The Buffalo News from Buffalo, New York • 10

B2 Tim Buffalo NewsSaturday March 3 Continued from Sports Cover Sports on the Air By Alan Pergament Kalinin gets second goal in four games time cut on Sports Zone Ghannel 2 has quietly ended its 15 minute sports experiment on the 10 newscast that began airing on WNYO TV about 10 monthsago Without fanfare Spoils Director Ed time has been drastically cut from half the program The low ratings of the sports segment of the newscast which averaged 9 in November and 14 in ebruary for the full 30 minutes were the cause In early ebruary the Sports Zone segment was reduced to between six and eight minutes That is still more than twice as long as sports gets in lo cal newscasts at 6 pm and 11 pm un less some big sports news happens The Sports Zone reduction comes just when the sports calendar is about to become very busy with the high school basketball playoffs the NCAA basketball tournament the Buffalo Sa run in the National Hockey League playoffs the NBA playoffs and the start of the Major League Baseball season However the 10:15 pm sports cast often competes with live sports ac tion this happens especially when the Sabres are in the playoffs Channel 2 had hoped the extended sports segment would attract those fans who missed the Empire Sports Network after Adelphia shut it down The flurry of trades made by the Sa bres on Tuesday was big news locally 1 but even it translate into huge 4 ratings Channel telecast on WNYO 5 which gets a lousy lead in had a 12 rat ing at 10 pm and a 15 at 10:15 pm 1 That was a small fraction of the 57 that il Channel 10 pm news averaged on Channel 10 pm ratings have no ticeably improved since sports has cut The low ratings for the sports would seem to validate the opinion of news consultants that sports is of only marginal interest to local news viewers because so many high lights shows now air on cable and re suits are quickly available on the Inter net Channel 7s sports experiment at 7 weekdays on WNGS also is having difficulty finding an audience The WNGS program register enough1 viewers to get a rating Tuesday the day of the Sabres trades While interest in the Sabres has ris en dramatically with their success rat ings for their games on MSG exactly been huge The Thursday Night ights in the eb 22 game with Ottawa had a 54 rating making it no match for the popular network shows that air that night Those fights led to a heavily hyped rematch on Saturday eb 24 when the network competition is mini mal The exciting game won by Otta wa 6 5 had a 65 rating And victoiy over Toronto played after a day of trading but carried opposite had a 47 rating You have to laugh at the different treatment the Sabres and the Bills of ten get on the only sports station in town WGR AM On the day that Sa bres General Manager Darcy Regier was wheeling and dealing the sports hosts and reporters were so taken by i the moves you wondered if Sabres managing partner Larry Quinn was on the telephone feeding them informa tion On the other hand many of the sta sports hosts were hammering the Bills for signing defensive lineman Chris Kelsay to a lucrative contract rather than allow him to leave in free I agency If Kelsay had been a free agent Sabre you can just about be assured the WGR hosts would have praised the willingness to empty their pock etbooks Before the Sabres returned to WGR the coverage seemed much imore objective actually laughingly critical is more like it than it is now that the station and the team are mar ried to each other 1 Good news for college basketball I fans who get ESPNU and were I concerned they would miss some big Championship Week games on one of the ESPN channels carrying 89 games It looks like the games on ESPNU that will be most missed are between teams in the Horizon League the West Coast Conference Big West Conference I and Big 12 Conference and teams in the Big East The Metro Atlantic Athletic Confer ence title game Niagara and league) airs at 9 pm MondayL on ESPN2 The Atlantic 10 Conference title game (St league) starts at 6 pm March 10 on ESPN an hour before the Mid American Confer 3 ence title game league) airs on 9ESPN2 mail: apergamenttmffnewscom SABRES from Bl came out great We made mistakes and got careless in our end but at the same time we really went after Newly acquired forward Dainius Zu bras had zero points but need to be a factor The injury ravaged Sabres have scored five goals or more in five straight games and are 9 0 with a shootout loss in their past 10 home games Zubrus said of his new teammates go When they go they go and I mean everybody starting from the forwards all the way to the not used to seeing the in front of me in the attack But On the flip side Ryan Miller endured a rough statistical night He made 27 saves His counterpart David Aebischer was shakier making just 23 you can have a good five goal game that was a pretty good five goal Ruff said of Miller couple situations were bang bang A couple were little mis directions that ended up on a different stick At the same time he made some real good The Sabres tore into the Canadiens be fore the slush melted off the shoes Kalinin scored 80 seconds into the game He redirected a pass over Aebischer for his second goal in four games after go ing 18 in a row without one Twenty sec onds later Ryan potted his first NHL goal and Numminen made it 3 0 with a one timer from file point At 7:06 of the second Montreal winger Michael Ryder scored a power play goal Ryan answered with a short handed goal 28 seconds later to give the Sabres a 4 1 lead But within less than two minutes the Canadiens scored a pair of goals in a 23 second span Radek Bonk scored on Lyd mlr I 'verizpn 0 i I John HickeyBuffalo News Thomas Vanek scores an empty net goal to finish offthe 8 5 victory over the Canadipnc power play and Mark Streit roofed a shot to make the score 4 3 second period we got a little slop py with the puck turned the puck over a lot of times and it seemed to end up in our net as Buffalo defenseman Toni Lyd man said were trading too many The Sabres grabbed another two goal lead on power play blast from the right dot but Montreal responded in just 21 seconds on center Tomas point blank chip shot Vanek gave Buffalo a 6 4 edge 6:26 into the third period with a wraparound goal Montreal kept it close on sec ond goal 90 seconds later mail: tgrahjambuffnewscom Sabres 8 Canadiens 5 Montreal 0 4 Buffalo 2 3 irst 1 Buffalo Kalinin 5 (Pominville Hecht) 1:20 2 Buffalo Ryan 1 (Mair Campbell) 1:40 Penal ties Kovalev Mon (slashing) 3 :30 Dandenault Mon (hooking) 11:17 Lyd man Buf (hooking) 14:27 Second Period 3 Buffalo Numminen 2 (Roy Hecht) 2:30 4 Montreal Ryder 22 (Plekanec Souray) 7:06 (pp) 5 Buf falo Ryan 2 (Hecht Numminen) 7:34 (sh) 6 Montreal Bonk 11 (Johnson Kos titsyn) 9:03 (pp) 7 Montreal Streit 8 (Komisarek Begin) 9:26 8 Buffalo Roy 13 (Numminen Pominville) 17:07 (pp) 9 Montreal Plekanec 15 (Kostitsyn Ko valev) 17:28 Markov Mon (tripping) :29 Kaleta Buf (roughing) 6:18 Lydman Buf (high sticking) 7:06 Kaleta Buf (roughing) 14:03 Lapierre Mon (roughing) 14:03 Dandenault Mon (hooking) 15:13 Lapierre Mon (hooking) 18:32 Third 10 Buffalo Vanek 33 (Roy Lydman) 6:26 11 Montreal Ple kanec 16 (Bouillon Streit) 8:56 (pp) 12 Buffalo Staffords (Campbell Roy) 9:35 13 Buffalo Vanek 34 (Stafford Lyd man) 19:36 (en) Lydman Buf (tripping) 1:19 Johnson Mon (trip ping) 3:57 Campbell Buf (interfer ence) 7:38 Shots on Montreal 9 14 9 32 Buffalo 9 14 7 30 Power play opportunitics Montreal 3of5Buffalolof6 Goalies Montreal Aebischer 11 11 3 (29 shots 22 saves) Buffalo Miller 31 12 4(32 27) Attendance 18690 (18690) Time 2:26 Bill McCreary Rob Shick Li nesmen Scott Driscoll Jean Morin Seniors come through in win CANISIUS from Bl the quarterfinals today at 4 (MSG Radio 710 AM) Second seeded Niagara (19 11) plays its quarterfi nal tonight at 7:30 (Time Warner 72 Radio 1440 AM) against Rider (16 14) which beat Iona 77 62 Canisius led for the final 25 minutes in snap ping a skid that dated to Jan 29 The win averted a season ending nine game disaster that would have been the longest in 30 years never talked about it but they were under a lot of admitted Parrotta a winner in his first postseason game all were under a lot of pressure It was a credit to these guys that never given Senior forward Darnell Wilson led Canisius with 19 points and eight rebounds Seniors Chuck Harris and Corey Herring added 12 and 10 points respectively Junior Pawel Malesa came off the bench for eight points and five rebounds nailing a key three pointer in each half The 48 points allowed were the fewest the Griffs have yielded in a postseason game since an 8444' whipping of Siena in HSBC Arena in 1997 Saint (5 25) hit just 19 of 54 shots in cluding only 3 of 18 from three point range Mean while the Griffs hit 47 percent for the game and were 12 of 22 in the second half as they broke away from a 29 25 halftime lead losing a few games in a row a lot of emotions are swirling around and opportu nities for people to go in different Par otta said group has never done The Griffs overcame a 16 1 Saint run to take their lead at intermission and quickly grabbed control with an 11 2 burst to start the sec ond half Malesa the junior college transfer from Po land hit a momentum turning three pointer in the first half off a backward bounce pass from Harris It got Canisius within 20 19 and snapped a 7 minute stretch without a field goal In the second half Malesa took a Wilson kick out atop the arc and drilled a trey with 7:39 left to put Canisius up by double figures for good at 50 39 and snap another four minute drought three points shots is the thing Par rotta expects me to said Malesa think I made a pretty important shot there in the first good for Harris said 1 1 ft 3 4 KM H' A' i James McCoyBuffalo News Chuck Harris looks to shoot against two Saint defenders learned over the season he can get going and hit 10 12 straight I just wanted to find him and get him going a real The Griffs will need more of those contribu tions today against Marist a team they split with during the regular season and are 7 3 against in the last 10 meetings The teams have split postsea son meetings the last two years Marist (23 7) has won eight straight and fea tures the best backcourt in seniors Will Whittington and Jared Jordan the conference player of the year have to make them work for Harris said and Jordan can get go ing real fast We just have to work on defense and keep up with their mail: rnharringtonbuffnewscani Canisius has split two with Marist SULLIVAN from Bl break He stole a pass hustled downcourt and converted rank lob for a dunk Wilso was the best player on the floor Wil son has been an easy target for criticism in his four years But he passed Larry ogle for 12th on the career scoring list riday and went by Darrell Barley for eighth on the career rebound ing chart Now Wilson and his fellow seniors (Chuck Harris and Corey Herring) have a chance to ac complish something truly meaningful This after noon at 4 they take on Marist the top seed By pulling a big upset they would ad vance to a MAAC semifinal for the first time in their careers and give program a sinn ing moment on which to build Canisius did that in John first season as coach in 1993 shocking Iona in the quarters as a seventh seed to set the tone for one of the most successful three year runs in school history a stretch that culminated in a MAAC tourney title and NCAA bid in 1996 The Griffs are capable Marist is a solid team on an eight game winning streak but hardly un beatable The Red oxes nearly as talented as last Iona team the Niagara champs of two years ago (or the year before) or the Manhat tan teams of 2003 04 Back on Jan 20 Canisius played its best game of the year against Marist at the Koessler Center shooting 55 percent in a convincing 10 point win The Griffs also played the Red oxes close on the road before losing in December it a David and Goliath type Parrotta said know that we can compete with that team We know we can beat them be cause we have We know we have to play our A game and we played our A game all The Griffs have no pressure and a fighting chance If Wilson can stay on the floor they might stay around a lot longer than anyone imagined mail: jsullivanlyuffnewscom SportsWatch Iwaiid radio listings Television today 11:30 AM ESPN2 Auto Racing: Mex 200 qualifying Noon 4 College Basketball: Con necticut at Georgetown Noon ESPN College Basketball: Illinois at Iowa or Michigan State at Wisconsin 1 PM 2 Gymnastics: Tyson American Cup 1 PM YES NBA: Boston Celtics at New Jersey Nets 2 PM 4 College Basketball: Pac 10 Teams TBA 2 PM ESPN College Basketball: Big South inal 2 PM ESPN2 College Basketball: Syracuse at Villanova 2 PM MSG College Basketball: ACC Tournament Semifinal 3 PM 2 11 Golf: Honda Classic 3:30 PM 7 College Basketball: North Carolina State at Maryland 4 PM 4 College Basketball: Ohio State at Michigan 4 PM ESPN College Basketball: Notre Dame at Rutgers 4 PM ESPN2 College Basketball: Atlantic Sun Tournament inal 4 PM MSG College Basketball: MAAC Quarterfinal Marist vs Canisius 6 PM ESPN2 College Basketball: Southern Conference Tournament inal 7 PM 5 MSG NHL: Buffalo Sa bres at Toronto Maple Leafs 7 PM YES College Basketball: Brown at Pennsylvania 7:30 PM TWC72 College Basket ball: MAAC Quarterfinal Niagara vs Rider 8 PM ESPN2 College Basketball: Ohio Valley inal 9 PM ESPN College Basketball: Pittsburgh at Marquette 9 PM SHOW Boxing: Israel Vaz quez vs Rafael Marquez super bantanweights 9:45 PM HBO Boxing: Miguel Angel Cotto vs Oktay Urkal wel terweights 10 PM 5 NHL: Calgary lames at Edmonton Oilers 10 PM ESPN2 College Basket ball: New Mexico State at Nevada 10 PM MSG College Basketball: MAAC Quarterfinal Loyola vs airfield Midnight MSG College Basket ball: MAAC Quarterfinal Siena vs Manhattan (same day delay) Television Sunday Noon 4 College Basketball: Ken tucky at lorida Noon 67 College Basketball: Se ton Hall at Louisville Noon ESPN Bowling: US Open 12:30 PM 2 NHL: Philadelphia lyers at Pittsburgh Penguins 2 PM 4 College Basketball: MVC inal 2 PM ESPN ESPN2 Auto Rac ing: 1 elcel Motorola Mexico 200 2 PM MSG College Basketball: MAAC inal 3 PM 2 11 Golf: Honda Classic 3 PM SNY College Basketball: CAA Semifinal 4 PM 4 College Basketball: Duke at North Carolina 4 PM MSG College Basketball: NEC Semifinal 5 PM SNY College Basketball: CAA Semifinal 5:30 PM ESPN2 Col lege Basketball: Conference USA inal 6 PM MSG College Basketball: MAAC Semifinal 6 PM YES NBA: New Jersey Nets at Philadelphia 76ers 7:30 PM ESPN2 Col lege Basketball: SEC inal 8 PM ESPN NBA: Utah Jazz at New Orleans Hornets 8:30 PM MSG College Basket ball: MAAC Semifinal 9:30 PM ESPN2 College Basket ball: West Coast Conf Semifinal PM ESPN2 College Bas ketball: West Coast Conference Semifinal Radio today 4 PM 710 College Basketball: Canisius vs Marist 7 PM 550 NHL: Buffalo Sabres at Toronto Maple Leafs 7 PM 1300 957 College Basket ball: St Bonaventure at Charlotte 7 PM 710 College Hockey: Cani sius vs AIC 7:30 PM 1440 College Basket ball: Niagara vs TBA Radio Sunday 2 PM 1520 NLL: Buffalo Bandits at Minnesota Swarm 2 PM 1330 1340 Auto Racing: Mexico 200 6 PM 1520 College Basketball: Ohio at UB 6 PM 710 College Basketball: Canisius vs TBA (if necessary) 8 PM 1440 College Basketball: Niagara vs TBA (if necessary).