Sunday's Sports Briefs

• Final Three Set to STOH
• Sunday's Scoreboard

- The Virden-based figure skating duo of Paige Lawrence and Rudi Swiegers are bound for the Olympics.  The duo skated to a third-place finish in the Senior Pairs competition at the National Skating Championship in Ottawa Saturday night, getting 114.64 points in their free skate to finish with 176.31 points.  It's the fourth straight third-place finish at the Canadian Championship for Lawrence and Swiegers but none was as important as this one as the top three teams earn spots on the Canadian Olympic team.  Skate Canada will make the official announcement on Sunday. - Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford won the pairs competition at the National Skating Championships while Patrick Chan won his seventh consecutive men's title.  Kaetlyn Osmond secured an Olympic berth with her second women's title in a row. And Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir won the ice dancing title. - Kerri Einarson is one win away from representing Manitoba at the Canadian Women's Curling Championship.  Einarson hit a double takeout with her final stone of the tenth end to score three and beat Barb Spencer 6-4 in Saturday's 1-versus-1 Playoff.  That booked her spot in Sunday's Final at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Virden.  Spencer drops down to the semifinal, where she will meet Chelsea Carey.  Carey defeated Janet Harvey 8-6 in the 2-verus-2 Playoff.  The semifinal is at 11:30 a.m. Sunday with the Provincial Final at 4:00 p.m.. - The 2015 Scotties Tournament of Hearts is headed to Winkler.  Curl Manitoba announced Saturday that the Southeastern Manitoba city to host next year's Provincial Women's Curling Championship.  It'll be the first arena curling championship held in Winkler. - Jeff Stoughton will play Kevin Martin in the Travelers All-Star Curling Skins final.  Stoughton secured a spot by winning three skins to take home $17,500, while Brad Gushue finished with $3,500.  Martin moved on with $11,500 in the second semifinal against 2013 Brier champion Brad Jacobs, who had $9,500.  A total of $57,000 in prize money is up for grabs in the final. - A gold medal finish for Brandon's Cassie Hawrysh at the Intercontinental Cup women's skeleton event in Park City, Utah Saturday.  Hawrysh raced to victory in a time of one minute, 40.80 seconds, exactly the tye of result she needed to keep herself in the conversation for a Canadian Olympic team spot. - John Quenneville had two goals and an assist to pace the Brandon Wheat Kings to a 5-2 victory over the Prince Albert Raiders on Saturday night.  Brandon scored four straight games after falling behind 2-1 in the second period including three unanswered goals in the third.  Jesse Gabrielle, Eric Roy and Rihards Bukarts also scored for Brandon while Jordan Papirny made 23 saves in the Wheat Kings' net.  For more on the Wheat Kings, visit Bruce Luebke's blog at http://luberslounge.blogspot.ca/ - The Brandon Wheat Kings dropped a 3-2 shootout decision to the Winnipeg Thrashers in Manitoba AAA Midget Hockey League action Saturday.  Josh Kobelka and Ty Lewis had a goal and an assist for the Wheat Kings.  The single point for the shootout loss moved Brandon into a tie with the Winnipeg Wild for first-place.  The Wheat Kings visit the Wild Sunday.  In Saturday's other action, Tyler Dereniwski had a goal and two helpers to lift the Yellowhead Chiefs past the Kenora Thistles 4-1 while the Southwest Cougars got a goal and an assist from Carter Cowlthorp in a 4-3 shootout loss against the Interlake Lightning. - J.J. Cruikshank scored twice in regulation and netted the shootout winner as the Waywayseecappo Wolverines got past the Virden Oil Capitals 3-2 in Manitoba Junior Hockey League action Saturday night.  Former Oil Cap Justin Holder made 31 saves for the Wolverines as they moved two points ahead of Neepawa for fifth-place and the final playoff spot in the Sherwood Division.  Kurt Johnas and Cody Nelson had a goal and an assist each for the Oil Caps, who have lost three in a row.  Virden remains tied with Dauphin for top spot in the Sher-Wood Division. - The Winnipeg Jets are on a season-high five-game losing streak after dropping a 6-3 decision against the Columbus Blue Jackets Saturday night.  Eric O'Dell, Tobias Enstrom, Bryan Little did the goal scoring for the Jets.  Winnipeg is now 19-23-5 and are ten points out of a playoff spot in the Western Conference. - Ali-Mounir scored a game-high 21 points as the Brandon University men's basketball team knocked off the UBC-Okanagan Heat 74-66 on Saturday night.  Emerick Ravier recorded 20 points for the Bobcats, who have won three straight.  Meanwhile, the Lady 'Cats picked up their first home win in over three years, downing the Heat 70-63 victory.  Kaela Cranston collecting a game-high 25 points for Brandon.  CKLQ's Tyler Crayston has the full story here. - The Brandon University women's volleyball team made quick work of Thompson Rivers for a second straight night.  Shanlee McLennan had 10 kills to pace the Lady 'Cats to straight sets win over the Wolfpack.  Victoria Dakin added eight kills for Brandon as they took over sole possession of second-place with an 11-and-3 record.  On the men's side, the Bobcats fell in straight sets loss against the WolfPack.  Brandon got 19 kills from Sebastien Steigmeier while Dan Boutwell added eight kills and six blocks.  The Bobcats are now .500 on the season at 7-and-7. - MVP Sarah Palson led tournament host Souris to the top prize at the Sabres Shootout. Souris got past Steinbach 73-64 in overtime in Saturday's final with Tara Farmer and Kaylee Butterfield of the Sabres being named all-stars. The Hamiota Huskies won the third-place game with a 50-30 victory over Morris. - Marshawn Lynch had 140 yards on 28 carries to lead Seattle over New Orleans 23-15 in the NFC divisional playoff game. Lynch made up for another shaky day by Russell Wilson, who missed on five of his first six pass attempts to start the second half. Drew Brees finished 24 of 43 for 309 yards and gave Seattle a late scare by taking the Saints 80 yards in nine plays. The play was capped off with a nine-yard T-D pass to Marques Colston with 26 seconds left. - The New England Patriots kept Andrew Luck from a second straight comeback win, beating the Indianapolis Colts 43-22 to advance to their third consecutive AFC championship game. LeGarrett Blount scored four touchdowns. Tom Brady was 13-of-25 passing for 198 yards. Luck threw four interceptions.

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