The Notre Dame Hawks, Springfield Winterhawks and defending champion Ste. Anne Aces were winners in the South Eastern Manitoba Hockey League Saturday night. Jeff Michiels had two goals and three assists and the Hawks defeated the Portage Islanders 7-3. Eric Pushka scored the go-ahead goal 5:38 into the third period as the Winterhawks won their first ever SEMHL game 5-4 over the Morden Bombers. Matt Bailey had two goals and four assists as the Aces defeated the Warren Mercs 11-4.
The Winkler Flyers gave up five unanswered goals and lost 7-6 to the Northern Manitoba Blizzard in The Pas. Max Lavoie and Brady Craik had two goals each for the defending Manitoba Junior Hockey League champions while singles went to Jayce Legaarden and Nicholas Mckee. The Flyers trailed 5-1 until Lavoie scored his second goal of the game with 41 seconds left in the second period.
The Pembina Valley Hawks blanked the Wheat Kings 3-0 in an exhibition game in Brandon. Madison Froese made 20 saves in recording the shutout. Emma Durand, Casey O’Brien and Abby Brigg did the goal scoring for the Hawks who face the Pilot Mound Buffaloes Sunday in Morden.
Team Manitoba will play its preliminary round opener today (5 p.m.) against British Columbia at the 2024 National Women’s U18 Hockey Championship in Quispamsis, New Brunswick. Pembina Valley Hawks forward Jessica Anderson of Roland is on Team Manitoba’s roster along with Zoe Cramer of Carman who plays for Shawnigan Lake School, Kate Manness & Sara Manness of La Salle who play for the Burlington Barracudas and Shayna Bannister of Manitou who plays for the Pilot Mound Buffaloes.
Carson Bjarnason made 33 saves and the Brandon Wheat Kings shutdown the Medicine Hat Tigers 3-0 at Westoba Place. Caleb Hadland scored 3:14 into the first period and Quinn Mantei and Dominik Petr added empty net goals late in the third.
The Manitoba Moose lost 4-1 to the Milwaukee Admirals at Canada Life Centre. Henri Nikkanen had the lone goal for the Moose.
Canada’s Rachel Homan won gold at the 2024 Pan Continental Curling Championships in Lacombe, Alberta. Homan, vice-skip Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew and lead Sarah Wilkes defeated Eunji Gim of South Korea 6-5 in the women’s gold medal game. Xiaoming Xu of China downed Shinya Abe of Japan 6-4 in the men’s gold medal game.