– Canada opened the World Under-18 Hockey Championship with a 3-1 victory over Sweden on Thursday. All three of Canada’s goals came from WHL players, with Jake Virtanen of the Calgary Hitmen scoring twice and Matt Barzel of the Seattle Thunderbirds scoring the other goal. Team Canada includes Elkhorn product Travis Sanheim of the Hitmen and three members of the Brandon Wheat Kings in John Quenneville, Jayce Hawryluk and Ryan Pilon. Hawryluk did not play Thursday as he continues to come back from an upper body injury that caused him to miss Brandon’s final playoff games. He’s expected to be in Canada’s lineup for their next game Saturday against Germany.
– The South East Prairie Thunder were eliminated from the Allan Cup Thursday night. The 2012 champions dropped a 3-2 decision to the Kenora Thistles in the quarter-finals, with Riley Dudar and Terry Yake scoring the goals for the Prairie Thunder. Kenora moves into Friday’s semifinals against the host Dundas Real McCoys while the Clarenville Caribous will face the Bentley Generals in the other semifinal.
– The Hockey Manitoba Senior A Provincial Championship continued Thursday night, with the North Central Hockey League champion Miniota-Elkhorn C-Hawks eliminated with a 6-1 loss to the Altona Maroons. The semifinals Friday will have the Red River Wild facing the Tiger Hills Hockey League champion Deloraine Royals and Altona taking on the Morden Redskins.
– Paul Stastny scored the game-tying goal with 14 seconds left in regulation and then notched the overtime winner as the Colorado Avalanche beat the Minnesota Wild 5-4 Thursday night in the opening game of their first round playoff series. Alex Steen scored 26 seconds into the third overtime period as St. Louis edged Chicago 4-3 in Game #1 of their Western Conference Quarter-Final while other action Thursday saw San Jose double Los Angeles 6-3 and the New York Rangers topped Philadelphia 4-1 to open their respective first round series.
– Brandon product Mike McEwen and his Fort Rouge Curling Club team are one of two undefeated foursomes at the Grand Slam of Curling Players’ Championship in Prince Edward Island. McEwen defeated Jeff Stoughton 5-4 in his only game Thursday and remain perfect in Pool A. Kevin Koe is the lone undefeated team in Pool B, sporting a 3-and-0 record as well. In the women’s standings, Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni leads Pool A with a 4-and-0 record while Scotland’s Eve Muirhead with the lone 4-and-0 team in Pool B. Jennifer Jones is 3-and-1 in Pool A after winning a pair of games Thursday.
– The bullpen blew up badly for Toronto. Minnesota walked eight times off three relievers while rallying to beat the Blue Jays 9-5 for a sweep of the day-night doubleheader. The Twins won the opening game of the twinbill 7-0.
– The Montreal Alouettes will have some NFL star power this season. Veteran receiver Chad Johnson has signed a two-year deal with the Als. Johnson — formerly known as Chad Ochocino — spent most of his 11 NFL seasons with Cincinnati. He’s been out of the NFL since 2011.
