Stretch

A dream had carried the boys so far from home, some 5,000 miles across the ocean to a cramped and dingy apartment in Philadelphia: a hope that ice hockey could change their lives. Ivan Pravilov could fulfill that dream, they were told. He could take them from the daily grind of post-communist Ukraine to the gleaming ice of the NHL. He'd done it before. He'd done if for Andrei Zyuzin, who went on to play for six NHL teams. He'd done it for Konstantin Kalmikov, a third-round draft pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1996.

In the first few years of the last decade, a lot of assumptions were made about aging baby boomers, their parents, their children, and their housing needs. Boomers would begin downsizing as soon as the children flew the coop, starting at about 55. Boomers would move to communities filled with their own kind. Elderly parents would be accommodated in a casita — a part of the house — until they needed continuing care. The casita would then be converted to a crafts room.

In the stretch. That's where Pedro Martinez spent the bulk of yesterday's bullpen session at FirstEnergy Park, home of the Class A Lakewood BlueClaws of the South Atlantic League. "That was the plan, to try and go out there and work from the stretch a little bit," Martinez said. The three-time Cy Young Award Winner said he feels "really good, excellent" and will make his next rehab start Wednesday at Double A Reading. "I would like to pitch [for the Phillies] right now," he said.

Portions of West River Drive will be closed over the next year for $5.6 million in improvements. During the current phase, which began yesterday and will continue for 90 days, the road is closed from Falls Bridge to Montgomery Drive.

It is shaping up to be one of the more interesting stretch runs in recent years, mostly because the Phillies and Braves appear to be on a collision course for the final 2 weeks of the season, when the two teams face each other in six of their final 12 games. But there will be plenty of action until then, since half of the National League's 16 teams still have a legitimate shot at the postseason. One of those teams, the Dodgers, opened a three-game series with the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park last night.

JRUE HOLIDAY The 20-year-old point guard has held his own during his first year as a starter and needs to keep it up. His stretch run includes facing formidable guards like Atlanta's Kirk Hinrich, Miami's Dwyane Wade, Chicago's Derrick Rose, New Jersey's Deron Williams, Milwaukee's Brandon Jennings, Boston's Rajon Rondo and Orlando's Jameer Nelson. JODIE MEEKS With Jason Kapono exiled to the Land of Oz, Meeks is the Sixers' lone reliable deep-shot threat. The team's turnaround began when Meeks was inserted into the starting lineup.

A section of North Broad Street in Center City will be closed for more than a week beginning tomorrow morning to allow for a demolition project in connection with the Convention Center expansion, the city announced yesterday. Northbound Broad Street between JFK Boulevard and Race Street and southbound Broad Street between Race and Arch Streets will be closed beginning at 5 a.m. tomorrow and remain closed until 4 p.m. on May 31. The city said police would be on site to direct motorists around the area.

The NBA schedule-maker made certain the Sixers will have to eat their Thanksgiving Day dinner on the run with a slate of four games in five nights, beginning Tuesday in Washington. It will be the busiest and most difficult stretch of the young season, and now the question is whether the Sixers' youth will provide the energy to grab a couple wins or if their inexperience will leave them deeper in the Atlantic Division basement. After Washington, the Sixers will move on to Toronto on Wednesday and Miami on Friday before they return home Saturday against New Jersey.

A powder-blue awning inscribed "Turning Point" at 30 W. State St. in Media stretches above the sidewalk, titillating the curiosity of pedestrians and prompting some to peek inside. That peek discloses a short corridor lined with tiny white lights and covered with elegant dry-rose carpeting that spills onto a wide stairway descending into the basement and continues over the spacious floors of the shop there. That's where Cara Knudsen of Wallingsford, a tall woman with large bright eyes and a quietly energetic disposition, usually greets a customer with a serene smile and an invitation to browse, rather than an admonition to buy. "Of course this is a business," Knudsen said about Turning Point, which she co-owns with Christopher Pavlou of Springfield.

Claire Fay is big into clothes that s-t-r-e-t-c-h. But it's not because she has gained weight - she's still a tiny size 4. Fay just loves wearing clothes that allow her to bend over without tugging at her waist and she thinks her clothes lie better when they have a touch of spandex. "It makes such a difference, that little bit of give," said Fay who owns a couple of skirts enhanced with Lycra, which is brand name for spandex. "It moves better. It moves with you. . .It's not like that tight-tight '80s skirt type of thing.

To win two grueling races within a four-hour span, Pennridge senior Tori Gerlach not only overcame a physical challenge, but showed her mettle, too. The reigning state champion in the Class AAA 3,200-meter run, Gerlach opened the District 1 track and field championships Saturday by winning the 3,200, breaking the event record by 7.58 seconds with a time of 10 minutes, 24.19 seconds. After some ice, time in the shade, and a leg massage from her mother, Gerlach bounced back to claim her second straight 1,600 title in 4:53.18, her second-fastest time, just hours later.

  Jeff Carter realizes how smooth the Los Angeles Kings' 6-1 run through the postseason must look. The former Flyer knows most people don't realize how the Western Conference's eighth seeds had to grind, scratch and scrape just to get a chance to look so good. "The last month of the regular season, we were playing playoff hockey," Carter said Tuesday after the Kings returned from consecutive victories over the Blues in St. Louis to open their second-round series. "We had to fight just to get in, and once you get in, anything can happen with how close the teams are," he added.

NEWARK, N.J. - Monday afternoon, before the 76ers faced the New Jersey Nets, the NBA announced that Sixers coach Doug Collins was fined $15,000 for verbal abuse of an official after Saturday's impressive 109-106 overtime win against the streaking Indiana Pacers. The object of Collins' ire appeared to be referee Zach Zarba. There was some contact down the stretch that Collins didn't seem to care for, especially an apparent karate chop-type swipe on Jrue Holiday in which there was no call.

THE SCENE told more than any defensive stop or well-executed offensive set. After the 76ers had beaten Toronto, 93-75, on Wednesday, holding the Raptors to a season-low in points at the Air Canada Centre, they sprinted to the locker room like a bunch of high school players who had just won a state championship. They whooped it up in the hallways where a plethora of old pictures depict the success of the Maple Leafs, laughing, backslapping, hollering. Fun has seemed to return to the Sixers.

Some of the top candidates for the Kentucky Derby will get their final audition Saturday in New York, California, and Illinois. After Saturday's races, there are only a few Kentucky Derby preps left on the calendar. And, with the field for the Run for the Roses still very much in flux after recent upsets, the $1 million Wood Memorial at Aqueduct, the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby in California, and the $500,000 Illinois Derby at Hawthorne Race Course take on even more significance.

The guitar has rarely known anyone with a combination of sensitivity and ferocity to equal that of Paco de Lucia. Since his teen years and initial solo albums such as La Fabulosa Guitarra de Paco de Lucia (1967) and Fantasía Flamenca (1969), he has fanned the flame of flamenco with his rhythmic aplomb and dancing fingers. Throughout his recorded canon of famed live and studio albums, de Lucia, now 64, has done much more than parade fanciful punteados , flaring toques , and thunderous palmas . De Lucia has stretched the genre, pulling from classical music ( Interpreta a Manuel de Falla )

CORAOPOLIS, Pa. - This state championship feels more "special" than most for Council Rock South. And not just because it came after two losses in the Class AA title game over the last three years. In a game featuring a combined 16 power plays, the Golden Hawks' special teams were better than West Allegheny's. That was good enough for them to take the Pennsylvania Cup on the long turnpike drive home. Paul Cloud and Dan Ufberg scored third-period power-play goals as Council Rock South came from behind to earn its first state championship, beating West Allegheny, 4-3, Sunday evening at the Robert Morris University Island Sports Center.

CHARLOTTE - Nikola Vucevic is going through a routine part of any rookie's season in the NBA. He appears to be lost on the offensive end, a step (or two) slow on the defensive side and is playing with all the aggressiveness of a pillow. No matter how much 76ers coach Doug Collins rides his rookie center, and he has done so frequently lately, he understands what Vucevic is going through. Every player has a certain amount of struggle time during his first season and Vucevic is going through it now. Including the Sixers' 105-80 win over the Bobcats last night, he has scored just 17 points in his last six games, making just six of his last 26 shots.

Thirteen women in running tights and racerback tanks are waiting for a Lithe Method exercise class to start, and there isn't a love handle, a muffin top, or an ounce of back fat in the entire room. The Lithe Method studio in Old City is such a belly-fat-free zone that even a five-month-pregnant attendee is rocking muscular arms and amazingly tight quads. "I started lithing last year to help me get in shape for my wedding," said Carrie Maio, 30, a pharmaceutical researcher, after class.

WALNUT CREEK, Calif. - Mark Goldman was a relative newcomer to yoga when he found himself teetering in standing lotus pose with an instructor barking over him like a drill sergeant. "You can get into this pose," the yogi said. "Push harder. " Goldman, a "typical Silicon Valley" go-getter who works in high-tech sales, took the bait. The harder the better, he thought. He deepened his squat, forcing his knee down. Then - snap. He'd torn his meniscus, the tissue that aids motion in the knee.