Saturday Sports Talk - December 28th 2024

K-99-7 FM in Newport, New Hampshire, W-U-V-R-98-9 FM and 14-90 AM. In Lebanon, New Hampshire, it is time for Saturday Sports Talk. Your weekly catch-up on what's happening for high school and college sports around the Upper Valley, the final edition of 2024. Greg Fennell with you for the next hour. Updating what's happening in high school sports, the period between Christmas and New Year's,

Usually pretty slow, filled in by a lot of teams involved in holiday tournaments, and several of our prominent programs are doing that this weekend. We'll tell you where they stand heading into Saturday activity. Dartmouth also in a quiet period, but things are going to start to wrap up in the next week or so. It begins tonight with the 35th edition of the Lityard Classic, one stone as the Old Lang Zion up at Thompson Arena, dart with men's hockey, welcoming Northeastern Providence and Alaska Anchorage for double header action, both tonight

and tomorrow and then other activity picking up in the next week or so with men's and women's basketball off until hosting down the road rival Colby Sawyer in a women's men's double header so details and all that what's coming up in the next week or so and if we have some time maybe check some early standings in Vermont and New Hampshire in high school sports as we head toward 2025. Now of course we do this

live from a meeting room here at the hilden garden in eleven on the bombard road to that every saturday morning for all i don't know how many years now five six years now and uh... i'm not the only one of those that we've got rich parker and rob water coming up after me at about ten o six with valley buzz they'll chat until noon to wrap up your three hours of live and local here in ntk and uvr and if you ever want to join in the conversation on either of these programs six oh three eight six three eight four two three i think i got that right but uh... just a couple check on that

He's down in the studio in Newport and can answer the phone, get you on the program for whatever you want to talk about of a sports nature here today. As we do, in every edition of Saturday's Sports Talk, not everything that happened on the world of sports on Friday night, made it to Saturday's newspaper. So we're going to read about it.

I suspect you could look at the New England Patriots weekend assignment with the Los Angeles Chargers in one of two ways. They can be spoilers, trying to keep Jim Harbaugh and the Chargers out of the NFL playoffs, or you could look at it this way. It's the first game of the schedule. The pain will end early.

the Patriots and Chargers meeting at Foxborough at one o'clock this afternoon, and a game that really only means something for the visitors who are trying to secure Harbaugh's fourth postseason trip in the last five years as an NFL head coach. Furthermore, because the Chargers have the tiebreaker over the Denver Broncos, but not the Pittsburgh Steelers, right now the Chargers look like they would be headed for the sixth seed in the AFC in the postseason, which would line them up with the Baltimore Ravens.

Wada, Harbaugh, number four between Jim Harbaugh and his brother John Harbaugh, the coach of the Ravens. But that is all beyond because the Chargers do have to worry about beating a Patriots team that hasn't played great, but hasn't played badly in stretches. They are three and 12 on the season. They've lost five in a row. Offense showed some improvement in that 24-21 loss to Buffalo last week.

But the problem with the Patriots and quarterback Drake May has been the propensity to turn the ball over. Yes, May has thrown a touchdown pass in seven straight games. That ties him with Jim Plunkett from back in 1971 for the longest such streak by a rookie in franchise history. Unfortunately, May has also thrown an interception

in each of the past seven games in the Patriots as a team have a minus nine turnover ratio, not very good. Chargers are going to get a big weapon back quite likely with running back KJ Dobbins, who's been on injured reserve since getting a knee injury back around Thanksgiving. Without him, the bolts have not run the ball consistently on offense in averaging only 75 yards a game over the past five games. It's a good 40 yards fewer than when Dobbins was healthy and playing for the Chargers. Los Angeles and New England. It's a one o'clock kickoff.

for the first of three games on the NFL schedule today. As for the rest of the weekend, Philadelphia Eagles saw how much it hurt not having Jalen Hertz at quarterback when the Eagles lost in Washington last week. They were able to move the ball but not nearly as effectively as they do with Hertz behind center. He will miss Sunday's game with Dallas. He continues in the league's concussion protocol, suffered the injury and a collision in the first quarter.

of that thirty six thirty three lost to the commanders last week that means kenny pickett is likely to make his first start of the season for the eagles at first start of the season period and the first for the eagles the former pittsburgh star university of was reasonably good in the game against washington but not nearly as dynamic as hurts tends to be uh... fourteen of twenty four hundred forty three yards through the air touchdown and an interception with the offense did sputter quite a bit

without a healthy hurts in the lineup. The winding road through the NFL is returning Shaquille Barrett to a familiar spot. The linebacker has signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers returning to the Bucks to their 53-man roster, something it's expected to be made official today. The 31-year-old was way by Miami on Thursday from their reserve retired list. He had been released by Tampa at the end of last season, signed with the Dolphins, and then announced on July 20th he was going to retire. Now that decision didn't last, he applied to be reinstated

Miami initially declined to do that but ultimately allowed Barrett to be released and hence signing with Tampa Bay to resume his career at the end of this season. Cleveland Browns have agreed to terms on a restructured contract for quarterback John Watson with an adjustment aimed at easing future as Southbury cap burden signaling Watson will be on the Cleveland roster next year. He's currently out for the season.

with a torn Achilles. He had that embarrassingly long fully guaranteed contract from Cleveland and its naive owners and have gotten very little value for the money spent. He still do $92 million over the next two years, but the new parameters that deal will make the contract easier to manage following 2026 when that deal expires. Moving on over to the World College football. A usual ton of meaningless bowl games going on today.

including the Wasabi Fenway Bowl starting at 11 o'clock this morning. That'll be North Carolina going into that contest against Yukon, but don't expect Bill Belichick to be there. The new UNC football coach has said that he will not be going back to watch the game, the program that he's officially taking over after the conclusion of the coming season.

There were five games on the bowl scheduled last night. The holiday bowl going to Syracuse, 52-35 over Washington State. Maybe got a 95-yard touchdown run by its quarterback Bo Horvath and also stopped a two-point conversion try at the end of the contest and won the Armed Forces Bowl over Oklahoma. 21-20, midshipman complete a very impressive 10-M3 season. Vanderbilt beat Georgia Tech, 35-27 in the Birmingham Bowl. Arkansas over Texas Tech, 39-26.

in the Liberty Bowl and Texas A&M falling to USC 3531 in the Las Vegas Bowl. That leaves a total of nine games going on as far as bowl matchups. One of them altered. That's the Independence Bowl featuring Army and Louisiana Tech. Ordinarily, teams that don't have six wins, don't get bowl visits, but Marshall, the original opponent for Army, had to withdraw.

after losing more than half of its roster to the transfer portal following a coaching change. The first of a home-and-home set between the Boston Bruins and Columbus Blue Jackets last night solidly went to Columbus. 6-2 a nationwide arena. Columbus reeled off four straight goals out of a 1-1 tie to blow open a close contest to Metri Veronco

had two goals and an assist. Sean Monahan also scored twice to lead the Blue Jackets to the victory. Pablo Zaca and Charlie Coyle with goals for the Bruins. Uniscorpusano 27 saves. They saw a five-game point streak come to an end. Two teams will turn around to play again tonight in Boston. Other NHL scores from last night. Sabers finally got a win. Beat the Blackhawks.

6-2 the final there. Maple Leafs over the Red Wings and their new coach 5-2. The Devils were 4-2 winners over the Carolina Hurricanes. St. Louis beat Nashville 7-4. In overtime Minnesota topping Dallas 3-2. Colorado beat the Utah Hockey Club 4-1 and Las Vegas doubled up San Jose 6-3. The final count on that one. Alex Ovechkin could resume his chase of Wayne Gretzky's NHL goal scoring record as soon as tonight. Washington playing in Toronto would be his first game

Since the long-time captain fractured his left fibula in a collision with Utah's Jack McBane during a 6-2-1 back on November 18th on Friday, the 39-year-old participated in his first full practice with Washington since he was injured, coach Spencer Carberry, still saying, staying coy about whether or not Ovechkin would play tonight, but all signs appear to indicate that the veteran could be back tonight.

big surprise from the world junior hockey championships last night up in Ottawa, Latvia, behind Eric Matiko, with the eighth round of a shootout scoring, made Latvia three-two winner over Canada, the host since the first time the Latvians had ever beaten the Canadians

at the world junior championships big big victory for them the other finals last night slalakia beating switzerland two one fynland beating germany three one after being shut up by canada in day one thins were sweden over kazak stan score there was eight to one college hockey slowly bringing Dartmouth back to life with the thirty fifth led your classic kicking off this afternoon at tops and arena it'll be providence and northeastern resuming their usual hockey east ties

in the opening contest, and then the Dartmouth Big Green nationally ranked its 17th and 6th straight pulls. They will play Alaska Anchorage in the 7 o'clock contest, first meeting between those two squads, and the first time an Alaska team is played in the Leggard Classic. The squads involved in it. Northeastern is competed four times, one at twice, last time being 2009, and Providence has won the tournament twice most recently.

in 2022, the Big Green have won their home tournament eight times, but are looking to do it for the first time in five years. The winners will meet in the seven o'clock game tomorrow, the losers playing at four. To the NBA, Jalen Brown, a season high 44.63 pointers, Boston snapped a two-game skid and flattened the Indiana Pacers in Boston last night, 142, 105, Jason Tatum, 22 points, and 13 boards. Boston connected on 23 three pointers, never trailed in this contest,

Two teams will meet again in Boston on Sunday. NBA scoreboard, next topping, Orlando 108 to 85. San Antonio a 96-87 winner over the Brooklyn Nets. The Memphis Grizzlies edged New Orleans 132 to 124. Minnesota won 13 Houston 1-12. Mavericks over the Suns, 98-89. Cleveland outscored the Denver Nuggets, 149-135. And the LA Clippers were 102-92 winners over the Golden State Warriors. They were now only 15-15 on the season. Sacramento Kings last night

firing coach Mike Brown less than halfway through his third season of the team with the team, which is currently mired in a five game losing a streak. Dartmouth basketball resumes action on Wednesday. Colby Sawyer making the ride up I-91. We'll get our interstates right here. From New London up to Hanover, the women will play at one and the men will play at five o'clock.

News from the world of baseball, right under Corbin Burns, is a surprise landing for the Arizona Diamondbacks. They've agreed on a six-year, $210 billion contract according to sources talking to ESPN. Very surprising end of the year signing because the two had not been linked throughout the free agency period this winter. The 30-year-old's a former Cy Young award winner has spent the majority of the winter looking for a spot with free agent pitchers all over the place for getting big deals. His preference was to play on the West Coast

But he listens to all teams looking for a similarly large offer, leaving Baltimore now to join the Arizona Diamondback. Sean Mannea and the New York Mets have finalized a $75 million three-year deal on Friday that keeps one of the best tit pitchers still on the roster. And all-star baseball players, Alex Bregman and Walker Bueller, the latter to soon join the Boston Red Sox. Well, they have teamed as owners of a three-year-old cult that won for the first time at Santa Anita on Friday. Horse's name

is march of time won uh... over four other rivals by two-and-a-quarter lengths in a sixth for a long sprint race worth sixty thousand dollars you won't see scottie shuffler at the p g a tours opening event in hawaii uh... coming up in a couple weeks because he recently cut his right hand on a broken glass well in the process of preparing christmas day dinner according to his agent he will miss the opening uh... event of the season is targeting the american express of the king to california the weekend of january nineteen th uh... sixteen to nineteen

to open up his PGA Tour season. Bad news from the soccer front of you are a fan of the Arsenal Football Club. Bikai Osaka, one of their top forwards, has had surgery on hamstring injury. He's going to be sidelined at least until March. Arsenal battling London rivals Chelsea to chase down Liverpool in the EPL. Teams are all off today as they go through their festive fixtures schedule through the holidays.

And from the world of skiing, two events going on in Europe today, the men on the World Cup circuit with a downhill at Bormio, Italy, Switzerland's Alexis Monti winning the event in 153-43. And the women are involved in a giant slalom at Semoring in Austria. And the winner there for Drikra Brengione of Italy winning at a two-run time of two minutes, three seconds, 3.14 seconds. Top American in that group, Paul Moltzen, was fifth overall.

That's it for Read About It. That's what's been happening in sports all over the world for the past 24 hours or so. Coming up next, we'll talk about what's been happening in the high school world for the past 24 hours or so. It's a relatively quiet period, but still some fun stuff to talk about here on the radio. Saturday Sports Talk. Stick around.

I called you out, I could tell you had been crying, crying It's that same same song on the radio that makes me sad

In the light night I'll do it in my radio advised With every one of those late night stations playing songs, bringing tears in my eyes I was seriously thinking about hiding the receiver when the switch broke cause it's old

It's about 9.25 on Saturday's Sports Talk. Don't want to spend a nice day sitting and listening to some good music. Goes with the catalog of Elvis Costello who was driving back from a basketball game in Brattleboro last night and my MP3 player pumped up a bunch of songs like, oh shoot, I'm blanking on the title of it, pump it up or something like that. But a couple of other things as well, waiting for the end of the world. Some songs that we've played on the program before. Here's a guy who has been so involved in

Popular music in a variety of genres for 50 years now. It's hard to believe but starting out in in punk a new wave He's delved into Country a little bit has a great appreciation for some of the standards of the the 40s and 50s just a fantastic fantastic songwriter and composer and musician Elvis Costello Given us a little bit of bump music here on Saturday sports talk Greg Fennell with you This time of the year is relatively quiet

for area high school teams in fact new hamsher high school teams very rarely play anything meaningful uh... between christmas and uh... do yours and you know basically few days on on either side of the holidays as well from our teams will sometimes schedule games uh... in uh... league formats uh... i had the joy last night of broadcasting a brattleborough high school game against the team from massachusetts you don't uh... see that happening very often that far south uh... in uh... the state of a month but it's been known to happen uh...

So largely, you don't see a lot of activity. Some of it's meaningful. Some of it will play well down the road when it comes time to getting set up for state tournaments. But not a whole lot of it. Last night, just four games reported as far as activity involving boys basketball in the area. Rivendell getting its first victory of the season. Edging Sharon, 42-37. Raptors now 1-3. The Phoenix dropping to 0-4.

Windsor playing a league game but in a tournament format I think somewhat because they were preceded by a scheduled Stevens Fall Mountain contest supposedly no report on what happened in that contest but the Windsor Boys fell to Bellows Falls 58-51 and the Yellow Jackets are now 0-3 on the season with the Stevens taking them on today at 5-30 at Windsor High School. Randolph handed Woodstock its second straight loss 48-33 the final with Woodstock now 2-2 on the season

And early on, it appears that White River Valley is the squad to watch up in South Royalton. Wildcats have already beaten a pretty good Hartford team to open up the season. They are 5-0 after beating a reasonably good Danville team 58-46 last night. The Wildcats again 5-0 in Division 3 in Vermont. Danville, supposedly one of the better squads in Division 4, so that's a pretty good win for White River Valley last night. Just a couple of games on the girls basketball schedule in both in Vermont.

Hartford was a 59-31 winner over Rivendell with Charlotte Jasmine scoring 29 points and Ren Martell adding 12 for the Hurricanes. We're now 2-1 on the season heading over to Springfield on Monday. Rivendell falls to 2-2 and 2. And last night, Oxbow all over Woodstock 88-24. Olympians 2-0 on the early season. Woodstock is 1-3 after the lopsided defeat. Hockey teams in our area are all playing in holiday tournaments right now.

Hartford, Lebanon, Stevens, Masscoma, and Hanover all involved in play in their respective events. The Hartford contest, of course, is the Philadelphia Holiday Tournament, which has been going on for four or five years. Fantastic thing that Todd Bebo and the folks at Hartford High have done in trying to get area hockey teams involved. Woodstock has done it in the past, not in the field this year. Opening night, last night, saw Hartford roll over Lebanon, Stevens, Masscoma.

by a score of nine to four to improve to two and one on the season the raiders are all and three burn burden topped brattle burrow in the early game yesterday over the window bar would arena so it'll be eleven stevens maskoma taking on brattle burrow in the consolation game and burn burden meeting hard for in the championship game uh... that at six o'clock i don't believe that has some any impact on uh... league standings and it's considered a non-conference game but

points still to be won and awarded that will apply to a playoff contention a little bit later on this winter meanwhile handover as it traditionally does is down to jf k colesim and Manchester playing what is now called the brine stone memorial tournament it's an eighteen tournament all new Hampshire schools the games don't factor into playoff competition and teams can play up to four games in them and uh... not follow the run afoul of nh i double a scheduling rules the attorney started on thursday on the day after christmas

Hanover and Bo played to a 4-4 tie with the Falcons ultimately winning the game in a three-on-three overtime because that is not a format recognized by the National Federation of High Schools. The result goes in Hanover's records as a tie but it knocked the Bears into the consolation bracket of the tournament where they beat Trinity last night by a score.

of four to two. The Bears got two goals in the first period. Pioneers responded with two in the second, and the Bears got two more in the third, putting 49 shots on the Trinity goaltender last night. Ronan Przilski had a hat trick for the Bears. Kellen Hall had his first career goal, a couple assists for Henry Cotter, Ryder Wilson, and Rex Cheney also had assists, and Jojo Drent got the win in goal.

with twenty six saves for the bears to continue in the tournament tonight and wrap it all up meanwhile uh... handover girls traditionally over the past few years of host of their own holiday tournament over at camp in rink and it allows john dodds and the uh... the bears to continue what they've done for many many years bring in higher level competition than what they're used to seeing in nh i double a play there's usually one or two teams that can play with handover or are better than handover they usually come from uh... the south like st thomas dover

has been one of the prominent ones, and occasionally Bishop Gerten comes up with a strong squad to compete as well. The Bears, of course, defending NHIAA champions. They opened up their hound over a holiday tournament at Campion yesterday by beating Essex out of Vermont 6-1 to improve to 2-0 on the season. Highlight to the contest saw Pauline Rudd get her first varsity goal, redirecting a Lucy Braga one-timer. Ultimately, Catherine Mosley had a couple of goals, Emma Richardson had one, also Nora Bradley with a score in Rachel Rockmore and Rudd.

with a goal and an assist each couple of helpers for Hannah Gardner and for Lucy Braga also assists for Maggie Feng and Faith Lindsay and L.R. Edson and J.J. Maslin shared the effort in goal for Hanover. The teams will play again today with Hanover playing in the championship at 3.10. They will face the Sal Academy out of Rhode Island, which was a winner over BFA St. Albans yesterday.

in the opening round of activity. So, good hockey action going on in a tournament format. The girls over at Campion with Hanover and the boys with Hartford and Levitt and Stevens-Maskoma at Wendell Barrwood Arena in White River Junction to wrap up the Phillip with Thillier tournament a little bit later on today. Now, other games on the schedule outside of the tournament format. Very light. Oxbow boys have Arlington in town for two-thirty date.

in Vermont Division 3 and 4 play Arlington from 4 and Oxbow from 3. White River Valley girls will go down to Arlington for an 11 o'clock contest this morning. Woodstock Hockey teams are both in action today. The boys will go to Mesiskoy that's an 8 o'clock face off. The girls have Stowe coming to Union Arena for what it will be a 645 start. Lebanon hosting wrestling action as we speak. It's a neighborhood throw down with Mascoma and Newport coming to Lebanon for a 3 school match and indoor track activity going on today. Plymouth State

Hosting another NHI-AA meet, Hanover and Newport sending teams there, and the Vermont Interscholastic Track Association has its weekly meetup at UVM, so Hartford will make the trip up there to compete in that. In fact, they are doing it as we speak. If you didn't catch it from the local paper, indoor track preview this week indicated there's still a lot of good talent out there for a possible competition for state honors. Hartford, I think one state last year for boys, or at least was way up there,

They still have a good runner in Barrett, Marino, some good talent in the jumps and the throws, and you've also got Fedford with a real strong roster, used to success outdoors, now enjoying it indoors as well. There are ones to watch as they go through the next month or so before heading up to states. I think that's usually either end of January or first week of February, but also fun when the Dartmouth Relays show up first full weekend after the new year, and the high school competition can be really good because you draw.

athletes not just from the upper valley but throughout the northeast and some coming down from Quebec to compete in in a real fine atmosphere over at lever own field house standings early on not a whole lot to talk about because the season is so young but a little more activity happening in Vermont right now as boys basketball finds itself cranking up Montpelier expected to be really good in Division 2 they're the ones who knocked out Hartford

in the state final at berry auditorium last year. They're already off to that fine two and one start. Meanwhile, in southern Vermont, league play, Hartford, one and one league play and three and one overall through the early portion of the schedule. My God, that's crew will be back in action. They were supposed to play on Monday and should have burned Burton coming into town for seven o'clock date and then a home date with Springfield next week. They lost that opener.

surprisingly to White River Valley 68-59 but Hartford looking really good since then with a route of Oxbow, a narrow victory over Otter Valley and most impressively on Monday made the trip up to Essex to play a Division I foe and got the win beating the Hornets.

58 to 47 from here on out though to the SVL action with the occasional non-leaguered with folks like Middlebury on the schedule. So Mike certainly getting his team tuned up for another run at breaking that long absence of a state championship dating back 95 years last time that Hartford lifted a Vermont state championship.

in Boyz basketball. Gonna take a break from high school. Look ahead to what's happening at Dartmouth. Next, maybe come back to the schools a little bit. That's all coming up next year. It's 935, you're listening to Saturday Sports Talk. WNTK and WVR.

you

WNGK is the only place in the entire world that at 9.40 a.m. on eastern time on any and every single Saturday morning edition of Saturday Sports Talk you will get your hit of the Ramones you should you need it to get your day started 9.40 here on a Saturday Sports Talk Greg Fennell with you 6 0 3 8 6 3 8 4 2 3

I believe it's the phone number, Jesse in the studio, a new port will get you in on the program. Of course we've got... Fantastic, it's nice to know that a couple of the neurons are actually working today. And Rich and Woody will be here at 10.06 for Valley Buzz to take you up until 12 o'clock. We do this every Saturday from the Hilton Garden in in Lebanon, Le Bombard Road, right next door to the brand new climbing gym. I forget the name of the place, but just opened up last month and every time I leave here on a Saturday morning, it looks like the parking lot is full.

The climbing community has its place to go if you're not heading over to the Dartmouth Coach Bus Depot, which is right down the street as well. Thank you to the folks here at the Hilton Garden Inn, so hospitable. Get my coffee here, get myself started. It's a nice way to spend a Saturday morning talking to you folks about what's going on around the Upper Valley, which includes Dartmouth Athletics, but not a whole lot right now. But what is happening is really kind of fun and it's an event that I've always really enjoyed. I know I love covering it.

Back in the day. It's the led your classic. It used to be known as the alding zine classic This year's edition is the 35th one and features Providence Northeastern and for the first time a school from Alaska Alaska Anchorage the sea wolves are in town to play dart with at seven o'clock tonight a lot of fond memories of it from a number of fronts I remember a one-time University of North Dakota came out and this was at the time when the schools fighting soon nickname was creating

so much controversy around the college hockey community. Of course, North Carolina or North Dakotans kept their heels dug in for the most part about a name that objectified another race and ultimately gave in. I forget what the compromise was, but after many, many years finally gave in and cut the tribe a break.

But back then, it was something of a controversy that the coaching staff really didn't want to talk about. The players didn't want to talk about a whole lot. But what was neat, if you think back to it, was the level of talent that came into town from North Dakota at the time. And we're talking probably 20 years ago thereabouts. Dan... Shoot, I forget the name of the guy, but he was... I hate it when I have these blanks.

But the coach ultimately went on to the NHL, coached the Philadelphia Flyers for a while. I think he might be in the league out west. And the team could have had a lot of high level talent in Hanover for the tournament, but a lot of them were on their national teams for the World Junior Championships, which occur this time of the year every year. So ultimately, Patrick Kane could have played at Thompson Arena that weekend, but he was off competing for Team USA.

The only player that I recall who ultimately went on to the NHL was TJ Oshie, who was on that North Dakota roster back in 01, I think it was, or 02, when they came out to hand over. I'm also looking up on newspapers.com, one of my fondest memories of covering the tournament. And it was a preview story before the, let me get up to the top of the page here, the 04 tournament. It involved Bowling Green University,

And a goaltender named Jordan Sigollet. Jordan was a very top run goal tender, ultimately would get into the pros very briefly, get in a game for the Boston Bruins. And there was a very important reason why. The week before Bowling Green came out east to take on Dart, but at the ledger, and I think it was still all designed at that time, was prior to coming out here, he revealed publicly that he had just received a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis.

And despite this condition, which I think leads to fluid building up the lungs if I'm not mistaken, it's a very hard thing to be an athlete and still have to deal with this. He said that he was going to continue his college hockey career and continue to try to achieve his dream of playing professionally. He was also playing at Bowling Green at the same time as his brother, Jonathan, was a big rangey defenseman. So there was that element as well.

The news came out about a week before Bowling Green was supposed to come out east, so I was able to get through to the Bowling Green Sports Information Department, had an interview with Jordan, it was really good, and what I remember most about it was the next night after the story ran in the local paper. I met Thompson Arena, I'm getting set to cover the games, and introductions are going, and the PA announcer goes through the full lineup of Bowling Green players, and then announces Jordan Sigolet,

as the starting goaltender and the crowd response was just a little bit higher than you might have anticipated for a visiting team that nobody knew anything about and that was because of you know sorry to beat my own chest on this one that that story had something to do with it so it was really kind of cool to see how people responded to him that's the kind of thing that makes this tournament so fun if Dartmouth has difficulty getting teams from outside the northeast then I think it loses a little bit of its sparkle yeah I mean maybe you can be a little bit jaded about

Hockey East teams coming up here because Dartmouth plays them on a regular basis. The catch is they tend to usually only play UNH or UVM. Sometimes BC, sometimes BU, but beyond that, not a whole lot. So to get a hockey East team up here, okay, fine. Thank you for coming. Hope you have a good tournament. Have a great season. It's great to have teams from other parts of the country. It's great to have North Dakota come out. It's great to have Bowling Green here. I think Air Force has been here before. Denver has been here before.

So to have Anchorage, Alaska, or I should say, Alaska Anchorage in for the tournament tonight is really kind of a cool thing. And you get to see players from a totally different part of the country. I was looking at the roster before. Yeah, they're largely Alaskans, but there are plenty of Canadians on the team, some guys from New York State. Whatever the motivation that's led their staff to knock off five time zones to come out here to play the tournament, good on them. It's nice to have them out here. As for the Big Green,

They've had a pretty good season so far. They've been in the national polls for six straight weeks. They started that stretch at number 17. They have bumped up and down from there, but not gotten a whole lot higher. The one thing I did notice, though, several weeks ago was because of the fine start they had, they were already up to fourth in the pairwise rankings. And I've explained with these before, I'll try to do it again. It is a comparison that the NHIAA Ice Hockey Committee uses to set the 16 team division 1 tournament

at the end of conference tournament play in mid-March and it sets up comparisons between two teams in five different areas i don't know the exact areas but i think uh... uh... record against top ten teams or uh... record over the final ten games or things like that uh... things in which you can do comparisons and every team in the country in the vision one there about five dozen of them i think teams with five hundred records are the only ones that get considered in these comparisons and you

Compare each one of them head to head, whoever wins the most comparisons gets a point, whoever gets the most points is the top ranked team in the pair wise rankings. Now, of course, you have conference tournaments, you have automatic bids. I think there's six conferences that get automatic bids into the NCAA tournament. But with only a 16 team tournament, it's difficult to get into it. And the pair wise rankings are very, very important. So the better you do, the better you show up in the rankings, it's kind of like the RPI's.

in college baseball, college basketball, a single ranking system. But here, it's all head to head, even on teams that don't face each other. And it really is a good system in that you get the 16 best teams beyond the conference champions into the tournament. It's something that Dartmouth has not succeeded in doing in 44 years, getting into the NCAA tournament. So if he maintains a top 10 in the pairwise rankings, you're doing really well.

Dartmouth has slipped over the past couple of games. They haven't played in two weeks since a 3-3 tie with UNH. So that first was a 4-5-6 game undefeated streak that got them up in the pairwise. They've dropped back down. But it's still, you know, we're barely into the second half of the season. All games matter, not just league games. And of course, you can solve the whole problem by winning the ECAC conference tournament in March. What's Dartmouth doing well so far this year? Their power play percentage and goals per game are best in the ECAC.

They are heading at a 29% clip in conference play. Very, very good. Leading point score is so far, Nikita Dakura, sophomore is 14 points. Largely assists. He's got 12 of his points on assists so far this year. Sean Chisholm is a team high. Seven goals and freshman Hayden Stavaroff with six so far this year. Gold tender Rowan Clark has played very well. Has been a nice step up into a vacancy after Dartmouth lost its Gold tender from last year to a professional contract.

And CJ Foley, guy to watch with assist per game, nearly one per game, second among defenseman in the country in that department. Dartmouth, six, three, and two, so far this year. If you count the calendar year itself of 2024, 16, nine, and five. So Reid Cashman doing a real nice job with the Dartmouth hockey program, making it competitive again. But one thing that bothers me is the amount of money Dartmouth charges for tickets out of curiosity

I was looking at the cost of tickets for tonight's double header. And admittedly, they're charging for two games with $35 to go to see those games tonight, whether you go to one game or two. And that's going to have a negative effect on the crowd. Dartmouth is a hockey school. It's a football school. It's a hockey school. And the atmosphere, it's at its best when you get 3,000 or 4,000 people into Thompson Arena, seating capacities, 3,500 plus about another 1,000 for standees.

That's what I remember most of about 20 years ago when the program went through its most recent heyday. They would get 3,000 people a game dropping a bucket frequently with top 4,000. Occasionally would sell the place out. And the atmosphere was fantastic. Even if you had several hundred Cornell fans down for Dartmouth Cornell game, it was always great. But if you're charging that much money for tickets, you're automatically depressing your crowd. Before we go to the break,

The example I want you to remember, think back to the USFL about 40 years ago. First year, Michigan Panthers playing in the Pontiac Silver Dome, they drew reasonably well, maybe 20,000 per game. Made the playoffs were a favor to go for the championship and for their first playoff game, they dropped ticket prices. Their crowd increased by 300%. They had like 60,000 people for that game. You make it affordable, you make it entertaining, people will come out for it.

You don't have to balance your budget on the hockey program alone. I think Dartmouth needs to reconsider what it charges for its tickets. All right, one last time out here and we'll come back and look ahead to what else is happening in the near future as far as Dartmouth is concerned. This is Saturday's Sports Talk with L.U.N.T.K.W. U.V.R. It's friends and ex-loves and enemies. I got you cases in front of me to play.

You won't ever let me be I got you names and your numbers pop up I brought her sleeping Baby, don't you know you can't get me

getting into the radio here on Saturday's Sports Talk. Radio songs all over the place for our Bump Music REM song. In fact, call it radio song, followed by Elvis Costello's radio radio, talking into the radio head off of the True Stories album, which was also the soundtrack for a movie of the same name directed by the heads.

David Byrne featured John Coleman and Susie Kurtz involved in it as well. Your mandatory Ramones, do you remember rock and roll radio through an 18-year career that's the only song that Ramones did that had radio in the title? Surprises me. Joe Jackson's on your radio and is the selector with on my radio, one of the two bands along with the specials that kicked off the Scott Revival in the early 80s in Great Britain. That's your music here on Saturday Sports Talk

at 9.55. Greg Fennell with you for a couple more minutes. Rich and Woody with Valley Buzz coming up at the top of the hour. The Ledger Classic getting activity going again at Dartmouth this weekend at the Thompson Arena. Other sports will pick up a slack here in the near future. In particular, happening with men's and women's basketballs are going to play other folks from down I-89. The Chargers of Colby Sawyer College

in a women's men's double header coming up on wednesday up at lead arena the women are going to play at one o'clock and the men will meet at uh... five o'clock and obviously tickets available to catch up on those contests other programs warming up women's hockey's been off since the beginning of december it's been a struggle for lower croll and company this year brand new coach uh... trying to uh... revive a program that uh... was nationally competitive twenty years ago but it's really been on the struggles for the past decade or so

They will go down to Durham on Monday for a six o'clock date with the University of New Hampshire at the Whitmore Center, Dartmouth 0 and 14, I think so far in the year. But keep in mind that eight of those games have been against teams with national rankings.

Offense has been a problem for Dartmouth and the Women's Hockey Program this year. They've been shut out multiple times, I think four or five times so far this year. Have showed a little bit more offensive potential lately. Thanksgiving weekend, they lost a couple of games to Minnesota State, at Thompson Arena, but scored a couple of goals in the latter contest before losing an overtime. Put three on six-strength Clarkson in their next to last game before their December rake lost, that one five to two.

They come into it after being blanked by number 11 St. Lawrence back on the 7th of December. After that, Big Green gets back into ECAC competition where they are 0-10 so far this year, I believe. We'll have a home and home with Harvard next weekend. They'll play down at the Bright Landry Hockey Center in Cambridge on Friday. And they'll come back here for a 3 o'clock matinee next Saturday. And that's a kids club post-game press conference as well. Always a fun event for young players meeting some of their heroes at the college hockey level. So I hope you can take part

in that as well. The other schedule for stuff coming up for Dartmouth, aside from women's and men's basketball on Wednesday and women's ice hockey picking up next Friday, league play will resume for Dartmouth men's hockey following getting done with the lead your tournament this weekend. They will find themselves, actually I should say they're going to have non-conference hockey coming up next

with a trip down to Merrimack a week from tomorrow for a matinee against the Warriors and then league play will pick up for Dartmouth shortly after that. Activity going on for high school sports also is going to be a little lacking in the next week or so because we have New Year coming up next Wednesday but things will really get going. I think basically next Friday is when it's all going to get really going.

with a lot of our basketball teams back in action. But early season activity, early week activity, Windsor Boys basketball going down to Springfield the same night that Hartford will be down there as well. The Windsor Boys will play a 2.30 matinee on Monday. The girls playing Springfield at 7. Hartford Boys at home to Buren Burden. I think we mentioned that before. Woodstock going off to Green Mountain. Oxbow up to Blue Mountain on Monday.

and then uh... winds are in woodstock girls who will meet down at winter high school monday night seven share and we'll have them as she coming into town hard for boys hockey wrapping up the bithilliar tournament this weekend will go to rutland on uh... monday and woodstock boys are burned burden with handover girls at home to south glens fall central of new york that's it for today's edition of saturday's sports talk we got rich and woody coming up momentarily i'm greg fennel you've been listening to saturday sports talk right here at wnck and w u v r have a good new years and we'll talk to you next year