Happy Tuesday!
This week on the show we look at what has stalled talks between the NHL and the NHLPA, the Taylor Hall & Jordan Eberle contracts, a recap of the Labour Day Classic between the Eskimos & the Stampeders, an interesting story from the Paralympics and the Stephen Strasburg situation in the MLB.
In the GABBYs: EA Sports, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Joey Chestnut, Penn State, the Little League World Series and Charl Schwartzel. The Punchline this week is the Toronto Maple Leafs!
Shannon Szabados (Hugh Lee, Wikimedia Commons)
For the first time in the history of the Women’s World Hockey Championship, Team Canada entered the championship final going into Saturday night as the heavy underdog.
Well Team Canada not only made things interesting against an American team that thumped them 9-2 just a week before, but beat Team USA in their backyard by a score of 5-4 at the Gutterson Field House in Burlington, Vermont.
Hayley Wickenheiser set the tone early in this one with a shorthanded goal to give Canada the early lead.
However what I will remember most of this game was the spectacular goaltending by Edmonton’s own Shannon Szabados, who was on the cover of Alberta’s Prospect Magazine for their special Olympic issue prior to the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver.
Szabados might have shutout the Americans 2-0 in the Olympic Gold medal final, but one could argue she had to make significantly more quality saves tonight, in a game where Team USA outshot Team Canada 44-39.
The Masters will obviously headline my television viewing this weekend with the very first major of the PGA Season. Currently Peter Hanson of Sweden (-5) leads U.S. Open Champion Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland, former British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa, Ben Crane of the United States and day one leader Lee Westwood of England by a stroke.
Other players in contention are Major winners Zach Johnson, Jim Furyk and Paul Lawrie.
The television coverage for the tournament is Friday at 1pm on TSN, Saturday at 1:30pm on CBS, and Sunday at noon on CBS.
Here are the other events I’ll be watching this weekend:
Friday–NLL–Rochester Knighthawks @ Calgary Roughnecks–7pm–I’m heading down to the Scotiabank Saddledome this evening to see the Roughnecks in National Lacrosse League action. At 10-3, the Roughnecks are tied for first place in the West Division with the Colorado Mammoth. The Roughnecks lead the NLL with 180 goals scored, are led by former Knighthawk Shawn Evans, who leads the team in scoring with 58 points.
The University of Calgary Dinos have won the Canadian Interuniversity Sport National Championship in women’s hockey for the very first time.
On Sunday at the Clare Drake Arena in Edmonton, the Dinos defeated the University of Montreal Carabins 5-1.
It was a dominating game for the greatest woman to have ever played women’s hockey. Hayley Wickenheiser, the captain for Team Canada, scored two goals and two assists and was a +4.
Wickenheiser opened the scoring with a shorthanded goal from Iya Gavrilova at 16:46 of the first period, and then scored the game winning goal 1:18 later from Elana Lovell and Jenna Smith. The Dinos won despite being outshot 28-24.
Meanwhile in Halifax, Philip Scrubb scored 26 points and Tyson Hinz scored 20 points as the University of Carleton Ravens defeated the University of Alberta Golden Bears 86-67 in the CIS Men’s Basketball Championship. Carleton’s dominance in Canada when it comes to university basketball is amazing. They have now won eight times in ten years.
Hayley Wickenheiser (Wikimedia Commons)
For the thirteenth time in the history of the Women’s World Hockey Championship, it will be an all North American final.
Today in Zurich, Switzerland, Canada defeated Finland 4-1 and the United States defeated Russia 5-1.
Since the first Women’s World Hockey Championship in Ottawa in 1990, Canada and the United States have played against each other for the Championship every time with Canada holding a 9-3 edge. But the United States have won the last two World Championships. In 2008, they were 4-3 victors over Canada in Harbin, China and in 2009, they were 4-1 winners over Canada in Hameenlinna, Finland.
Canada however got revenge on their number one rival when they defeated the United States 2-0 in the Gold medal Game at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver.
On Saturday, Canada dominated the play against Finland, outshooting their opponents 78-16. That’s right folks. That’s no misprint. Finnish goalie Noora Raty made 74 saves. Marie-Philip Poulin-Nadeau, Jayna Hefford, Hayley Wickenheiser and Rebecca Johnston scored for Canada.
Roberto Luongo (Matt Boulton, Wikimedia Commons)
The tension in Vancouver right now must be astronomical. Sunday night, the Vancouver Canucks will try to avoid becoming only the fourth team in NHL history to blow a 3-0 deficit in the Stanley Cup Playoffs as they travel to Chicago to take on their arch-nemesis, the Chicago Blackhawks (Game Six, Sunday, 5:30pm, CBC). They have two chances to prevent history, but the tension should be significantly more if they have to go back to Vancouver for game seven.
If Chicago wasn’t in Vancouver’s head to begin the series, they certainly are now. That’s what happens when one team beats another by a combined score of 12-2 in 120 minutes of hockey action.
Roberto Luongo needs to simply be better as well. He had a save percentage of .786 in Game four and a save percentage of .667 in Game five. That’s what happens when you give up ten goals on forty shots. But, according to TSN, Canucks’ head coach Alain Vigneault hasn’t given up on Luongo just yet. He’s giving Luongo the Game six start.
But Luongo has not been the only Canuck off his game. The Sedin twins have been a combined -9 over the last two games.
Shannon Szabados (Hugh Lee, Wikimedia Commons)
Canada has won their pool at the Women’s World Hockey Championship in Switzerland.
Tuesday Canada defeated Finland 2-0 in their final round robin game in Winterhur.
Canadian goal scorers were Rebecca Johnston and Jayna Hefford.
Johnston scored at 12:46 of the first period from Haley Irwin and Hefford scored with 26 seconds left in the game from Hayley Wickenheiser in an empty net.
Edmonton’s Shannon Sazabados, who was on the cover of the Prospect Magazine Olympic edition prior to the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, made 14 saves for the shutout.
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