Hockey

The fact that our two major winter sports have reached their respective championship series makes for an inevitable comparison.The NBA is, of course, riding high, with its marquee player, Michael Jordan, and marquee team, the Chicago Bulls, in its ultimate showcase, bringing strong ratings for NBC.Meanwhile, the NHL plays the little league that could, continuing a solid if not spectacular climb on the way to imprinting itself in the American consciousness as...

Before yesterday, area NHL fans might have been singing a sad tune about the lack of games on local television. In fact, it could have gone like this (with apologies to The Who's "Baba O'Riley"):Out here on the dial,you could search for a while,and never find a little hockey.It may not have been right,and not seemed too bright.As a matter of fact, it was downright schlocky.Hockey wasteland, it's only hockey wasteland.Those days are over, though. Home Team Sports yesterday reached an agreement with SportsChannel America to carry SCA's NHL package.

The National Hockey League and its players association reached a six-year collective bargaining agreement yesterday, ending a 10-month lockout that cost the league a season and, many say, the interest of sports fans nationwide. The league did not immediately release details of the deal, which still must be ratified by both sides. But wire reports said the agreement will include many changes the league and its owners sought, including a hard salary cap and revenue sharing. The deal also includes an unprecedented 24 percent rollback on existing contracts.

The sounds of family life rattled in the background as Washington Capitals defenseman Jason Doig talked about what he is doing during the National Hockey League's lockout, which has discontinued the game for the foreseeable future. "We're about to have lunch," Doig said during a phone conversation last week, as his wife, Faye, set the table and their children, Jaggar, 11 months, and Kyla, 3 1/2 years, clamored. He and his family are living in an apartment in Baltimore while he is in rehab at the Maryland Sports Care and Rehab Clinic in Westminster for a wrist injury he suffered near the end of last season.

Hockey has changed? A more refined sport? A less physical sport? When the Pittsburgh Penguins' Mario Lemieux returned to the NHL ice last month for the first time in 3 1/2 years, that's what he perceived. And others echoed his words. Less clutch and grab, they said. More room for him to skate. The perfect palette for Lemieux's magic skates. So, what's this going on in Pittsburgh? General manager Craig Patrick spent last week assembling players who could work overtime in the WWF. Steve McKenna, 6 feet 8, 255 pounds; Kevin Stevens, 6-5, 235; and Krzysztof Oliwa, 6-3, 230, from Minnesota, Philadelphia and Columbus, respectively.

BURLINGTON, Vt. -- They skated with abandon, these University of Vermont hockey players. After a disappointing record last year, they took to the ice this season with the hope that their teamwork would lead to a string of victories and a bid for the playoffs. But soon after the Catamounts played their first league games, the X-rated details of a preseason hockey team party embroiled the university in a hazing scandal. University athletic officials were accused of not doing enough to try and stop the Big Night party, despite a warning that rookie team members would be ordered to consume excessive amounts of alcohol.

When a platoon of Canadians spills into the United States carrying helmets, gloves and long sticks, one word traditionally comes to mind: hockey.But yesterday, the Oshawa Blue Knights from outside Toronto cut a swath through the fields of Cockeysville as testament to the fastest-growing sport of the northern neighbors: lacrosse.The 9- and 10-year-olds became the 1999 STX-Cockeysville Invitational Tournament's star attraction not just for winning three games in as many hours. The team traveled the farthest among 102 teams participating.

In one corner was Al Iafrate, hockey player, fourth-fastest skater in the NHL, 6 feet 3, 220 pounds, goes by the nickname of "Wild Thing," shoulder-length brown hair with a bald spot larger than the Montreal Forum, rides a Harley and relaxes after games by lighting up a cigarette with a blowtorch.In the other corner was Cathy Turner, short-track speed skater, 1992 Winter Olympic gold medalist, 5 feet 3, 130 pounds, a former lounge singer who wrote the song "Sexy, Kinky Tomboy," blond hair shaved on the sides, favorite mode of transportation unknown, doesn't smoke.

Roger Neilson, whose eccentric manner and spectacularly ugly neckties masked one of the sharpest minds in hockey, died yesterday at his home in the Ontario, Canada, community of Peterborough. He turned 69 last Monday. Neilson had suffered from multiple myeloma - cancer of the bone marrow - and skin cancer. The disease reportedly had spread to his brain. Although he never advanced beyond junior hockey as a player, Neilson coached eight NHL teams. A coach, assistant coach, scout or video coordinator for NHL teams every year since 1977, he was an assistant with the Ottawa Senators last season.

He would nervously roam the Civic Center during Clippers games, chomping on his cheap cigar and thrusting his arm in the air when the team rallied."Yowsah!" Terry Reardon would yell in delight.Reardon, the Clippers general manager and sometimes coach in the 1960s and '70s and once known as Baltimore's "Mr. Hockey," died Sunday of cardiac failure. He was 73."Terry did a lot of things for hockey in Baltimore," said Ray "Gump" Embro, the Clippers reserve goalie and trainer in those days. "Crowds averaged 7,000 to 9,000.