Team Russia Strikes Again!

Team Russia regrouped over the past two days and came out Wednesday night in Cranbrook looking to make history. And they did! For the first time in the five year history of the Canada/Russia Challenge, a team from Russia has beaten the representatives from the Western Hockey League, and they did it convincingly.

Keeping with the theme of the series, Team Russia opened the scoring at 10:27 of the first period. They continued to apply pressure and netted two more goals in the first frame. Team WHL scored their lone goal in the second period in the 5-1 loss. Due to the time difference, I was unable to watch the game but from the penalties it seems that the game started to get a bit rough in the second period, escalating to fisticuffs in the third with Russia receiving an instigator penalty.

The final game in the series goes tonight in Medicine Hat where the visiting Russians look to end the series in a tie for the first time. Game time is 7:00 PM MT and is televised on the Sportsnet channels on a tape delay.

Canadian Football is Alive and Well

Adding the Vanier Cup to the Grey Cup weekend turned out to be a brilliant idea. I am sure having a team from the same province (Manitoba) playing in both games helped the attendance and energy some. From my understanding, the CIS championship usually draws between 10,000 and 14,000 fans (that may even be a high estimate) but almost 27,000 people witnessed this year’s edition. Next year’s Grey Cup is in Montreal and I hope they do the same as this year and link the CIS championship with it as I am sure the Montreal fans (perhaps the best fans in North America) will come out in full force. And if history is any indication, Laval, winners of three of the last five championships, will be one of the competing teams.

The multitude of fans in attendance were not disappointed either. The 2007 Vanier Cup was as exciting, or more so, than Sunday's big event. A backup quarterback started the game for Saint Mary’s and he handled himself fairly well as he opened the scoring with a 13-yard touchdown pass. Unfortunately for Saint Mary’s, he could not rally his team to victory. Manitoba was too determined to win and repay the Huskies for a 2001 Vanier Cup defeat. Mike Howard of the Bisons tied a Vanier Cup record by intercepting three passes to lead Manitoba to a 28-14 win.

The big show on Sunday also saw a backup quarterback get the start, and like the Vanier Cup, his efforts were not enough to get the win. The Saskatchewan Roughriders took advantage of key turnovers to come out on top of the first Grey Cup meeting with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. The game remained close throughout and it wasn’t until early in the fourth quarter before the Roughriders seem to take control en route to a 23-19 victory. The 2007 Grey Cup was played in front of 52,230 at Rogers Centre.

The Russians Came to Play!

The 2007 ADT Canada/Russia Challenge is well underway as they are waiting to play Game 4 on Monday. So far this challenge has been exactly that, a challenge for the Canadians. In years past, Canada has had very little trouble against their Russian counterparts as they swept the series in 2006 and 2005 and took four of six in 2004 and five of six in 2003. It’s interesting to note that all losses to date were all suffered by the representing team from the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

The Russian Selects came out firing in game one of this year’s series by scoring the first goal less than seven minutes into the first period and taking a 3-1 lead into the first intermission. The Quebec team battled back in the second period to tie the game before the second intermission. Team QMJHL looked like they would take control of the game as they scored just thirty-six seconds into the third but the Russians replied with three unanswered goals of their own to take game one 6-4.

Team QMJHL played with a bit more fire in game two, as evidenced by the increased number of penalties, and scored the lone first period goal. The second period saw the Russian Selects fall behind by two before their scorers woke up. By the midway point of the second period the game was knotted at two and stayed that way for the remainder of the game. Since ties are not allowed on this continent anymore, a shootout was used as the deciding factor. Team QMJHL scored twice and shut out the Russian Selects for the victory.

The third game moved into Ontario and into the site of the 2008 Memorial Cup, the Memorial Auditorium (the “Aud”) in Kitchener. Similar to game 1, the Russians came out firing early and took an early 2-0 lead. Team OHL woke up in the second half of the first and tied the game before intermission. In the second each team scored once and the game remained tied going to the last stanza. Team OHL was determined to keep their perfect record against the Russians in this challenge and netted two goals in the third for the 5-3 win. As an aside, the boys from the Gens played a big role in the game as they combined for 1 goal and 5 assists and took the game’s first star.

The next game will be played in Sudbury before heading west for two games against the Western Hockey League. Game five goes Wednesday in Cranbrook BC and game six will be played Thursday in Medicine Hat, AB.

Waiting For Godo

After scoring the first point of the game (on a missed field goal attempt), the Toronto Argos offence, defence and special teams were shut down by the Blue Bombers from Winnipeg for the rest of the first quarter and into the fourth quarter. All game the faithful in the Rogers Centre were waiting for the double blue’s offence to kick in and take over the game. With the score 19-1 and less than twelve minutes to go in the game, the Argos offence finally cracked the scoreboard with a converted touchdown and the fans voiced their hope of a late comeback. Despite the turnovers by the Winnipeg offence, the fans acted the role of the characters in Waiting for Godo because as it turned out, they were waiting for nothing. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers held on to win the East Division 19-9.

In the West Division final, the Saskatchewan Roughriders capitalized on an early fumble by B.C. Lions’ punt returner to open the scoring about six minutes into the first quarter. Further turnovers by the Lions resulted in a 13-10 deficit leading into halftime. It was more of the same in the third quarter as Saskatchewan increased their lead to 23-17 by the end of the quarter. The Roughriders add a field goal in an otherwise uneventful fourth quarter to win the West 26-17 and earn a berth in the Grey Cup. The Grey Cup will be held next Sunday at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. One day prior to the CFL divisional final games, the CIS held their version of the divisional final games as the University of Western Mustangs played the University of Manitoba Bisons in the Mitchell Bowl and the Universite du Laval Rouge et Or played Saint Mary’s University Huskies in the Uteck Bowl. Defence was the theme for these bowl games as the Huskies allowed only two points on route to a 24-2 Uteck bowl victory to earn a spot at next Friday’s Desjardins Vanier Cup. Manitoba continued their perfect season (11-0) as they took a 31-5 lead into halftime on their way to a 50-20 Mitchell Bowl victory to claim the second spot at the Desjardins Vanier Cup. The Vanier Cup will be played on Friday night at 7:30 PM at Rogers Centre in Toronto as part of the Grey Cup festivities.

In other, unrelated news, the Houston Dynamo defeated the New England Revolution to claim their second straight Major League Soccer Cup Final. New England took a 1-0 lead into the second half but Houston tied the game in the 61st minute with a goal by Joseph Ngwenya. Houston took the lead for good in the 74th minute when Dwayne De Rosario scored his second of the playoffs. This game was played at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. in front of 39,859.

Women’s Hockey Championship

The 2007 National Women’s Under 18 hockey championship was held in Kitchener this past weekend. Ontario Red won their fourth straight U18 championship by defeating Quebec 4-3 on November 11. Manitoba defeated Team Atlantic 3-2 to take home the bronze medal. Quebec had the top four scorers in the tournament with Audrey Belanger-Cournoyer on top with 15 points (8G, 7A).

Here are the award winners for this tournament:

Most Valuable Player: Audrey Bélanger-Cournoyer (Quebec)

Top Forward: Marie-Philip Poulin (Quebec)

Top Defenseman: Samantha Watt (Alberta)

Top Goaltender: Delayne Brian (Manitoba)

Most Sportsmanlike Player: Laura McIntosh (Ontario Red)

While the U18 women tried to make a name for themselves in the National championship, the women’s National team was in competition at the 4 Nations Cup in Leksand Sweden. The four teams at the 4 Nations Cup include Canada, Team USA, Sweden and Finland. The home nation did not fair so well this year as they were blanked in their first two games, 4-0 by Team USA and 3-0 by Finland. There was a bright spot for them though as they were able to score three times against Canada, the eventual tournament winners.

Team Canada took a perfect record into the gold medal game by defeating Finland 4-1, USA 6-3 and Sweden 5-3. USA’s only blemish was against Canada as they beat Sweden 4-0 and Finland 2-1. Finland’s lone win in the round robin was the 3-0 shutout of Sweden. Both winners in the medal games shutout their opponents as Canada blanked Team USA 2-0 and Finland beat Sweden 1-0.

A North American Sweep

North America sweeps the medals at the 2007 World Junior A Hockey Challenge as Canada West defends their title. After both Canada teams were forced into playoff qualifier games, they met in the final match to fight for the gold medal while the two round robin winners had to settle for a chance at bronze.

In a very tight game between the talented Russian squad and the boys from the East, the game was decided by a penalty shot with six minutes remaining in the third period. After a Russian defender closed his hand on the puck in the crease, Louke Oakley, the leading scorer of the Bomanville Eagles, cashed in on the penalty shot to give Canada East a 2-1 lead and eventual victory. The boys from Western Canada had an easier time by cruising to a 5-1 victory over team USA for their chance at their second title in a row.

Canada East opened the scoring in the gold medal game but it was all Canada West after that. The team from the West scored two goals in the first period, one more in the second and another single for good measure in the third for a 4-1 win. Zac Dalpe of Penticton of the BCHL scored a hat trick for the West while teammate Mike Connolly (Camrose of the AJHL), who led the tournament in scoring (5G, 6A), earned tournament MVP honours.

In the bronze medal game, Team USA fought from a two goal deficit several times to earn the victory. Russia got out to an early 2-0 lead and still held a two goal lead (5-3) heading into the third period. Russia could not hold on to the lead as Team USA took the lead at 17:00 of the period. They finished with a three goal victory as they won 9-6 in their first appearance at this tournament.

Canadas Sent to Qualifiers

Both teams representing Canada in the World Junior A Challenge came up short in round robin play and are forced to play a qualification game this evening. Last night Canada West lost 4-2 to Russia in the last round robin game in Group A while their Group B counterparts from Canada East lost to the United States 3-2 in overtime. With their second in two games, Russia earned the top spot in Group A and a bye into the semi-finals on Saturday. The United States also won both their games, both in overtime, to earn 1st place in Group B and a chance to win a medal.

Canada East seems to have the easier game tonight as they face the pointless (0-2 record) team from Germany. The winner of this game will advance to the semi-finals and will have to beat Russia to get into the gold medal game. Canada West faces off against Belarus (0-1-0-1) tonight and with a win, will advance to play the United States in the second semi-final match up on Saturday. Both semi-final games will be played at 7:30 PM PST while the game for fifth place will take place at 2:00 PM PST.

World Jr A Challenge Begins!

The 2007 World Jr A Challenge began yesterday with two games. In the first game, Canada East defeated Belarus 4-1 while the second game saw Russia defeat Germany 6-2. This tournament has two other teams beyond the four mentioned above, one from the United States and a team from Canada West.

The teams are broken into two groups that will play a one-game round robin to determine the playoff seedings. Group A consists of Canada West, Germany and Russia while Group B consists of Belarus, Canada East and the United States. The top team in each grouping will get a bye into a semi-final game with their opponents being determined by a crossover (the 2nd best team in group A will play the last place team in group B, etc). The gold medal game will be played on Sunday Novemebr 11 at 7:30 PM PST and will be broadcast on TSN. The Bronze medal game will be played earlier in the day Sunday (2:00PM PST) but it will not be televised.

For up to date coverage please visit the World Jr A Challenge website.

Tying Up Lose Ends

The Boston Red Sox have called themselves World Series Champions, for a second time in four years, since Friday October 26 when they beat the Colorado Rockies 4-3 in game four. Despite my earlier convictions that the MLB is fixed, I highly doubt that was the case for the final round. I don't think people who get paid more in one year than the American President gets in a lifetime would agree to get embarrassed like the Rockies did in this years World Series. Unfortunately, Colorado lacked the necessary experience, or became too complacent on their eight days rest, to beat such a cohesive unit that had got hot at the right time.

Canada Settles for Silver: The 2007 World Ringette Championship ended yesterday (November 3, 2007) when Finland defeated Canada 5-4 at the Ottawa Civic Centre Arena. The tournament featured one team from four countries: Sweden, Finland, Canada & the United States of America. Canda and Finland dominated the four day competition as they each shutout the team for the US and only allowed two goals versus Sweden. Finland outscored their competition 88-7 while Canada outscored their competition 55-12 (not including the Gold medal game). In the Gold medal game, Canada looked to avenge their 10-5 loss to Finland in the round robin by jumping out to a 3-1 first period lead. Finland quickly tied the game in the second but Canada managed to score one to take a 4-3 lead into the third period. Finland tied the game with just over a minute to go in the game and eventually won the game at 11:06 of the first overtime period.

An Elite Club: Peter DeBoer became the fifth coach in Ontario Hockey League history to win 500 games in the league. On Friday November 2, 2007, the Kitchener Rangers came from behind to beat the Erie Otters 4-3 at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium to earn their coach a spot in history. I think the only thing that will be nicer for Peter this year, is if he can lead the Rangers to a Memorial Cup victory on home ice in May. For more details and reactions on Peter's accomplishment visit the OHL website. The other members of the 500 win club are Brian Kilrea, Bert Templeton, Larry Mavety and Dick Todd.

It's On Again!: The NLL season is back on. A seven year agreement was reached late last month and a new schedule has been devised. The season now begins in Colorado on December 29, 2007. There were two casualties of this mess, the Arizona Sting and the expansion Boston Blazers will sit out the 2008 season and will hopefully return for 2009.