On Line

PHILADELPHIA — The line currently torching the Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup finals was, not too long ago, cinders. From Jan. 23 to March 3, Ville Leino didn't play a game. Scott Hartnell's hair follicles offered more production than his blade. And in terms of full-season output, Danny Briere was at levels not seen since his rookie season. So Flyers coach Peter Laviolette concocted this grouping late in the season because, well, he had to. "When he put us together, there were so many injuries that that's what was left, I guess," Briere said Thursday.

Loyola coach Charley Toomey had arrived in Baltimore on a late-night flight from Denver just five hours before, and yet here he was in his office, already poring over game film of Johns Hopkins. No. 12 Loyola will host No. 20 Hopkins on Saturday at the Ridley Athletic Complex in a game that will have significant playoff ramifications for both teams. The winner is not guaranteed to make the 16-team Division I playoff field. "Our final game against Hopkins has always been meaningful, and this could determine for either team which one gets in and which one doesn't," Toomey said.

It has never been Connecticut's style to bow its flag to opponents. It's not that the Huskies don't respect them. They do. It's more about their attitude about themselves. And the bigger the parade, the tighter that insular focus becomes. So don't expect a different approach tonight when the Huskies play Baylor (27-9) in the national semifinals at the Alamodome. "It doesn't matter what the score is," coach Geno Auriemma said. "My players are always under the impression that they are going to win. ... I've seen teams that accept losing, say it's not our day today, we'll get it tomorrow.

A reactor at the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant has resumed operations after a planned refueling outage, owner Constellation Energy Nuclear Group announced Tuesday. In February, one reactor shut down after an electrical malfunction caused by melting snow on a leaky roof, triggering the other to shut down as well, a Constellation spokesman said at the time. One reactor returned to service March 1 after confirming there were no safety issues, but the second reactor was scheduled to be shut down for refueling.

At 6 feet 9, 340 pounds, Jared Gaither is the largest man in a locker room full of enormous men. This distinction isn't foreign to the 23-year-old left tackle from White Plains, considering that he has been the biggest player in virtually every room he has ever been in for as long as he can remember. But part of what's remarkable when you stand next to Gaither this season is the sensation that he is noticeably bigger than a year ago. Not taller, of course - he's already the tallest player in the NFL - but thicker, with shoulders the size of pot roasts and a chest that protrudes from his body like the front end of a Cadillac Escalade.

After the San Diego Chargers bent the Ravens' defense all game, it was Ray Lewis who broke them in the end. Shooting an inside gap on "fourth down-and-game," Lewis wrapped his arms around running back Darren Sproles in the backfield with 30 seconds left, securing a thrilling 31-26 victory over the Chargers on Sunday in front of 66,882 at Qualcomm Stadium. The tackle by Lewis at the Ravens' 20-yard line epitomized the strength of the Ravens' defense, which withstood Philip Rivers' 436 passing yards by holding San Diego without a touchdown in five red-zone trips.

Delays, cancellations and crowding are a way of life aboard Maryland's MARC Penn Line, but crowding has been worse than usual the past three weeks as the Maryland Transit Administration has struggled to round up enough locomotives to pull its trains. The main problem is that six of MARC's 10 electric locomotives are out of commission - forcing the use of less powerful diesel engines that can pull fewer rail cars, said MTA spokeswoman Jawauna Greene. The underlying issue: MARC's entire locomotive fleet is decades old. Crowding aside, MARC's locomotive troubles have not caused any additional commuter train delays or cancellations, Greene says.

The Anne Arundel Youth Lacrosse Club sent two boys teams to England on Wednesday in hopes of defending its Friendship Cup. During the two-week tour across the country, AAYLC's under-13 and under-15 clubs will take on English teams, culminating in a battle for the Friendship Cup. The Anne Arundel squad possesses the Cup and has a 26-3-1 record in defending it. As much as the American players care about winning and keeping the cup, lifelong friendship is...

A $1.2 billion, 150-mile power line that would cross Maryland and lay high-voltage cables under the Chesapeake Bay for the first time has been proposed to ease the threat of blackouts on the growing Delmarva Peninsula. But the proposal is generating opposition from environmentalists, landowners and even business interests in mostly rural Dorchester County, who worry that the project could disrupt farming, damage sensitive marshlands and blight the area's growing tourism. The Mid-Atlantic Power Pathway from Northern Virginia to Delaware has been proposed by Pepco Holdings Inc., the Washington-based parent company of Pepco and Delmarva Power, to upgrade the region's increasingly taxed electricity grid, which officials have warned could lead to outages or brownouts in as little as five years.