CHICAGO (AP) Mashaun Alston’s office has a corkboard with pictures of some of the kids he has helped over the years. A basketball player in his uniform. A row of smiling teenagers.On one side of the room there is a framed quote that reads Womens Charlie McAvoy Jersey , ”All those who achieve great things are great dreamers.”Alston, 41, is definitely dreaming. In one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Chicago, he is dreaming of more graduations and birthday parties. Life for a group of kids on the edge.”I can be overwhelmed, but then when I go home … I never say I’m not doing this, I always reflect and say, `Wow, this kid is going through this,’ and then the next day, I’m renewed,” Alston said.Alston is a therapist in Choose to Change, a five-month program that aims to reduce youth violence through therapy and mentorship. And it very well might be gone by now if not for the effort of one unusual coalition.The Cubs, White Sox, Bears, Bulls and Blackhawks. The titans of Chicago sports, united with a singular purpose.—Near the end of a violent 2016 in Chicago, Roseanna Ander went to a meeting. Ander, the executive director of the University of Chicago Crime Lab, goes to a lot of meetings, but this one was different.The room included White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf and his son, Michael, the president and chief operating officer of the Bulls. Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts and his sister Authentic Louis Domingue Jersey , Laura, who also is part of the Cubs’ ownership group, were there. Same for Bears chairman George McCaskey and Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz.”It was like a very Godfather-esque moment,” Ander said with a grin.Concerned about a precipitous rise in violent crime – Chicago had 762 homicides in 2016, a 64 percent increase from 485 in the previous year – the city’s most prominent sports executives had an idea, and they were looking for help.”They decided that this was a very unprecedented challenge facing the city and they wanted to do something unprecedented,” Ander said, ”and that was really to try to see if putting their resources together that they might be able to do something more significant than they could each do independently.”It began with Jerry Reinsdorf, 82, who once lived in some of the South Side neighborhoods that have been racked by violence. He took the idea of a united effort to the rest of the owners, and they quickly signed on for what became the Chicago Sports Alliance.Then came the tricky part.”It became very clear that we really didn’t understand what was behind the homicides and the violence,” Michael Reinsdorf said. ”We all had ideas and theories, but we really weren’t as educated as we should be.”We decided instead of just jumping in there and making some type of investment, let’s get smarter.”That led the group to Ander and the Crime Lab, which was created in 2008 following the shooting death of a graduate student at the University of Chicago to study crime and develop and evaluate crime-reduction programs. While the room grabbed Ander’s attention, her presentation struck a chord with the group.”It’s just tough,” Michael Reinsdorf said. ”I have kids and we teach our kids that they can dream and they can do anything they want and they have such incredible opportunities. But the kids that we’re talking about trying to help in some of these communities, their dreams are totally different than the dreams of like my children.”Their dreams are like, surviving. … Their expectations are I won’t live a long life.”—Alston had a group session in May where only one of the six young men showed. It was a nice day in Chicago and graduation festivities were in full swing.The 17-year-old who made it to the session was depressed about the death of his cousin in January. He wanted to retaliate sometimes, but he said the program was keeping him on the right track.”He says, `Yeah, but this group http://www.officiallightningprostore.com/authentic-adidas-mikhail-sergachev-jersey ,’ he says, `since I’ve been coming in February is helping me think,”’ Alston said.A buoyed Alston kept going, sitting straight up in his chair in a common room down the hall from his office on the city’s South Side.”You know just with the people he knows, the family he’s involved with, it’d be easy to go and retaliate,” he continued.”I want you to think logical. If you go retaliate and you’re 17, there’s two things going to happen. You may get away with it for a little bit. But you’re going to end up dead because they’re going to retaliate, or you’re going to be in jail and you’re 17, I want you to get to my age.”—The Chicago Sports Alliance was unveiled in December. The teams announced a total of $1 million in one-time grants for Choose to Change, the Crime Lab and for training for embedded civilian analysts who work with the police department to develop strategies to reduce crime in the city’s most violent areas.While the money provided a lift, the alliance itself might have made an even bigger statement.”It’s not just the dollars, but I think it’s kind of who they are, their ability to have influence with such a huge range of the population,” Ander said. ”But I do think for me the most important thing was sending a message that this isn’t just somebody else’s problem to fix.”The funding for Choose to Change had run out by the end of 2017, so the money from the alliance kept it alive for the first part of this year. Another group of teenagers went through the program, and the Crime Lab used the funding extension to build on its data, helping bring in new investors from the public sector.The teams were also able to make a difference in another way.”The kids look up to these teams and these athletes,” Ander said, ”and it’s a huge motivation to be able to say, `Look, we’re going to be able to get you to these games Nikita Kucherov Jersey ,’ things that they wouldn’t normally be able to do.”Homicides and shootings dipped in Chicago in 2017 and continued to drop at the start of this year. The future of the Chicago Sports Alliance is still being determined, but the teams plan to meet again with Ander soon and Michael Reinsdorf thinks the partnership will continue.”We’re just starting out in this process and so there’s probably a lot of things that we can do going forward that can add on to what we’ve already done,” he said.—Alston stays in touch with several of the teenagers he worked with in Choose to Change.One of them sailed through the program a couple of years ago. He made it to every session and participated in the conversations, but he ”was still involved heavily on the streets,” Alston said.On the last day, Alston told him he wanted to keep working with him, and the young man responded positively. About a week later, he was shot.”I went to go visit him in the hospital,” Alston said. ”’Hey, everything you was learning in group, I mean was it like all in vain, or were you a phony? Because what I’m hearing and seeing is two different people.’ So those types of things are challenging.”The visit made an impression.”He looked at this as more being a professional thing, just me doing my job,” Alston said. ”But then when I showed up at the hospital, it gave him a different outlook of me and said well, this is personal. Absolutely.”—Jay Cohen can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/jcohenap PHILADELPHIA (AP) Justin Williams scored two goals, Cam Ward stopped 21 shots and the Carolina Hurricanes snapped a six-game losing streak with a 4-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night.The Flyers had been the hottest team in hockey, winners of six straight overall and riding a 10-0-2 streak for their longest span without a regulation loss since 2003.They were even 4-0-1 against the Hurricanes in their last five against them at home.Carolina made quick work in ending the good times in Philly.Williams knocked in a loose puck 4:40 into the game and the former Flyer stuck it to his former team one more time.BRUINS 8, PENGUINS 4BOSTON (AP) – David Krejci had his fourth career hat trick, David Pastrnak had two goals and an assist, and the Bruins had their highest-scoring game since 2012, beating the Penguins.One night after the Boston Celtics posted a season-high 134 points in the same building Ondrej Palat Jersey , the Bruins had their biggest offensive output of the year.Pittsburgh’s Ollie Matta scored just 35 into the game, but from there on it was mostly Bruins. Boston led 2-1 before the three-minute mark, 3-1 after six minutes and 5-2 with just under four minutes to play in the first before Riley Sheahan scored with 4 seconds to play in the period.The Bruins added three in the second – two on the power play from Krejci, giving him a hat trick with 25:27 still to play – and one from Pastrnak. It was Krejci’s first three-goal game since 2014; he also has had two in the playoffs.The Bruins have won back-to-back games since the trade deadline, when they acquired Rick Nash and Tommy Wingels and signed Team USA Olympic captain Brian Gionta. Nash had a goal and an assist, and Gionta had two assists.PANTHERS 3, DEVILS 2SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) – Aleksander Barkov scored two goals to lift the Panthers to a win over the Devils.Maxim Mamin scored his second NHL goal and Robert Luongo made 29 saves as the Panthers recorded their fourth straight win.Jesper Bratt and Taylor Hall scored for the Devils. Cory Schneider stopped 26 shots in his first start since missing 16 games with a lower-body injury.Barkov’s second goal stretched the Panthers lead to 3-1 with 3:34 left in the third. Barkov lifted the puck over Schneider and into the net.Bratt’s goal closed the score to 3-2 with 2:07 left in the third.LIGHTNING 5, STARS 4, OTDALLAS (AP) – Cory Conacher scored with 41 seconds left in overtime, and the Lightning beat the Stars.Conacher broke away from Dallas’ Jamie Benn and took a low shot that bounced off goalie Ben Bishop and went in.It was the Lightning’s fourth game in six nights that went past 60 minutes.Tampa Bay’s Anthony Cirelli had a goal and an assist in the three-goal second period of his NHL debut. The Lightning recalled the 20-year-old Cirelli from Syracuse of the AHL earlier Thursday as an emergency replacement for NHL scoring leader Nikita Kucherov.Tyler Seguin had two goals and an assist for Dallas, which rallied with two third-period goals.COYOTES 5, WILD 3GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) – Richard Panik broke a tie midway through the third period and the Coyotes rallied for another victory over the Wild.Christian Dvorak, Jakob Chychrun, Kevin Connauton and Jordan Martinook also scored, Max Domi had three assists, and Antti Raanta made 31 saves to help the NHL-worst Coyotes end Minnesota’s winning streak at five games.Arizona also rallied to beat Minnesota the last time they played, scoring the final four goals in a 4-3 overtime victory in St. Paul on Feb. 8. That victory started a 7-2-1 run for the Coyotes.Zach Parise, Mikko Koivu and Matt Cullen scored for the Wild, and Alex Stalock stopped 21 shots.PREDATORS 4, OILERS 2EDMONTON Ryan Callahan Jersey , Alberta (AP) – Viktor Arvidsson scored a pair of goals as the Predators rallied for a victory over the Oilers.Scott Hartnell and Austin Watson also scored for the Predators, who have won six straight.Nashville’s David Polie earned his 1,320th career win as a general manager, the most in NHL history.Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl replied for the Oilers, who have lost two straight.SHARKS 7, BLACKHAWKS 2SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) – Joe Pavelski scored twice and the Sharks reached a season high in goals in a victory over the Blackhawks.Logan Couture, Timo Meier, Kevin LaBanc, Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Barclay Goodrow also scored for the Sharks, who won their second straight at home after dropping three in a row on the road.Artem Anisimov and Nick Schmaltz scored for the Blackhawks, who lost their seventh straight road game while allowing their most goals this season, matching the seven New Jersey scored on Nov. 12.Martin Jones stopped 32 shots for San Jose.KINGS 5, BLUE JACKETS 2LOS ANGELES (AP) – Alex Iafallo scored two goals to lead the Kings back from an early two-goal deficit and beat the Blue Jackets.Nate Thompson, Tanner Pearson and Jeff Carter also scored for the Kings, who won their third straight game. Jonathan Quick stopped 30 shots.Cam Atkinson and Seth Jones scored the early goals for the Blue Jackets. Joonas Korpisalo saved 29 shots on goal for Columbus.The Kings have won six of their last eight.