LOCAL SPORTS
University Sport:
In pre-season Basketball, both the X-Women and X-Men suffered losses on the road. In Quebec, Laval defeated the X-Women 81-64, while in Ontario, the X-Men fell to McMaster 85-73. This afternoon, the X-Women are in Ottawa to play Concordia.
St. FX Cross Country teams are in Quebec City to take part in the RSEQ Interlock Meet.
In Football, the X-Men host Bishop’s in the Big Bowl game at St. FX Stadium. Kick off time is 3 pm.
In Hockey, the X-Women face Mount Allison in Sackville, while the X-Men are in Wolfville to take on Acadia. Both games begin at 7.
NS Junior B: Two unanswered goals in the third period made the difference, as the Pictou County Scotians defeated the Strait Pirates 5-3 in Port Hawkesbury. Tonight, the Pirates are on the road playing Membertou at 7:30.
NS U18 Majors: The Weeks Majors host the Rush at the Wellness Centre. Puck drops at 4. CB West Islanders host Halifax at 6 in Port Hood.
NS U16AAA: The Highlanders host the Knights tonight at 6 at the Port Hawkesbury Civic Centre.
Maritime Hockey League: The Pictou County Crushers are on the road to play Truro at 7 tonight.
NATIONAL SPORTS
Josh Bell and Manny Machado smashed two of San Diego’s four home runs off Max Scherzer as the visiting Padres romped past the New York Mets 7-1 on Friday in their wild-card playoff opener. The three-time Cy Young Award winner exited his first post-season start for New York down 7-0 to loud boos. Scherzer was signed to a 130-million-dollar contract in December to pitch big games for the Mets. Three of four road teams won their wild-card playoff opener, including the Seattle Mariners who blanked the Toronto Blue Jays 4-0.
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats got four field goals from Seth Small and kept their C-F-L post-season hopes alive with an 18-14 victory on Friday against the visiting Saskatchewan Roughriders. Hamilton, now 5-and-10, remains third in the East Division but moved to within a victory of 6-and-10 Saskatchewan, which is fourth in the West Division. If the Riders end the regular season with more wins than the Ticats, they’ll play as the third-place East Division playoff seed.
Tari Eason, the seventh overall pick in last summer’s N-B-A draft out of L-S-U, had 24 points and eight rebounds to lead host the Houston Rockets past the Toronto Raptors 116-100 in N-B-A pre-season action on Friday. Jalen Green added 23 points for the Rockets, while Kevin Porter Junior had 15. Pascal Siakam scored 18 points for the Raptors. O.G. Anunoby scored 13 points but missed all five of his 3-point attempts.
The Vancouver Canucks have traded centre Jason Dickinson and a second-round N-H-L draft pick to the Chicago Blackhawks for defenceman Riley Stillman. Dickinson played 62 games for the Canucks last year, collecting five goals and 11 points. The six-foot-one Stillman had two goals and 10 assists in 52 games with the Blackhawks last year.
Pierre-Luc Dubois scored twice for the Winnipeg Jets in a 5-3 pre-season win over the host Calgary Flames on Friday. Kyle Conner had a goal and two assists, Mark Scheifele scored short-handed and Nikolaj Ehlers also scored for the Jets in the final tune-up for both teams ahead of their 2022-23 NHL regular seasons. Tyler Toffoli had a goal and an assist with Blake Coleman and Nazem Kadri also scoring for the Flames.
Leon Draisaitl had a goal and three assists as the Edmonton Oilers closed out NHL pre-season play on Friday with a 5-3 victory over the visiting Seattle Kraken. Jesse Puljujarvi, Tyson Barrie, Evander Kane and Connor McDavid also scored for the Oilers, who ended up with a 5-3 record in exhibition action. Daniel Sprong, Matty Beniers and Jared McCann responded for the Kraken, who dropped to 4-2.
Hockey New Brunswick is joining the Ontario Hockey Federation, Hockey Quebec and Hockey Nova Scotia in suspending its three-dollar-per-player participant fee to Hockey Canada over reports the national governing body has mishandled sexual assault allegations. Hockey Eastern Ontario and Hockey Northwestern Ontario have also asked that their participant fees not be transferred to Hockey Canada, which is under independent review. Hockey Newfoundland and Labrador has stopped short of cutting ties, but said earlier this week it is proud to have recently established a sexual violence prevention program for its members.
Many public policy experts say they are baffled by Hockey Canada’s response to criticism over its mishandling of alleged sexual assaults. Both former and interim board chairs for the organization have staunchly defended the current leadership. Paloma Raggo, a professor at Carleton University’s School of Public Policy and Administration, says the logic of their entrenchment doesn’t make sense. Raggo says member organizations of Hockey Canada can call a special meeting to revoke individual board directors, and questions why this mechanism hasn’t been used yet.
Friday’s Scoreboard
Major League Baseball
Wild-Card Series American League (Best-of-three)
Cleveland 2 Tampa Bay 1 (Cleveland leads series 1-0)
Seattle 4 Toronto 0 (Seattle leads series 1-0)
Wild-Card Series National League (Best-of-three)
Philadelphia 6 St. Louis 3 (Philadelphia leads series 1-0)
San Diego 7 New York Mets 1 (San Diego leads series 1-0)
Canadian Football League
Hamilton 18 Saskatchewan 14
NHL Regular Season
Nashville 4 San Jose 1
NHL Pre-season
Vancouver 4 Arizona 0
Winnipeg 5 Calgary 3
Detroit 4 Toronto 2
Edmonton 5 Seattle 3
Pittsburgh 7 Buffalo 1
NBA Pre-season
Houston 116 Toronto 100
Boston 112 Charlotte 103
New York Knicks 131 Indiana 114
Chicago 131 Denver 113
New Orleans 107 Detroit 101
Miami 111 Memphis 108
Orlando 110 Dallas 105
Saturday’s Games (All Times Eastern)
Major League Baseball
Wild-Card Series American League (Best-of-three)
Tampa Bay (Glasnow 0-0) at Cleveland (McKenzie 0-0), 12:07 p.m. (Cleveland leads series 1-0)
Seattle (Ray 0-0) at Toronto (Gausman 0-0), 4:07 p.m. (Seattle leads series 1-0)
Wild-Card Series National League (Best-of-three)
San Diego (Snell 0-0) at N.Y. Mets (deGrom 0-0), 7:37 p.m. (San Diego leads series 1-0)
Philadelphia (Nola 0-0) at St. Louis (Mikolas 0-0), 8:37 p.m. (Philadelphia leads series 1-0)
Canadian Football League
B.C. at Toronto, 4 p.m.
Edmonton at Winnipeg, 7 p.m.
NHL Regular Season
Nashville vs. San Jose at Prague, 2 p.m.
NHL Pre-season
Chicago at St. Louis, 3 p.m.
Anaheim at Los Angeles, 4 p.m.
Florida at Tampa Bay, 4 p.m.
Dallas at Minnesota, 6 p.m.
Montreal at Ottawa, 6:30 p.m.
Columbus at Washington, 7 p.m.
Detroit at Toronto, 7 p.m
New Jersey at Boston, 7 p.m.
N.Y. Rangers at N.Y. Islanders, 7 p.m.
Arizona at Vegas, 8 p.m.
NBA Pre-season
Atlanta at Milwaukee, 12:05 p.m.