Zanor column: A new hockey rivalry, the greatest sports photo ever, and other thoughts

Just thought I’d empty out my reporter’s notebook while wondering how long the Boston Red Sox can make some noise in the American League East …

It’s banner time

The Connecticut Technical Conference has announced the dates for the league’s Spring Sports Playoffs.  Here is the league’s postseason schedule.

Baseball: May 20 (Quarterfinals at higher seed); May 21 (Semifinals at higher seeds); May 23 (Championship at Palmer Field, Middletown).

Softball: May 20 (Quarterfinals at higher seed); May 22 (Semifinals at higher seeds); May 24 (Championship, 12 p.m., at Albertus Magnus College, New Haven).

Track and Field: May 21 at 1 p.m. at Grasso Tech, Groton.

Boys golf: May 29 at 9 a.m. at Tallwood Country Club, Hebron.

Boys tennis: May 22 at 9 a.m. at Middletown.

Girls tennis: May 20 at 9 a.m. at Middletown.

Stanley Cup playoffs

The Stanley Cup playoffs never disappoint. Bruins versus Maple Leafs. Game 7. Overtime. David Pastrnak. Enough said.

And Pastrnak’s fight against Florida Panthers winger Matthew Tkachuk in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals? It moves Pastrnak way up on the list of my all-time favorite Bruins.

Of course, a potential Bruins-Rangers series to see who goes to the Stanley Cup Finals would raise the blood pressure for Boston and New York sports fans to levels unseen since the 2004 American League Championship Series.

Growing family

Gina Derosier Lindberg has officially resigned as the head coach of the Killingly girls basketball program. And it’s for a wonderful reason – she’s pregnant. Lindberg’s second child is due four days before the 2024-2025 season starts.

A Hall of Fame basketball player for the Redgals who went on to star at Mitchell College, Lindberg guided Killingly to ECC championships in 2020 and 2021. I've always enjoyed watching her "well-coached" teams compete and seeing her girls share the ball and not care who gets the credit while always trying to play the game the right way.  

Here’s wishing Lindberg and her growing family all the best. And perhaps, a triumphant return to the  sidelines down the road.

Trivia time

Who scored the first goal in Waterford girls lacrosse program history?

More: Spring notebook: Norwich Free Academy boys volleyball win streak ends at nine games

Another Boston-Montreal rivalry

It’s interesting to see one of sports greatest rivalries – Boston versus Montreal – start a new version in the Professional Women’s Hockey League.  The league’s inaugural playoffs got underway this week with a best-of-five semifinal series between Toronto and Minnesota and … yup, Boston and Montreal!

PWHL Boston took a 1-0 lead in the series with a thrilling 2-1 overtime win Thursday at Montreal’s Place Bell.

Susanna Tapani scored at 14:25 of overtime and goaltender Aerin Frankel, perhaps channeling her inner Gerry Cheevers, made a season-high and PWHL record 53 saves to lift Boston.

Game 2 is Saturday night in Montreal.

“Coming into Montréal, you know you’re going to have to weather the storm because the energy in this rink was tremendous,” said Boston head coach Courtney Kessel, whose club was outshot 54-26. “ It was loud from warmups to the end of that game, and we knew that (it would be). Did it go on a little bit longer than we wanted it to? Yeah, for sure, but I think you have to do what you have to do in the playoffs.”

I’ve always contended that the Bruins too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty in Game 7 of the 1979 Stanley Cup semifinals at the Montreal Forum was a worse Boston sports moment than the baseball going through Bill Buckner’s legs in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series.

When Rick Middleton scored the go-ahead goal with four minutes left in regulation, the Bruins were on the verge of ending Montreal’s dynasty and playoff success over the Bruins. Of course, with Montreal on the power play after the B’s were whistled for too many men on the ice, Guy Lafleur tied it at 4-4 with 1:14 remaining in regulation and Yvon Lambert’s overtime goal sent the defending champion Canadiens to the Stanley Cup Finals for the fourth straight year.

It was also Montreal’s 14th straight playoff series win over Boston. Arrghh!

If Buckner scoops up Mookie Wilson’s ground ball and tosses it to Bob Stanley (assuming Steamer gets over to the bag in time) for the third out, the Red Sox and Mets were heading into extra innings. Buckner’s miscue just sent the World Series to a Game 7.

A bigger baseball gaffe happened a few pitches before Wilson’s grounder when Stanley bounced a wild pitch that catcher Rich Gedman couldn’t handle, allowing the Mets to score the tying run. Yet somehow, Buckner is the all-time goat. I don’t buy it.

More: NFA battles former coach in girls lacrosse matchup

Trivia answer

Waterford girls lacrosse coach Taylor Shannon scored the program’s first goal in 2008. It was great seeing Shannon at this week’s NFA-Waterford game. After coaching NFA for five seasons, Shannon has her alma mater off to an 11-1 start. An All-Bulletin player for the Lancers, Shannon went on to play soccer and lacrosse at Eastern Connecticut State University.

Stuck in the '70s

On May 10, 1970, Bobby Orr scored 40 seconds into overtime against the St. Louis Blues to clinch the Boston Bruins first Stanley Cup since 1941. Boston Record-American photographer Ray Lussier’s image of Orr flying through the air after the goal is one of the most famous sports photographs of all time.

Canadian sports writer Stephen Brunt brilliantly described the photo in his book, "Searching for Bobby Orr."

“In real time, it all goes by in a flash. But that image, frozen in one of the greatest sports photographs ever captured, was singular and spectacular and laden with symbolism. Bobby Orr, taking off. And rather than bracing for the moment when gravity would surely reassert itself, rather than panicking at the sudden loss of control, in mid-air, in mid-flight, he exults, lifting both of his arms to the heavens. Life is suspended, physics defied. What you see in that picture, in that illusion, is magic.”

Jimmy Zanor is a sportswriter for the Norwich Bulletin and can be reached at jzanor@norwichbulletin.com. Follow him on Twitter@jzanorNB.

This article originally appeared on The Bulletin: Boston-Montreal renew rivalry in PWHL, CTC playoffs, and Taylor Shannon