(As of 12:01 AM)
WHL: (Western Conference)
Kamloops Blazers 8 Victoria Royals 0 (Blazers 4th straight victory)
Spokane Chiefs 6 Kelowna Rockets 5 (OT) (Rockets trailed 5-2 mid 3rd)
Seattle Thunderbirds 6 Tri-City Americans 5 (OT)
The Blazers are just one point behind the Rockets for 3rd place in the B.C. Division and a playoff spot.
The Thunderbirds have clinched the second and final wild-card playoff berth.
Kamloops and Kelowna both have two games left.
The Blazers have a home-and-home against the Prince George Cougars; Friday in Kamloops and Saturday at CN Centre.
The Rockets have a home-and-home against the first place Vancouver Giants; Friday in Langley and Saturday in Kelowna.
The Giants lead the Western Conference by two points over the Everett Silvertips.
The Silvertips, with two games remaining, play at Victoria Friday and host the Royals on Saturday.
Victoria is locked in as the second place team in the B.C. Division.
The standings are right here.
WHL:(Eastern Conference)
Medicine Hat Tigers 7 Red Deer Rebels 4
Moose Jaw Warriors 6 Brandon Wheat Kings 2
Swift Current Broncos 2 Regina Pats 0
The Tigers victory allowed them to clinch a wild-card spot in the East.
The Rebels hold down the second wild-card berth by four points over the Wheat Kings with each team having two games remaining.
Red Deer will host Lethbridge Friday and visit Kootenay Sunday.
Brandon plays a home-and-home against the Pats; Friday in Regina and Saturday in Brandon.
The Broncos victory snapped a WHL season-high 18-game losing streak.
PG COUGARS:
The Prince George Cougars will try to play the role of spoiler when they face the Blazers, Friday in Kamloops and Saturday at CN Centre.
The Saturday season-ending game will be Fan Appreciation Night.
The Blazers have won six of the seven meetings against the Cougars this season.
The 18-40-5-3 Cougars have just two victories in their last 25 games, one against Kamloops and the other vs. Portland.
Prince George is 2-10-1-1 since general manager Mark Lamb took over as interim head coach.
The Cougars will end up 19th out of 22 teams in the overall WHL standings, finishing ahead of Regina, Kootenay and Swift Current.
LISTEN: @Hartley_Miller‘s Cat Scan – March 7th, 2019…. featuring longtime @PGCougars Equipment Manager Chico Dhanjal
| https://t.co/T56PIMnBgD #cityofpg #Sports pic.twitter.com/s9ihCwtmXD— My Prince George Now (@mypgnow) March 8, 2019
(All of the PG Cougars Cat Scan Podcasts can be found right here)
BCHL:
The Prince George Spruce Kings visit the Chilliwack Chiefs Friday and Saturday in the first two games of the Mainland Division final.
The best-of-seven series will shift to Prince George Monday and Tuesday.
The Spruce Kings won five of the eight regular-season meetings between the two teams, including all four in Prince George.
Two of the three Chilliwack wins came in a shootout and all three were by one goal.
The Spruce Kings have won 11 straight on home ice and 16 of their last 18 games overall.
The other BCHL second-round matchups will also begin on Friday: Powell River at Victoria, Trail at Vernon and Cowichan Valley at Wenatchee.
Prince George-Chilliwack Schedule: (Spruce Kings home games in bold)
Game 1 – Friday, March 15th – Prince George @ Chilliwack – 7 PM
Game 2 – Saturday, March 16th – Prince George @ Chilliwack – 7 PM
Game 3 – Monday, March 18th – Chilliwack @ Prince George – 7 PM
Game 4 – Tuesday, March 19th – Chilliwack @ Prince George – 7 PM
Game 5 – Thursday, March 21st – Prince George @ Chilliwack – 7 PM (If Necessary)
Game 6 – Saturday, March 23rd – Chilliwack @ Prince George – 7 PM (If Necessary)
Game 7 – Monday, March 25th – Prince George @ Chilliwack – 7 PM (If Necessary)
Coquitlam-Prince George results: (Spruce Kings home games in bold)
Game 1 – Friday, March 1st – Coquitlam @ Prince George – SK WON 3-1
Game 2 – Saturday, March 2nd – Coquitlam @ Prince George – SK WON 3-2 (OT)
Game 3 – Monday, March 4th – Prince George @ Coquitlam – SK WON 5-2
Game 4 – Tuesday, March 5th – Prince George @ Coquitlam – EXPRESS WON 3-0
Game 5 – Thursday, March 7th – Coquitlam @ Prince George – SK WON 4-2
The Cariboo Cougars put a six-game win streak on the line when they host the 7th place
(18-16-4-2) Greater Vancouver Canadians in the best-of-three BCMML quarter-finals.
Games will be played at Kin 1 Friday night at 5:30, Saturday afternoon at 4:00 and if needed, Sunday morning at 10:00.
The 27-8-5 Cougars finished in second place, just one point back of the (29-9-1-1) Fraser Valley Thunderbirds.
The league schedule and standings are right here.
#
NHL: (3 Wednesday games)
Vancouver Canucks 4 New York Rangers 1
Canucks broke open a 0-0 game with three unanswered goals in the second period.
Just the third win in the last 11 games for Vancouver.
The 29-32-9 Canucks host the (26-36-9) New Jersey Devils on Friday.
Vancouver is 13th in the Western Conference, 8 points behind Arizona for the final wild-card playoff spot with just 12 games remaining (8 home and 4 away).
New Jersey Devils 6 Edmonton Oilers 3
Chicago Blackhawks 5 Toronto Maple Leafs 4
There are 10 Thursday games in the NHL with just three Canadian teams in action: Montreal is at the New York Islanders, Winnipeg entertains Boston and Ottawa is home against St. Louis.
The Habs are tied with Columbus for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, two points behind Carolina.
Both the Blue Jackets and Hurricanes are idle.
The NHL announced that the 2019 #NHLDraft Lottery will be held Tuesday, April 9, in Toronto.
The results of the Draft Lottery will be revealed live by national rightsholders NBCSN, Sportsnet and TVA Sports during a one-hour show beginning at 8 p.m., ET. https://t.co/5oXwYXByWL pic.twitter.com/EsiSyzwKts— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) March 13, 2019
CURLING:
The Chelsea Carey team of Alberta will represent Canada at the women’s world curling championship that begins this weekend and runs until March 24th in Silkeborg, Denmark.
Rachel Brown is the lead on the Canadian team.
The 32-year-old Brown was born in Smithers and moved to Edmonton in 2006.
Canada will open against South Korea Saturday in the 13-team tournament.
The draw is right here.
The 2020 women’s world curling championship will be held in Prince George.
NBA:
MLB:
The Major League Baseball season is two weeks away.
The Toronto Blue Jays have named Marcus Stroman their opening day starter.
The Jays begin with a home game on March 28th against the Detroit Tigers.
The 27-year-old Stroman was just 4-9 last year with a 5.54 earned-run average.
He has a career mark of 41-34 and a 3.91 ERA.
UNBC TIMBERWOLVES:
BIG News! And by Big, we mean BIG! Six-foot-five @DPSSCondors product @DronDemian has committed to @UNBCMSoccer for the 2019-2020 @CanadaWest season! Hear from Demian in the video, and read all the details here: https://t.co/3af0ueauBV pic.twitter.com/URLYp9EkzG
— UNBC Athletics (@UNBCATHLETICS) March 12, 2019
HALL OF FAME:
Tickets are on sale for the Prince George Sports Hall of Fame 12th Annual Induction Dinner on Saturday, March 30th at the Hart Community Centre.
There are three new inductees – Cliff Hucul, Brian Martinson, and Elisha Williams to bring the PG Sports Hall of Fame total to 78.
In addition, 12 Prince George Youth will receive Excellence awards.
They are Jonah Brittons, Ben Hendrickson, Kimoko Kamstra, Natasha Kozlowski, Anna MacDonald, Eric Orlowsky, Colburn Pearce, Derian Potskin, Ainslee Rushton, Matthew Shand, Zenze Stanley-Jones, Jordan Vertue.
Tickets at $45.00 each are available until March 22nd at Northern Food Equipment, 814 – 5th Avenue.