Eagle helps Mickelson maintain lead
PALISADES, Calif., Feb. 17 (UPI) -- Phil Mickelson made up for a balky putter Friday by holing out twice from off the green and owned a one-shot lead midway through the Northern Trust Open.
Mickelson shot a 1-under 70 in the second round to finish 36 holes at 6-under 136. Pat Perez was one back after firing a 65, while those at 138 included Jimmy Walker, Matt Kuchar, Carl Pettersson, Jarrod Lyle and Jonathan Byrd.
After winning last week at Pebble Beach with a closing round 64, Mickelson has a chance to move into ninth place by himself on the all-time PGA Tour victory list. He is currently tied with Cary Middlecoff for ninth place with 40 wins.
Mickelson began his round Friday on the back nine and moved under par for the first time at the short 16th, where he holed a 35-foot chip shot for birdie.
He came to the par-4 eighth, his 17th hole, with an even-par round working. He then pulled off the shot of the day by holing his second shot from 110 yards out for an eagle.
Mickelson, however, missed putts inside six feet at the seventh, ninth and 18th holes -- suffering a bogey on all of them.
World No. 1 Luke Donald turned in a 1-over 72 and was at even par for the tournament in a tie for 28th place.
Red Wings extend home win streak to 22
DETROIT, Feb. 17 (UPI) -- Pavel Datsyuk scored with 6 seconds left Friday to give Detroit a 2-1 victory over Nashville and extend the Red Wings' home winning streak to 22 games.
Detroit will try to keep club-record streak going while playing five of its next seven games in its own building.
Johan Franzen gave the Red Wings the lead on a slap shot with 7:16 to go in the first period, but Detroit could not beat Pekka Rinne again until the closing seconds.
Nick Spaling tied it with 5:02 to go in the second period, the only goal allowed by Joey MacDonald.
MacDonald made 20 saves in Detroit's fifth straight win overall.
Rinne stopped 29 shots for the Predators, who have lost two in a row and five out of six.
Charlotte halts club-record skid
TORONTO, Feb. 17 (UPI) -- Baskets by Boris Diaw and D.J. White in the last minute Friday brought Charlotte a 98-91 win over Toronto and ended the Bobcats' club-record losing streak.
Charlotte had dropped 16 in a row, its most recent victory coming Jan. 14. Toronto joined Golden State, New York and Milwaukee as the only teams to have lost to the Bobcats this season.
Toronto had a one-point lead going into the fourth period, but trailed by two as the final minute began.
Diaw hit a jumper with 43 seconds left that gave Charlotte a 94-90 lead and White's layup with 16 seconds remaining pushed the Bobcats in front 96-91.
Jose Calderon then turned the ball over for Toronto and Corey Maggette's two free throws finished out the scoring.
Reggie Williams scored 22 points for Charlotte and Maggette had 16. The Bobcats made 50 percent of their shots from the field and took advantage of Toronto's 2-of-16 shooting from 3-point range.
The Raptors, who have lost four straight, were paced by DeMar DeRozan with 24 points. Charlotte will go after its first two-game winning streak of the season Sunday when it plays at Indiana.
Johnson's Daytona car fails inspection
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., Feb. 17 (UPI) -- NASCAR officials announced Friday that the car Jimmie Johnson had planned to drive in the Daytona 500 had failed opening-day inspection.
Parts from the car were confiscated for further inspection, casting a pall on the opening of the season for the five-time Sprint Cup series champion.
The panel that connects the back of the car's roof to the top of the rear deck was found to be outside specifications, and was sent to the NASCAR Research and Development Center in North Carolina.
"The (No.) 48 car had a body modification on it that was outside of what our tolerances are or what the original surface definitions for the body were," Sprint Cup Director John Darby said. "There were some obvious modifications that the template inspectors picked up on and we did some additional inspections with some gauges and stuff and found that they were just too far out of tolerance to fix. So they were removed from the car.
"I think the team is working now on getting the correct pieces flown down here [from North Carolina], so they can get them all welded back in."
The car must go through another inspection before it can take part in the first Daytona practice, which is scheduled for Saturday. Qualifying to determine the front row for the race will be held Sunday.
There was no indication what penalties, if any, might be forthcoming. Robin Pemberton, NASCAR's vice president of competition, said any penalties would not be announced until after the Daytona 500 is run Feb. 26.
