The NCAA awarded the Division III National Ice Hockey Championships to Lewiston and the Androscoggin Bank Colisee via Bowdoin College.

The Portland Pirates got into a dispute with the Cumberland County Civic Center and the team moved its home slate of game to the Colisee.

More tri-county school teams than I can count on two hands won championships at the regional, state and New England level.

The TD Bank 250 at Oxford Plains Speedway changed formats — again — but continued to draw a hefty crowd and a gaggle of drivers from across the country.

On the national level, the Patriots tumbled in spectacular fashion in the playoffs and ran their title drought to 10 seasons. The Bruins maintained a presence at the top of the NHL, while the Celtics dismantled themselves, only to return to the top of the standings of the weakest division in the NBA.

And, of course, there was the disaster that was the Boston Marathon, which was followed by one of the most inspirational region-wide rallies in recent memory, tied inextricably to the fourth major Boston-area professional team, the Red Sox.

Mired in the middle of the divisional race early in the season and picked to finish near the bottom of the league, the Red Sox drew inspiration from their home city’s resilience and went on a tear. They won their division, and ultimately brought the World Series title back to Beantown.

That, in a nutshell, was 2013.

So, what can we look forward to in 2014?

Many of these stories will continue. Some may repeat, and some may get even better.

In a “for example”:

• The 2014 NCAA Division III Ice Hockey Championships will take place in Lewiston this season. Tickets are on sale beginning Thursday, Jan. 2, either through the NCAA, the Colisee or Bowdoin College and their respective websites.

The Maine Sports Commission, in conjunction with the three other entities mentioned above, has worked hard to get things done behind the scenes, and ticket sales is only the first piece of the first step as they roll out their plans for the event.

This tournament will be the gift that keeps on giving for sports writing and reporting in the Lewiston/Auburn area this spring, as the Division III hockey world turns its focus to the region for the week leading up to the March event.

• And, of course, the Pirates are still here.

And they will be through the end of the regular season, at least.

The AHL squad has been a Jekyll and Hyde team on the ice so far this season, and as much of an enigma off of it. A change in majority ownership appears to have made a difference in the willingness of the Cumberland County Civic Center Board of Trustees to come back to the table (as did the Pirates’ decision to drop their lawsuit).

Look for a resolution of that dispute in the first month or so of the year.

On the ice, the team has plenty of tools to turn things around, and it wouldn’t surprise me to see the team qualify for the playoffs.

• On the local front, so many area basketball teams are off to solid starts that deep playoff runs appear to be certain for most classes and regions in the Sun Journal coverage area. Local ice hockey, wrestling, skiing and track squads and many swimmers are also enjoying solid beginnings to their seasons. Given that start, and with the knowledge of what is returning to many spring and fall teams in the coming calendar year, a surplus of trophies to 2013 for the 2014 campaign would not surprise us at all.

• Professional sports are tougher to cover for us, given our limited resources, but we certainly pay attention. For the Red Sox to repeat would be arguably the biggest non-steroid-related baseball story of the past 15 years, and while unlikely given the current climate of professional sports, is certainly more probable than it was for Boston to win in 2013.

The Patriots are an enigma unto themselves. Here one week, invisible the next, the team’s defense will ultimately determine the finality of the team’s destination this season.

The Bruins will again be among the final four in the NHL, if only because most of the rest of the teams in the East are terrible in comparison.

And the Celtics? You could very well see the worst-ever playoff team in the history of the NBA, statistically speaking, should Boston win its division.

• The Olympic Games from Sochi, Russia, will be of particular interest to Maine winter sports enthusiasts for many reasons, as several athletes involved in skiing and snowboarding have ties to the Pine Tree State, either as residents or as folks who have trained or competed here at one of the world-class facilities from Fort Kent and Kingfield, to Newry and Rumford.

And there are bound to be some surprises thrown in. There always are.

Our goal is to be there, most accurately and thoroughly, to bring you the sports news that matters. We concentrate hard on the local level of sports, striving to bring to you, our readers, something you can’t get by clicking on other websites or picking up other publications. That will remain our focus in 2014.

And as always, we love to hear what you think. Our email in-boxes are always open. If you have a question or concern you’d like to see addressed, feel free to contact us.

Happy New Year!

Sun Journal Sports Editor Justin Pelletier can be reached at jpelletier@sunjournal.com.