For the second straight year, Bangor television station WABI (Channel 5) – in conjunction with Presque Isle’s WAGM (Ch. 8) and Lewiston’s WPME (Ch. 35) – has won the rights to air a University of Maine NCAA hockey playoff game.

The WABI-WAGM-WPME partnership was notified Monday afternoon that its bid for Maine’s second-round playoff game Sunday had been selected by the NCAA.

“The deadline was 3 p.m. and we heard back about two hours later,” said Steve Hiltz, WABI’s program director. “It was pretty much like last year except we were a little more prepared.”

The 3:30 p.m. Sunday start time for the Maine game would have created problems if not for the assistance of Bangor Paxnet affiliate WBGR (Ch. 33).

The hockey game will air smack dab in the middle of CBS’ coverage of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament East and South regional championship games, but that big scheduling stumbling block was removed when WBGR agreed to pick up both games.

“A CBS representative called us around 4 p.m. and then confirmed it at 5:30,” said James McLeod, WBGR’s general manager. “So we’ll do both games on Sunday while they carry the UMaine hockey game. It’s kind of a good community service thing and it’s a no-lose proposition for us.”

WBGR did the same thing last year when WABI’s Maine hockey broadcast conflicted with one of the NCAA regional final telecasts. In both cases, CBS contacted WBGR at Hiltz’s suggestion.

“That’s an outcropping of our relationship with WABI. There’s good communication on both sides,” McLeod said.

“It certainly took the pressure off us knowing WBGR could take those games,” said Hiltz. “Without them, it would be a very tough decision, but we feel the overriding factor is the great interest in Maine hockey.”

Hiltz wouldn’t divulge specifics of WABI’s bid, but said it involved a cash payment. The big plus is the fact the hockey game is being produced and broadcast by the NCAA, so WABI doesn’t have to send a crew to Albany.

“It’s great for us because it’s a turn-key operation,” Hiltz said. “We’ll do our own intermission reports from our studio and they’ll handle the rest.”

Hiltz confirmed that the Maine game was one of only two (New Hampshire-Niagara was the other) made available to local stations as Fox Sports Net has exercised its exclusive rights to the other NCAA first- and second-round contests.

WBGR will begin its NCAA basketball coverage at 2:30 p.m. and continue until the games are over. WABI will join basketball coverage after the hockey game.

Luchini solid at Junior Worlds

Ellsworth High School alumnus Louie Luchini, now a redshirt freshman at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., finished second among American runners at the Junior World Cross Country Championship in Portugal Sunday.

Luchini ran a time of 25 minutes, nine seconds on the five-mile oceanside course in Vilamoura and finished 37th overall in a field of 165 runners representing 80 countries.

Franklin Sanchez of Massachusetts was the top U.S. runner, finishing 28th with a time of 24:45. Robert Kipchumba led a sweep of the top three places by Kenyan runners with a time of 22:49. It was the first gold-silver-bronze sweep by one country since Kenya did it in 1993.

Luchini finished second (26:24) at the USA Winter Cross Country Championships and was one of four U.S. runners to qualify for the Junior Worlds race.

Maine hockey tickets on sale

Tickets for the University of Maine’s NCAA hockey playoff game Sunday in Albany, N.Y., will go on sale to UM hockey season ticketholders and Black Bear Club donors today at 8:30 a.m. The general public is invited to purchase any remaining tickets Wednesday at 8:30 a.m.

Tickets are $18 apiece for Sunday’s two-game session (noon and 3:30 p.m.) at Pepsi Arena in Albany. To reserve tickets, call 1-800-756-TEAM or 581-BEAR, visit the Alfond Arena ticket office, or call Pepsi Arena at 518-476-1000.