Extra Time Sports Chowdah Update- BoSox Snap Skid After 14 Inning Game in South Side; Something Special in Storrs, UConn Brings Home Men's, Women's Basketball Title; Union? Yes! Dutchmen Win First Ever NCAA Hockey Title

RED SOX- It took all night, but the Red Sox were able to snap their three-game losing streak.

Heading into Comiskey after dropping three out of four to the Yankees in the Bronx, the defending World Series champion Boston Red Sox squandered a good start by Jake Peavy against his former team when the White Sox broke a 1-1 deadlock on a 2-out throwing error by Xander Bogaerts in the bottom of the 9th that plated Alexei Ramirez to give the southsiders a 2-1 walkoff win.

Wednesday night's game seemed full of missed opportunities for both teams as the Red Sox took an early 1-0 lead on a Bogaerts RBI single in the first inning. Chicago tied the game in the bottom of the first when Adam Eaton came home from third on a Ryan Robert throwing error to make it 1-1. The Pale Hose would then take a 3-1 lead when Alexei Ramirez belted a 2-run homer off of Clay Buchholz in the bottom of the 6th, but the Red Sox would chip away at that lead.

Boston would get a run back in the bottom of the 8th when Big Papi was walked to lead off the inning and went to second on a walk to Jonny Gomes, then 3rd when Grady Sizemore hit into a fielder's choice. Former White Sox catcher AJ Pierzynski then hit a sac fly deep enough to bring the lumbering Big Papi home to make it 3-2 Chicago. In the 9th, Dustin Pedroia drew a leadoff walk, followed by Bogarts drawing another walk and Big Papi flying out to left. Jonny Gomes then hit an infield single to load the bases before Pedroia came home on a Sizemore sac fly to tie the game before Pierzynsky grounded out to end the inning.

So into extras they went on the South Side, and once again walks would cost the White Sox as Boston took a 4-3 lead in the top of the 11th when Dustin Pedroia came home on a Jonny Gomes sac fly. However, in the bottom half of the 11th and with the White Sox down to their last strike and Jordan Danks on 2nd, Tyler Flowers got a base hit to tie the game at 4-4. Adam Eaton would then fly out to end the ChiSox threat in the bottom of the 11th, so the game continued into the early hours of Thursday morning.

With a depleted White Sox bullpen, Chicago sent out 2B Leury Garcia onto the pitchers mound. Garcia managed to get two out before Daniel Nava and Jonathan Herrera were on board for Jackie Bradley Jr hit a 2-out double to give Boston the lead once again, plating Nava and Herrera and making it a 6-4 Boston lead. After Capuano went 2⅔ innings, Burke Badenhop came out of the bullpen to face the final Chicago batter, striking out Marcus Semien to end the ballgame.

Boston goes on to win this one in 14, despite the fact that Chicago pitching allowed a total of 15 walks and Boston left 28 runners stranded on base- averaging two per inning in Wednesday night's game.

The rubber game is Thursday night with Jon Lester [1-2; 2.57 ERA] going up against Chicago's Chris Sale [3-0; 2.66 ERA]. First pitch is scheduled for 8:10 ET and the game will be televised on NESN.

NHL- The Boston Bruins ended the regular season by winning their final two games against Buffalo and New Jersey. The wins mean that Boston has secured the President's Cup Trophy- the NHL's award for the club with the best regular-season record [for point of reference, the Canucks won the President's Cup in the 2010-11 season and the Blackhawks won the honors during the lockout shortened 2013 season -NANESB!].

Under this year's newly-revised NHL playoff structure, the Bruins will face the Red Wings in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs with the winner of this series going on to face the winner of the Montreal-Tampa bay Series. The Habs already lead that series 1 game to nothing while the Bruins and Red Wings won't get started until Friday at 7:30 ET from Boston. The Original Six matchup is set to be aired on NESN locally, NBC Sports network nationwide and TSN in Canada.

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NCAA HOOPS- Once again, it's been a pretty good week for University of Connecticut basketball. The Men's team faced off against the Kentucky Wildcats in the Men's final last week and led wire-to-wire [although Kentucky would close the gap considerably in the second half- NANESB![ going on to win the national title game by a 54-60 final.

Just days later, in an extremely rare meeting of undefeateds, the UConn women's team faced off against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the NCAA Women's basketball national title game and would go on to win convincingly by a 79-58 final. The University even held a joint parade to celebrate the two national titles. The two championships come 10 years after the last NCAA program to win both men's and women's titles in basketball- which also happened to be Connecticut.


Charlestown, Massachusett's own Shabazz Napier was named the most outstanding player of the 2014 Men's tournament by the NCAA and awarded to Bob Cousey award as the top point guard in the NCAA. Napier- a senior- will enter the NBA draft this season.

NCAA HOCKEY- Sadly, there will be no NCAA Men's hockey title inside the Hub this year. Union, the small upstate New York college just northwest of Albany, made the most of their second Frozen Four appearance since the 2011-2012 season, skating past the Boston College Eagles by a 5-4 final to face the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the National Title Game.

Although Minnesota got out to an early lead, Union took command late in the first period with an explosive two minutes getting goals from Mike Vecchione, Eli Lichtenwald and Daniel Ciampini to give the Dutchmen a 4-2 lead by the first intermission. Minnesota clawed back, getting the only goal of the 3rd from Taylor Cammarata to make it a 1-goal contest, but Union pulled away for good in the 3rd and would go on to win their first ever hockey title.

The Men's hockey title is the first national championship to come to Union since a 1926 Men's Lacrosse title.

OTHER NCAA MEN'S HOCKEY NEWS- Boston College senior Johnny Guardeau was awarded the Hobey Baker trophy this year. The Calgary Flames 4th round pick led the nation in scoring with 80 points in 40 games for Boston College and led in goals (6) and assists (44).

Quickie Sports Chowdah Update- Strange Brew, Milwaukee Ruins Home Opener For Defending World Series Champion Red Sox; Bruins Staying Hot As Regular Season Winds Down

WEEI photo

RED SOX- Now that the weekend series is overI can honestly say the highlight of this weekend's series at Fenway was Friday's pregame ring ceremony.

The ceremony featured members of the 2013 World Series champion Red Sox being awarded their rings, which also included a 'Boston Strong' insignia on the side and a Bearded Band of Brothers on the interior of the ring. On hand for the ceremony were Pedro Martinez representing the 2004 World Series Champs, Mike Lowell representing the 2007 World Series team, Ty Law, Teddy Bruschi and Troy Brown representing the Patriots Superbowl Champion teams, Mark Recchi of the Bruins most recent Stanley Cup Championship team and Leon Powe of the 2008 Celtics NBA Championship team. A moment of silence was held before the ceremony to mark the deaths of Boston firefighters- Edward Walsh and Michael Kennedy- who were killed in a Back Bay brownstone fire last week.

The Red Sox came into the weekend winning two straight against AL East foe Baltimore and Friday's game where it was tied 2-2 headed into the 9th inning, but offseason acquisition Edward Mujica came on in the top of the inning with a disastrous outing, surrendering four runs to propel the Brewers to a 6-2 lead before Francisco Rodriguez came out in the bottom of the 9th to retire the Sox in order to go on to win by a 6-2 final.

On Saturday, the Red Sox fared no better when they lost in 11 innings to the Brewers by a 7-6 final. Sunday was their last chance to avoid the sweep and stop the bleeding with Lester on the mound. However, Yovani Gallardo and the Brewers pen would shut out the Red Sox [Boston would strand 13 runners on base- NANESB!] and Milwaukee would ruin opening weekend for the Red Sox by sweeping the series, going on to win by a 4-0 final on Sunday.

The Red Sox will hope to rebound on Monday night when they host the Texas Rangers- the first AL opponent they will see in Fenway this season. John Lackey [1-0; 3.00 ERA] will get the start against Tanner Scheppers [0-0; 15.75 ERA] and the game will be nationally televised on ESPN as well as locally on NESN. First pitch from Fenway is scheduled for 7:10 ET.




BOSTON BRUINS- After the Detroit Red Wings handed the Bruins their first regulation loss in nearly a month on Wednesday night, the Bruins would lose to the Maple Leafs in OT on Thursday night before heading home for their next-to-last home game of the regular season on Saturday.

The Bruins headed into Saturday's game hoping to clinch the top overall spot in the Eastern Conference and deliver a blow to the Flyer's playoff hopes. David Krejci got the Bruins on the board with just over 4 minutes remaining in the first, but that was a prelude to wild second half in which the Flyers would get on the board with just under five and a half minutes to go in the second thanks to a Wayne Simmonds power play goal. However, the B's would come right back with a goal from Milan Lucic 20 seconds later to take a 2-1 lead. But in the closing seconds of the 2nd stanza, the Flyers would once again pull even with Jay Rosehill beating Rask with 21 seconds remaining.

However, the Bruins would take the lead for good in the third when they scored three unanswered goals (from Boychuck, Lucic and Kelly) to make it a 5-2 game. Tukka Rask made 24 saves on 26 shots faced while Ray Emery stopped 37 of 41 shots faced [Kelly's tally was an empty-netter which didn't count against Emery- NANESB!].

The Bruins will hit the road once again, this time to take on the Minnesota Wild and Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday and Thursday before heading back to the Garden on Saturday for the final home game of the regular season where they'll face the Buffalo Sabres. Tuesday night's game is scheduled to get underway at 8:00 ET and will be televised on NESN.

NCAA HOOPS- As you can probably figure out by what's absent from my blog this time of year, I haven't been into bracketology for awhile. But with March Madness whittled down to the final two- 2012 Champion Kentucky and UConn. The Huskies bested the Florida Gators to advance to the Men's final while the Wildcats squeaked by the Wisconsin Badgers in a one point game during the Final Four. Tipoff from Dallas is scheduled for 9:10 ET and the game will be televised on CBS.

In Soviet Russia, Sports Chowdah Updates YOU- USA Leads Medal Count in Sochi; Team Canada/USA to Duke it Out On The Ice; Topless Lebanese Skiier in Hot Water; Bruins Shut Down Sens Before Olympic Break; BC Takes The Fifth in Beanpot; Syracuse Falls to Boston College

I swear, I'm not boycotting the Olympics- although a casual glance of this blog since the Winter games got underway in Sochi might lead one to that conclusion. On the other hand, Wyatt Earp of Support Your Local Gunfighter is keeping track of the compelling human-interest stories concerning the athletes competing in Sochi.

WINTER OLYMPICS- Despite the highly publicized gaffes such as reporters checking into hotels still under construction and a technical miscue during the opening ceremonies, the Winter Olympiad at Sochi got off and running last week.

US Snowboarder Sage Kostenburg won the first gold medal of the games in the men's slopestyle event back on Feb 8th. Well beyond the halfway point of the 2014 Sochi games, Team USA currently leads the overall medal count with 23 (7 gold, 5 silver and 11 bronze). Both Russia and the Netherlands trail the USA in the medal count by one while Norway has the most gold medals with a grand total of nine.

Of most interest to me is the Team USA Men's hockey- which got off to a stellar start with a 7-1 thumping of Slovakia on Feb 12th for their Olympic debut. On Saturday, the USA needed a controversial disallowed goal and OT to get past a heavily favored Russia team, with St Louis Blue Center TJ Oshie becoming something of a cult hero with his game-winning shootout goal to give Team USA the 3-2 win.

On Wednesday, Dustin Brown got the game-winning goal for Team USA as they cruised past the Czech Republic by a 5-2 final while host Russia was eliminated from medal contention by Finland in a 3-1 loss. Team Canada got by a very game Latvia, winning 2-1 to set up a semifinal contest with Team USA on Friday. The winner of the USA/Canada men's game will go on to face the winner of the Sweden/Finland men's semifinal game for the gold.

For those of you who can't wait until Friday for some good ol' USA-on-Canada puck action, the women's hockey gold medal game will feature the USA taking on Canada on Thursday at 12:00 ET for all the marbles. The game will be televised on NBC and streamed on the NBC Olympics website.

ELSEWHERE IN THE OLYMPICS- Lebanese downhill skier Jackie Chamoun has reportedly raised the ire of politicians in Beirut after topless pictures of her were circulating online. Lebanon's interim Sports Minister reportedly called upon the Lebanese Olympic Committee to launch an inquiry and 'take the required steps to avoid harming Lebanon's international reputation'.

Chamoun has her defenders both inside and beyond Lebanon's borders, and after condemnation from Islamic clerics and demand for a parliamentary inquiry, social-media savvy Lebanese took to twitter and Facebook- sometimes posting pictures of them topless or seminude- using the hashtag #StripForJackie.

NHL- Of course, all these NHL All-Stars mean that there's no NHL for nearly 3 weeks. In fact, we're still nearly a week away from the resumption of NHL play- and that is a single game between the Buffalo Sabres and Carolina Hurricanes that was postponed earlier in the year due to a blizzard before being rescheduled to Feb 25th.

Thanks to the Olympic break, the Boston Bruins have a grand total of five games in the month of February- including a Feb 26th matchup against the Sabres at the First Niagara Centre. After a quick 1-game road trip to St Louis, the Bruins returned home to the Garden to face off against the Ottawa Senators for the final game before the Olympic break. The B's jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first thanks to goals from Patrice Bergeron and Chris Kelly- and they never looked back, adding on to their lead with goals from Bobby Ryan, Jarome Iginla, Carl Soderburg, Brad Marchand and Milan Lucic to cruise to a 7-2 victory.

Although the Bruins head into the 3-week long break leading the Atlantic Division, they're still 5 points behind the Penguins for the Eastern Conference lead.

While we still have to wait for a whole week for the next Bruins game, the good news is that it will be televised nationally on NBC Sports Network on Feb 26th with the puck scheduled to drop at 7:30 ET.

NCAA HOCKEY- For the fifth straight year, the Boston College Eagles are the Beanpot champions, having defeated Northeastern during the Beanpot Finals on Feb 10th.

Although Boston College got out to a 1-0 lead, Northeastern managed to tie the contest back up at 1-1 in the closing minutes of the second period. However, BC senior forward Patrick Brown would get what would prove to be the game winning goal with just under 5 minutes to go in regulation before the Eagles added on with an empty netter from Junior Johnny Gaudreau with less than two minutes to go in the game and another tally from Brown.

The 5-straight titles for BC is the first since the 1999-2000 season when the BU Terriers had won their 6th straight. Boston College came into the 2/10 Beanpot final ranked the #1 program in the USA according to a USCHO poll.

NCAA HOOPS- As awesome as a fifth straight Beanpot title for the men's hockey program might've been, the BC Eagles made headlines on Wednesday night when they toppled previously undefeated Syracuse in OT at the Carrier Dome. Sophomore Olivier Hanlon led BC with 20 points and three assists.

The Eagles went on a 29-12 run in the second half to take a 46-42 lead and Junior Lonnie Jackson had 10 points, making three out of his four free throws in OT to help BC go on to their 62-59 win. The win by Boston College means that the Wichita State Shockers are now the sole undefeated Division I men's basketball program in the nation.

Home Cooked Sports Chowdah Update- O No You Didn't! Sox Win Home Opener Versus Baltimore; Category Zero Hurricanes Do Little Damage At The Garden; NCAA Title and Unforgettable Week in the Cards for Louisville and Pitino

Winslow Townson photo

RED SOX- After wrapping up a road trip to Toronto where John Lackey left Saturday's game with an undisclosed injury and Jays starter RA Dickey was rocked by the Red Sox bats, it was time for the home opener at Fenway Park on Monday afternoon. The 4-2 Red Sox opened up the 2013 season at Fenway with a daytime matchup against the Baltimore Orioles.

With pre-game ceremonies that included marking the 60th anniversary of the Red Sox affiliation with the Jimmy Fund, a massive flag draped across the Green Monster and a flyover from WWII-era P51 Mustangs, the Red Sox and Orioles got underway on a sunny April afternoon with Clay Buchholz on the mound looking for his second win and Boston looking to wipe the slate clean after their worst season in nearly 50 years. This was a very different Red Sox lineup from just a year ago with no Youkilis, Gonzalez or Beckett in the lineup while the Orioles were coming off of their first postseason appearence since 1997.

Buchholz allowed a leadoff single to start off the game but seemed to settle down from there. Meanwhile, the Red Sox batters seemed to be having a difficult time with Baltimore starter Wei Yin Chen- who allowed just two hits through the first six innings. However, in the bottom of the 7th, Chen allowed a leadoff single to Dustin pedroia followed by a double to Mike Napoli. Although Chen got Middlebrooks to strike out, Daniel Nava belted a 1-1 offering over the Monster seats to give Boston a 3-0 lead.

As it turned out, that would be all Boston needed. Although Joel Hanrahan gave up a leadoff solo homerun to O's outfielder Adam Jones and a 2-out double to JJ Hardy, Hanrahan managed to close out the game and preserve the Red Sox win by getting Ryan Flaherty to pop out in foul territory in front of the Baltimore dugout. Buchholz threw for 7 shutout innings while striking out eight and allowing four walks.

The win gives Boston a 5-2 record- all opponents being from the AL East so far this season- and the home crowd something to cheer about after watching them win 2 out of three in each of the road series in the Bronx and Canada. The win makes it nine straight home openers that the Red Sox have won. Tuesday is an off day, but on Wednesday, the series resumes with Ruan Dempster [0-1; 5.40 ERA] getting the start against Jake Arrieta [0-0; 9.00 ERA]. The game will be televised on NESN with a first pitch at 7:10 ET.

OTHER RED SOX NEWS- Red Sox fans got quite a scare on Saturday afternoon when starter John Lackey left the fifth inning of the game against Toronto [JA Happ and the Toronto bullpen would throw a shutout against Boston in their 5-0 win- NANESB!]. The start was Lackey's first in nearly 18 months and immediately led to a flurry speculation from sportswriters that Lackey was already out for the season with an undisclosed injury. Lackey had Tommy John surgery in the 2011 offseason and spent most of 2012 rehabbing.

Upon returning to Boston, Lackey underwent an MRI at Massachusetts General Hospital. The MRI reportedly showed inflammation around the right biceps. Although Lackey is expected to miss his next start, the injury is not considered season-ending. If Lackey is unable to start by Sunday, the Red Sox will reportedly slot Alfredo Aceves [0-0; 10.38 ERA] in Lackey's place in the rotation.

MEANWHILE, DOWN ON THE FARM- Shortstop Stephen Drew went 1 for 3 in what was slated to be his final game with the AA Portland Sea Dogs before returning to Boston on Wednesday. Drew went on the DL in Spring Training with a concussion and was assigned to AA Portland for rehabilitation. Overall, Drew went 2-13 with a double, a homer, two walks and 3 RBI.

AP Photo/Michael Dwyer

BOSTON BRUINS- After a disappointing Saturday night in Montreal where the Bruins missed an opportunity to vault past the Canadiens in the Eastern conference standings, Boston had the opportunity to vent their frustration on the slumping Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night.

Rich Peverly opened up the scoring early for the Bruins about 4 minutes into the first period followed by two Brad Marchand tallies before intermission. Building on their 3-0 lead, the Bruins added to their lead in the second with goals from Andrew Ference and Jordan Caron to make it a 5-0 Boston lead. Midway through the 3rd period, the Hurricanes would get on the board thanks to a Patrick Dwyer goal followed by a Drayson Bowman goal 45 seonds later to make it a 5-2 game. However, with less than four minutes to go in regulation, the Bruins managed to pad their lead after Nathan Horton tapped home a pass from Dougie Hamilton behing netminder Dan Ellis to make it 6-2, what would turn out being the final score.

Carolina's Justin Peters was pulled early after allowing two goals on four shots faced while Ellis turned aside 28 of the 32 shots he faced on Tuesday night. For Boston, Tukka Rask carried a shutout into the 3rd period and ended up turning aside 40 of 42 shots faced. Brad Marchand had two goals in the first period while new acquisition Jaromir Jagr had two assists on the night. The win put the Bruins within a game of idle Montreal on Monday night.

On Wednesday night, the Bruins will travel down to the Prudential Center to take on the slumping Devils for the second time in less than a week. The Devils are riding a 7 game slump heading into the contest. The game will be televised on the NBC Sports Network and gets underway at 7:30 ET.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NHL- With a few weeks still remaining in the NHL season, there are already two teams that have clinched a playoff berth. The Chicago Blackhawks- who did not lose a regulation game until March 8th beat Nashville by a 5-3 final on Sunday to clinch the first playoff spot in the Western Conference.

Meanwhile, the Penguins also managed to clinch a postseason berth on Sunday night- however indirectly. Although the Pens won their Friday night contest against the NY Rangers by a 2-1 final, it wasn't until the Sabres beat the New Jersey Devils in OT on Sunday night that their entry into the playoffs were made official.

NCAA HOOPS- In a March Madnes that was eerily devoid of UConn's presence, the Men's title remained in the Bluegrass state after a final between Louisville and the Michigan Wolverines at Atlanta's Georgia Dome.

Although Michigan jumped out to the early lead, the Cardinals would close the gap late in the 1st thanks to a dramatic dunk by freshman Montrezl Harrell that looked kind of like this:

Prior to that play, Louisville was trailing Michigan by as much as 12 points in the first. The Cardinals would go on to outscore the Wolverines in the second half by a 45-38 margin to win their first NCAA Men's Basketball title since 1986, winning by a final of 82-76.

This is the second year in a row that a Kentucky school has won the NCAA Men's Basketball title. Cards Junior Luke Hancock was 5 for 5 from 3 point range and made 7 out of 10 free throws, totalling 22 points on the night and was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four.

The week is alread off to a good start for Louisville head coach Rick Pitino. His son was hired by the Minnesota Golden Gophers to replace Tubby Smith, a horse he co-owns won the Santa Anita Derby and now qualifies for the Kentucky Derby and now the former Celtics and Boston University coach will be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA- all of this news coming before Monday night's Championship game in the Georgia Dome.

Championship Weekend Sports Chowdah Update- Chief's Belcher Kills Girlfriend, Self; Patriots Clinch AFC East Title; Rick Majerus Passes Away at Age 64; NCAA Volleyball Finals Under Way; Boxer 'Macho' Camacho Dies From Gunshot Wound

John Rieger, US Presswire

NFL- Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher shot himself at the team's facilities in Arrowhead Stadium moments after murdering his 22 year old girlfriend- Kasandra M Perkins- on Saturday morning.

Belcher had reportedly shot Perkins nine times at their home before speeding the relatively short distance to the Arrowhead stadium. Kansas City general manager Scott Pioli and former Patriots defensive coordinator and current Chiefs head coach Romeo Crennel were summoned to the parking lot where they came face-to-face with Belcher, who thanked the two men for giving him a chance in the NFL before putting the gun to his head and pulling the trigger.

Needless to say, the football world in general was stunned by this grim turn of events and Kansas City's disappointing 1-10 season suddenly paled in comparison to Saturday's murder-suicide.

Originally from Long Island, Belcher played Division I-AA football [now called FCS- NANESB!] for the University of Maine Black Bears of the Colonial Athletic Association between 2005 and 2008. Black Bears head coach Jack Cosgrove described Belcher as "a tremendous student-athelete" where he garnered preseason CAA honors and had 293 tackles and 18 sacks in 44 games before graduating with a bachelor's degree in child development and family relations.

The murder-suicide leaves Belcher and Perkins' 3 month old daughter, Zoey, without a mother or father. One of his former Maine teammates reportedly texted Belcher the night before the murder-suicide, congratulating him on the new arrival and joking about getting a gun to ward off future boyfriends. Belcher reportedly replied that he had at least eight firearms to choose from.

The Chiefs' decision to play the Carolina Panthers as scheduled [Kansas City would win by a 21-27 final- NANESB!] the following day came under criticism from some corners of the media. However, some of the media coverage itself drew withering criticism for painting Belcher in a sympathetic light and seemingly ignoring the fact that he killed his girlfriend.

ESPN's Tom Jackson had what many considered to be the most direct comment out of all the Sunday kickoff shows: ""Remember that Jovan Belcher, as we hear about what a great teammate he was and how close some of the guys where to him, that he is in fact a murderer. ... So as we look at the outpouring of sympathy that will go toward Belcher today, I would ask people to remember Kasandra Perkins."

3-month old Zoey is reportedly with Belcher's mother on Long Island while Chiefs players have announced plans to create a benefit fund for Perkins' daughter.

Photo/Rhona Wise

NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS- During Sunday's road game in Miami, the New England Patriots were held to fewer than 35 points for the first time since October 21st. However, despite this fairly noteworthy accomplishment, it was not enough to help the Miami Doplhins in their first matchup against New England this season.

Miami's Brandon Fields would fumble the ball on the Dolphin's first possession of the game, giving New England the ball inside the Dolphins red zone and a rushing TD from Stevan Ridley and putting New England on top 7-0.

With about 3:10 to go in the first and New England driving, Miami safety Reshad Jones managed to pick off Brady and appeared to run it back for a TD- however, the officials threw a flag on the return and the touchdown was negated. Miami would still get a 44 yard FG off the boot of Dan Carpenter to get on the board and make it a 7-3 game.

In the 2nd quarter, the Patriots would make it a 17-3 game thanks to a short brady TD pass to Wes Welker and a 43 yard Gostkowski FG. But instead of running away with it at the half, with just under seven minutes to go, Miami would start off what would be their last drive of the first half from their own 5 yard line thanks to a pair of penalties. However, when RB Reggie Bush wasn't running for 7 or 8 yards, Dolphins QB Ryan Tannehill would throw 12-15 yard passes to put Miami on New England's goal line inside the two minute warning. To cap off the drive, Tannehill would punch it in himself to make it a 17-10 game at the half and make it a one-score game.

There would be no scoring in the 3rd quarter and despite moving the ball inside the Dolphin's 2 yard line to start off the 4th, Brady was sacked twice and New England had to settle for the FG to make it 20-10.

Miami's next drive would bring them inside the New England 10, but LB Jarod Mayo managed to sack Tannehill at the 15, forcing the Dolphins to settle for a FG and 4th and 15.

From there on out, Carpenter and Gostkowski would exchange FG's to make it a 7 point game and while Miami would attempt to get one last posession with 31 seconds to go in regulation, the Patriots would recover the onside kick to close out the game by a 23-16 final.

New England hangs on to win this one and clinch their 9th AFC East title in 10 seasons, joining the Atlanta Falcons and Denver Broncos in clinching their respective divisions on Sunday.

The Patriots next opponent- the 11-1 Houston Texans- have clinched a playoff spot, but the AFC South title isn't official yet. This will be a prime-time matchup [one of the relatively few New England is scheduled to appear in- NANESB!] with the two teams going at it from Foxbourough, MA on Monday night football. Kickoff is scheduled for 8:30 PM ET and the game will be televised nationally on ESPN.


NCAA FOOTBALL- The UConn Huskies, the only New England FBS school with a shot at a bowl game, instead ended the regular season with a 34-17 loss to Cincinnati on Saturday. Between Boston College, UMass and Connecticut, the three schools had 8 wins between them in the 2012 Football season. The Minutemen and Eagles wrapped up their respective regular seasons last week.

While this wasn't entirely unexpected for UMASS's FBS debut season, this is the second straight year the Eagles finished under .500 and were Bowl ineligible.

ELSEWHERE IN NCAA FOOTBALL- Pretty busy Championship Saturday, so I'll try to wrap it up as best I can. In what was no doubt the most anticipated game over the weekend, Alabama held off the Georgia Bulldogs to punch their ticket to the BCS Championship game against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on January 7th.

There was a pair of conference championship games on Friday night as #8 Stanford held off #16 UCLA by a 27-24 final to win the Pac-12 title. Meanwhile, over in Detroit the #21 Northern Illinois Huskies needed double OT to get past the #17 Kent State Golden Flashes with that one ending in a 44-37 win for NIU.

The OT Championship games resumed on Saturday when the Tulsa Golden Hurricanes got past Central Florida by a 33-27 final for the Conference USA title. The Sun Belt title game wasn't anywhere near as close as Arkansas State routed Middle Tennessee State by a 45-0. #12 Florida State held off a game Georgia Tech [don't let that 6-6 record fool you, I guess- NANESB!] to win by a 21-15 final in prime time while the Wisconsin Badgers simply demolished Nebraska by a 70-31 final in the Big Ten title game.

It was just another Saturday in the Big 12- albeit the final Saturday of the regular season which saw a couple of contests pitting ranked teams against one another. The most marquee matchup was the primetime game between #7 Kansas State and #23 Texas on Saturday- which was sort of a de-facto Big 12 title match. Although they looked a little lost and confused in the first half, the K State Wildcats had a great second half and pulled away from the Longhorns to win by a final of 24-42. #11 Oklahoma managed to beat Texas Christian by a 24-17 final and Baylor played spoiler to #24 Oklahoma State, taking care of business in Waco by a 41-34 final.

The only remaining regular season college football game this upcoming weekend is the annual Army-Navy game from Philadelphia. The game will be televised on CBS and kicks off a 3:00 ET.

OTHER NCAA NEWS- Wisconsin Badgers head coach Bret Bielema has been announced as the new Arkansas Razorbacks head coach on Tuesday. The announcement came barely 48 hours after Wisconsin handily beat Nebraska in the Big Ten title game and earned a spot in the Rose Bowl and third straight Big Ten title.

Bielema was with Wisconsin for 7 seasons and has an overall record of 68-24. He replaces interim Razorbacks head football coach John L Smith, who in turn replaced former head coach Bobby Petrino after the University dismissed him amid revelations he was having an affair with a University of Arkansas Athletic Department employee.

Jamie Sabau/Getty Images

NCAA HOOPS- St Louis Billikens head coach Rick Majerus passed away at the age of 64 this weekend. The jovial basketball coach was perhaps best known for helming the Utah Utes to the 1998 NCAA Men's final and had just one losing season in his 25 year coaching career.

Majerus ended the Billiken's 12 year NCAA tournament drought last season and St Louis took a contest with top regional seed Michigan State down to the wire. Throughout his coaching career, the Wisconsin born Majerus also was head coach of Marquette, Ball State and Utah- as well as a brief stint as an assistant with the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks in the 1980s. Overall, Majerus had a record of 516-217 as a head coach.

Having been the Billiken's head coach since 2007, Majerus announced in August that he would not be returning due to ongoing health issues- he had been suffering from heart problems for the last 20 years. Assistant coach Jim Crews has been the Billiken's interim coach since then.

Yale Athletics photo

NCAA VOLLEYBALL- Well, the regular season for NCAA Women's volleyball has wrapped up and the only New England schools who earned an invite to the Division 1 tournament are Yale and Fairfield.

Yale finished the season with an impressive 14-0 record and clinched the Ivy League title, only to lose to Bowling Green 3 sets to 2 in the first round.

Fairfield Stags celebrate their MAAC volleyball title

Like last season, Yale and another small school from Connecticut [not UConn- NANESB!] were the lone schools representing New England in the NCAA women's volleyball tournament. Last year, Sacred Heart university of Fairfield, CT was felled by Stanford in the first round. This year, it was a different school from the same Connecticut town.

Siena's Lesli Akeo (#9) and Taylor Akana (#12) in action against MAAC opponent Fairfield- Photo: JS Carras- Troy Record

Fairfield, which plays Division volleyball in the Metro Atlantic Conference, had a 15-3 regular season record and came from behind to best the Siena Saints in the MAAC tournament. Siena hasn't appeared in the NCAA tournament since the 2008 season.

However, Fairfield was swept out of the tournament by the USC Trojans last week- the same volleyball program that had eliminated Yale in the first round of last year's tournament.

Louisville's Katie George and Haley Pouliezos seen celebrating win. Scott Utterback- Courier Journal photo

BIG EAST VOLLEYBALL- Despite a pretty good regular season in which they went 19-12, the UConn Huskies made an early exit from the Big East tournament after losing to the Cincinnati Bearcats by a final of 3 sets to 2 on November 16.

UConn finished the regular season in 4th place in the Big East. However, the Big East tournament loss was particularly frustrating as no less than three Big East teams had been selected to the 2012 NCAA tournament. Louisville won the Big East title after sweeping the Marquette Golden Eagles 3 games to none, but both Marquette and Notre Dame managed to secure at-large bids. However, Marquette was swept by Creighton and Notre Dame was swept by Ohio State in the first round.

Louisville came into the tournament ranked #10 and managed to get by Belmont in the first round but lost in the following round to Michigan.

ACC VOLLEYBALL- The BC Eagles women's volleyball wrapped up their 2012 with a 13 game slide, with the soon-to-be-departing the ACC Maryland Terrapins getting a measure of revenge over Boston College for an earlier loss in September. Boston College finishes the regular season with a record of 10-22, behind every school but Virginia in the ACC.

For the ACC tournament, Florida State defeated Miami 3 sets to 1 to clinch the 2012 ACC Volleyball title. Besides FSU, North Carolina, Miami and North Carolina State earned at large bids. However, North Carolina State and Miami made early exits with the Hurricanes losing 3 sets to 2 to the College of Charleston and the Wolfpack losing 3 sets to 1 to Texas A&M in the first round.

The Tarheels and Seminoles managed to advance to the second round with Florida State sweeping Hofstra and North Carolina getting past Cal. However, in the seond round, the Tarheels were dispatched in Ames, IA by the Iowa State Cyclones while the Purdue Boilermakers eliminaetd the Seminoles.

COLONIAL ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION VOLLEYBALL- Depsite a promising regular season in which they finished with a 20-7 record, the Northeastern Huskies lost in the first round of the CAA volleyball final to James Madison.

Towson finished the regular season ahead of Northeastern and beat the Huskies in head-to-head competition last month, but they ended up losing in the CAA champioship game to Hofstra before Hofstra was eliminated from the NCAA tournament in the first round.

BOXING- Professional boxer Hector 'Macho' Camacho died at a hospital just days after being shot multiple times in him hometown of Bayamon, Puerto Rico. The southpaw had won major championships in featherweight, lightweight and welterweight categories.

Camacho's family moved to New York when he was three and repeatedly got into street fights as a teen. A teacher persuaded Camacho to take up boxing as a more constrictive outlet and within a few years, he began winning amateur titles around New York.

Some of Camacho's noteworthy opponents include Sugar Ray Leonard, Julio Caesar Chavez and Oscar De La Hoya. Throughout his boxing career Camacho won a total of 45 matches by knockout- including a bout where he reportedly ended Sugar Ray Leonard's career.

Camacho's body was laying in state for two days in San Juan Puerto Rico before being transported to New York for burial at the request of his mother and sisters. However, the open casket viewing was disrupted when an altercation between Camacho's sisters and a woman claiming to be his girlfriend broke out.....because funeral catfights are apparently the best kind of catfights.

Quicke Post-Tax Day Sports Chowdah Update- Bruins Belt Way To Win Over Caps; Rangers Shell Beantown;

Patrick McDermott/Getty Images

BOSTON BRUINS- Monday night's Game 3 of the Stanley Cup quarterfinals series between the Washington Capitols and Boston Bruins was unlike the first two in a number of respects.

Besides being a much more physical contest [at times reminiscent of the fisticuffs seen in the Penguins-Flyers series- NANESB!], Game 3 from Washington DC's Verizon Center also featured more goals than in Games 1 and 2 combined- although given the goaltender performances of both Tim Thomas and Washington's Braden Holtby in those games, that's not saying a whole lot.

The Caps opened up the scoring late in the first with a power play goal by Alexander Semin, only for the Bruins to get the equalizer off the stick of Rich Peverly early in the second. Washington would re-take the lead with an even strength Alexander Ovechkin tally not even 15 seconds later. About midway through the 2nd, Daniel Paille would knot the contest back up for Boston, tying the game at 2-2.

Boston would then get their first lead of the night with a Brian Rolston goal just over a minute into the first. At the time, I was in no way confident that the Bruins could maintain a 1-goal lead for pretty much an entire period, and sure enough- with six minutes remaining in regulation, Brooks Liach buried the puck behind Tim Thomas on a breakaway opportunity.

After both Milan Lucic and Matt Hendricks were sent to the penalty box late in the 3rd, there was some 4 on 4 hockey that the Bruins took advantage of captain took advantage of for Chara to get a shot past Holtby with 1:53 remaining in regulation for the 4-3 lead.

Despite pulling Holtby for an extra attacker, the Bruins held off Washington in the remaining 110 seconds to hold on for the 4-3 win and taking a 2-1 series lead. Tim Thomas had 29 saves on 32 shots faced while the Bruins seemed to have Braden Holtby figured out better than they did the first two games. Holtby turned aside 25 of 29 shots faced on Monday night after turning aside a combined 72 of 74 shots faced in Game 1 and 2. The Caps went 1 for 4 on the power play while Boston went 0-5 on the night.

A curious sidenote before the game was that a number of Washington fans thought they could rattle Tim Thomas by wearing Obama masks or holding up cutouts of President Obama- a reference to his declining an invite to the White House with the team earlier this year. Yes- apparently they thought they could get inside the head of the Vezina, Conn Smythe and Stanley Cup winning goaltender by invoking the image of the biggest dud to occupy 1600 Pennsylvania Ave in decades.

So on top of the defending Stanley Cup champions finally figuring out a way past the difficult Braden Holtby and taking a 2-1 series lead, I was also treated to the sight of a bunch of sad, mopey clowns dejectedly hanging on to their Obama cutouts on the way out of the arena. I have to tell you that scene alone filled me with the kind of warmth and joy usually reserved for buxom, flirtatious and uninhibited MILFs who want to buy me a drink.

Game 4 is set to take place on Thursday night from DC's Verizon Center at 7:30 on Thursday night. The Caps will have to play Game 4 without Center Nicklas Backstrom, who received a 1-game suspension for cross-checking Rich Peverly towards the end of Mondya night's Game 3. Backstrom netted the game-winning goal in double overtime against Boston in Game 2 and had an assist in Monday night's game. The game will be televised on NBC sports network and the CBC.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NHL- Both the Vancouver Canucks and Pittsburgh Penguins- who were sent reeling after quickly finding themselves down 0-3 in theor respective series- live to fight another day after staving off elimination.

The final score of the Penguins-Flyers game was more reminiscent of a Steelers-Eagles contest with Pittsburgh absolutely manhandling Philly by a 10-3 final on Wednesday night. Out on the West coast, the Vancouver Canucks beat the LA Kings by a 3-1 final at the Staples Center.

NCAA WOMEN'S HOOPS- The all-time winningest coach in NCAA Basketball- men's or women's- has announced her retirement due to early-onset dementia.



Tennessee Lady Vol's head coach Pat Summitt announced her retirement as head basketball coach on Wednesday. The University of Tennessee said that Summit will remain with the program as an assistant and development coordinator.

Summitt had a career 1,098-208 record in her 38 years with Tennessee, leading them to 13 title games and eight national titles- including a perfect 39-0 run in the late 1990s. In 2000, Summitt was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA and has garnered NCAA Coach of the year honors seven times.

In recent years, the Tennesee Lady Vols had a longstanding rivalry with the UConn Huskies, meeting four times in the NCAA Women's Basketball Championship game between 1995 and 2004.

The University of Tennessee announced long-time assistant coach Holly Warlick will be promoted to head coach.

Brian Babineau/Getty Images

BOSTON CELTICS- Paul Pierce had a busy night against the Orlando Magic with 29 points, 14 assists and 5 rebounds during the Celtic's 102-98 win Wednesday night.

Avery Bradley had 23 points and Brandon Bass scored 21 while Rajon Rondo sat out Wednesday night's game with a sore lower back and Ray Allen missed the contest with a sore right ankle.

The Celtics win was more of an afterthought for the Magic after persistent rumors regarding All Star Center Dwight Howard refusing to play until head coach Stan Van Gundy was fired. Although both Howard and the club denied the rumors, Howard missing time due to a reported lower back injury has only fuelled speculation along those lines.

The Celtics next game will be on the road at Atlanta on Friday night at 7:00 PM and will be televised on ESPN.

RED SOX- After a promising weekend at Fenway, the Boston Red Sox had dropped three straight games at home. The four game series against Tampa Bay wrapped up early on Monday for the Patriot's day game in which Daniel Bard was outdueled by Rays starter James Shields in a 1-0 loss.

Tuesday night's game was pretty much a demolition derby when the defending AL Champion Texas Rangers shelled the Red Sox pitching staff by an 18-3 final. On Wednesday night, the Red Sox lost their 3rd straight game when the Rangers beat them by a 6-3 final.

With Thursday off, the Red Sox will host the New York Highlanders Yankees at Fenway on Friday, April 20th- the 100th anniversary of the first Red Sox game at the Fens [the game was actually supposed to take place on April 18th 1912, but two days of rain pushed back the opening day to the 20th- NANESB!]. This will acutally be an afternoon game, with a scheduled start of 3:15 PM and will be televised on NESN, YES sports and the MLB Network.

OTHER MLB NEWS- Florida Miami Marlins won their first game after manager's Ozzy Guillen 5-game suspension stemming from controversial remarks about Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. The Marlins had 14 hits in their 9-1 win over the visiting Chicago Cubs on Wednesday. Starter Mark Buehrle went 8 innings, allowing 1 run on 6 hits.

COLORADO ROCKIES- 49 year old Colorado Rockies starter Jamie Moyer became the oldest MLB pitcher to win a game after Tuesday night's 5-3 win over the San Diego Padres at Coors Field. Moyer went 6 innings, allowing 2 runs on 6 hits before the bullpen took over to close out the contest. The previous record was held by Jack Quinn of the Brooklyn Dodgers who beat the St Louis Cardinals by a 6-5 final on September 13, 1932.

Quinn was 49 years and 70 days when he became the oldest pitcher to notch a win in the majors while Moyer was 49 years and 150 days.

Opening Day Sports Chowdah Update- Marlins Christen New Stadium; Sox Drop Season Opener in 1st Game of Valentine Era; Bruins Clinch #2 Spot in East

Believe it or not, there's a ballpark in there somewhere.

MLB- The defending World Series Champion St Louis Cardinals spoiled the opening game in the Miami Marlins new ballpark on Wednesday night.

Before a sellout crowd of 36,601, Cardinals starter Kyle Lohse had an early lead to work with a 2-RBI single from 3B David Freese in the 1st and another RBI single from SS Rafael Furcal in the 2nd inning to put the Cards up 3-0.

Lohse carried a no-hitter through 6 innings before Miami SS Jose Reyes led off the bottom of the 7th inning with a single to right field. The Marlins got on the board thanks to a John Buck RBI double, but that would be all Miami would get as the Cardinals would go on to win 4-1 in Miami's new park, their first regular season win without slugger Albert Pujols since losing him to free agency in the offseason.


RED SOX- The opening game stateside for the American League got underway on Thursday afternoon at Comerica Park in a pitcher's duel between Boston's Jon Lester and Detroit's Justin Verlander.

Although Lester allowed four leadoff singles, he threw 6 shutout innings against the Tigers before Tigers catcher Alex Avila drove in Jhonny Peralta with an RBI double in the bottom of the 7th. Detroit would then take a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the 8th on a Prince Fielder sac fly.

Tigers closer Jose Valverde came on to close out the game but immediately gave up a leadoff single to Dustin Pedroia and moving to third on an Adrian Gonzalez single. Gonzalez was pulled for pinch-runner Darnell McDonald. The Red Sox then got on the board when David Ortiz drove home Pedroia on a sac fly to center field. After Youkilis struck out for the second out in the 9th, McDonald stole second base before Ryan Sweeney belted a triple deep to the right-field corner, driving in the tying run before Cody Ross grounded out to shortstop to end the inning.

With offseason acquisiton Andrew Bailey going on the DL for thumb surgery right at the end of Spring Training, the Red Sox bullpen was left in a state of flux. Mark Melancon came on in the bottom of the 9th for the Sox, and after getting the first out, gave up singles to Peralta and Avila before being pulled for Alfredo Aceves. Aceves hit the first batter he faced, sending Ramon Santiago to first an loading the bases. Austin Jackson then drove an Aceves offering past a diving Nick Punto for a walkoff single and 3-2 Tigers win at the season opener in Comerica Park.

In the wake of the turbulent offseason, Red Sox Nation took the news of the opening day loss in stride.



With the Rays, Yankees and Orioles not getting started until Friday and the Blue Jays winning on Thursday, the loss leaves the Red Sox in the AL East basement to start off the regular season. Jon Lester went 7 innings allowing 6 hits and 1 earned run while last year's Cy Young winner Justin Verlander went 8 shutout innings, giving up two hits and striking out 7. Depsite the blown save, Valverde is credited with the win and Melancon gets the loss.

The two teams have Friday off, but will go back at it on Saturday, with Josh Beckett getting the start against Doug Fister. The game will get underway at 4:05 ET and will air on FOX.

ELSEWHERE IN THE AL EAST- It took 16 innings, but thanks to a blown save in the top of the 9th by Chris Perez and a 3-run homer by Jays catcher JP Arencibia in the top of the 16th, the Blue Jays won the longest opening day game in MLB history by a 7-4 final. The win, coupled with the Red Sox loss and Baltimore, Tampa Bay and the Yankees being idle puts the Jays into first place in the AL East.



NCAA HOOPS- Kentucky's 67-59 win over the Kansas Jayhawks in the NCAA title game for their 8th NCAA title was almost an afterthough as University of Kentucky Students rioted. At least one person was shot and there were a number of arson fires [including couches for some reason- NANESB!] in the Lexington, KY area immediately after the Monday night title game.

With the Jayhawks focused on Anthony Davis, Sophmore Doron Lamb had 22 points for the Wildcats in the Championship game. The win is the first NCAA title for former UMASS coach John Calipari.

ELSEWHERE IN NCAA HOOPS- In the NIT tournament, the UMASS Minutemen lost out to eventual champions Stanford in the semifinals by a 64-74 margin. The Stanford Cardinals would then go on to topple the Minnesota Golden Gophers by a 75-51 final in the NIT title game.


NHL- After a New York road trip that saw wins against the Rangers and Islanders followed by a home loss against the Penguins, the Bruins embarked on their final road game of the regular season up in Ottawa. Goalie Anton Khudobin was called up from Providence to make his Boston debut [but not his NHL debut- he had a couple of apprearences with Minnesota in 2009 and 2010- NANESB!]- a thumb injury last month prevented him from arriving in Boston, leaving the B's to pull Marty Turco- presently 2-2- from Austria after Tukka Rask was injured.

Khudobin got some offensive support early thanks to a Benoit Pouliot goal in the first and a rare Greg Zanon goal for Boston (his 3rd of the season) to build up a 2-0 advantage. Jason Spezza cut the Senators defecit in half late in the second. Boston would make it a 2 goal game once again with a Milan Lucic tally to make it a 3-1 Boston lead late in the 3rd, and that would be the final.

Khudobin stopped 44 of 45 shots faced while Ottawa's Ben Bishop would allow 3 goals on 27 shots faced. Both teams were 0-3 on the power play on Thursday Night.

For the regular season finale, the Bruins will host the Buffalo Sabres at the Garden on Saturday at 4:00 PM. After a late-season resurgence, the Sabres were eliminated from the playoffs with their Thursday night loss to Philadelphia. The game will be televised on NESN.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NHL- The Washington Capitals secured the 8th and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with a 4-2 win over the Florida Panthers. Both Winnipeg and Buffalo were eliminated with the Washington win and Buffalo loss to Philly and a Winnipeg loss to the Islanders.

Out west, the playoff situation is a little tighter as the Los Angels Kings and San Jose Sharks jockey for position in the Pacific Division with a home and away series between the two teams to wrap up the regular season. The two teams are tied at 94 points on the season after the Sharks beat the kings 6-5 in a shootout in LA on Thursday night. The tie-breaker will take place in San Jose on Saturday night at 10:30 ET. With the Avalanche, Stars and Flames eliminated, the Phoenix Coyotes have wrapped up the 8th and final Western conference playoff spot.

NBA- Despite losing two games in a row, the Boston Celtics remain atop the Atlantic divison. On Wednesday, the Spurs managed to hold off the Celtics for an 87-86 win on Wednesday while the C's lost to the Bulls in the Windy City by an 86-93 final.

The Celtics will head on to Indianapolis to take on the Pacers Saturday night before returning to the Garden to take on the 76ers on Sunday.


NCAA HOCKEY- The Boston College Eagles punched their ticket to the NCAA Men's Hockey finals in a convincing fashion with a 6-1 win over the Minnesota Golden Gophers on Thursday night. After taking a 1-0 lead for the first, the Eagles exploded for 3 more goals from Kevin Hayes, Chris Kreider and Paul Carey in the 3rd to build up a 4-0 lead. Minnesota's lone goal came early in the 3rd, but Boston College responded with two more unanswered tallies for the 6-1 final.

The Eagles will face the Ferris State Bulldogs in the Finals on Saturday at 7:00 PM ET. The small Western Minnesota school got past Schenechtady, NY's Union College by a 3-1 final on Thursday. This is the first trip to the Frozen Four for both Ferris State and Union.

Petrino's reported mistress Jessica Dorrell in her Razorback volleyball days

NCAA FOOTBALL- University of Arkansas head coach Bobby Petrino has been placed on administative leave by the University after an accident report from the Arkansas State Police contradicted his earlier public statements after he crashed his motorcycle over the weekend.

In public statements, the married 50 year old Petrino stated that he was alone when the crash took place in Madison county. However, the Arkansas State Police accident reports names 25 year old Jessica Dorrell as a passenger on Petrino's motorcycle. After the police report was made public, Petrino admitted to having a 'previous inappropriate relationship' with Dorrell.

A 2008 Arkansas graduate, Dorrell was a four time letter winner in the Razorbacks volleyball program and handled fundraising duties for the Razorback Foundation. Just last week, she was named student development coordinator for the football program, co-ordinating on campus recruitment and eligibility issues for incoming players. Dorell also has a fiancee who's the director of swimming operations for the Razorbacks [altho the Arkansas Razorbacks swimming & diving team page currently lists Megan Haskins as the director- NANESB].

Petrino arrived in Arkansas from the NFL after quitting in the final month of the Atlanta Falcons 2007 NFL season. The Razorback football program has had winning seasons for three of the last four years and have been invited to the Liberty, Sugar and Cotton Bowls under Petrino.

California Dreamin' Sports Chowdah Update- B's Make Most of Southern California Road Trip; C's Return to Garden After Road Trip; Final, Frozen 4 Set

NHL- After Thursday night's road loss to San Jose, the Bruins faced off against the Los Angeles Kings at the Staples Center in downtown LA on Saturday. The Bruins and Kings had already met at the Garden back in December and Boston was looking to complete a sweep of the season series.

The game remained scoreless after a first period where LA had managed to pressure and outshoot Boston. It looked as though the momentum would continue into the second period when the Kings would go on the power play about five minutes in. LA would then turn the puck over deep in their own end with Jonathan Quick making a sprawling save on Brad Marchand only for Patrice Bergeron to pick up the rebound and put it in the wide-open net to give Boston the early 1-0 lead. Before the 2nd period drew to a close, the Kings would get an equalizer off the stick of Colin Fraser to make it 1-1.

In the 3rd Period, the Bruins struck quickly with goals from Milan Lucic and Chris Kelly (both even strength) less than a minute and 20 seconds apart to take a 3-1 lead, but with about five minutes to go in regulation, LA's Slava Voynov made it a 1-goal game on an even strength tally. In the final minute, the Kings pulled Quick for the extra attacker, and although they were able to get a number of shots off, Thomas was able to turn them aside and clear the puck while Brad Marchand got a shot off from the neutral zone as time expired and lazily drifted into the empty net- it counted after further review. Boston beat LA by the final of 4-2 on Saturday night, further complicating an already-convoluted playoff picture for the Western Conference.

As of Sunday night, Los Angeles had a tenuous grip on the 8th and final playoff spot in the west, 1 point behind the Phoenix Coyotes. However, the Sharks and Coyotes also went head-to-head Saturday night, with San Jose winning in the shootout and putting them in a three way tie with LA and Colorado (who had lost in OT to Vancouver on Saturday). Calgary had already lost to Dallas earlier on Saturday, but remain within 4 points of Phoenix for the #7 seed [so much more interesting than the Eastern Conference, where it's looking like it will be a two team race between Buffalo and Washington- NANESB].

Tim Thomas made 40 saves on 42 shots faced on Saturday while Jonathan Quick allowed 3 goals in 35 shots faced. The Kings went 0-4 on the power play while Boston was 0-1. The win snaps a 4-game road losing streak for the Bruins.

Saturday night's game in Los Angeles also marked captain Zdeno Chara's 1000th career NHL game.

On Sunday night, took their road trip a few miles down I-5. It was announced that the Bruins opted to rest Thomas and start Marty Turco at Anaheim's Honda Center. Reaction from Casa de Fenway was swift and unambiguous.

@NaokoFunayama RT: "Turco Time here in Anaheim" NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO *gasp* OOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

— B G (@Fenway_Nation) March 25, 2012

With Turco's disastrous start in Tampa Bay this month in mind, it was easy to overlook his 24 career wins against Anaheim with the Dallas Stars. But it was also folly.

After a scoreless first period, the Bruins got on board thanks to a Zdeno Chara shot from out near the blue line. Chara's goal was followed up 1:22 later by a tally from Benoit Pouliot to give Boston the 2-0 lead. However, about 5 minutes later, the Ducks would get on the board thanks to a power play goal from Teemu Selanne. Selanne's goal lifted him to 4th all-time for career power play goals in the NHL, surpassing Luc Robataille.

In the 3rd, Anaheim looked as though they tied things up at 2-2 with a Matt Beleskey tally, but the goal was waved off after Andrew Cogliano was ruled in the crease. Shortly after that, the Bruins would take a 3-1 lead on a goal from Brian Rolston [who is now riding a 6-game point streak- NANESB]. Anaheim would then pull to within a goal on a Lubomir Vishnovsky tally. Much like Saturday's game in Los Angeles, the Bruins were able to hold off a frantic last-minute attack after the Ducks pulled goalie Jonas Hiller for the extra skater.

With the goal that was waved off earlier in the 3rd, Boston holds on to win by a 3-2 final and goalie Marty Turco gets his first win in a Bruins jersey. Turco made 25 saves on 27 shots while Anaheim's Jonas Hiller stopped 22 of 25 shots faced. The Ducks were 1-3 on the power play while the Bruins went 0-2.

The productive weekend in southern California also puts some distance between the Bruins and the Ottawa Senators- who had briefly overtaken them for first place last week- in the Northeastern Conference. Boston returns home on Tuesday night to take on the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday night- the game will be televised on the NBC Sports Network (formerly Versus) and gets under way at 7:30 ET.

RED SOX- Boston relief pitcher Bobby Jenks was arrested by police in Ft Meyers, FL for DUI and hit and run after striking a parked car outside a nightclub and getting pulled over.

Jenks told officers that he had taken some muscle relaxers before admitting "[I'll] be honest with you, I was just leaving Babes [nightclub] because I hit a car. I just had to get out of there."

Jenks appeared in just 19 games for the Red Sox, going 2-2 with a 6.32 ERA before being sidelined by back surgery. Last month, the Sox listed him as being on the 60-day DL.


NBA- The Celtic's 99-86 loss to the 76ers Friday night was an afterthought after Mickael Pietrus left the court on a stretcher after a collision late in the first half. Pietrus was rushed to the hospital, although he was able to leave later that evening. Although remaining on the DL, he was cleared to travel back to Boston to rejoin the team on Sunday.

Although Friday night's loss in Philly cost them a shot at first place, the Celtics made quick work of the Washington Wizards on Sunday, winning by an 88-76 final. The win still leaves them all of a ½ out of first place in the Northeast division once again.

On Monday night, the Celtics will travel to Charlotte to take on the 7-39 Charlotte Bobcats. The game gets underway at 7:00 ET and will be televised on CSNE.

OTHER CELTICS NEWS- Duke freshman Austin Rivers, son of Celtics head coach Doc Rivers, announced that he was leaving for the NBA after just one season. Austin averaged 15.5 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.1 assists this season. With the announcement, Rivers has reportedly signed an agent and has waived his eligibility for playing his sophomore year at Duke.

NCAA HOOPS- Although UConn, Harvard and Vermont all made early exits from the NCAA Tournament, the UMass Minutemen received a berth in the NIT tournament and have made it to the semifinals after beating Drexel by a 72-70 final last week. In the NIT semis, they will face the Stanford Cardinals on Tuesday. The winner will go on to face the winner of the Washington/Minnesota game in the west- also on Tuesday night.

Meanwhile, the Final Four has been set, with Kansas, Louisville, Ohio State and Kentucky. Ohio State will take on Kansas on Saturday while Louisville faces Kentucky for the right to advance to the Tournament championship.

NCAA HOCKEY- Speaking of the number four, the Frozen Four is set and will include Boston College after shutting out Minnesota-Duluth by a 4-0 final this weekend. They will face the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the semifinals on April 5th while Union College will take on Ferris State.

Luck O'The Irish Sports Chowdah Update- C's Not So Lucky @ West Coast Tilt; B's Blow Late Lead, Get Past Philly; March Madness Brackets Busted Already

NHL- After a forgettable road trip and briefly being overtaken in the standings by the Ottawa Senators on Friday night, the Boston Bruins were hoping to snap a 4-game losing streak at home on St Patrick's Day.

For whatever reason, the day games have not been kind to the Bruins this season- last weekend's back to back losses to Washington and Pittsburgh were both matinees. And despite the promising start, Saturday's game seemed to be headed the same direction. Although the Bruins got out to the 2-0 lead in the first thanks to tallies by Chris Kelly and Tyler Seguin, the visiting Flyers were able to chip away at that lead, getting on the board thanks to a Matt Read power play goal in the 2nd and knotting the contest up at 2-2 after a Jakub Voracek goal late in the 3rd.

Nothing was resolved in OT, so the game headed for a shootout. It was starting to appear as though the shootout wouldn't resolve anything either, with both Thomas and Bryzgalov allowing goals from the first two shooters each of them faced. Listening to the shootout on the radio, I had the feeling that whoever stopped a shot first would win, and while Patrice Bergeron was able to get the puck past Bryzgalov for the 3rd goal of the shootout, Thomas was able to stop Danny Briere's attempt to seal the Bruins win.

Through regulation and OT, Thomas stopped 27 of 29 shots faced while Bryzgalov turned aside 31 of 33 shots faced. The Bruins went 0-2 on the power play while the Flyers were 1 for 4 with the man advantage on Saturday.

The win- coupled with an Ottawa loss to Toronto on Saturday night- puts the Bruins back into first place in the Northeastern division. As of Sunday night, the Senators and Bruins are separated by a point.

The Bruins will next host the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday night. So far, the B's have a clean sweep of the season series. The game will be televised on NESN and gets underway at 7:00 PM ET Monday.

OTHER BRUINS NEWS- The Bruins have signed LW Shawn Thornton to a two year extention. Thornton was slated to be an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season. THe extension is reportedly worth $1.1 million per season.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NHL- The St Louis Blues are the first NHL team in either conference to clinch a playoff berth this season. The Blues 3-1 win over Tampa Bay on Saturday sealed the deal. Currently the Blues have 100 points, which is 8 more than the next closest team in the Central Division- the Nashville Predators.

NCAA HOCKEY- Boston College won the Hockey East tournament with a 4-1 win over the Maine Black Bears on Saturday night. Eagles netminder Parker Milner made 41 saves against Maine and Eagles freshman Johnny Guardeau had two goals and an assist to garner the tournament MVP honors.

Saturday's win would be Boston College's 3rd consecutive Hockey East Championship. The Eagles draw The US Air Force Academy in the first round of the NCAA Men's Hockey tournament next week. The matchup will take place this upcoming Saturday afternoon at Worcester at 4:00 PM ET.

NCAA HOOPS- If you filled out your brackets last week, chances are you probably wanted to rip them up, throw them out and start over again after a couple of first-round upsets knocked out some heavily favored schools in March Madness.

Most noteworthy was the #15 seeded Norfolk State Spartans took down #2 seed Missouri by an 86-84 final. This was Norfolk State's first trip to the NCAA tournament, but their run came to an end when they were blown out by Florida by an 84-50 final.

Not to be outdone, another #15 seed took down a heavily favored program when Lehigh beat Duke 75-70 on Friday afternoon, although Xavier would end Lehigh's run with a 58-70 loss on Sunday night.

UConn, Harvard and Vermont would all qualify for the NCAA tourney [with the Catamounts getting by Lamar 59-71 to get into the tournament- NANESB!] but all three New England schools wouldn't advance past the first round. UConn lost to Iowa State, Vermont lost to North Carolina and Harvard would lose to Venderbilt.

While the UMass Minutemen had to settle for an invite to the NIT tournament, they have managed to advance to the quarterfinals after beating Mississippi State in OT in the first round and Seton Hall in the 2nd round. They will next face Drexel at 7:00 PM Tuesday night in a game that will be televised on ESPN.

NFL- NFL's free-agency began last week with the Buffalo Bills having signed free-agent defensive end Mario Williams. Williams was the Texans #1 draft pick in the 2006 NFL draft. The contract is reportedly for 6 years and could be worth upwards of $100 million.

OTHER NFL NEWS- The Washington Redskins have spurred talk that they have their sights on former Baylor QB and last year's Heisman winner Robert Griffin III after trading with the St Louis Rams to get the #2 overall pick in the upcoming NFL draft.

The Redskins get the second overall pick in exchange for giving St Louis three 1st round picks and a second round pick.

NBA- Although the second half of the season has been much kinder to the Celtics than it has been the Bruins, the C's are still running into some trouble on their West Coast road trip.

While they did manage back-to-back wins against the LA Clippers and Golden State Warriors, their western tilt started off with a 97-94 loss to the Lakers at the Staples Center and back-to-back losses against Sacramento and Denver.

The C's are still in 2nd place in the Atlantic Division, only a game and a half behind the 76ers. Their road trip continues on Monday- although it will be alot less western- when they travel to Atlanta to take on the 26-19 Hawks for the first time this season.

Monday night's game gets underway at 7:30 ET and will be televised on Comcast Sports New England.

Sports Chowdah Fit For A King- Mr. Gronkowski Goes To Washington; Royal Flush- Kings Quickly Find Themselves Blanked; O Romeo, O Romeo; MVP on PEDs?

For awhile, the cheerleaders for the 4-8 Redskins had something to cheer about in Sunday's close contest with the New England Patriots. Scott Cunningham/Getty Images

NFL: The New England patriots managed to win their 5th game in a row on Sunday, holding off the Washington Redskins late in the 4th quarter at FedEx field in Landover, MD.

New England would take a 34-27 lead late in the 3rd on a Brady to Welker TD catch and run. After Redskins CB Josh Wilson picked off Brady in the end zone late in the 4th, the Redskins started out on their own 20 for their final possession, managing to march down inside Patriots 10 yard line on 10 plays in the span of 4 and a half minutes. However, just when the Redskins looked like they were going to punch it in the tie the contest up at 34-34, Washington QB Rex Grossman was picked off by LB Jerod Mayo with 22 seconds remaining in the 4th quarter, bringing Brady and the offense out to take a knee and preserve the 34-27 win.

Brady went 22-37 with 357 yards, 3 TDs and the late pick while the Redskins' Grossman was 19-32 with 2 TDs and an interception.


Rob Gronkowski had 6 catches for 160 yards and 2 TDs while Wes Welker caught 7 for 86 yards and 1 TD. Perhaps somewhat alarmingly, the Patriots allowed 463 total yards to the NFC East cellar-dwelling Redskins on Sunday, an clear indication they need to start getting their proverbial shit together ahead of Sunday's game at Mile High in Denver.


In a development that has no doubt shifted attention from why exactly the Bruins benched Tyler Seguin in Winnipeg last week, Tom Brady and offensive coordinator got into a shouting match over the late pick, although both parties insist that's behind them and they're focused on the Denver game coming up this weekend during separate press conference earlier this week.

We're at the flex-schedule portion of the NFL season, where they can slot a Sunday afternoon game into the Sunday Night Football slot on NBC if they feel the matchup would've been a bigger draw. With that in mind, I'm a little surprised that the Patriots and Broncos weren't bumped up to the prime-time Sunday night matchup [NBC had opted to stick with the originally scheduled Chargers vs Ravens game, which while decent, isn't as compelling as Brady and Tebow going head-to-head for the 1st time- even if you aren't a Broncos or Pats fan- NANESB!].

The game will kick off at 4:15 PM ET, 1:15 PM Pacific on CBS.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NFL: With the Broncos come-from-behind performance against the Chicago Bears, I'm honestly a little surprised there isn't more buzz nationwide for this upcoming New England/Denver game.

After taking a 10-0 lead early in the 4th quarter thanks to a 57 yard Robbie Gould FG, the Bears would then go on to give up a TD and a 59-yard Matt Prater FG in the last two minutes and eight seconds of regulation to knot the contest up at 10-10 and force OT. Although the Bears would get the ball first in the OT, RB Marion Barber would fumble on the Broncos 38 yard line.

QB Tim Tebow would move the ball as far as the bears 34 yard line before kicker Matt Prater would split the uprights with a 51 yard FG to give Denver the 13-10 win in OT, good for their 6th straight and the AFC West lead.

KANSAS CITY: Former Patriots defensive coordinator and Cleveland Brown head coach Romeo Crennell has been named interim head coach of the Kansas City after the Chiefs fired head coach Todd Haley. Crennell had been the Chiefs defensive coordinator this season.
AP Photo
NCAA FOOTBALL: With nothing on the line other than bragging rights or pride, the NCAA regular season wrapped up on Saturday with the 112th Army-Navy game. Typically the teams meet in Philadelphia, but this season the game was played at FedEx Field in Landover, MD.

This year's game had a much more brisk pace to it and both offenses seemed to click, unlike in recent years where it was either a lopsided blowout or a defensive slog that could decided by a pivotal turnover or goal-line stand. Although Navy got out to a 14-0 lead before Army got on the board thanks to a 34 yard TD run by Black Knights QB Trent Steelman with 4 and a half minutes to go before the half before tying the contest up at 14-14 with 55 seconds to go in the half.

However, after tying the contest up in the 3rd at 21-21, Navy began to pull away with a pair of FG's in the 4th that were the difference makers. Although much closer than the previous couple of Army-Navy games, the end result is still the same. Navy goes on to win the Army-Navy game for the 10th year in a row by a final of 27-21. A side note of interest is that this is the last game before Navy QB Alexander Teich goes on to Navy SEAL training.

ELSEWHERE IN NCAAF: Coming off an impressive 5-game win streak, including upending the #5 Oklahoma Sooners, Baylor Bears QB Robert Griffin III was awarded the Heisman trophy this weekend. Griffin beat out early favorite Andrew Luck from Stanford for the honor. The 6ft 2 Junior had 3,998 yards and 36 TDs for the Bears this season, good enough for a 9-3 record and an invite to the Alamo Bowl where they will face the Washington Huskies on 12/29.

FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP SUBDIVISION: Maine's Warren Smith threw for 2 TDs and 229 yards on Saturday against Georgia Southern in Statesboro, GA, but was picked off in the Black Bears 35-23 loss to Georgia Southern in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision playoffs.

This sets up a semifinal where Georgia Southern faces North Dakota State while Sam Houston State will face Montana to see who advances to the FCS title game in Frisco, TX on January 7th.

NHL: After snapping a 2-game losing streak in Columbus in a contest that saw Zdeno Chara leave with a lower body injury and Claude Julien pull Thomas for Rask after falling behind 2-0, the Bruins managed to go on and win (thanks in no small part to Joe Corvo) by a 5-3 final before returning to the garden to face the Los Angeles Kings Tuesday night.

The Kings, with issues of their own, had fired head coach Terry Murray and were coming into Boston riding a 4 game losing streak.

Tuesday night's game was mostly Tukka Rask and Brad Marchand. Rich Peverly got the B's on the board in the 1st, beating Kings goali Jonathan Quick with 6:32 to go in the opening period before Marchand would thoughtfully add two more of his own- one in the 2nd and one in the 3rd- while Tukka Rask would stop all 41 shots he faced. Neither team converted on the power play and Quick would allow in 3 goals on 22 shots faced on the night.

So after losing two in a row, the Bruins have a modest 2-game win streak that they'll hoping they can add on to when they hit the road in Ottawa on Wednesday night.

OTHER BRUINS NEWS: Zdeno Chara is listed as day-to-day and may be out until Christmas with some sort of left knee injury. He's reportedly not travelling with the team to Ottawa, but is listed as day-to-day.

Center Zach Hammill was called up from the Providence Bruins on an emergency basis and was put into the 4th line, netting an assist in Tuesday night's shutout of LA.

OTHER NHL NEWS: Rival Canadian Telecom providers Bell [TSX: BCE/NYSE: BCE] and Rogers Communications [TSX: RCI-A' RCI-B/NYSE: RCI] have paired up to purchase a 75% stake in the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Fund have sold their majority stake in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment to Rogers Sportsnet and Bell Canada for a whopping $1.3 billion. The partnership is an awkward one as Bell and Rogers are competitors in communications. Bell also owns a small part of the Montreal Canadiens on top of it all.

The recent lack of activity from Wayne Gretzky's loquacious (and hot) daughter's twitter account led to speculation that the Great One was forming a group to purchase the OTPPF's stake of Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment and was trying to pre-empt any social-media meltdowns that would end up reflecting poorly on #99.

PITTSBURGH: Penguins star Center Sidney Crosby will reportedly miss additional time due to what's described as 'concussion-like symptoms'. Crosby hasn't seen ice-time since last weeks 3-1 home loss to the Bruins and reports are circulating that he may be out indefinitely.

NCAA HOOPS: With 9.4 seconds left to go in Saturday's #8Xavier/Cincinnati game, a melee followed when Xavier senior guard Tu Halloway taunted the Cincinnati bench. That led to a bench clearing brawl in which players from both teams punched, kicked, elbowed and stomped each other, some of them coming away with open gashes on their faces.

Each team has suspended 4 players and some are questioning the future of the crosstown rivalry.

SYRACUSE: A New York state prosecutor who interviewed two of assistant coach Bernie Fine's accusers says he found the men to be credible, but no action could be taken because the statute of limitations had passed. Two former ballboys for the Orangemen have accused Fine of molelsting them over an ongoing period and have recently filed suit against the University

MLB: National League MVP Ryan Braun has tested positive for performance enhancing drugs and could face a fine and 50-game suspension if the initial findings are upheld, ESPN reports.

Braun is disputing the findings through arbitration and a spokesman said that 'Highly unusual cirumstances' surrounding his case will eventually prove his innocence.