Since we have endured one frigid day after another of late I was considering barricading myself in my apartment and not leaving until the weather cooperates and it is 70 and sunny.

However, I had a change of heart or mind when I took a look at this week&8217;s schedule of prep events and realized this could be a very big week for Albert

Lea.

It starts tonight with the girls&8217; hockey team drive to the state tournament.

Albert Lea has never made it up to the Xcel Energy Center for the state tournament, but this may be the team&8217;s best chance yet.

The Tigers open up against Faribault tonight in Owatonna. Albert Lea split with the Falcons in the regular season and with a win tonight would likely face Big Nine nemesis Austin. The Tigers were knocked out of the section tournament by the Packers the last two years and lost twice to them during the regular season 7-3 and 5-3.

Despite the two losses, we all know what they say about the next matchup.

&8220;It&8217;s hard to beat a good team three times in the same season.&8221;

Let&8217;s hope it holds true if these two do meet up in the section final.

The Albert Lea boys&8217; hockey team is still in the hunt for its first Big Nine Conference title since 1993-94. The Tigers got off to a rocky start this week falling to Rochester Mayo and they still have games with Mankato East and Winona on the schedule. However, if Mankato West wins its final game with

Rochester John Marshall tomorrow the Scarlets will take the title.

Regardless of whether or not the Tigers win the Big Nine it doesn&8217;t take away from a tremendous regular season they have had.

The postseason for the eighth-ranked Tigers should be even more entertaining. Albert Lea&8217;s section is loaded with the seventh-ranked Scarlets, No. 11 Rochester Lourdes, No. 12 Red Wing and No. 15 New Prague.

The Albert Lea wrestling team will have its chance to punch its ticket to state for the third straight year Saturday when it takes part in the section team tournament in Rochester.

The wrestling team is up to fifth in the latest rankings and will likely have to down No. 12 Owatonna in the finals Saturday to punch its ticket to state once again.

Albert Lea will get its work started Thursday at home where it will face the winner of the Rochester Century-Winona match.

Saturday, will see the action move to the Mayo Civic Center where either Rochester John Marshall or Austin will be the foe in the semifinals. The finals will get started at 5 p.m. with what most likely will be a battle between the Tigers and Huskies for yet another trip to the Xcel Energy Center.

The Tigers have had another strong season and developed into a legitimate top-level team through hard work.

Paging the boys of summer

I don&8217;t know about you but I am really, really ready for pitchers and catchers to report to spring training. All this Roger Clemens talk and with Congress getting involved again I have lost interest.

I have no proof but looking at Clemens he doesn&8217;t pass the eye test to me.

However, I have lost the desire to care anymore. Someone is lying but what else is new.

I have come to accept the fact that a lot of the great feats of recent years on the diamond happened with an assist &8212; big or small &8212; from performance enhancing drugs.

It is not something I like, it is not something I condone but it is what it is and I think it is time to move on. Far too often things like this get blown up and there is never really any resolution.

Remember Barry Bonds? Yeah, me neither but he used to be the biggest, baddest player everyone was after. Now it is Clemens and tomorrow it will be someone else, but nothing ever seems to come of it and there never really seems to be any real punishment.

I say let&8217;s just play ball and get on with it.

Sport editor Jeff Budlong&8217;s column appears every Wednesday.