– The Virden-based figure skating duo of Paige Lawrence and Rudi Swiegers are in third-place after Friday’s short program at the National Skating Championships in Ottawa. The pairs skated earned 61.67 points to finish behind Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford and Kirsten Moore-Towers and Dylan Moscovitch. The long program will be skated Saturday, and the Olympic team will be named on Sunday. Canada has three spots for the pairs event in the Sochi Olympics, meaning in third-place finish will send Lawrence and Swiegers to Sochi.
– Kerri Einarson is the lone undefeated team heading into the final round-robin games at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts Provincial Women’s Curling Championship in Virden. Einarson downed Kate Cameron 9-6 Friday night to improve to 6-and-0 and remain atop the Black Group standings. Chelsea Carey is next at 5-and-1 with Darcy Robertson still in the playoff hunt at 4-and-2. In the Red Group, Janet Harvey leads with a 5-and-1 record while Michelle Montford and Barb Spencer are tied for second at 4-and-2 and three teams in Joelle Brown and Brandonites Kelsey Russill and Kortney Teale are still in the playoff discussion at 3-and-3. Results from Day Three of the Scotties are available here.
– A three-goal second period helped the Prince Albert Raiders to a 4-3 win over the Brandon Wheat Kings on Friday night. Brandon product Carson Perreaux notched his 13th goal of the season as part of the second period onslaught for Prince Albert, with his goal coming just eight seconds after Reid Gardiner had given the Raiders a 2-1 lead 2:02 into the middle frame. John Quenneville scored twice for Brandon including a goal with 5.4 seconds left in the third period while Jens Meilleur had the other goal for the Wheat Kings. Brandon will host the Raiders again on Saturday night (7:30 p.m., Westman Communications Group Place). For more on the Wheat Kings, visit Bruce Luebke’s blog at http://luberslounge.blogspot.ca/
– It was a quiet day for the Brandon Wheat Kings. The club did not make any moves prior to Friday’s Western Hockey League trade deadline. Among the moves that were completed Friday was the Regina Pats sending former Wheat King Geordie Maquire to the Swift Current Broncos for a sixth round pick in the 2015 Bantam Draft while Wawanesa product Jordan Thomson was assigned by the Saskatoon Blades to the MJHL’s Dauphin Kings. Overall, there were 31 trades involving 54 players and 45 draft picks from the end of the Christmas break on December 27th to Friday’s WHL trade deadline.
– The Neepawa Natives and Waywayseecappo Wolverines both lost in Manitoba Junior Hockey League action Friday night. The Natives dropped an 8-1 decision in Selkirk with Justin Coachman scoring the only goal for Neepawa. Devon Schade and Aaron Dupasquier scored goals for the Wolverines in their 3-2 loss to the Dauphin Kings. Other games saw the Winnipeg Blues double Portage 4-2 and Swan Valley downed OCN 5-2.
– The Winnipeg Wild took over first-place in the Manitoba AAA Midget Hockey League standings Friday night. The Wild blanked the Central Plains Capitals 16-0 to move one point ahead of Brandon of the overall standings. The Wheat Kings have a tough road weekend, visiting the third-place Winnipeg Thrashers Saturday and the Wild Sunday. Meanwhile, the Southwest Cougars and Yellowhead Chiefs are both on different home-ices Saturday night. The Cougars’ game in in Deloraine while the Chiefs play in Neepawa.
– Jordan Reaves had a team-high 17 points as the Brandon Bobcats downed the Thompson Rivers Wolfpack 74-70 to open the second half of their Canada West season last night. The victory improved BU’s record to 3-and-8 and moved them to within six points of a playoff spot in the Prairie Division. Meanwhile, the Lady ‘Cats opened their second half with a 62-59 loss to TRU. Stephanie Haynes had 14 points and 12 rebounds for Brandon. CKLQ’s Tyler Crayston has more on Friday’s games at the HLC here.
– Shanlee McLennan’s 12 kills led the BU women’s volleyball team to a straight sets win over Thompson Rivers (25-17, 25-13, 25-12) in Kamloops Friday night. The victory improved Brandon to 10-and-3 and allowed the Lady ‘Cats to grab a share of second-place in the Canada West standings. The Bobcats fell in five sets to TRU (23-25, 25-18, 24-26, 27-25, 15-9) with Sam Tuivai pacing Brandon with 16 kills. The loss drops BU’s record to 7-and-6.
– A disappointing result for Russell’s Jon Montgomery in his return to the World Cup men’s skeleton circuit Friday, finishing 29th in St. Moritz, Switzerland. Montgomery had been competing on the second-tier Intercontinental Cup circuit this season until being promoted to Canada’s World Cup team earlier this week. Brandon’s Cassie Hawrysh is racing in the final Intercontinental Cup skeleton races of the season Saturday and Sunday in Park City, Utah.