Friday Sports: Bombers Avoid Sweep
Photo: Becky Zimmer
SJHL FINAL
The Canterra Seeds Cup was in the Northern Lights Palace on Thursday night, but it wasn’t needed.
Flin Flon’s Kylynn Olafson scored at 15:05 of the first overtime and the Bombers staved off elimination in the SJHL’s Canalta Cup with a 4-3 victory at the Melfort Mustangs Thursday night.
Game 5 goes Saturday at the Whitney Forum in Flon Flon, with the Mustangs leading the series 3-1. The winner represents Saskatchewan at the Centennial Cup in Oakville, ON next month.
STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS (Round 1)
HURRICANES 3 ISLANDERS 2
(Canes lead series 3-0)
NEW YORK (AP) — Defensemen Brent Burns and Dmitry Orlov got Carolina off to a fast start and the Hurricanes held on to beat the New York Islanders 3-2 on Thursday night for a 3-0 lead in the first-round series.
Sebastian Aho also scored for the Hurricanes and Andrei Svechnikov had two assists. Frederik Andersen stopped 29 shots. Carolina won for eighth time in nine games at UBS Arena, which opened for the 2021-22 season.
Ilya Sorokin, getting the start after Semyon Varlamov went in the first two games, was pulled in the second period after giving up three goals on 14 shots. Varlamov came on and stopped all eight shots he faced.
Game 4 is Saturday in New York.
PANTHERS 5, LIGHTNING 3
(Panthers lead series 3-0)
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Sergei Bobrovsky made 26 saves, Matthew Tkachuk scored twice and Florida beat Tampa Bay 5-3 to take a 3-0 lead in the first-round playoff series.
Brandon Montour, Sam Reinhart and Steven Lorentz also scored for the Panthers, who will seek a sweep Saturday night in Tampa.
Tkachuk had a first-period goal and added an empty-netter with 32 seconds left.
Steven Stamkos, Tyler Motte and Nicholas Paul scored for Tampa Bay, with Paul cutting it to 4-3 with 5:10 left. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 26 shots.
- DETROIT (AP) — The Chicago Bears picked USC quarterback Caleb Williams to open the 2024 NFL draft, the first of six QBs in the top 12 picks. The Commanders selected Jayden Daniels with the No. 2 pick overall. With the first pick since parting ways with Bill Belichick, the Patriots picked quarterback Drake Maye at No. 3 overall. The Falcons made the first stunning pick of the NFL draft by taking quarterback Michael Penix Jr. with the No. 8 pick overall. Then Minnesota traded up to take J.J. McCarthy at No. 10, and Bo Nix went to Denver at No. 12.
- DETROIT (AP) — NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says he thinks the league will dramatically increase its number of international games in the next decade. The NFL will host five games abroad this season. Goodell says during an ESPN interview at the draft that he thinks the league will go up to 16 international games by 2034. Goodell also says the draft will continue to rotate to different locations. This year’s draft is in Detroit. Next year’s is in Green Bay.
- The Denver Nuggets moved to the brink of the second round with a 112-105 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 3 of their first-round series. Aaron Gordon had 29 points and 15 rebounds, Canadian Jamal Murray added 22 points and Nikola Jokic had 24 points, 15 rebounds and nine assists as the defending N-B-A champion Nuggets won their 11th consecutive meeting with the Lakers since 2022.
- Joel Embiid scored 50 points to lead the Philadelphia 76ers to a 125-114 win over the New York Knicks in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference first-round series. Embiid boldly stated “we’re going to win this series” after the 76ers dropped Game 2 to fall behind 0-2 in the best-of-seven series. With one of the finest post-season efforts of his career, Embiid became the third player to ever score 50 points against the Knicks in the playoffs.
