Cupid's Quickie Cuppa Sports Chowdah- Extra Helping From the Beanpot For BC; B's Rally Against Hungry Predators; C's Hold Off Charging Bulls

NCAA HOCKEY: Not surprisingly, Monday night's Beanpot tournament had implications beyond the 60th annual Boston-are hockey tournament.

After Harvard's 3-1 win over Northeastern in the consolation game, the main event got underway with the #2 BU Terriers and #3 BC Eagles facing off in the title game for the 21st time in the tournament's history- and by #2 and #3, I mean nationally ranked. The NCAA released their hockey rankings on Monday and while BU slipped from #1 to #2, Boston College moved up from #5.

BC Junior Pat Mullane got the Eagles on the board in the first with a power play tally at the 8:54 mark.

Five minutes into the second period, the Terriers had just killed off another penalty when Sophmore Garrett Noonan beat BC goalie Parker Noonan to tie the contest up at 1-1. But the Eagles would retake the lead on a power play goal from Junior Chris Kreider about 3 minutes later. Shortly after the Eagle's go-ahead goal, Terrier's captain Chris Connolly was assessed a 10-minute misconduct penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct.

Although Boston College seemingly had the momentum heading into the 3rd period, the Terrier's Noonan notched his second goal of the night 7 and a half minutes into the 3rd period to tie the contest up at 2-2, cashing in on a 5 on 3 power play.

The winner of the 60th annual Beanpot wouldn't be decided in the 3rd, so the contest headed to OT, which turned out to be a back and forth affair, although neither team seemed able to capitalize on the scoring chances made available. Things looked as though they were heading for a 2nd OT when BC Sophmore Bill Arnold ripped one past Terriers netminder Kieran Millan with 6.4 seconds left to give the Eagles the sudden-death OT win.

Millan allowed 3 of the 44 shots he faced in while Milner faced 42 and allowed 2 in Monday night's game.

Boston College head Jerry York coach credits the win to a visit from former Red Sox manager Terry Francona the day after their dismantling of Northeastern in the first round of this year's Beanpot. According to York, Francona discussed how players like 2B Dustin Pedroia everyone in the locker room to be better teammates and take advantage of built-up energy.

This is Boston College's 3rd consecutive Beanpot title and 17th overall in tournament history. Each team now has 6 regular-season games remaining on their schedule.


NHL: After a humiliating 6-0 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on the road, the Bruins returned home to face the Nashville Predators on Saturday afternoon. Patrice Bergeron got the B's on the board with a shorthanded goal in the first to give Boston the 1-0 lead.

Shea Weber would then tie the contest up at 1-1 with a power play goal in the 2nd period before a wild 3rd period that saw Boston re-take the lead on a Danny Paille goal before Thomas allowed two goals [including one to Mr Carrie Underwood- NANESB!]and Nashville to take the 3-2 lead with just under 3:30 to go in regulation.

However, with 1:07 left in regulation and Boston on the power play, Milan Lucic would beat Nashville goaltender Pekka Rinne to force OT. After a scoreless OT, Tim Thomas stopped every shot he faced in the shootout and Tyler Seguin and Patrice Bergeron would score for Boston in the shootout, handing the Predators their second OT loss in their last three games.

Tim Thomas stopped 19 of 22 shots faced while Pekka Rinne allowed 3 shots in on the 41 he faced. The Predators converted 1 of their 3 power play opportunities while the Bruins were 1 in 4 for their power play.

Boston will next take on the NY Rangers at the TD Banknorth Garden Tuesday night. Surprisingly, this matchup between the top two teams in the Eastern Conference won't be nationally televised on NBC Sports or the NHL network, but will only be available locally on NESN in New England and the MSG network in Boston. The puck drops at 7 PM ET.

OTHER NHL NEWS: The teams and venue for the NHL's next Winter Classic have been made official. The Detroit Red Wings will host the Toronto Maple Leafs at the University of Michigan's Big House in Ann Arbor, MI on New Year's Day 2013. The Original 6 matchup will be the first time a Canadian franchise has participated in the newly-established New Year's day tradition [altho' the concept stemmed from an outdoor game between Edmonton and Montreal in 2003 that was well-recieved- NANESB!]

This would not be the first outdoor hockey game at Ann Arbor's Big House. In December 2010, the Michigan Wolverines shut out cross-state rivals Michigan State by a final of 5-0 in what was called The Big Chill at the Big House.


NBA: In a nationally televised game on Sunday afternoon, the Boston Celtics managed to hold off the Eastern conference leading Chicago Bulls at home. Rajon Rondo largely carried the C's while recording a triple-double, 32 points, 15 assists and 10 rebounds in the 95-91 win over Chicago.

The well-rested Celtics are now 15-12 and won't see any action until Wednesday when they host the hapless Detroit Pistons. The game tips off at 7:30 and will be televised on CSNE.

MLB- The Houston Astros have reached a 1 year, $1.15 million deal with former Red Sox SS Jed Lowrie, avoiding arbitration. Lowrie was traded to the Astros in December along with Kyle Weiland in exchange for reliever Mark Melancon.

The Red Sox and DH David Ortiz avoided arbitration with the slugger agreeing to a 1-year $14.75 million contract this weekend.

Friday Night Cuppa Chowdah: B's Jump The Shark; C's Can't Run With The Bulls, Agent Zero's Costly Gunplay, NFL (Somehow) Continues on Without Pats

Tim Thomas looked every bit the Vezina winner he was a year ago in a physical, low-scoring game that was worth staying up for Thursday night. Even by West Coast standards, the game got off to a pretty late start- 7:30 Pacific Time- but pitted Joe Thornton against his former team. [Hmm...notice how nobody ever markets a San Jose-Boston matchup as 'pitting Marco Sturm against his old team'- NANESB!] so there might've been some appeal for the non-Bruins/non-Sharks fans to tune in as well. The game came the night after the Bruins lost 4-3 at Anaheim.

Danny Paille finally got the biscut past San Jose netminder Evgeni Nabakov 2:50 into the second. Joe Thronton would come back with one of his own just before the 10 minute mark in the same period. With the score tied 1-1, that would turn out to be the last goal Tim Thomas allowed that night. As physical as the game was, there were no penalties called until the 3rd period and both the third period and overtime were scoreless, which led to the shootout. The first three shooters for the Bruins (Ryder, Satan, Recchi) would miss, but Zdeno Chara- winner of the 2008 All-Star Game's Hardest Shot competiton with a 103.1 MPH slapshot- got the only goal for Boston in the shootout. Thomas would make the save on Patrick Marleau's shot on a must-score situation for San Jose, giving the Bruins the 2-1 win courtesey of the shootout.

Thursday night marked the third straight game that the Bruins played without Patrice Bergeron and Marc Savard. Boston's record is currently 23-16-7, good for second place in the Northeast division. The Los Angeles Kings (28-18-3) will host Boston at the Staples Center tomorrow afternoon.

Still without Kevin Garnett or Rasheed Wallace, the Celtics skid continued (I'm not sure that win against the 3-34 Nets technically counts as a 'victory') with a loss against the Chicago Bulls Thrusday night. Once the second half began, Boston never got any closer than within 4 points of the Bulls. Throught the whole night, the Celtics were never able to do any better than 54% from the free-throw line. Chicago almost sleep-walks away with this one, 96-83. The C's next game is at home against Dallas on Monday night- the game will be broadcast on TNT.

Elsewhere: Apparently football season isn't over, as there's still two weekends worth of playoff football as well as the Superbowl. Despite the lack of any teams whose name begins with 'New' and ends with 'England' in this weekend's matchups, the NFL has taken the rather risky and unorthodox move of continuing the postseason without them. This weekends games are as follows:

Saturday, January 17:

Arizona @ New Orleans- 4:30 PM ET

Baltimore @ Indianapolis- 8:15 PM ET

Sunday, January 18:

Dallas @ Minnestoa- 1:00 PM ET

NY Jets @ San Diego- 4:30 PM ET

The nuances of the Supreme Court's ruling in District of Columbia vs Heller were apparently lost on Gilbert Arenas. Although the Supreme court ruled that Washington DC's prohibition of handguns was unconstitutional, that did not mean 'Agent 0' could bring his collection to the Verizon Center's locker room and brandish them whenever a gambling dispute arose. Arenas pled guilty to carrying a pistol without a liscence in a Washington DC court Friday and could face a 6-month jail sentence. Arenas is already on an indefinite suspension from the NBA and will be sentenced in late March.

Sports Chowdah Recap for Dec 12-13: Isles Maroon Bruins, C's Make it 10 Straight, Pats Skid Stops At Two Games

OK....I'll admit to dragging my feet on this weekend's Sports Chowdah update in large part because I'm reluctant to bump that image of the late Bettie Paige from the top very top of this blog. But then again, that's not the only image of Bettie that's out there and I'm sure I'll come up with other, even more contrived excuses to feature her likeness on this blog.



Jim Rogash/Getty Images
In a rematch of Superbowl XXXVIII (minus Janet Jackson's boob), the Patriots took on the Carolina Panthers Sunday afternoon at Foxboro. And seemingly just like that Superbowl, they weren't able to get much done offensively- at least until scoring their first TD on a 3-yard Kevin Faulk run with 1:08 left before halftime which tied the game at 7-7.

The Pats broke the tie with just over a minute remaining int the 3rd quarter on a 5 yard TD pass from Tom Brady to Ben Watson. Stephen Gostkowski added to the Pats lead with a pair of field goals from midfield (48 and 47 yards respectively). The only scoring for Carolina in the second half was a 36-yard field goal by John Kasay, giving New England the 20-10 win at home.

Tom Brady was 19 for 32 with one touchdown and one interception while Wes Welker had 10 receptions for 105 yards. Through the first 11 games, Welker has set an NFL reception record with 105. Linebacker Adelius Thomas was a benched on Sunday after criticizing coach Belichick's decision to send him, linebackers Gary Guyton and Derrick Burgess and WR Randy Moss home after showing up late to a team meeting Wednesday. New England will play Buffalo at Orchard Park next weekend.


The NY Islanders hosted the Bruins Saturday night at the Nassau County Collesium. Boston took a 2-1 lead in the second period on a goal by David Krejci but Matt Moulson tied the game with about five minutes remaining in that period. There was no scoring in the third period, which brought the game to overtime......all 24 seconds of it thanks to a Frans Nielsen breakaway almost as soon as OT started. Tim Thomas stopped 16 of 19 shots faced, giving Tukka Rask the night off, while Isles netminder Dwayne Roloson stopped 30 of 32 faced. So...at least the Bruins get the one point before heading back to Boston to take on the Phillies on Monday.


Saturday Night also saw the Celtics take on the Chicago Bulls at the United Center in a bid to win 10 straight. Long story short, it was a rout, and at times it was difficult to believe that this was the same Bulls organization that forced a 7th game with the Celtics in the first round of last season's playoffs. Rajon Rondo was 6 for 13 for 16 points while Rasheed Wallace had 15 points off the bench for the Celtics 106-80 win.