Thursday Sports: MJ Warriors Are WHL Champions

WHL CHAMPIONSHIP

Brayden Schuurman scored the go-ahead goal with 5:53 remaining in the third period to lift the Moose Jaw Warriors to a 4-2 win over the Portland Winterhawks on Wednesday to book a ticket to the Memorial Cup.

The Warriors completed the sweep in the best-of-seven Western Hockey League Championship Series to earn their first-ever Ed Chynoweth Cup. The Memorial Cup will be held May 24 to June 2 in Saginaw, Mich.

Martin Rysavy, with two goals including the insurance score into an empty net with 2:27 left in the contest, and Matthew Savoie also netted goals for Moose Jaw. Jackson Unger made 24 saves.

Kyle Chyzowski and Marcus Nguyen replied for Portland, which made it a 2-2 game entering the third period.

STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS (Round 2)

• Colorado defenceman Cale Makar scored two goals and the Avalanche beat the top-seeded Dallas Stars 5-3 in Game 5 of their best-of-seven second-round series. The Avs snapped their three-game losing streak. Game 6 is Friday night in Colorado.
• The Edmonton Oilers and Canucks find themselves in a best-of-three situation heading into Game 5 tonight in Vancouver. Edmonton evened the best-of-seven second-round series at 2-2 with a 3-2 home win on Tuesday. Elsewhere, the New York Rangers look to advance to the Eastern Conference finals with a Game 6 win tonight at Carolina.

CENTENNIAL CUP in Oakville, ON

Wednesday Scores:
Sudbury 6 Longueuil 0
Collingwood 3 Navan 2
Melfort 3 Oakville 1

MLB

The Toronto Blue Jays are off Thursday after wrapping up their series in Baltimore against the Orioles. Toronto fell 3-2 in the series finale Wednesday afternoon. What was supposed to be the second game on Tuesday was postponed to July 29th. Toronto heads home to open a three-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays tomorrow.

CFL

Quarterback Chad Kelly isn’t on the Toronto Argonauts’ suspended list but remains away from the CFL team. The Argos announced early yesterday that they had placed Kelly on the suspended list but a club official later issued a revision, adding Kelly is still not participating in team activities and isn’t present at its facilities. Last week, the CFL suspended Kelly from Toronto’s two exhibition games and at least its first nine regular-season games for violating its gender-based violence policy.

NFL

Netflix and the NFL announced a three-year deal for the streaming giant to carry games on Christmas Day. Netflix will have both games this year and at least one game in 2025 and ’26. Netflix announced during its upfront presentation to advertisers that it will have defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City at Pittsburgh followed by Baltimore at Houston. Netflix began airing NFL programming last year with the series “Quarterback.” A series on wide receivers will premiere this year. Netflix began airing live sports events last year, but it was exhibition events in golf and tennis. 

NBA PLAYOFFS

BOSTON (AP) — Jayson Tatum had 25 points and 10 rebounds, and the Boston Celtics beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 113-98 on Wednesday night to advance to the Eastern Conference finals for the third straight season.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Luka Doncic scored 30 points in a triple-double, and Dallas beat Oklahoma City 104-92 to take a 3-2 lead in the Western Conference semifinal series.

(Canadian Press)