(As of 12:01 AM)
PARA NORDIC SKIING:
Canadian Mark Arendz earned his fourth medal at the World Para Nordic Skiing Championships in Prince George.
The 28-year-old Arendz (of Hartsville, P.E. I.) placed second on Thursday, behind Benjamin Daviet of France, in the men’s 15-kilometre standing biathlon individual race to give him two silver and two bronze.
Daviet leads the competition with a whopping five gold medals.
An exciting men’s standing biathlon individual race ended in @DavietBenjamin winning a fifth gold medal in Prince George!
? Benjamin Daviet ??
? @markarendz ??
? Grygorii Vovchynskyi ??#PrinceGeorge2019 #ParaNordic— Para Nordic Skiing (@ParaNordic) February 21, 2019
The Ukraine leads the medal standings by a huge margin with 36 (8 gold, 14 silver and 14 bronze).
Canada has six medals (one gold, three silver and two bronze).
Colin Cameron of Sudbury, Ontario, has a gold and a silver.
Today is a training day with competition to wrap up Saturday and Sunday at the Otway Nordic Centre.
118 men and women athletes from 19 countries are competing in four cross-country skiing and four biathlon events.
Canada is represented by 11 athletes and three guides, including three athletes from B.C.
The participants are grouped into three classes: sitting, standing, and visually impaired.
The fifth day of competition in Prince George did not disappoint. Check out these photo highlights from the last biathlon event of the World Championships, the individual race!
?: @CDNParalympics #PrinceGeorge2019 #ParaNordic pic.twitter.com/uAiV7YL5Ur
— Para Nordic Skiing (@ParaNordic) February 22, 2019
WHL: (PRINCE GEORGE COUGARS)
The Prince George Cougars will try to end a couple of streaks when they visit the Kamloops Blazers tonight.
The Cougars have lost a club-record 17 in a row (0-13-0-1).
In addition, Kamloops has won all six meetings against Prince George this season.
The Cougars, with just 10 games remaining in their season, (three against Kamloops, two each against Spokane, Portland and Victoria and one against Everett) also play the Western Conference leading Silvertips Saturday in Everett.
The Silvertips beat the Cougars twice by a 4-1 score this week at CN Centre.
The highlights of Tuesday’s game are right here.
Prince George is 0-5-0-1 since general manager Mark Lamb replaced Richard Matvichuk as head coach.
The 16-35-4-3 Cougars are last in the Western Conference, 10 points behind the (22-28-4-1) Blazers and 13 back of the (23-28-5-1) Seattle Thunderbirds.
The Thunderbirds hold down the final wild-card playoff spot.
Prince George is also 14 points behind the (24-29-4-1) Kelowna Rockets.
The Rockets are currently in a playoff spot by sitting third in the B.C. Division.
NEWS: Cougars, @unitedwaynbc team up for final Mega 50/50 Jackpot of the season on March 9th. | #NorthernUprising #WHL
? https://t.co/dDgD3xDBoZ pic.twitter.com/fzDaL3bsg9
— PG Cougars (@PGCougars) February 20, 2019
LISTEN: .@Hartley_Miller‘s Cat Scan – February 21st. 2019… featuring former @PGCougars player Greg Gardner @TheWHL | https://t.co/D5JEmvkqRj #cityofpg #sports #MyWHL pic.twitter.com/uRCvmAbwN6
— My Prince George Now (@mypgnow) February 22, 2019
(All of the PG Cougars Cat Scan Podcasts can be found right here)
BCHL: (PG SPRUCE KINGS)
This is the final weekend of the BCHL regular season.
The Prince George Spruce Kings close out with back-to-back home games against the Chilliwack Chiefs tonight
and Saturday.
The (42-13-1) Chiefs will finish first in the Mainland Division.
The Spruce Kings, who are sitting with a team record 37 wins (37-13-1-5), will finish second in the Mainland Division with the second best record in the league.
Prince George is five points behind Chilliwack.
Both teams have won 10 of their last 11 games.
The Spruce Kings will likely meet the (27-24-3-3) Coquitlam Express in the first round of the playoffs.
Coquitlam is third in the Mainland Division, five points ahead of the (26-26-2-1) Langley Rivermen with the Rivermen having just three games left.
Congratulations to the following Spruce Kings on their League Award Nominations:
Layton Ahac – Top Defenseman
Logan Neaton – Top Goaltender https://t.co/24Vly9a1tt— Spruce Kings (@SpruceKings) February 21, 2019
BCMML: (CARIBOO COUGARS)
The Cariboo Cougars host the seventh place (15-14-3-2) Greater Vancouver Canadians Saturday afternoon at 4:00 and Sunday morning at 10:30 at Kin 1.
The 21-8-5 Major Midget Cougars are in 4th place in the 11-team league with six regular season games left.
Cariboo is two points behind the (23-10-1-2) Okanagan Rockets, and five back of both the (23-7-4-2) Vancouver NE Chiefs (25-7-1-1) and the Fraser Valley Thunderbirds.
NHL:
Arizona Coyotes 3 Vancouver Canucks 2 (OT)
The (26-27-8) Canucks slipped to 12th in the Western Conference, but they are only two points behind Minnesota for the final wild-card playoff spot.
Vancouver is also just a point back of Colorado, Arizona and Colorado.
The Canucks host the N.Y. Islanders Saturday and Anaheim Ducks Monday.
Washington Capitals 3 Toronto Maple Leafs 2
Brett Connolly of Prince George scored his 15th goal of the season for the Capitals.
Edmonton Oilers 4 New York Islanders 3 (OT)
Montreal 5 Philadelphia 1
New Jersey 4 Ottawa 0
WSH 3 – TOR 2
CAR 4 – FLA 3
NJD 4 – OTT 0
MIN 4 – NYR 1
SJS 4 – PIT 0
MTL 5 – PHI 1
TBL 2 – BUF 1 SO
NSH 2 – LAK 1
DAL 5 – STL 2
EDM 4 – NYI 3 OT
ARI 3 – VAN 2 OTVia @Discover: https://t.co/L59ymAmvBI pic.twitter.com/LqRnp9AC7j
— NHL (@NHL) February 22, 2019
There are five NHL games tonight: Anaheim at Calgary, Winnipeg at Vegas, Columbus at Ottawa, Colorado at Chicago and Minnesota at Detroit.
CURLING: (SCOTT TOURNAMENT OF HEARTS)
B.C. is 5-4 in the Championship Pool and tied with Canada for 7th place at the National Scotties Tournament
of Hearts in Sydney, Nova Scotia.
Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario are the co-leaders at 7-2 followed by Northern Ontario, Wildcard and P.E.I. at 6-3.
The top four make the page playoffs.
The standings are right here.
3 teams have claimed a share of the top spot in the Championship Pool at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts. But as we witnessed on Thursday, there are plenty of other teams within striking distance. Read more about the logjam in the standings: https://t.co/uvjisV3AaR #STOH2019 pic.twitter.com/2zYk1P9xUZ
— Curling Canada (@CurlingCanada) February 22, 2019
B.C. plays Wildcard (10:30 a.m. PT) and Canada (3:30 p.m.) today.
On Thursday, B.C. beat Manitoba 8-5 in a tie-breaker followed by a 9-8 victory over P.E.I. and an 8-6 loss to Saskatchewan.
The B.C. team, skipped by Sarah Wark of Abbotsford, includes two sisters (third Kristen Pilote and lead Jen Rusnell) and a coach (Rick Fewster) from Prince George.
(Fewster is Pilote’s and Rusnell’s dad)
The Wark team qualified after winning provincials in Quesnel.
CANADA WINTER GAMES:
Team B.C. is fourth in medals with 26 and third in gold with nine entering competition today (Friday) at the Canada Winter Games in Red Deer.
Ryan Elden of Quesnel just missed his third medal by placing fourth in the men’s 12.5-kilometre individual biathlon race.
Elden has a gold in the men’s biathlon 10 km individual pursuit and a bronze in the 3 x7.5 km team relay.
Katie Young of Quesnel is part of the B.C. ringette team that will play Manitoba for the bronze medal after losing 8-1 to Ontario in the semifinals.
Joel Ewert of Prince George was part of the B.C. wheelchair basketball team that finished sixth.
#Results – BC 56-38 MB
The big W concludes #TeamBC Wheelchair Basketball competition in Red Deer. They finish 6th place, the best finish in the last 3 @CanadaGames ??#WEareBC
— Team BC (@GoTeamBC) February 21, 2019
A total of nine Prince George athletes are competing or have competed at the 2019 Canada Winter Games (four in speed skating, two in judo and one each in alpine skiing, snowboard and wheelchair basketball).
#Results – Long Track Speed Skating Male Mass Start – official results for #TeamBC
4th Place – Josh Telizyn (Fort St John)
10th Place – Eric Orlowsky (Prince George)
DNF – Kieran Hanson (Prince George)#WEareBC @BCSpeedSkating @SSC_PVC— Team BC (@GoTeamBC) February 21, 2019
Three players on the UNBC Timberwolves have been selected to the Canada West basketball all-star teams.
Vasiliki Louka, who led the conference in rebounding with 12.7 per game, became the first female athlete at UNBC to be named a first-team Canada West all-star.
HISTORY! @UNBCWomensBball‘s @VLouka13 has become the first female @UNBC TWolf to be a @CanadaWest 1st Team All-Star! V led the CW, and @USPORTS_Bball in rebounding, while registering 18 double-doubles! For context, that would put her top 20 on the CAREER list! Congrats, V! pic.twitter.com/xYyxNh2UDI
— UNBC Athletics (@UNBCATHLETICS) February 21, 2019
A couple of Timberwolves were voted to the third all-star teams; Maria Mongomo for the women and Jovan Leamy for the men.
CFL:
The CFL has awarded the 2020 Grey Cup game to Regina and the 2021 Grey Cup to Hamilton.
This year’s Grey Cup will be played in Calgary.