Tonight's A Big Night In Moose Jaw

Lots and lots of hockey on the blog today. And a little curling...


MOOSE JAW -- The Crushed Can is the place to be tonight as the Regina Pats visit the Warriors in a Sunday night 'Dub showdown (7pm 620 CKRM, Press Box Sports Bar Pats Pregame Show at 6:35pm).

As far as the Pats are concerned, really nothing is more important than the two points which are on the line but we'll talk about that more in a minute. For the Warriors, it's White Out Night in support of a 'yes' vote for the new Moose Jaw Multiplex, with the deciding referendum to be held this week. The first 2,000 fans will receive white Multiplex T-shirts, but everyone is encouraged to wear white to the game regardless.

Even Pats fans are joining the party, urging each other to wear their white Pats jerseys to the game in support of keeping their top rival in the Band City. This week's vote will definitively decide whether this project moves ahead or not. If it doesn't, the Warriors will begin living on borrowed time, destined to wind up in another city before long.

The Warriors are repaying the favour to Regina for the support, as they dumped the Raiders in P.A. 4-3 last night thanks to a late goal by Travis Hamonic. That leaves the Pats four points behind P.A. for 9th in the WHL's East Conference however it's now the Edmonton Oil Kings the Pats are chasing. The Oil Kings got a point from a 4-3 shootout loss in Prince George last night to claim sole possession of the final playoff spot with 59 points, five better than Regina.

It's going to be a fun night. Hopefully we'll see you there!
----

Prince Edward Island and Quebec top the standings at 2-and-0
after the second draw at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts in
Victoria. Team Canada's Jennifer Jones won her opening match. BC,
Ontario and Nova Scotia are also 1-0.

Saskatchewan's Stefanie Lawton is 0-1 and plays Ontario Sunday morning
on TSN.
(Alberta's Cheryl Bernard photo courtesy Canadian Press)
----

KENNEWICK, WA - Hockey fans in the Tri-Cities are starting to understand…when the Spokane Chiefs come to town, you are going to want a ticket.

Chet Pickard stopped 41 shots and Adam Hughesman scored the game-winner, as the Tri-City Americans (42-16-0-3, 87 pts) outlasted the visiting Spokane Chiefs (39-19-0-3, 81 pts) 2-1 in front of a sold-out crowd of 5,919 fans at Toyota Center. With the win, the Americans stretched their winning streak to four games, while picking up their first win over the Chiefs since December 31. Tri-City, which is 4-3-0-2 vs. Spokane this season, also increased their lead to six points over the Chiefs in the race for the U.S. Division title. Meanwhile, the loss was the second straight set-back for Spokane, who also maintains a slim three-point lead over fourth-place Kelowna in the conference standings.

The sold-out crowd was the fourth straight for the Chiefs and Americans at Toyota Center and, before they could even get to their seat, Tri-City gave them a chance to be heard.

Just 14 seconds into the contest and with the game’s first shot, Mitch Fadden electrified the crowd with a perfectly placed shot, over Dustin Tokarski’s glove, giving Tri-City the early 1-0 lead. With the goal, Fadden has now recorded a goal in four straight games, one shy of his season-high.
----

SASKATOON -- The Saskatoon Blades sent 6,028 fans home happy as they defeated the Kootenay Ice 5-3.

Blades defenseman Colin Joe opened the scoring at 8:11 of the first period with an assist going to Adam Chorneyko. The Ice tied things up on the power play a little over a minute into the second period. Walker Wintoneak put the Blades up by one again with his team leading 27th goal of the season. Chris Langkow and Burke Gallimore would both add to the Blades lead before the period was out to put the Blades up 4-2 heading into the third.

Stefan Elliott scored his 15th of the year while on the man advantage to put the Blades up 5-2. Brayden McNabb would reply with a power play marker of his own but it was not enough as the Blades controlled the rest of the game.

Braden Holtby made 19 saves on 22 shots to record his 36th win of the year.
----

KAMLOOPS BC - Evander Kane scored two goals in the third period and one in
overtime as the Giants erased a 3-2 deficit to win 5-4 over the Blazers in
Kamloops.

With the win, Vancouver ties their franchise record with their 49th win of
the season. The Giants will try and get to 50 wins on Sunday night as they
face the Seattle Thunderbirds in Kent, WA.
----

PORTLAND -- Jonathan Parker had two goals and two assists Saturday night to help lead the Seattle Thunderbirds to a 4-3 win over the Portland Winter Hawks at Memorial Coliseum.

With the win the T-Birds clinched a berth in the playoffs. Seattle improves to 29-29-1-3 and is now tied with the Kamloops Blazers for fifth in the Western Conference playoff standings. Seattle has one game in hand on the Blazers. The T-Birds finish out the weekend against the Vancouver Giants on Sunday at 5:05 p.m. at ShoWare Center.
----

CFL sees future in N.B.; League games to form centrepiece of annual events
Times & Transcript (Moncton)
Byline: Jesse Robichaud Times & Transcript Staff

The Canadian Football League is rumbling slowly but surely toward Moncton en route to its goal of becoming a truly coast-to-coast circuit.

CFL Commissioner Mark Cohon was in Moncton last week meeting with Mayor George LeBlanc and staff after meeting with Premier Shawn Graham at his office in Fredericton.

They discussed the creation a new annual weekend celebration of football in Moncton that could kick off as soon as fall 2010.

The annual weekend would revolve around a regular season CFL game between two rivals, a high-profile university football match that would draw students from across the Maritimes, and likely quite a bit of tailgate revelling.

"We see it as an opportunity to expand our base and use it as a platform to really celebrate football, trying to make the league coat to coast," said Cohon.

"We are looking at a multi-year commitment to try to bring a regular season game out here, and really create a fun weekend around it " create a mini Grey Cup," said Cohon.

In addition to the new stadium that is currently under construction on the Université de Moncton campus, Cohon said the CFL is drawn to Moncton by the popularity of football east of Quebec, and Moncton's ability to draw fans from across the region.

"In talking to the premier and the mayor it is a great city for pulling for events because you can pull from PEI, you can pull from Halifax and across New Brunswick."

Premier Shawn Graham and Moncton-East Liberal MLA Chris Collins travelled to Montreal last fall to meet with Cohon and CFL team owners during last fall's Grey Cup to discuss bringing CFL football to Moncton.

Graham said yesterday that the Atlantic Bowl fits into his government's vision of Moncton as the entertainment hub of Atlantic Canada.

"The fact that the commissioner has taken time out of his schedule to be here speaks volumes for his commitment of trying to develop and Atlantic Bowl that is going to be positioned in Moncton."

Graham said each level of government has a role to play in making the event happen. He said there is still plenty of preparatory work to do, but he said the payoff is worth the investment.

"The tourism revenue that would be generated, plus the promotional material having TSN here for a weekend event promoting the region, you can't buy that kind of coverage," said Graham.

"The fact that CFL is looking at establishing a toe hold in Atlantic Canada and is choosing Moncton I think is a pretty exciting time."

The City of Moncton's major event czar, Ian Fowler, said there was much progress made in yesterday's discussions.

He said it is just a matter of time before the Atlantic Bowl becomes a reality.

"As Mayor LeBlanc has indicated to the commissioner he is most interested in moving this forward," said Fowler.

"With the support of our local MLAs this is going to become a reality."

Fowler said there are still many details and numbers to work out, but he said the political will is firmly in place.

"The important thing step is there is a commitment form the CFL, there is a commitment form the Province of New Brunswick, and there is a commitment from the City of Moncton," said Fowler.

"The will is there and everybody wants to make this happen so we as staff have some work to do."

As for fans who dream of a CFL team that Moncton can call its own, Cohon said it is best to take the growing partnership one step at a time.

"Let's walk before we run," said Cohon with a quick smile.

"I think this is great way for us to build a base. Obviously there are issues and opportunities we would have to address. Most of our stadiums have 30, 000 seats."

The stadium that is currently being built on the U de M campus will have 10, 000 permanent seats with capability to add 10,000 more temporary seats.

Cohon has made it clear that said the league is in a position to look at expanding as stadium attendance and television ratings have climbed in recent years.