Emily Dickson is the first Prince George athlete to win a medal at the 2015 Canada Winter Games. Dickson captured a bronze in the female 12.5 km individual biathlon event. Claire Agnes Lapointe of Prince George was 11th out of 40 in the same race. The 17-year-old Dickson is originally from Burns Lake but attends the Canadian Sport School in P.G., where she has lived for the past three years. “I skied well and shot well for the first two rounds but then had a few misses in my shooting so had to ski fast to make up the time. I guess I did that well and pulled off the bronze,” said Dickson.
–In other PG results at the Winter Games:
–Arthur Roots came 6th and Bobby Kreitz 21st out of 42 in the male 15 km individual biathlon race.
–Carolina Hiller was 5th out of 32 in the female long track speed skating 1500 M.
–Nicolas Hiller wound up 6th out of 31 in the male long track speed skating 3000 M.
–Alison Desmarais (Vanderhoof) was 4th and Callie Swan (PG) 5th in the B Final in female short track speed skating 1500 M. UNBC student Madison Pilling of the NWT came 5th in the C Final of the same event.
–In team results at the Canada Winter Games:
–The BC ringette team, that includes Sydney Irving of PG, is 0-1 after a 4-3 overtime loss (Saturday) to Nova Scotia. BC plays its second game today at 11:30am at the Coliseum against PEI.
–The BC men’s curling team is 2-0 after a pair of convincing victories: 14-4 over Alberta and 11-2 over the Yukon.. BC will play its third round robin game today against New Brunswick (10am).
–The BC women’s hockey team is 0-2 losing 7-1 to Ontario (Sunday) and 7-0 to Quebec (Saturday). BC plays PEI today at 4pm at CN Centre.
–BC athletes have captured 10 medals after two days of competition at the CWG: four gold (all in free-style skiing), two silver and four bronze. Seven of the medals have come in free-style skiing, and one each in long track speed skating, biathlon and gymnastics.
–A rough start for Patti Knezevic of Prince George at the National Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Moose Jaw. The BC champions lost their first three games, all by lopsided scores (total of 27-5). Knezevic fell 11-2 to Manitoba and 8-1 to Quebec on Sunday following an 8-2 loss to Saskatchewan on Saturday. The Knezevic foursome that includes 3rd Kristen Fewster, 2nd Jen Rusnell & lead Rhonda Camozzi, will continue round robin play in the 12-team field today against PEI (7am PST) and Team Canada (noon).
UPDATE—-Knezevic beat PEI 7-4 for BC’s first win.
–Manitoba, Team Canada & Alberta are the co-leaders after two full days at the National Scotties with 3-0 records.
Newfoundland and Labrador along with PEI are next at 2-1. The group at 1-2 includes: Nova Scotia, Northern Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan and Ontario. Both BC and New Brunswick are 0-3.
–The Major Midget Cariboo Cougars have clinched first place in the BCMML. The Cougars picked up a 2-2 tie Saturday followed by a 4-2 victory Sunday over the second place Vancouver North West Giants to wrap up top spot.
The (29-7-2) Cougars will conclude their regular season on the road February 28th and March 1st in Kelowna against the (20-12-4) Okanagan Rockets.
–The Prince George Cougars are one point out of a playoff spot following back to back wins in Alberta. P.G. beat Red Deer 3-2 in overtime Saturday after a 4-2 victory Friday in Medicine Hat. The (23-32-2-2) Cougars will wrap up a five game road trip this afternoon (1pm Pacific) in Edmonton against the Oil Kings.
–In the win against Red Deer, Chase Witala scored his team high 28th goal of the season at 1:15 of OT and rookie Tavin Grant made 40 saves for the Cougars who were outshot 42-26.
–In the victory against Medicine Hat, the Cougars scored three early first period goals in a 1:27 span, two of them by Zach Pochiro. First star Ty Edmonds stopped 41 of 43 shots.
–Just one point separates three teams in the race for third place in the BC Division of the WHL. Vancouver is 3rd with 51 points followed by Prince George and Kamloops with 50. The Cougars have 13 games left, the Blazers 14 and the Giants 15 remaining. Kamloops will play Prince George four times and Vancouver twice. The Cougars and Giants have no more games left against each other.
–The Prince George Spruce Kings lost a pair of weekend games on the Island to remain third in the BCHL Mainland Division. The Spruce Kings fell 3-0 Friday to Cowichan Valley and 6-2 Saturday in Victoria as the Grizzlies scored the last four goals of the game, three of them in the third period.
–The 26-22-0-5 Spruce Kings are two points behind the second place Langley Rivermen with each team having five regular season games remaining, three against each other.
The Spruce Kings play Thursday in Langley (in a probable playoff preview), Friday in Surrey and Sunday in Chilliwack before hosting Langley on the 27th and 28th. Prince George
can not catch Chilliwack for first place.
–With Megan Heinicke and Sarah Beaudry of Prince George on the team, the Canadian women’s biathlon squad placed 8th out of 20 in the 4×6 kilometre World Cup relay Sunday in Oslo, Norway. The relay consists of each athlete skiing 6 kilometres with two bouts of shooting.
On Saturday in individual competition, Heinicke placed 68th and Beaudry 80th out of 92 in the 7.5-kilometre sprint.
On Thursday. Heinicke was the top Canadian with a 12th place effort out of 86 in the 15-kilometre individual to tie her best result of the season.
–The UNBC Timberwolves men’s basketball team finished second in the Canada West Explorer Division with a 12-8 record following a pair of victories over the UBCO Heat (86-56 Thursday and 85-64 Friday) in Kelowna. The UNBC men (7-1 in their last 8 games) will play a best of three series on the road at the UBC Thunderbirds (third in 11 team Pioneer Division with a 14-6 record) on Feb 26th, 27th and if needed the 28th.
–The UNBC Lady Timberwolves ended their basketball season 2-18 after a pair of losses to UBCO (66-60 Thursday and 65-49 Friday).
