LOCAL SPORTS
The X-Men and X-Women Basketball teams are in St. John’s, Newfoundland. On Friday, they both lost close matches to Memorial: the X-Women were edged out 76-74, while the X-Men were outscored 90-84. The teams meet again this afternoon.
The St. FX X-Men and X-Women track teams are in Saint John, New Brunswick competing in an indoor meet.
Today: X-Men Hockey @ Acadia, 7:00 pm in Wolfville, and X-Women Hockey vs UPEI, 7:00 pm at the Keating Centre.
In the Maritime Junior League, the Pictou County Weeks Crushers and Yarmouth Mariners didn’t get to complete their home-and-home series last night, as the game in Yarmouth was postponed due to the winter storm and local flooding.
Junior B: The Scotians play Membertou on Saturday in Membertou at 7
NSU18: The Islanders are hosting Pictou Weeks on Saturday at 6 and then they are both in Picotu on Sunday at noon
NS U15: The Novas play Saturday at 5 at the Antigonish Arena and the WearWell Bombers are in Truro at 4
NS U16: The Highlanders are on the road to take on the Admirals at 6:45.
Maritime Major Female League: The Northern Selects take on the CB Lynx at 4.
NATIONAL SPORTS
Mason Marchment scored three goals for his first career hat trick, leading Florida over Minnesota. Anthony Duclair and Aaron Ekblad each had a goal and an assist, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 24 saves for his fifth straight win. Florida has won back-to-back games after a 15-day break and is 16-3-1 since December 29th.
Raptors rookie Scotties Barnes recorded nine points, four rebounds, and an assist the the N-B-A’s All-Star Rising Stars matchup on Friday. Barnes and ophomore Precious Achiuwa competed against some of the N-B-A’s brightest young stars. It comes after the pair were initially stranded in Toronto due to bad weather.
Detroit rookie Cade Cunningham, being counted on to bring the Pistons back to relevancy, was named MVP of the N-B-A’s All-Star Rising Stars on Friday night while leading Team Barry to a 25-20 win over Team Isiah. Cunningham, who scored 13 points with six assists and five rebounds in the night’s first game, had only 5 points in the finale but made several big plays down the stretch, including a clutch 3-pointer.
It’s been a great week for Felix Auger-Aliassime. The Montreal star is through to the seminfinals of the Open 13 in Marseille.It comes a week after he won his first A-T-P title in nine attempts.
Michael Andretti has filed an application to field a Formula One team starting in 2024. The filing to the governing body of F-1, was revealed Friday on Twitter by Andretti’s father, Mario. Andretti Autosport initially declined to comment on Mario Andretti’s post. The team then reversed its position and confirmed an application had been submitted to the F-I-A. No further details were revealed.
OLYMPICS
Noah Bowman improved on his previous Olympic performances but again fell short of the podium at the Beijing Games. Bowman, from Calgary, finished fourth in men’s freeski halfpipe on Saturday, scoring 84.75 points on his second run. He finished fifth in 2014 at Sochi and again in 2018 at Pyeongchang.
Canada’s Justin Kripps is third after the first two heats of the four-man bobsled competition. Kripps trails two German sleds, with four-time Olympic gold medallist Francesco Friedrich leading the way. The final two runs go tomorrow. Freidrich won the two-man competition earlier this week and looks to become the first bobsledder to sweep the two-man and four-man events at two different Games.
The last Alpine skiing race of the Beijing Olympics has been postponed until tomorrow because of strong winds. It was supposed to start this morning, Beijing time, and was delayed twice before it was scrapped for the day. High winds also forced organizers to cut the men’s 50-kilometre mass start cross-country race to a 30-K event.
Figure skating competition comes to a close in Beijing with the pairs free skate later today. China’s Sui Wenjing and Han Cong are in the lead after scoring 84.41 points in their short program yesterday. Eric Radford and Vanessa James are the top Canadian pair. They’re 12th heading into the free skate.
Canadian speedskater Ivanie Blondin won an Olympic silver medal in the women’s mass start Saturday in Beijing. The 31-year-old from Ottawa also won gold in the team pursuit with Isabelle Weidemann and Valerie Maltais. Blondin duelled with Irene Schouten on the last of 16 laps with the Dutchwoman winning by a toe. Francesca Lollobrigida took bronze. Blondin is a two-time world champion in the mass start, which made its Olympic debut in 2018 when she crashed in a semifinal. The tactical features 16 skaters starting at the same time and racing head-to-head. Points are scored via three intermediate sprints and order of finish.
Friday’s Scores
NHL
Carolina 5 Nashville 3
Florida 6 Minnesota 2
Dallas 1 Chicago 0
Los Angeles 4 Vegas 3
Saturday’s Games (All Times Eastern)
NHL
Colorado at Buffalo, 1 p.m.
Edmonton at Winnipeg, 4 p.m.
Boston at Ottawa, 7 p.m.
St. Louis at Toronto, 7 p.m.
Los Angeles at Arizona, 9 p.m.
Anaheim at Vancouver, 10 p.m.
Seattle at Calgary, 10 p.m.