road games against Dallas and the New York Giants.MOBILITYStafford is having a terrific season with his arm, but he also showed some effectiveness as a runner Thursday. He ended up with 30 yards on four carries, giving the offense a boost when little else was working.He always adds a couple in there for us. I do think hes a weapon in that regard, Caldwell said. Teams that play some man-to-man in those situations and turn their back on the ball, he finds a way to find a hole and skate through it. He makes good decisions in that regard and those runs are very, very important to us.NOT ENOUGHBradford is very accurate with quick, short passes , but thats not always enough to win. He went 31 of 37 but threw for only 224 yards, and the Vikings managed only one touchdown in the game.CLUTCHThe Lions can feel confident in their kicker in important spots. All 11 of Detroits games this season have been decided by seven points or fewer, and Prater has come up big.In his career, Prater has made 18 game-winning or game-tying field goals with under 4:00 to play in the fourth quarter or in overtime. Six of those kicks have come in 2016.The 40-yarder at the end Thursday was no problem.Its still a short enough kick where you should be making that kick 100 percent of the time, he said.TOUGH UP FRONTThe Vikings defense is still looking strong. After Detroit drove 75 yards for a touchdown on the games first possession, the Lions didnt reach the end zone again. Detroit managed only 90 yards in the second half.---For more NFL coverage: http://www.pro32.ap.org and http://www.twitter.com/AP-NFL .---Follow Noah Trister at www.Twitter.com/noahtrister Chaussure Puma Destockage . The No. 1-ranked Nadal tweaked his back warming up for the Australian Open final, which he lost almost four weeks ago in a major upset against Stanislas Wawrinka. His first stop after the layoff is the clay in Rio as he tests the back and tries to stay healthy for the French Open in three months. Chaussure Puma Pas Cher France . The players spoke Jan. 13 during a Major League Baseball Players Association conference call after Rodriguez sued the union and Major League Baseball to overturn an arbitrators decision suspending him for the 2014 season and post-season. http://www.francepuma.fr/ . Darren Helm scored on Detroits sixth attempt in the shootout and then Jonas Gustavsson stopped Andrew Shaws shot, lifting the Detroit Red Wings to a 5-4 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday night. Chaussure Puma En Solde . -- Patrick Reed got an early start in golf. Chaussure Puma France . A lawyer for MLB, Matthew Menchel, confirmed Wednesday the league dropped its case against Biogenesis of America, its owner Anthony Bosch and several other individuals. The lawsuit had accused Biogenesis and Bosch of conspiring with players to violate their contracts by providing them with banned performance-enhancing substances.Before each round of the NHL Playoffs, I crunch a few basic numbers and come up with an expected goals for and against for each team, based on shot differentials and save percentages. In the first round, the team with the higher expected goals, using these calculations, won seven of the eight series, with the Los Angeles Kings win over the St. Louis Blues upsetting the bid for perfection. Since Im the first one to emphasize that overall statistics (or standings) are not necessarily representative of the current value for a team, especially with respect to injuries, these statistics merely provide a baseline for the series, perhaps providing an idea what a team needs to do in order to emerge victorious. In some cases, teams will simply need to keep doing what theyve been doing throughout the regular season; in others, they might need better goaltending, or fewer shots against, or more shots for -- just something -- to provide better expected results in a seven-game series. The calculations below are simple and the expected goals for each team in the series are determined by taking each teams shots for and against over the course of the season and splitting the difference. So, Chicago has 31.4 shots on goal per game through the regular season and first round of the playoffs and Detroit has allowed 28.1 shots on goal per game; the average of those two numbers is 29.8 shots, so thats the number that is then multiplied by (1 - the opposing goaltenders save percentage) to determine an expected goals per game. Finally, the number is multiplied by seven to indicate an expected goal total for a seven-game series. Theres no guarantee that scoring more goals in a series will result in winning four games first, but the odds certainly favour the team that scores more. Team SF SA Goaltender SV% Expected GF/Series Chicago 31.4 26.4 Corey Crawford 0.930 16.45 Detroit 30.2 28.1 Jimmy Howard 0.921 13.87 Verdict: Naturally, the top-seeded Blackhawks are favoured and something will have to go differently for the Red Wings to pull off the upset. That hardly means it cant happen however. If Jimmy Howard outplays Corey Crawford in goal, that could be enough to swing the difference. If Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg raise their games and are more productive than Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane, for example, that could be enough. Chicago might have more quality scoring options, but thats to be expected from the top seed and its why they are likely to win. Team SF SA Goaltender SV% Expected GF/Series Los Angeles 29.3 25.5 Jonathan Quick 0.909 15.36 San Jose 32.2 29.2 Antti Niemi 0.925 18.38 Verdict: Jonathan Quick may ruin this model. He played very well (.944 SV%) in the first round after a subpar regular season. Should there be some concern that the Kings were outshot by 4.7 shots per game in Round One against St. Louis? Probably. The Blues play a stifling defensive style, thats a given, but the Kings didnt win the territorial battle as they did in the regular season while facing a Blues team that is the furthest thing from explosive offensively. From San Joses perspective, they capitalized on power plays against Vancouveer in Round One, scoring seven goals with the man advantage in four games.dddddddddddd If the Sharks and Kings trade a similar number of chances, Niemi has been the steadier goalie over the full 2013 season but, if Quick is on, he can easily overcome these expectations. Hes done it against St. Louis in each of the last two seasons (two series in which the Kings werent given the edge) already. Team SF SA Goaltender SV% Expected GF/Series Pittsburgh 29.8 29.6 Tomas Vokoun 0.928 12.27 Ottawa 32.9 31.7 Craig Anderson 0.943 15.75 Verdict: Pittsburgh has such skill, and a potent power play (7-for-21 in Round One) that they finish a relatively high percentage of their shots on goal, a playoff-leading 15.0% in the first round (Ottawa was second at 13.0%). This after the Penguins finished second in the regular season (11.3%), when Ottawa ranked last (7.0%). Part of the reason that I havent included team shooting percentages in these calculations is that, at the team level, its very difficult (if not impossible) to sustain any shooting percentage that is far removed from the average and there are so many moving parts to a lineup that its hard to gauge the effect on percentages on a team level. Using goaltender save percentages is a different matter, however, since there is, ideally, one goaltender being used. So, what we have in this series is a Penguins team that needs to maintain high shooting percentages and needs success on the power play to do so. On the other hand, a big reason why the Senators have enjoyed success this season is the play of Craig Anderson. Can Anderson continue stopping more than 94% of the shots he faces? That may be just as unrealistic as expecting the Penguins to score on 15% of their shots, as they did against the Islanders. Any team that gets goaltending at that level is going to be incredibly difficult to beat, but especially so if they also win the shot differential battle and the Penguins were outshot by 5.0 per game against the Islanders. Essentially, the Penguins deserve to be favoured, but these numbers do indicate that there is reason to like the Senators chances nonetheless. Team SF SA Goaltender SV% Expected GF/Series Boston 33.2 29.2 Tuukka Rask 0.928 15.38 N.Y. Rangers 30.7 28.7 Henrik Lundqvist 0.929 15.09 Verdict: Bostons expected shot differential, which has been a team strength for several seasons now, could take a hit if their defence doesnt get healthy. They survived the first round against Toronto with Andrew Ference and Dennis Seidenberg hurt late in the series, but thats no way to match up with the Rangers in the second round. Both goaltenders have been very good this season. While Lundqvist has a longer track record that might give him the edge, it would hardly come as a shock to have Rask match him save for save, given their performance over the last few seasons. These numbers suggest a slight edge to Boston, but slight enough that personnel differences (ie. injuries) could alter the expected outcome. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy Sports on Facebook. ' ' '