Thursday, December 28, 2023
-Jayden Wiens scored in overtime as the Brandon Wheat Kings rallied past the Regina Pats 5-4 last night. Rylen Roersma also had a pair of goals for the Wheat Kings who trailed 3-1 heading into the 3rd period. Matteo Michels and Brett Hyland had the other Brandon goals, and Carson Bjarnason stopped 34 of 38 shots. The Wheat Kings are 6-and-1 on their 8-game homestand which comes to an end Friday night when they take on the Saskatoon Blades who top the WHL Eastern Conference.
-It’s a lighter schedule today at the world junior hockey championship in Gothenburg, Sweden. The U-S looks to remain undefeated through two round-robin games against Switzerland – followed by host Sweden taking on Germany. The Germans upset Finland with a 4-3 win yesterday. Canada has the day off after beating Latvia 10-0 and Finland 5-2 in the last two days. The Canadians resume pool play tomorrow against Sweden. In their win over Latvia – Canada’s Macklin Celebrini had a goal and four assists, Strathclair’s Conor Geekie and Carson Rehkopf had two goals each – while the Matthew Wood, Fraser Minten, Brayden Yager, Owen Allard and Matthew Poitras had the rest. Dominion City’s Denton Mateychuk chipped in with a pair of assists – and Mathis Rousseau made 22 saves to record the shutout.
-In the NHL – the Winnipeg Jets lost 2-1 in overtime to the Chicago Blackhawks. Connor Bedard scored twice including the overtime winner. Morgan Barron had the lone goal for the Jets . Winnipeg plays again Saturday at home against the Minnesota Wild. Also last night – the Ottawa Senators beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 – and the Seattle Kraken held off the Calgary Flames with a 2-1 win.
-Summer McIntosh has been named The Canadian Press female athlete of the year for 2023. The swimming sensation from Toronto won a pair of world championship gold medals – and set two world records before her 17th birthday this year.
-The Toronto Raptors are off tonight after beating the Washington Wizards 132-102 last night to snap a three-game losing streak – and the Cleveland Browns can clinch an NFL playoff spot for the second time since 2002 with a win against the New York Jets tonight.
