Iditarod: Holmes Back in Front

 

2025 Iditarod champion Jessie Holmes, fresh off his 24-hour rest in Takotna, has pulled out of Ophir checkpoint (mile 352) at 2:00 am Alaska time, and is in the lead in this year's race. 

(Technically, "expedition class" racers  Kjell Rokke  and Thomas Waerner are ahead of him, and have already left the Cripple checkpoint (mile 425). "Expedition class" racers aren't eligible for placement or prizes in the race, aren't required to take mandatory rests, and can swap fresh sled dogs in and out at their convenience, so Rokke and Waerner's lead is more due to advantages from the rules than their mushing prowess.)

Paige Drobney, Mille Porsild, Michelle Phillips, Ryan Redington, and Travis Beals all left Ophir 1½ to 2 hours after Holmes. For some reason, the official Iditarod standings indicate Drobney, Williams, and Beals haven't yet completed their mandatory 24s, although it also shows that both spent over 24 hours in Takotna. I'm assuming it's an oversight or an error on the part of the committee and will be corrected soon. 

I understand Takotna wasn't the preferred spot for many teams to take their break, but many mushers got thoroughly soaked after Rohn (mile 188), where the trail follows the south fork of the Kuskokwim River and freezing water flowing over a layer of ice can be a hazard. Fearful of the predicted low temperatures overnight, many decided to stop in Takotna (mile 329) to dry out the dogs, boots, clothes, etc. Several mushers reported having their pants frozen on and not being able to get them off until they got indoors. 

Porsild's sled took a full-on plunge into the river, resulting in a soaked sleeping bag, mukluks, and sled bag. With temperatures dropping to -40 to -50° F, all her gear froze instantly. To add to the adventure, her sled then took off on a glacier and into a section of trees were it got stuck. It took her 45 minutes to get the sled back on the trail, but at the cost of her mittens. Fortunately, "expedition class" musher Thomas Waerner came along and kindly lent her a pair of his so she could make it to Takotna without frostbite. 

Bailey Vitello wasn't so lucky. He frost-bit the bottom of his foot and had to pour hot water over his frozen boots to get them off. However, he's still in the race at 11th place, and as of this moment was the last musher to leave Ophir. 

Rookie Jodi Potts-Joseph encountered a bison somewhere on the trail before McGrath (mile 311); fortunately, Jodi, her dogs, and the bison were all unharmed, but she's still back at McGrath in last place (second from last if you include "expedition class" racer Steven Curtis, who's still back in Rainy Pass (mile 153), 200 miles back from the lead).

In summary, as of 8:30 am Alaska time, 11 teams (Jessie Holmes, Paige Drobny, Mille Porsild, Michelle Phillips, Ryan Redington, Travis Beals, Peter Kaiser, Jessie Royer, Riley Dyche, Wade Marrs, and Bailey Vitello) have left Ophir and have completed their 24-hour rest, even if the standings don't yet recognize their breaks.  Seven other teams, including Matt Hall and Jeff Deeter, are currently taking their mandatory 24 in Ophir, and four more have left Takotna after completing their 24. 

After Ophir, the trail diverges into the northern and southern routes and rejoin at Kaltag (mile 629). This year follows the northern route through Cripple (mile 425) and then through the Sulatna Crossing to Ruby (mile 495) on the Yukon River. 

BU 4, Vermont 1

 

The sixth-seeded BU Terriers won the opening round of the Hockey East tournament last night with a 4-1 decision over 11-seed Vermont. This was the Terriers' 16th straight tournament win at Agganis Arena.

Cole Eiserman opened the scoring with a power-play goal in the first period. Vermont got their only goal of the game in the second, but then Eiserman tied it up with another goal in the third. Cole Hutson scored on another power play later that period, and Jack Harvey knocked in an open-netter late in the game to seal the win.

And with that, the Terriers (17-16-2) keep their post-season hopes alive and advance to the semifinals, where they'll face No. 3-seed UConn (18-11-5) on Saturday (1:00 pm). BU and UConn split a home-and-away series back in October, with both teams winning on the other team's ice. Saturday's game will be played at UConn's mafia-sounding Toscano Family Ice Forum.

Go, Terriers! 

Iditarod: Riley Dyche Takes the Lead

 

At 5:16 am this morning (Alaska time), Riley Dyche arrived at Ophir, 352 miles from the starting line, the first and only musher so far to reach the checkpoint. Ophir, a former gold-rush town, has been abandoned since the 1950s and was destroyed in a fire started by a camper in the 1970s. The original Iditarod Trail ran down the valley of the nearby Innoko valley, although the current trail goes through the old town site. 

Matt Hall and Lauro Eklund trail Dyche and are currently between Ophir and Takotna, the previous checkpoint. Eleven other teams, including Jessie Holmes, Paige Drobny, Ryan Redington, Mille Porsild, Travis Beals, and Michelle Phillips, are currently resting in Takotna.

After Ophir, the race will finally turn to the official northern route. The next checkpoint, Cripple, is 100 miles past Ophir at mile 425. Cripple is the middlemost checkpoint on the Iditarod trail, although the unofficial halfway point is somewhere between Cripple and the next checkpoint, Ruby, situated on the Yukon River.  

Billionaire Kjell Rokke is back in 16th place between McGrath (mile 311) and Takotna (mile 329), and fellow "Expedition class" racer Steve Curtis is still dead last between Rainy Pass (mile 153) and Nikolai (mile 263), nearly 100 miles back from the lead. 

No one has yet completed their mandatory 24-hour rest but as the teams approach the halfway mark, we should start to see some do so starting today.  Jessie Holmes has been in Takotna for some 10 hours now, and is probably on his mandatory 24. Ditto Drobney (9 hours and counting), Reddington and Porsild (8 hours), and Beals and Phillips (7 hours). Although it's not unusual to see teams take voluntary four-hour rests, longer rests, especially at checkpoints, are usually part of the mandatory 8- and 24-hour breaks.   

Jessie Holmes has led most of the race, and in 14 hours or so when his rest is complete and he's back on the trail, we will probably see him pass Dyche and return to the lead as Riley takes his 24. 

Brruins 2, Kings 1 (OT)

 

Charlie McAvoy (BU, Class of '16) saves the day! He scored the game-winning goal in overtime and the mighty Boston Bruins get their 36th win of the season.

There was no scoring in the first two quarters of the game as Jeremy Swayman, who finished the night with 14 saves, stood tall in the net. But Mason Lohrei finally lit the lamp early in the third, assisted by Hampus Lindholm and Viktor Arvidsson. The Kings came back and tied it up midway through the final period and forced the OT. But then, a mere 39 seconds into the OT, McAvoy found the back of the net,  assisted by Pastrnak and Kastelic. 

The Bruins (32-22-6) remain in the middle of the pack in the division standings, and are still holding on to the last Wild Card berth with 18 games left to the season. 

Thursday night, Macklin Celebrini (BU, Class of '25) will take to the ice for his first game in Boston as a pro when the San Jose Sharks come to pay a visit. Celebrini scored a power-play goal against the Bruins back on November 23 in a 3-1 Sharks victory in San Jose, and with 90 points so far this season, is fifth in the NHL in scoring. Not bad for a 19-year-old rookie.   

Spurs 125, Celtics 116

 

Across the alley from the Alamo, Wembanyama and San Antonio took down the Boston Celtics. It wasn't pretty.

For context, back on January 10, San Antonio visited Boston and the apparently partial refs called a total of only two fouls on the Spurs all game, while calling ten against the Celtics. Jaylen Brown called out the refs, claiming that they "refuse to make a call" and describing the officiating as "some bullshit tonight."

Last night, with 3:38 remaining in the second quarter, Brown lost control of the ball as it went out of bounds. Officials whistled the ball dead, but Brown believed he was fouled by Stephon Castle, who was guarding him close on the sideline. Replay showed that Castle had given him a shove on his hip. but the officials didn't call a foul. 

Brown immediately protested to referee Tyler Ford. When he walked to the other end of the court to continue his protest, Ford hit him with a technical. Brown continued to argue and as he approached Ford, White and Pritchard stepped in to push him back. Another whistle blew, this time from referee Suyash Mehta, for a second technical on Brown and an automatic ejection.

Brown, furious, pushed his teammates away and continued to argue with Ford. Finally, it took Boston's security and head coach Joe Mazulla to get Brown to leave the court. Brown finished the game with 14:42 minutes playing time, eight points, seven assists, two rebounds, and a steal. 

The game was tied at halftime, but without Brown the Celtics were outscored in the third and fourth quarters and the Spurs went on to win by nine points.

Derrick White lead the Celtics with 34 points, and Tatum added 24. Roy Harper, Jr., filling in for Brown off the bench, scored 22. 

And that's what it took for the team with the second-best record in the NBA to beat the Celtics. Tomorrow night, Boston (43-22) takes on the team with the best record, the Oklahoma City Thunder (51-15), who are currently on a 9-1 winning streak. 

I wonder what the refs have up their sleeve to protect Gilgeous-Alexander and company.

Iditarod: Mille Porsild First Out of Rohn

 

At 8:45 pm last night, Denmark's Mille Porsild literally blew right through the Rohn checkpoint (mile 188); her official rest time at Rohm is listed as "0h 0m".  She's officially the first team out of Rohm and in first place at the moment in the 2026 Iditarod.

The official Iditarod standings show Paige Drobney leaving Rohn some seven minutes after Porsild's fly-by, but Drobney's social media feed disputes that, saying Paige left first. In either case, they left within minutes of each other. Jessie Holmes, the first to arrive at Rohn, took a four-hour rest and left about 30 minutes after Drobney, followed by Ryan Redington, who took only a 17-minutes rest. Matt Hall and Michelle Phillips were the next two out, both also on short rests.   

Overall, the race is incredibly close. Right now (5:30 am Alaska time), there are 23 teams on the long, 75-mile stretch between Rohn and Nikolai, the next checkpoint (mile 263). Six teams are still in Rohn, and six more are enroute there from Finger Lake. 

Drobney was last reported to be taking a probable four-hour rest at Bear Creek Cabin, about 30 miles from Nikolai. Holmes is camped somewhere nearby, and several other teams, including Porsild, Redington, and Phillips, are camped about 50 miles from Nikolai.      

Billionaire donor Kjell Rokke is among the teams out of Rohn, but thank dog, natural selection has knocked him down to 18th place. "Expedition class" racer Steve Curtis is dead last, way back between the Skwenta (mile 83) and Finger Lake (mile 123) checkpoints. Rookie musher Jaye Foucher of New Hampshire made it to Rainy Pass (mile 153) after travelling through an extended wind storm before announcing her scratch; other than "personal reasons," the exact rationale for her decision has not been announced. Her dogs were all in good health.  

From Rohn, the trail follows the south fork of the Kuskokwim River, where freezing water flowing over a layer of ice can be a hazard. About 45 miles from Rohn, the path leaves the river and passes into the Farewell Burn, created by a wildfire in 1976. 

Nikolai (population 89), the next checkpoint, is an Athabaskan settlement on the banks of the Kuskokwim and the first Native American village used as a checkpoint. The arrival of the mushers is their largest social events of the year. 

Iditarod: WTF? The Billionaire's in the Lead!

 

The Last Great Race has gotten a little less great as this year it's allowing "assisted" teams of wealthy trail-and-tribal donors to run alongside the real mushers. Cool, they're adding, substantially, to the winner's pot, and have made contributions to the native settlements along the trail, and they're not eligible for prize money or to even to qualify in the standings. Their main purpose, as I see it, is as a potential source of human protein in case other mushers and their team get stranded. 

But the official Iditarod standings today, the first full day since yesterday's start, has "Expedition class" billionaire  Kjell Rokke in first place. Another "Expedition class" racer, Thomas Wærner, the 2020 Iditarod champion, is assisting Rokke and was actually the first to arrive at the Finger Lake checkpoint, 123 miles from the starting line, beating Rokke by a minute. However, Rokke was the first to leave, a minute ahead of Wærner, and has the "lead." Neither team has rested so far.

If it's any consolation, the third "Expedition class" racer, Steve Curtis, is dead last, having just left Yentna, only the second checkpoint on the trail.

Okay, enough Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. The real leader right now is Paige Drobney, who left Finger Lake without rest about 2½ hours ahead of 2025 champion Jessie Holmes, who took a four-hour rest before leaving. A fan favorite, Drobny finished in fifth place in 2024 and in third place last year. As of right now, Drobney and Holmes are the only "official" teams out of Finger Lakes.

Ten other teams (Michelle Phillips, Bailey Vitello, Ryan Redington, Riley Dyche, Jessie Royer, Peter Kaiser, Kevin Hansen, Jason Mackey, Jody Potts-Joseph, and "rookie" Brenda Mackey) are currently in Finger Lake. Even though she was in the 2021 and 2025 Iditarod races, veteran musher Brenda Mackey is racing as a rookie since she had to scratch both previous times and hasn't yet completed the trail.       

So far, all the teams other than Curtis have made it through Moose Alley, the 100 mile or so stretch between Willow and Skwentna. In 2024, Dallas Seavey had to shoot and kill a moose in self defense after it got entangled with his dog team.  Interestingly (and unrelated to the moose incident), this is the first Iditarod race since 2003 not to have a member of the Seavey family competing. 

After Finger Lake, the trail clings to the side of a heavily forested incline along the narrow Happy River Gorge for 30 difficult miles to Rainy Pass on Puntilla Lake.  From Rainy Pass, the trial continues up past the tree line and over the divide of the Alaska Range, and then descends down into the Alaska Interior.

Penguins 5, Bruins 4 (OT)

Speaking of brutal (I just finished the previous post about the Celtics' upcoming schedule), despite a Pavel Zacha hat trick, the Bruins (35-22-6) gave up a three-goal lead to lose in Pittsburgh in OT last night.

Zacha started the scoring with a power-play goal in the first period assisted by Geekie and McAvoy. He scored again in the second, followed by a Pastrnak goal to make the game 3-0. But the Penguins chipped in a power-play goal of their own in the second, followed by two more goals in the third to tie the game up.

But then Zacha scored for the third time of the game, an even-strength goal assisted by Arvidsson and Aspirot, to seemingly win the game. But the Penguins had other ideas and tied the game back up, and in the OT, scored the game-winning goal.

It seems a three-goal lead and a hat trick aren't enough anymore to win a game anymore in today's NHL. Brutal.

But an OT loss is still worth one point, and Boston's 76 still qualifies them for the last Wild Card slot. The L.A. Kings (25-23-14) visit the Garden on Tuesday night.

Celtics 109, Cavs 98

 

The Boston Celtics are 2-0 since the return of Jayson Tatum. I'm pretty convinced they'd still have been 2-0 even if Tatum were still out, but it's fun to have another milestone with which to measure the team's progress.

Last night, they beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 108-98.  The team was once again led by the two J's like it was 2025 as Jaylen Brown had 23 points and Jayson Tatum had 20. Off the bench, Pritchard sank 18 points and Scheierman hit 16 while grabbing 10 rebounds for the night's double double. Starting center Neemias Queta got 11 rebounds, all on D, but only four points.

With 18 games left to the regular season, the Celtics are 43-21 and all but assured a playoff spot, and with Tatum back in the lineup, they've got to be considered as possible Eastern Conference champions. Boston is now only 2½ games back from Detroit, who've conveniently gone 0-4 in their last four games.

The Celtics are off on a road trip next to face the top two teams in the entire NBA - Victor Wembanyama, De'Aaron Fox, Luke Kornet and the San Antonio Spurs.(47-17) on Tuesday night and then Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder (50-15) on Thursday night. Brutal. 

Bruins 3, Capitals 1

 

The mighty Boston Bruins win their 12th straight home game in the Garden, beating the Washington Capitals, 3-1, last night.  

Pavel Zacha started the scoring with a second period power-play goal assisted by McAvoy and Pastrnak. The Caps tied it up that period, but Arvidsson got the go-ahead goal in the third, assisted by Mittelstadt and Hampus Lindholm. Elias Lindholm hit an empty-netter in the last minute of play with an assist by Pastrnak. Meanwhile, Swayman was solid in the net, making 22 saves on 23 shots (.957).

The Bruins are 35-22-5 and in fifth place in the Atlantic Division. They have a two-point lead over Columbus for the last Wild Card spot.

Today, the Bruins will be in Pittsburgh to play the Penguins (31-17-4). Last Tuesday, the Bruins beat Pitt, 2-1, in Boston.   

 

UMass Lowell 4, BU 3

 

Well, that sucked. After a triumphant weekend that saw the sweep of archrival Boston College, the Boston University Terriers drop their last game of the season to the ninth-place UMass Lowell River Hawks. 

What happened? We lost, that's what happened. What more do you need to know? We lost, okay? Regular season's over. Got any other jack-assey questions you wanna ask or are you done? Yeah, I didn't think so.

The regular season's over, but with the end of the season is the limitless potential of the post-season. Fortunately for BU (16-16-2), all teams in the conference participate in the Hockey East playoff tournament.  The Terriers (12-12-0 in conference play) drew the No. 6 seed and will open the tournament against No. 11 Vermont (13-20-1/8-15-1) on Tuesday (ESPN+, 6:30 p.m.). During the regular season, the Terriers and Catamounts split a series at Agganis Arena in December, and BU owns an all-time 3-2 record over Vermont in the playoffs. This will be the first time the two teams will meet in an Opening Round.

Should BU persevere and win the conference championship, they will get an automatic bid to the NCAA's Frozen Four tournament - they made it to the final game there last year. If not, the season's over, and every game in the Hockey East playoffs will be a sudden death match for their season.

Good luck, Terriers. 

Ceremonial Start of the Iditarod

The ceremonial start to the 2026 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, the "Last Great Race," will be held today in Anchorage. The actual race will begin tomorrow in Willow. 

This year, the race will follow the northern route, the standard trail for even-numbered years. The 975-mile northern route follows the same path as the southern route for the first 450-or-so miles before turning north at the Ophir checkpoint. From there it follows the Yukon River through checkpoints like Ruby, Galena, and Nulato. Although the route last year had to be modified due to insufficient snow, race officials report sufficient snow along the northern route for this year's race. 

After crossing two mountain ranges, the Yukon River, and a stretch of Bering Sea ice, the finish line is near Nome's City Hall, built on the former site of The Dexter, a bar once owned by Wyatt Earp during Alaska’s gold-rush days. The winner is expected to arrive in Nome the week of March 16.

This year's field includes three former champions looking for their second title - defending champion Jessie Holmes, 2023 champion Ryan Redington, and 2019 winner Pete Kaiser. Holmes, star of National Geographic’s Life Below Zero, is trying to join former champions Susan Butcher and Lance Mackey as the only mushers to win their second title the year after winning their first. Redington, who finished 8th last year, is the grandson of Joe Redington Sr., the race’s co-founder, and Kaiser is the first Yup’ik to have won the race.

In all, there are 34 mushers competing this year, including returning veterans Matt Hall, who finished in 2nd place last year, and Paige Drobney, Michelle Phillips, Bailey Vitelo, Travis Beale, and Mitch Seavey, who were 3rd through 7th, respectively. Denmark's Mille Porsild (9th), as well as veterans Jason Mackey (16th) and Brenda Mackey (scratched), are also competing. Last year's promising rookie, Emily Ford (18th), is not racing this year.

Disturbingly, the Iditarod has started a new "honorary category" which allow billionaires, not content to own more money than god and to play astronaut with their vanity space programs, to participate in the race with the assistance of outside help, although they are not eligible for prize money. Norwegian billionaire Kjell Rokke, who now lives in Switzerland, will be assisted by Norwegian musher Thomas Waerner, who won the 2020 Iditarod. Canadian entrepreneur Steve Curtis will be assisted by four-time champion Jeff King.

Rokke is providing financial support to the race, including boosting the purse by $100,000 to a total of $650,000 and providing $170,000 in support for the 17 Alaska Native villages that serve as checkpoints. Curtis, whose addition was only announced three days ago, has committed $50,000 to support youth sports programs in villages along the trail. Iditarod CEO Rob Urbach said the donations will raise the payouts to competitors, with the winner getting about $80,000 this year, well above the $57,000 paid to the top musher last year.

Cool, and I'm happy to see donations going to the villages. But I swear, those billionaires better not get in over their head and either interfere with other teams' progress or require a rescue. On the other hand, if a legitimate team gets stranded and needs emergency dog food, I suggest they slaughter a billionaire and use him to feed their team. Eat the rich, yeah!

After today's ceremonial start and photo ops on the streets of Anchorage, tomorrow's Official Restart is at 2:00 p.m. Alaska time, 6:00 p.m., Eastern time, although Daylight Savings might make a difference and I'm not smart enough to work that out.