NSN Blog

It's hard to believe that the US victory over the Soviet Union in hockey was 33 years ago today in the Olympics at Lake Placid.
I still get chills when I hear the call by Al Michaels.

BU's Mike Eruzione scored the winning goal and he has often said "A foot either way and I'm painting bridges for a living."

I was at the gold medal clinching game against Finland a couple of days later and as I often say, no victory that day and the victory over the Soviet Union is merely a footnote in history.

All kinds of college basketball and hockey playoff action this weekend. Check us out!

The Vermont Principals Association has announced its inductees for the class of 2013 and leading the list is retired Burr and Burton assistant headmaster Steve Houghton.
Nobody deserves the honor more than Steve who is the originator of the VPA Hall of Fame.
Joining Steve in the Administration category this year is retired St. Johnsbury Athletic Director Tom Conte.
Also to be inducted in the Activities and Athletics category are:
Jasmyn Huntington of Oxbow, Erin Sullivan of Mt. Mansfield, Ollie Dunlap of BFA-St. Albans, Rory Grimes of St. Johnsbury.
To be inducted in the Officials category: Soccer official Denny Miles of Northfield
In the Coaches and Activity Directors category:
Birger Vigsnes of Mt. Anthony, V. Roland Guyette of Vergennes,Orrie Jay of Burlington, Alan Plante of Mt. Anthony and Steve Ferreira of Essex.
All well deserving! The ceremony will be Friday May 3rd at the Capitol Plaza in Montpelier.

George Commo's Blog - Thursday 2-21-13
Sixth place Rutland comes to first place South Burlington and gives the Rebels all they can handle in a 3-1 game ... third place CVU travels to seventh place Spaulding and escapes with a 2-1 victory ... and over in the Lake Division Milton goes on the road and delivers a message by knocking off top ranked U-32. Throw in Burr and Burton's home win over Northfield in a big Lake Division showdown and you get the idea ... with a week remaining in the regular season the state boys high school hockey tournaments in both Divisions are shaping up as potentially the best ever!

Nothing is forever in sports, but in Buffalo it seemed at least one thing was ... Lindy Ruff was going to be the Coach of the Sabres. But that finally changed yesterday. Ruff was fired the day after an ugly loss that dropped the Sabres to 6-10-1 on the shortened NHL season. How long had Ruff been coaching in Buffalo? Well, when he got hired Bill Clinton was just beginning his second term as President. No one in Boston had ever heard of Theo Epstein or Big Papi. Hell, at age 47 George Commo was still the radio voice of the UVM Hockey Catamounts. Ruff was the longest-tenured coach in the NHL. One hundred and seventy coaching changes were made in the league while he was in Buffalo. He dodged them all ... until yesterday. Nothing is forever in sports, not even in Buffalo.

Nor is it in Boston ... but having said that I still think when the sun comes up tomorrow that Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett are going to be Celtics . Despite and the rumors circulating out there I don't think Danny Ainge is going to trade either one of those guys today. I'm not quite as convinced about Rajon Rondo but I don't think he'll be moved either.
Okay, there ... Commo has spoken ... I've cleared the way for the blockbusters!

George Commo's Blog - Wednesday 2-20-13
It is time for the University of Vermont men's basketball team to step up ... the Catamounts suffered back to back conference loses last week to BU and Stony Brook and with the America East tournament right around the corner the Cats need to turn things around in a hurry ... UVM is still looking at a second seed in the tournament, but with regular season games dwindling down the margin for error is getting smaller. So as they host Maine tonight at Patrick Gym it isn't out of order to say this is one of the bigger games of the season.

Meanwhile the Vermont Hockey Catamounts have a little winning streak going ... three straight victories heading into a two game series with UNH this weekend at Gutterson. We'll talk about the Hockey Cats and a lot more with sportswriter Ted Ryan on The Really Big Sports Show this morning on NSNradio.net .

I think Vergennes is a lock to make the Division 2 state championship game in boys basketball.
I'm reluctant to say Vergennes is a lock to win it all, but I wouldn't bet against it.

Proctor vs. West Rutland meeting in the Division 4 state championship game in girls basketball is a lock!

Castleton winning its 2nd straight NAC championship in womens basketball is not a lock, but it's close.

What I use to keep intruders from entering my house through the front door is a lock.

Rice vs. St. Johnsbury in the Division 1 boys basketball state championship game is not a lock.