Nichols Extends Streak to 16, Defeats Curry, 55-39

DUDLEY, MASS—The Nichols College women’s basketball team extended its program record winning streak to 16 games with a 55-39 victory over visiting Curry College in a The Commonwealth Coast Conference matchup Saturday afternoon. Jessica Nelson (North Providence, R.I.) led the way for the Bison with 11 points and six rebounds, helping the team stay undefeated in conference play with a 7-0 mark.

The first eight minutes of the game were close, with Curry only trailing by four, until Nichols went on a 26-8 run, capped off by a layup from first-year forward Chelsea Shaughnessy (Halifax, Mass.). That stretch put the Bison ahead by 22, leading 38-16 at the half.

Curry (6-13, 2-5 TCCC) fought back early in the second half, opening the period with a 12-4 run of their own to cut the deficit to 14 with 13 minutes to play. That was as close as Curry would get though, as Nichols regrouped and held the Colonels to only 11 points for the rest of the game, winning it, 55-39.

Sophomore guard Ashley Robidoux (Milford, Mass.), added nine points for the Bison Sophomore Danyel Cousins (Brunswick, Maine) was the high scorer for Curry with nine points and seven boards.

The Bison host Anna Maria on Wednesday, February 4 in an 8 p.m. conference matchup. Curry travels to New England College on Wednesday for a 5 p.m. game.

Atkins Leads Nichols Past Curry, 75-67

DUDLEY, Mass. – Led by 20 points and six rebounds from first-year forward Pete Atkins (Gainesville, Fla.) the Nichols College men’s basketball team rallied from a two-point halftime deficit to defeat Curry, 75-67, in a The Commonwealth Coast Conference game Saturday afternoon. The Bison rallied from a two-point halftime deficit to win their third-straight game and improve to 10-9 overall and 5-2 in TCCC action. Curry, led by 22 points from senior guard Quashed Simmons (Paterson, N.J.), dips to 5-13 overall and 2-5 in league play.

Also figuring in double-digits for the Bison were junior guard Chris Paquin (Barre, Mass.), who had 10 points and five rebounds, while senior captain Jeff Lindgren (Sturbridge, Mass.) pitched in 11 points and senior forward John Costello (Tolland, Conn.) added 10, both off the bench. Junior forward Ryan Wilcox (West Granby, Conn.) picked up a game-high 11 rebounds, including 10 on the defensive end.

Colonels’ leading scorer Mark Mastrullo (Billerica, Mass.) recorded 16 points to go with seven boards, while sophomore center Chris Bonadies (Medfield, Mass.) added 10 points and six rebounds.

The first half featured eight lead changes, with Nichols taking a 24-14 lead midway through the frame after a 12-0 run. Curry rallied with a 12-2 run to tie it on an and-one play by Simmons with 5:29 left in the half before the senior hit nine of Curry’s next 11 points to give the Colonels a 37-35 advantage heading into intermission.

The teams traded leads early in the second half, with the Bison chipping away at a six-point Colonels advantage early on before Atkins knotted the game at 44-44 with an under-the-rim layup at 14:37. Curry held the game in check until an 11-3 Nichols run capped by a Wilcox layup at 4:11 put the Bison up by 10, 70-60.

Nichols shot 49.1% (26-53) on the night, while holding Curry to 32.9% shooting (23-70), including a 19.2% effort from three-point range (5-26). Nichols hit six of 17 attempts (35.3%) from beyond the arc.

The Bison held a slim advantage off the glass at 40-38, but Curry took advantage of 20 Nichols turnovers, converting them into 20 points. The Bison found nine points of 15 Colonels miscues.

Nichols continues its homestand on Wednesday, February 4 in an 8 p.m. game against Anna Maria before celebrating Senior Day on Saturday, February 7 in a 3 p.m. game against Gordon. Curry travels to New England College for a 7:30 p.m. game Wednesday.

Tuukka Was Up to the Task

Rask has his first NHL shutout in his first NHL game of 2008-09
Angela Stefano BostonBruins.com
Jan 31, 2009, 4:31 PM EST

Boston, MA – The Providence Bruins starting netminder, Tuukka Rask, continues to tease the Hub of Hockey with his fine play for the Boston Bruins. It seems whenever the tall, skinny kid from Finland gets a chance to shine, he takes advantage of the moment.

"I mean last year, his first game he played against Toronto, I was watching from up top, and he was sick,” said Shawn Thornton. “I don't want to say he single-handedly won us that game, but he was a big factor that's for sure.”

This afternoon was no different, with a 1-0, 35-save shutout against the New York Rangers, and Thornton did not sound surprised.

"We've all seen what Tuukka can bring," said Thornton. "He brought it in training camp. He brought it last year, and when he is up, he's a very gifted goalie, so we had a lot of confidence going into the game with him.”

Marc Savard, who scored the one-and-only goal in the game wasn’t surprised, either. Like Thornton, Savard noted Boston’s goaltending depth as a consistent, positive factor this season.

"We're confident with whoever's in there, and tonight it was Tuukka,” said Savard of Rask's first NHL shutout. “Give the kid credit; he's been waiting for this opportunity, and he took advantage of it tonight.

“He's an NHL goaltender, and we all know that. He's going to get his time, but right now, he came in and did the job for us.”

Aaron Ward has played in front of a lot of goalies, and even he, as a veteran NHL defenseman, sounded very confident about the 21-year old goaltending phenom.

"We saw him last year, and we know he's capable,” said Ward. “Obviously, it's a new environment for him – it's a few different faces – so he stepped up and really, now we've got three great goalies.

“That's a good feeling to have.”

From afar, Ward gave the youngster some advice for his next start.

"He didn't come out and play soccer today,” said the defenseman. “He's got to relax and come out and play soccer before the game; it's usually his routine. There's no reason for him to be nervous.

“He's skilled, he's…very calm out there, he doesn't seem to get too high, too low. He's a guy that knows the game and plays it well.”

Bruins head coach Claude Julien knows what he has in Rask.

“I thought he was very good,” he said. “I thought our team did a pretty good job in front of him, and sometimes that’s a normal situation; you want to give him the best chance possible, but when he had to make the big saves, he made them.

“Obviously he’s played some games for us, so we know that he’s capable of playing, coming in and giving us some good games here.”

Nichols vs Curry

The 17-2 Bisons of Nichols College Men's Hockey team takes on the 13-3 Colonels of Curry College tonight 5:30 at June R. Levy Rink425 East Ave., Harrisville, R.I. You can listen to the play by play on Nichols College Radio WNCR.

I will post a game wrap up after the game.

Manny Contract Update

January 30th, The Worcester Tornadoes would like to extend special thanks for all of the fans, and members of the media who have taken interest in the Manny Ramirez contract offer.

Though no word has yet been received from Manny Ramirez or his agent regarding the contract offer, the Tornadoes are confident that the former Red Sox slugger is seriously considering the offer. As many media outlets have expressed, the Tornadoes offer remains the only offer Manny Ramirez currently has from any professional baseball organization.

Tornadoes Director of Interactive Media Mike Tetler commented, "While we have received a great deal of press suggesting that we [The Tornadoes] have offered Manny a contract simply as a publicity stunt, we are quite serious about our offer, and $24,000 is waiting for Manny should he accept the contract. While we would like to offer him more, however, the CANAM league has a strict salary cap and we simply cannot exceed the current offer."

So far the story has been covered by FOX 25, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today Online, Fox Sports Online, The Wall Street Journal Online, The Providence Journal, and many fan blogs (Including this blog and my radio program Father Peter Live.)

The Tornadoes are eagerly awaiting a response from the Ramirez camp as Major League Baseball's spring training approaches and teams firm up their rosters. The Tornadoes enter their Fifth Anniversary Season in 2009. More information is available through www.worcestertornadoes.com or by calling the Tornadoes at (508)-792-2288.

Tornadoes Professional Baseball. Only In Worcester!

Sharks Take a Bite Out of the Falcons 3-1

WORCESTER, MA - The Worcester Sharks began the second half of their 2008-09 season with an easy win over the Springfield Falcons at the DCU Center Friday night.

Both teams skated strong in this fast paced game. Sharks Steven Zalewski scored his 9th goal of the season at 3:25 in the first period with Cory Larose and Lukas Kaspar assisting. The 54th fight of the Sharks season broke our shortly after when Brad Staubitz took on Springfield's Mathieu Roy. After this the gloves were off for the balance of the game. The Sharks outshot Springfield 14-4 in the first period and ended with a score of 1-0.

As the second period began the tempers carried over from the first and the Sharks Matt Jones was called for a fighting major penalty along with Spiringfield's Gilbert Brule. Both the Sharks and Springfield were unable to score when each had the 5-3 advantage over the other and the period ended 1-0 Sharks.

The Sharks Lukas Kaspar began the third period with his 11th goal of the season and the Sharks extended their lead 2-0. The gloves were off again as Riley Armstrong and Viacheslav Trukhno took each other on in front of the Springfield Bench. Soon after Springfield's Guillaume Lefebvre scored with an assist from Tyler Spurgeon and Jake Taylor. The Sharks victory was sealed with Riley Armstrong's open net goal just before the 3rd period ended.

The win brings the Sharks' record to (25-10-02) with 52 points, while the Falcons dropped to (16-23-6-1) with 39 points. The Sharks are now just one point behind the first place Providence Bruins.

Saint Anselm Skates Past Nichols 7-2

HARRISVILLE, R.I. – The Saint Anselm College women’s ice hockey team scored three goals in the second period en route to a 7-2 ECAC East victory over Nichols College at June Rockwell Levy Rink Friday evening. The Hawks were led by a pair of goals from freshman forward Aly Zappen (Huntington Beach, Calif.).

Nichols (1-15-1, 0-12-1 ECAC East) took a 1-0 lead at the 6:07 mark when junior forward Candice Ellis (Gloucester, Mass.) found a loose puck among a scrum of players at the right post and snuck a backhander into the upper corner.

The Hawks (12-5-1, 10-4-0 ECAC East) responded with a pair of goals to take a 2-1 lead into the first intermission. Zappen evened the score at 9:42 when she tapped in a loose puck past Nichols netminder Christine Rigosi (Ridgewood, N.Y.), who was sprawled out to cover the puck. Kelsey Johnson (Byfield, Mass.) pushed Saint Anselm ahead with her seventh goal of the season at 15:29, flipping in a pass across the crease from Cierra Romaldo (Chuluota, Fla.) into the left side of the net.

Bridget Sylvester (Randolph, N.J.) started the Hawks’ three-goal second period just 1:03 in the frame with assists from Marissa Serafino (Rutland, Vt.) and Kathleen Twomey (Londonderry, N.H.). Romaldo added a power-play tally 2:08 later when she one-timed a centering pass from behind the net by Johnson from the doorstep. Molly Corl (Danvers, Mass.) fired a short-handed wrister from the high slot past Rigosi at 7:39.

The Hawks added a pair in the third courtesy of Zappen and Michelle Lacombe (Delafield, Wisc.) before the Bison’s Cheryl Winter ( Cupertino, Calif.) recorded her first goal of the season with just over four minutes to play when she tucked a backhander into the upper right corner from the right netfront. Allison Peters (Westford, Mass.) and Mandy Manopla (Wellington, Fla.) earned assists on the play.

Rigosi made 34 saves in just under 47 minutes before giving way to junior goaltender Melissa Mansfield (Medford, N.Y.), who allowed one goal and made six saves in the remaining 13 minutes. The Hawks’ netminder Carley Berry (Danvers, Mass.) stopped 25 shots.

Nichols is back in action against New England College Saturday at 8:30 p.m.

Welcome Back Tek

Well the Sox have their catcher and captain back. It is about time that this issue is put to rest, now we can get ready for pitchers and catchers reporting date of 2/15/09.

I am sure we will be hearing and reading more on how the Red Sox took advantage of Jason Varitek by giving him such a low contract. Let us not forget he hired the biggest agent whore out there in Scott Boras to represent him. Four years ago, Boras had the Red Sox convinced he had multiple suitors for his client when all he had was the Red Sox bidding against themselves. This works once but as the saying goes fool me once shame on you fool me twice shame on me, this time the Sox would not be fooled. Good for the Sox holding the line with Boras and his client.

Breaking News: Varitek, Red Sox have a deal

BOSTON -- The captain is staying put. The Red Sox and free-agent catcher Jason Varitek agreed on a contract, two sources confirmed to MLB.com on Friday.

The deal is for one year, at $5 million, with an option for 2010 that Boston could activate at $5 million or Varitek could at $3 million.

Varitek could make another $2 million in 2010 via incentive clauses, the Boston Globe reported, meaning the total value of the contract will be as low as $8 million or as high as $12 million.

The Rest of the Story

Varitek

I often wonder what is going through the minds of these guys. I will be the first to admit that I have no clue about how all of the arbitration and contracts work with these guys but Varitek was offered 10 million for this year during arbitration. So he turns that down and now they are offering less and given him until tomorrow to make up his mind. He is 37 years old and had a lack luster season last year. What does this guy want? He is not right out of the gate and by baseball standards he is an old man.

So Tek could be watching the season from home this year. Pitchers and catchers report in 13 days and he has no contract. There is speculation that he will sit the season out and wait and see if someone somewhere gets hurt and they give him a call. I am not sure I would be willing to gamble like that with my career. So he will roll dice and see what happens. One thing is for sure he only has two years left if that.

Revolution open March 21 at S.J.

The Revolution will open the 2009 season at San Jose March 21 at 10:30 p.m. (EST), kicking off their 30-game schedule in MLS.

The Revolution's first home game will be against FC Dallas April 4 at 7:30 p.m. at Gillette Stadium.

The Revolution have defeated FC Dallas in each of their last seven meetings.

Other matchups include a game against the 2008 MLS Cup runner-up New York Red Bulls March 28 and a match against last season's Cup champion Columbus Crew Oct. 10.

Six Revolution games will be nationally televised on ESPN2 or Fox Soccer Channel, including a home game against the Los Angeles Galaxy Aug. 8.

The Revolution will take a break from MLS play June 14-July 3 for SuperLiga action. The Revolution won the tournament last year, which features MLS and international teams. The list of teams and dates will be released later.

Preseason training for the Revolution begins Saturday, with players reporting for physicals. Conditioning workouts begin Monday.

The MLS Cup playoffs will begin Oct. 29, with the MLS Cup final scheduled for the weekend of Nov. 21-22 at a site to be determined.

Revolution season-ticket packages are on sale. For more information, call 1-877-GET-REVS or visit www.revolutionsoccer.net.

Manny Ramirez in talks with several teams, agent says

Scott Boras announced yesterday that his client, free-agent slugger Manny Ramirez, is in talks with several teams. Several reports suggest the New York Mets are not involved.

The Rest of the Story

SoxBeat: Maybe Tek knows what he's doing

Maybe Jason Varitek isn't really that dumb.

The veteran catcher, in many ways the face of the Red Sox for the better part of a decade, certainly misjudged his worth on the open market. He failed to foresee the unwillingness of other teams to forfeit a first-round draft pick for his services. He found himself blasted by fans and media alike for overplaying his hand in his quest for a multi-year deal with which he could extend his career.

Look where things stand, though: The Red Sox this week presented Varitek with an offer -- an offer that includes a team option as well as a player option for the 2010 season. Should he sign on the dotted line, the catcher would virtually ensure himself professional employment until close to his 39th birthday.

This was never about money. This was about job security. This was about the opportunity to play big-league baseball for another two seasons instead of one.

The Rest of the Story

Worcester offers contract to Manny Ramirez

This is the best sports story of the season. The Worcester Tornadoes Baseball Team has offered a contract to Marry Ramirez.

According to the website, the team has offered Manny a contract for $24,000 for the teams 94 game season. That comes down to about $3,000 per month. So a wee bit of a salary cut but it might be the only deal that Manny gets this season.

“I feel Manny would really enjoy playing in Worcester and hitting in our ballpark. Although I would be concerned about the cars traveling on I-290 during his at bats, it’s a risk worth taking,” said General Manager, Jorg Bassiacos. Director of Player Personnel Brad Michals added, "Manny certainly has the stats to be amongst the leaders of the league next season. Although issues regarding health have surrounded him in the past, I think he will find that the shorter schedule will boost his performance to a new level and serve as the ultimate showcase for his natural skill."

The contract was sent to Ramirez around 2:00 EST on Tuesday, January 27, 2009.

Stay tuned for more news!