The Wasaga Beach Lions Club Novices dropped Oro 9-2 yesterday, and are now headed to the OMHA finals. Meantime, the Clearview Atom IceCats won the Brantford tournament yesterday with a 5-2 victory over Barrie.
Jarome Iginla reached a couple of major milestones for the Calgary Flames during an 8-6 loss to Tampa Bay. Iginla had two goals and three assists to pass Theo Fleury as the Flames’ all-time leading scorer. His second goal was the 400th of his career. Mark Recchi had five assists for the Lightning.
The Vancouver Canucks beat Columbus for the first time in four ties this season, downing the Blue Jackets 3-1. That gives the fifth-place Canucks a four-point lead over Columbus in the tight Western Conference race.
Martin Brodeur earned his 100th N-H-L regular-season shutout, with his second in three games, as New Jersey blanked Philadelphia 3-0. Brodeur is three back of tying Terry Sawchuck’s all-time record. In other games, Florida dumped Washington 6-2, Pittsburgh won its third straight, 4-1 over Dallas, and it was Chicago over Los Angeles 4-2.
Winnipeg’s Jennifer Jones won her second straight Scotties Tournament of Hearts, defeating B-C’s Marla Mallett 8-5 in the title match. Jones will represent Canada this month at the world women’s curling championship in South Korea, where she is also the defending champion.
The Toronto Raptors were short-handed in Dallas in a 109-98 loss to the Mavericks. Forward Shawn Marion left in the first quarter with flu-like symptoms. Jason Kidd had 15 assists for the Mavs and becomes the fourth player in N-B-A history to get ten-thousand assists.
Shaquille O’Neal scored 33 and the Phoenix Suns overcame a 49-point performance by Kobe Bryant to beat the Los Angeles Lakers 118-111. Phoenix defeated the Lakers for the first time this season despite playing without injured point guard Steve Nash for the third straight game.
Reliever B-J Ryan has decided to remain in the Toronto Blue Jays’ spring training camp rather than play for the United States at the World Baseball Classic. Ryan says it wouldn’t be fair to his U-S teammates, or the Blue Jays, to compete when his mechanics and delivery aren’t where they need to be.
The C-F-L is going to consider three rule changes that were proposed by fans when the league’s rules committee meets this week. The league will consider suggestions for changes to converts, safeties and the single point on missed field goals.
The U-S Coast Guard says it hasn’t received any distress signals from a missing fishing boat carrying N-F-L players Corey Smith and Marquis Cooper and two other men. Crews have been searching the choppy waters off Florida’s Gulf Coast for the boat, which was last heard from on Saturday. Poor weather is making the search difficult.