LOCAL SPORTS
NS Junior: The Antigonish Bulldogs took the first game of the Veteran’s Cup final with a 5-2 victory over the South Shore Lumberjacks. Game 2 of the series is this afternoon at 3 at the Antigonish Arena. Admission is $2 for children 12 and under wearing a Bulldogs Jersey.
U15: Both the Novas and Bombers advanced to the next round. The Novas routed the Halifax Wolverines 11-1 at the Antigonish Arena to win the series in two straight, while the Bombers swept the Valley Wildcats with a second 2-0 win in their series.
The Pictou County Wellness Centre is the site this weekend of the U15 AA Provincials. In round robin play on Saturday, Pictou County Crushers shut out Cumberland 2-0, the TASA Ducks shut out the Yarmouth Mariners 6-0, and the Antigonish Bulldogs defeated the Northside Vikings 3-2. The semi-finals begin with the Crushers vs the Ducks at 8:30, then the Vikings play the Halifax Hawks at 10:30. The final is set for 2 pm.
NATIONAL SPORTS
Blake Coleman’s power-play goal at 11:30 of the third period snapped a 2-2 tie and lifted the Calgary Flames to a 4-2 victory over the visiting Los Angeles Kings. Nazem Kadri, Martin Pospisil and MacKenzie Weegar also scored for the Flames, who snapped a five-game losing streak. Adrian Kempe and Anze Kopitar scored for the Kings, who have dropped two in a row.
Auston Matthews scored his N-H-L-leading 60th goal, Ilya Samsonov stopped 34 shots and the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Buffalo Sabres 3-0. Matthews became the league’s first two-time 60-goal scorer in 30 years. Captain John Tavares and Nicholas Robertson also scored for Toronto, which sits third in the Atlantic Division.
The Vancouver Canucks are the first Canadian team to clinch an N-H-L playoff berth. The Pacific Division-leading Canucks, with a 45-20-and-8 record, didn’t play Saturday but qualified for the post-season when the Vegas Golden Knights edged the Minnesota Wild 2-1 in overtime and the slumping San Jose Sharks upset the St. Louis Blues 4-0. Vancouver has not played a post-season game since the COVID-shortened 2019-20 season and the Canucks have not hosted a playoff game since 2015.
Canada’s national team flattened Finland 8-2 on Saturday in its lone exhibition tune-up before next month’s women’s world hockey championship in Utica, New York. Blayre Turnbull paced Canada’s attack in Kingston, Ontario, with two goals and an assist, while Sarah Nurse and Julia Gosling each had a goal and assist. Canada’s first game at the Women’s Worlds is on April 4th against Finland.
Canada went one-for-three in Major League Soccer action on Saturday. The Vancouver Whitecaps edged the visiting Portland Timbers 3-2, while Toronto F-C dropped a 3-1 decision to visiting Kansas City, and visiting C-F Montreal was edged 1-0 by D-C United.
A two-win opening day for Canada’s Brad Gushue at the world men’s curling championship in Switzerland. Gushue needed an extra end to complete a 9-8 win over Czechia and then beat Germany 8-5. Gushue plays defending champion Bruce Mouat (MOW’-iht) of Scotland today. Gushue’s lone world title came in 2017, but he’s won silver the last two years.
Saturday’s Scoreboard
NHL
Toronto 3 Buffalo 0
Edmonton 6 Anaheim 1
Ottawa 3 Winnipeg 2
Calgary 4 Los Angeles 2
Carolina 3 Montreal 0
Florida 3 Detroit 2 (SO)
Vegas 2 Minnesota 1 (OT)
N.Y. Rangers 8 Arizona 5
Colorado 7 Nashville 4
Boston 3 Washington 2 (SO)
Chicago 5 Philadelphia 1
Tampa Bay 4 N.Y. Islanders 1
Columbus 4 Pittsburgh 3 (SO)
San Jose 4 St. Louis 0
Dallas 3 Seattle 0
MLB
American League
Tampa Bay 5 Toronto 1
Detroit 7 Chicago White Sox 6 (10 innings)
Seattle 4 Boston 3 (10 innings)
Baltimore 13 L.A. Angels 4
Cleveland 12 Oakland 3
Minnesota 5 Kansas City 1
N.Y. Yankees 5 Houston 3
National League
Milwaukee 7 N.Y. Mets 6
Atlanta 12 Philadelphia 4
Pittsburgh 9 Miami 3
Washington 7 Cincinnati 6
San Francisco 9 San Diego 6
Colorado 9 Arizona 4
St. Louis 6 L.A. Dodgers 5 (10 innings)
Interleague
Texas 11 Chicago Cubs 2
NBA
Boston 104 New Orleans 92
Orlando 118 Memphis 88
Milwaukee 122 Atlanta 113
MLS
Vancouver 3 Portland 2
Sporting Kansas City 3 Toronto FC 1
D.C. United 1 CF Montreal 0
Philadelphia 2 Minnesota 0
Colorado 3 Los Angeles FC 2
Cincinnati 1 Charlotte FC 1
New York City FC 1 Miami 1
New York 1 Orlando City 1
Austin FC 2 FC Dallas 1
Houston 2 San Jose 1
Columbus 2 Nashville 2
Real Salt Lake 3 St. Louis City 1
LA Galaxy 1 Seattle 0
Sunday’s Schedule (All times Eastern)
NHL
Anaheim at Vancouver, 3:30 p.m.
MLB
American League
L.A. Angels (Detmers 0-0) at Baltimore (Wells 0-0), 1:35 p.m.
Toronto (Gausman 0-0) at Tampa Bay (Armstrong 0-0), 1:40 p.m.
Detroit (Flaherty 0-0) at Chicago White Sox (Fedde 0-0), 2:10 p.m.
Minnesota (Ober 0-0) at Kansas City (Singer 0-0), 2:10 p.m.
N.Y. Yankees (Schmidt 0-0) at Houston (France 0-0), 2:10 p.m.
Cleveland (Carrasco 0-0) at Oakland (Blackburn 0-0), 4:07 p.m.
Boston (Whitlock 0-0) at Seattle (Miller 0-0), 4:10 p.m.
National League
Atlanta (Sale 0-0) at Philadelphia (Suárez 0-0), 1:35 p.m.
Milwaukee (Rea 0-0) at N.Y. Mets (Megill 0-0), 1:40 p.m.
Pittsburgh (Falter 0-0) at Miami (Rogers 0-0), 1:40 p.m.
Washington (Irvin 0-0) at Cincinnati (Martinez 0-0), 1:40 p.m.
Colorado (Feltner 0-0) at Arizona (Pfaadt 0-0), 4:10 p.m.
San Francisco (Jefferies 0-0) at San Diego (King 1-0), 4:10 p.m.
St. Louis (Matz 0-0) at L.A. Dodgers (Stone 0-0), 7:10 p.m.
Interleague
Chicago Cubs (Wicks 0-0) at Texas (Gray 0-0), 2:35 p.m.
NBA
Cleveland at Denver, 3:30 p.m.
L.A. Clippers at Charlotte, 6 p.m.
L.A. Lakers at Brooklyn, 6 p.m.
Miami at Washington, 6 p.m.
Philadelphia at Toronto, 6 p.m.
Chicago at Minnesota, 7 p.m.
Dallas at Houston, 7 p.m.
Golden State at San Antonio, 7 p.m.
Oklahoma City at New York, 7 p.m.
Utah at Sacramento, 9 p.m.
MLS
Chicago at Atlanta, 3:30 p.m.