Caron gets mighty call

Like most hockey fans this winter, NESN's Tom Caron missed the Bruins, but no NHL hardly meant no hockey for him.

For example, Caron will be the celebrity PA announcer for the 33d annual Perini Youth Hockey Tournament championship games Sunday night at Loring Arena in Framingham. "That night, the pressure will be on my son, Jack, and his team to make the Mite finals," he said.

OK, that anecdote was just to show hockey is alive and well everywhere but at its top level.

As a warmup for his Youth Hockey assignment, Caron will be working a major gig, doing play-by-play on NESN for the Hockey East semifinals and final at the FleetCenter tonight and tomorrow. BC meets Maine in tonight's first semifinal (5), followed by BU-UNH (8). The winners meet tomorrow at 7 p.m.

Analyst Andy Brickley will work alongside Caron both nights with Eric Frede serving as host for the telecasts and Corey Masse reporting.

All three telecasts will be available in high definition, the format many hockey people hoped would play a role in improving the sport's TV ratings.

"The FleetCenter should be banged out, and that says a lot for college sports in this area with the men's basketball NCAA Tournament going on in Worcester," said Caron. "We got nice matchups and four teams that people want to see."

Caron says there's no upside to not having Bruins telecasts on NESN this winter but sees the lockout as a boon for the station's baseball coverage.

"It means our production crews are fresh and have had some creative energy in preparing for the baseball season," he said. "We've had crews in both Florida and Arizona doing preseason reports and working on our preseason special."

Pitch for HD

A big question for Red Sox fans is: Will the team's opener April 3 at Yankee Stadium be available in HD? Channel 38 director of programming Lee Kinberg said the channel, which will carry the game in the Boston market, will produce the telecast in HD. The question is whether Channel 38 and Comcast can reach an agreement for it to be carried on the cable company's HD tier. Outside of Boston, the game will air on NESN in a widescreen format. The other two games of the season-opening series in New York will air in HD on NESN . . . Channel 56 will have a half-hour special tonight at 10:30 on the congressional hearings on steroid use. The channel also has joined Comcast's HD lineup at Channel 856 . . . Comcast also has added three of Fox's start-up college sports channels to its digital lineup: Fox College Sports Atlantic (Channel 262), Fox College Sports Central (Channel 263), and Fox College Sports Pacific (Channel 264). They're part of the $4.95-per-month digital sports tier that includes NBA-TV, The NFL Network, CSTV, GOL TV, Outdoor Channel, TV Game, SPEED, and Fox Soccer. NOT in the lineup are the recently launched ESPNU and ESPN2-HD . . . A year ago, NESN became the first local Major League Baseball carrier to do an hourlong pregame show. This year, the goal is to add more elements to the production. One will be "In Style with Michelle," a segment done by Michelle [Mangan] Damon, who married Sox center fielder Johnny Damon during the offseason. There's no question she should have the necessary access to do feature pieces on the team and players away from the field . . . WEEI's Glenn Ordway will have Pete Sheppard to kick around for at least two more years. Kim Zayotti, agent for the afternoon drive flash guy/factotum, confirmed that Sheppard had signed a two-year deal this week . . . Monday's Celtics-Bobcats game did a 3.0 rating (peaking at 4.0 from 8:45-9 p.m.), continuing to reflect the team's winning ways of late. ABC has added the Celtics-76ers game April 3 (Channel 5, 1 p.m.) as a national regional telecast. The Celtics don't have any Thursday games scheduled for the remainder of the season, which precludes a TNT telecast; however, spokesman Jeff Pomeroy for the Atlanta-based Turner network, said, "They play in Atlanta Friday, April 1, so we're looking at bringing a Celtic player or rep in studio on March 31." . . . NBA TV is showing Game 4 of the 1964 Celtics-Warriors final tomorrow at 11 a.m. that includes a postgame courtside interview with Red Auerbach.

Figures add up

Figure skating always is a popular counter-programming tactic to a big event, such as the men's NCAA basketball tournament on CBS. With much of the sports world watching CBS, ESPN is countering with figure skating's World Championships from Moscow with women's qualifying, original dance, and pairs finals tonight (7:30-10:30). Tomorrow night, it will be the women's short program and final and the free dance final (7:30-11). Terry Gannon, Peggy Fleming, Peter Carruthers, Susie Wynne, and Christine Brennan work the telecast . . . Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, and Ernie Els give NBC some solid golf counter-programming in the Bay Hill. Dan Hicks and Johnny Miller host the coverage today (USA, 3-6 p.m.), plus tomorrow and Sunday (Channel 7, 2:30-6 p.m.) . . . Even the Sox are getting into golf. Tim Wakefield, Jason Varitek, Kevin Millar, and David Wells tee it up in a Golf Channel skills challenge for charity next Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. The Golf Channel is revamping its nightly lineup with a two-hour weekly PGA Tour event preview on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. and a live three-hour wrapup show "Live From Bay Hill in Orlando, Fla." Thursday-Sundays at 7 . . . Kudos to CN8. The Channel will air tomorrow's Division 1 boys' and girls' state basketball championships. Ed Berliner and Allen Platt call the girls' game (Dartmouth vs. Springfield Central) at 6 p.m. followed by the Newton North-Springfield Commerce boys' game at 8. On Sunday, analyst Bob Norton will join Berliner to work the Super 8 hockey final.