In the 'Zona Sports Chowdah Update- Arizona Iced B's, Bruins Rally Late for 12th Straight Win; Thunder Down Under, Dodgers and Diamondbacks Open Up 2014 MLB Season at Sydney Cricket Grounds

Ross D Franklin- AP

NHL- Less than 24 hours after getting their 11th straight win in Colorado [a 2-0 shutout with their backup goalie, no less- NANESB!] the Boston Bruins made their way to Arizona to take on the Phoenix Coyotes for the second time in 8 days.

Although the Coyotes started out aggressively, Patrice Bergeron drew first blood with a goal just 3:25 into the first period. However, with less than four minutes to go, Coyotes Captain Shane Doan got the equalizer to tie the game up at 1-1. Also in the final 30 seconds of the first, Boston's Matt Bartkowski was sent to the sin bin for tripping. Although the Coyotes weren't able to do anything in the dying seconds of the first, most of that penalty would carry over to the second period where Phoenix's Oliver Ekman-Larsson would put the Coyotes on top 2-1.



This was actually the first time in seven games that the Bruins had trailed, but just 3:48 into the 3rd period, Jarome Iginla would get the equalizer to make it a 2-2 game. After twelve minutes of quick, intense and at times chippy play where it looked as though the contest would be heading for overtime, Shawn Thornton put Boston back on top with 3:18 left in regulation. Shortly after the go-ahead goal, the Coyotes pulled netminder Mike Smith for an extra attacker- however, Iginla was able to corral the puck out by the blue line and shot it for a back-breaking empty net goal with 30 seconds to go in regulation.

Boston goes on to win its 12th straight in game- this time before a standing-room only crowd of nearly 17,500 at Glendale's Jobing.com arena. Iginla has now scored 10 goals in the Bruin's last nine games while Tukka Rask stopped 31 of 33 shots faced in Glendale. By way of comparison, Mike Smith had faced 27 shots on goal and turned aside 24. The win gives Boston sole possession of the Eastern Conference lead [the 103 points is currently tied with St Louis for the best in the NHL- NANESB!]. The Bruins are now two wind shy of tying a franchise record of 14 straight wins that was set during the 1929-1930 season.

After Saturday's contest in the Grand Canyon state, the Bruins will travel back to Boston for a Monday night prime time matchup against the Montreal Canadiens. Puck is scheduled to drop and the game will be televised nationally on NBC Sports Network.

Mark Kolbe- Getty

MLB- As the Bruins and Coyotes were going head-to-head, some 7800 miles away the MLB season was getting underway Down Under. As in previous seasons, MLB had decided to start the regular season overseas while most teams were still winding down Spring Training. This time around, the season got underway as the Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks went head-to-head in Australia at the Sydney Cricket ground over the weekend. The 48,000 seat cricket venue was painstakingly converted to a ballpark for the MLB's downunder opener.

The Dodgers took Friday's Game 1 by a final of 3-1. It looked as though they were on their way to an easy sweep of the two game series after getting out to a 7-0 lead against Arizona, but the Diamondbacks got on the board in the bottom of the 8th with an RBI single from offseason pickup Mark Trumbo to make it 7-1. With one out in the bottom of the 9th and runners on second and third, Martin Prado cut the lead to make it 7-3 Dodgers. Not wanting to take any more chances, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly brought start Paul Maholm into the game to get the final two outs and kill the Arizona rally. However, after striking out Miguel Montero, Mattingly brought in reliever Kenley Jansen, who immediately offered up a booming homer to Trumbo to pull the Diamondbacks to within two runs. However, Jansen would then strike out Martin Prado to end the ballgame, giving the Dodgers a sweep of the Sydney series.

The Dodgers will resume regular season play next weekend- this time on the same continent- as they face the San Diego Padres at PETCo Park in San Diego on Sunday, March 30th. First pitch is scheduled for 8:05 ET and the game will be televised on ESPN.

Quickie Sports Chowdah Update- Category 8, Bruins Top 'Canes For 8th Straight Win and Season Sweep;

BOSTON BRUINS- March is shaping up to be a terrific month for the Bruins. After their rout of Montreal on Wednesday night, the B's returned home to face the Phoenix Coyotes who were fighting to secure one of the final playoff berths out west. The Bruins did all of their scoring in the first, with Zdeno Chara and Jarome Iginla accounting for all the Boston goals before Phoenix's Lauri Korpikoski ended Tukka Rask's shutout bid about midway through the third and cut the Boston lead in half. However, the Bruins would hang on to win by a 2-1 final.

On Saturday afternoon, the Bruins would play host to the Carolina Hurricanes, who were a game over .500 and looking to get into the 8th and final playoff spot in the East with a few weeks to go in the regular season.



Milan Lucic opened up the scoring for Boston in the first with 4:32 to go after driving a Krejci rebound past 'Canes goalie Cam Ward. With just over 2 and a half minutes to go in the second, Iginla gave the Bruins a 2-0 lead. However, three minutes into the 3rd stanza, Alexander Semin made it a 1-goal game for the 'Canes when Chad Johnson couldn't corral a bouncing puck. However, the Bruins would pile on three unanswered goals later on in the 3rd (from Chris Kelly, Iginla and Torey Krug) to go on and win by a final of 5-1.

Chad Johnson stopped 29 of 30 shots faced while Iginla would have a two-goal game, scoring three goals since Thursday's contest against Phoenix. The Bruins will next host the Minnesota Wild on Monday night before embarking on a 3-game road trip that takes them to New Jersey, Colorado and Phoenix. Monday night's game will be nationally televised on NBC Sports with the puck scheduled to drop at 7:30 PM ET.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NHL- Even with the Bruins on a hot streak, it seemed like it still wasn't enough to vault past the Pittsburgh Penguins for the Eastern Conference lead as recently as Thursday's contest against the Coyotes. However, the Bruins got a lot of help this weekend from the Flyers when they swept a home-and-away series against the Penguins. After shutting out the Penguins at home by a 4-0 final on Saturday, Philly edged the Pens by a 4-3 final at Pittsburgh's Consol Energy Center on Sunday afternoon.

The Bruins currently sit atop the Eastern Conference with 95 points, and Pittsburgh missed an opportunity to gain any ground on Sunday and now remain three points behind.

MLB- The team with baseball's biggest payroll- the LA Dodgers- have broken camp on their spring training facility at Camelback Ranch in Glendale, AZ and are currently enroute to Australia where they will take on the Arizona Diamondbacks at the Sydney Cricket Ground in Australia's largest city as well as an exhibition game against Australia's national team.

The two games (which are scheduled for March 22nd at 4 AM and 10 PM ET, respectively) mark the start of the 2014 MLB regular season while the rest of the league gets started on March 31st.

Quickie Sports Chowdah Update- Red Sox Rebound After Some Northern Exposure; Pats Clip Eagles' Wings in Preseason Opener

Tom Szczerbowski- Getty Images

RED SOX- Well, this weekend's series against Kansas City sure sucked. I should probably write a thank-you note to all the teams in the NL West for their part in keeping Boston in 1st place in the AL East despite the Red Sox spending much of the weekend spinning their wheels against a game Royals club at Kauffman Stadium- Tampa Bay was swept by the surging Dodgers while the Diamondbacks have taken two of their first three games against the Orioles.

After Monday's travel day, the Red Sox returned to the AL East with the first of a three game series against the Toronto Blue Jays at Ontario's Rogers Centre. The last time Boston faced the Jays, they had won 17 of their last 22 games and were within striking distance of the AL East lead [although still dead last at the time- NANESB!].

Tuesday night's pitching matchup pitted Ryan Dempster against Todd Redmond and both starters took shutouts fairly deep into the game, with Toronto finally getting on the board thanks to a 2-out J.P. Arencibia RBI single in the bottom of the 5th to make it 1-0 Toronto. The Jays tried adding to that lead with Reyes on base and two out in the bottom of the 6th, but Victorino gunned down the Jays shortstop with a throw from right field after Edwin Encarnacion singled.

Redmond would last 5⅓ shutout innings, but the Red Sox would touch up the Jays bullpen for two runs- RBI singles from Ellsbury and Pedroia in the top of the 7th- before Arencibia would again knot up the score; this time with a solo homer off of Junichi Tazawa to lead off the bottom of the 8th to make it 2-2.

The game would go into extras and Loup would come out of the bullpen for Toronto in the 11th and get Stephen Drew to fly out to left field. Saltalamacchia would then draw a walk and Middlebrooks would hit a single. More importantly, when Ellsbury hit into what looked like a surefire inning-ending double play at short, Middlebrooks broke it up cleanly on a slide into second to keep the inning alive- Ellsbury would reach on what was scored a fielder's choice while Saltalamacchia went to 3rd. Ellsbury also immediately stole 2nd as Victorino was in the batter's box.

With two runners now in scoring position, Victorino hit a 1-2 pitch right up the middle to give Boston a 4-2 lead and after getting the final out in the bottom of the 10th, Koji Uehara would come back on to close out the game with a 1-2-3 bottom of the 11th. Uehara would get all four batters he faced out as well as the W.

Wednesday's game will feature Jon Lester [10-7; 4.37 ERA] going up against Esmil Rogers [3-7; 5.12 ERA], although Lester's record against Toronto this season is a somewhat more impressive 3-0 with a 2.79 ERA. The game will get started a 7:07 and be televised on both NESN and Rogers Sports Net.


TEXAS RANGERS- I had to double check and make sure somebody wasn't recycling headlines from April, but on Monday night, Texas Rangers starter Yu Darvish took a no-hitter against the Houston Astros into the 8th inning. Just like in April, Darvish was denied the no-no, but he struck out a career high 15 batters in the Rangers' 2-1 win over Houston.

The Rangers currently have a 1 game lead over Oakland in the AL West.


OTHER RANGERS NEWS- In a deal that the Rangers front office was no doubt hoping they could've completed before the July 31st trade deadline, the Rangers acquired outfielder Alex Rios from the Chicago White Sox for a player to be named later. Rios is hitting .279 with 12 homers and 57 RBI this season.

The Rangers were hoping to acquire Rios earlier after learning that outfielder Nelson Cruz would be suspended by MLB for the remainder of the season in the wake of the BioGenesis scandal. By way of comparison, Cruz was batting .269 with 27 homers and 76 RBIs before his suspension.

The acquisition of Rios from the White Sox has also meant that the Rangers organization has released former Red Sox and Dodgers slugger Manny Ramirez from AAA Round Rock. Manny was signed as a low-to-no-risk gambit by the Rangers organization and was batting .259 with 3 homers and 13 RBI in his 30 game stint with the Round Rock Express.


NHL- The new owners of the Phoenix Coyotes were introduced at a press conference in Glendale, AZ on Monday. Alberta businessman George Gosbee and Ice Edge Holdings CEO Anthony LeBlanc were named as the new owners. After bankruptcy and being managed by the NHL since their 2009 bankruptcy, the new ownership announced that the team was 'here to stay' and that they'd pursue a bid to host the All Star game after the organization missed out in 2006 due to the lockout.

It was also announced that the team would be renamed the Arizona Coyotes starting with the 2014 season.

NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS- All three Patriots QBs got to see playing time in last week's preseason opener against the Philadelphia Eagles while RB LeGarrette Blount led the Pats in scoring in Friday's 31-22 win.

Brady went 7-8 with 65 yards and 1 TD while Ryan Mallet went 9-18 with 97 yards on the night. Tim Tebow was sacked three times, but had 31 rushing yards in the preseason effort. Meanwhile, Blount raised some eyebrows with his performance, getting 101 yards and 2 TDs on 11 rushes/

The next Patriots preseason game is set to take place at Foxborough when the Patriots will host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Friday night.


NCAA FOOTBALL- New questions about Texas A&M's Heisman-winning QB Johnny Manziel's eligibility are being raised after a number of media reports claimed that he had been paid to sign autographs for sports memorabilia dealers in violations of NCAA rules.

Interestingly, Texas A&M has decided to retain the services of Birmingham, AL law firm Lightfoot Franklin & White as legal counsel- the same firm that Auburn university had retained when QB Cam Newton's father reportedly sought large sums of money in exchange for his son playing for a major NCAA program. In November 2010, Newton was declared ineligible by Auburn after Mississippi State boosters revealed that Newton's father told them it would take 'more than a scholarship' to get him to persuade his son to play for the Bulldogs and kicking around an $80,000 pricetag.

Last month, video of Manziel getting kicked out of a frathouse at the rival University of Texas went viral. The Texas and Texas A&M football programs had a rivalry dating back to 1894 until the end of the 2011 regular season before A&M moved over to the SEC conference.