Thursday's Sports Briefs

• Wednesday's Scoreboard
• Nelson Guests on Oil Caps' Report

- The Brandon Wheat Kings open the 2014 portion of their WHL regular season by closing out a four-game road trip in Calgary on Thursday night. The Wheat Kings are coming off a month of December that saw them go 6-2-2-0 in ten games, pushing the club into fifth-place in the Eastern Conference. Peter Quenneville led the Wheat Kings with 14 points last month and he feels the team's chemistry is a reason for their success...
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 The Wheat Kings will welcome Jayce Hawryluk back to their lineup after he completed his three-game suspension on Tuesday in Edmonton. - The Westman Wildcats put in the extra time and earned the Female Division Championship at the Mac's Midget Tournament in Calgary. The Wildcats knocked off the Fraser Valley Phantoms 2-1 in triple overtime in Wednesday's final. Megan Robertson recording the game-winner while Sky Brown made 41 saves. Coach Guy Williams says it was a dramatic finish...
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Westman went 3-0-1 in the round-robin and secured their spot for the final after defeating the Edmonton Thunder 2-1 in overtime in the semifinal behind Jaycee Magwood's game-winner. - It's win or go home for Canada at the World Junior Hockey Championship on Thursday morning, facing the Swiss in the quarter-finals. Coach Brent Sutter says their focus must be precise...
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 Canada finished in top spot in their group while Switzerland was fourth in their pool. The two sides played a tune up game before the tournament with the Canadians winning 4-1. - Team West has their first tournament win at the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge, knocking off Sweden 3-2 in a shootout. Wheat Kings' prospect Colt Conrad had a pair of assists for Team West. Meanwhile, Wheat Kings' forward Braylon Shmyr had an assist in Team Pacific's 4-1 victory over the Czech Republic to up their record to 2-1. - Tyler Bozak had the shootout winner as the Toronto Maple Leafs fought the elements and won the Winter Classic 3-2 against the Detroit Red Wings. Coach Randy Carlyle says the environment was electric...
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 Jonathan Bernier made 41 saves for Toronto who moved past the Red Wings in the Eastern Conference standings. In other action in the NHL, Nikita Kucherov had the go-ahead goal with 2.6 seconds to go in the second as the Tampa Bay Lightining doubled the Vancouver Canucks 4-2. - Winnipeg Jets' forward Blake Wheeler is going to be donning red, white and blue at the upcoming Sochi Winter Games  after being named to U.S. men's Olympic hockey team. Wheeler has a team-leading 15 goals and 31 points through 42 games this season with Winnipeg. - The Neepawa Tigers have high hopes coming out of the holiday break. The Tigers have captured back-to-back AA provincial titles and won the Westman High School Hockey League crown in 2012. First-year coach Gary Salmon says their primary focus is making a run for both championships...
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 Neepawa's Wyatt Salmon, Garett Rempel and Shane Levandosky are three of the top five scorers in the WHSHL. The Tigers are 7-4 and are tied for fourth-place in the standings. The 2014 portion of the schedule starts next week.  
 
- The Toronto Raptors got 26 points from Demar DeRozan and knocked off the league-leading Indiana Pacers 95-82. The Raps' are back to .500 on the season at 15-15.

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