(As of 12:01AM) (Weekend wrap)
PRINCE GEORGE COUGARS:
(WHL)
Portland Winterhawks 3 Prince George Cougars 0 (Saturday)
Shane Farkas made 22 saves for the shutout.
Taylor Gauthier stopped 36 of 39 shots.
The Cougars have lost four straight on the road and six of their last seven overall.
Prince George has been shutout three times this season, including twice in its last three road games.
The 11-16-1-2 Cougars are last in the BC Division, two points behind both (13-12-1) Victoria and (12-12-2-1) Kamloops and five back of second place (14-15-2) Kelowna.
The Blazers lost 6-3 Sunday in Calgary.
Prince George is ninth out of 10 in the Western Conference, two points ahead of (10-14-3) Seattle, but the Thunderbirds have three games in hand.
The Cougars continue their five-game pre-Christmas road trip on Tuesday against Seattle.
They also visit Victoria on Friday and Vancouver on Sunday.
With 68 goals in 30 games, Prince George is the lowest scoring team in the Western Conference and second lowest in the WHL.
Portland Winterhawks 5 Prince George Cougars 2 (Friday)
The Winterhawks scored two power-play goals in the first period and added three more goals in the second, one of them by Cody Glass with Portland two-men short.
Josh Maser, midway through the second period, and Vladislav Mikhalchuk, late in the third, tallied on the power-play for the Cougars.
CARIBOO COUGARS:
(BCMML)
Cariboo Cougars 5 Valley West Giants 3 (Sunday in Delta)
Cariboo Cougars 4 Valley West Giants 2 (Saturday in Langley)
The 15-4-3 Major Midget Cougars are in the second place, four points behind the (18-3-1) Fraser Valley Thunderbirds.
The Cougars and Thunderbirds go head to head in Prince George Saturday afternoon at 4 and Sunday morning at 10:30 at Kin 1 in the final league games prior to the Christmas break.
CARIBOO COUGARS MINOR MIDGET: (at Kin 1)
Fraser Valley Thunderbirds 3 Cariboo Cougars minor midget team 1 (Sunday)
Fraser Valley Thunderbirds 4 Cariboo Cougars minor midget team 1 (Saturday)
Fraser Valley Thunderbirds 5 Cariboo Cougars minor midget team 4 (OT Friday)
The Minor Midget Thunderbirds swept the three game series in Prince George.
The Cariboo 15-year-olds are 9-4-1-1 and in third place, a point behind the (10-1-1) Okanagan Rockets and three points back of the first place (11-3-1) Thunderbirds.
The Minor Midget Cougars will host the (8-5-2) North Island Silvertips Friday night at 6:30 at the CN Centre, Saturday afternoon at 1 at Kin 1 and Sunday morning at 7:30 at Kin 1.
North Island is in 4th place in the 10-team league, just two points behind Cariboo.
PRINCE GEORGE SPRUCE KINGS:
(BCHL)
Prince George Spruce Kings 5 Nanaimo Clippers 3 (Friday)
Dustin Manz scored three goals, for his second hat trick of the season, and added an assist before 1,024 fans at the Rolling Mix Concrete Arena (RMCA).
Patrick Cozzi notched four assists while Ben Brar added a goal and two helpers to give the big line 11 points.
The 23-8-1-2 Spruce Kings lead the BCHL standings and the Mainland Division by one point over the (24-10) Chilliwack Chiefs.
The Chiefs beat Trail 7-2 Sunday after Chilliwack lost 5-0 to Powell River on Saturday.
The Spruce Kings are 4-1 on a seven-game homestand that continues Friday and Saturday against the
(7-24-1-2) Surrey Eagles. who have the worst record in the league.
Prince George will close out the month at Langley on the 20th and at Surrey on the 21st.
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Team Canada West beat the USA 2-1 in a shootout in its opening game at the World Junior ‘A’ Challenge in Bonnyville, Alberta.
PG Spruce Kings defenceman Layton Ahac is one of 22 players (14 from the BCHL) that is playing for Team Canada West.
Canada West will continue round-robin action in the five-team tournament against Canada East tonight, Russia Wednesday night and the Czech Republic Thursday evening.
Semi-finals go on Saturday followed by the Medal games on Sunday.
NHL: (Toronto the only Canadian team idle Sunday)
Vancouver 6 St. Louis 1
Elias Pettersson notched a goal and added four assists to give him 30 points (15 goals) in 26 games.
It was the second five-point game for the 20-year-old Swedish rookie.
Linemate Brock Boeser added a hat trick for the 13-16-3 Canucks who visit Columbus Tuesday before wrapping
up a three-game road trip in Nashville on Thursday.
Edmonton 1 Calgary 0
The Oilers are 7-2-1 since Ken Hitchcock took over as coach.
Montreal 3 Chicago 2
Boston 2 Ottawa 1 (OT)
Winnipeg 7 Philadelphia 1
There are four Monday games in the NHL, none involving Canadian teams; Pittsburgh at NY Islanders, LA at Detroit, NY Rangers at Tampa Bay, and New Jersey at San Jose.
WORLD CUP BIATHLON:
Megan Tandy of Prince George was the top Canadian but settled for a 73rd place finish in the women’s 7.5-kilometre sprint (Saturday) at the BMW World Cup biathlon races in Slovenia.
The four Canadians were among 103 in the field.
Only the top 60 qualified for Sunday’s pursuit.
On Thursday, the 30-year-old Tandy was the best of four Canadians in the 15-kilometre individual race with a 62nd place finish out of 102 participants.
The World Cup tour continues in Austria with the women’s sprint on Thursday.
NBA:
Milwaukee Bucks 104 Toronto Raptors 99
The 21-7 Raptors lead the Eastern Conference by 2 1/2 games over both Milwaukee and Philadelphia.
Toronto will begin a four-game Western road trip Tuesday in LA against the (16-9) Clippers.
They also visit Golden State Wednesday, Portland Friday and Denver Sunday.
NFL: (Sunday night game)
Chicago Bears 15 LA Rams 6
Just the second loss in 13 games for the Rams, who are tied with New Orleans and Kansas City for the best record in the NFL at 11-2.
The 9-4 Bears lead the NFC North.
The Monday night game to conclude week 14 has 6-5-1 Minnesota at 7-5 Seattle.
Both the Seahawks and the Vikings are currently in a wild-card spot in the NFC.