Sports

It’s no April Fool’s joke. The Prince George Cougars will host a playoff game for the first time in four seasons on April 1. The Cougars clinched a playoff berth and a first-round matchup against the Victoria Cougars with a 3-1 win over the Kamloops Blazers at the CN Centre on Friday. The Series against the Royals starts with games Marcj 27 and 28 in Victoria. The win nailed down third place in the B.C. Division for the Cougars and left the Blazers on the brink of elimination...

It’s a long way from Mackenzie to the national high school wrestling championships, but Tristina Howse is set to do it in a three-year span. The Grade 10 student at Prince George Secondary only started wrestling when she moved to Prince George from Mackenzie three years ago. “My gym teacher was also the wrestling coach, and he thought I should join the team. “I’d never thought about wrestling before, but I decided to try it. It seemed to come sort of naturally, which made me like it even...

When you don’t give up any goals, it’s a safe bet you’re going to win hockey games. That was the way the Cariboo Cougars did it in the B.C. Major Midget League semifinals on the weekend at Kin 1, as they downed the South Island Royals 5-0 and 4-0. Griffen Outhouse got both shutouts for the Cougars, but coach Trevor Sprague said it was a team effort. “We’ve been working on blocking shots and being a unit of five on defence, and the guys did a great job of it on the weekend.” The Cougars also...

McLeod Stadium in Langley will host some of the top graduating Grade 12 players from the BC High School Football Association and the BC Community Football Association in the annual Senior Bowl game on Saturday. Kickoff is scheduled for 11 a.m. Pacific Time. The game will feature one team led by Coach Brad Yamaoka (Kamloops Broncos) and another squad led by the Coach Shane Beatty (Okanagan Sun). The players were split during a draft held on Wednesday. The Yamaoka team features two players...

Last year, the Rated PG RollerGirls hosted their first tournament, with five teams on the track. This year, they’re hosting two tournaments, including one this weekend with seven teams. “We had to split it up because of how many teams were interested,” says team member Ruthless Red. “And we had to split our team because of how many skaters we have this year.” So this weekend it will be Red and the rest of her Northstar teammates on the track at the Roll-a-Dome, with their first match...

As Ron MacLean talks about bringing the Scotiabank Hometown Hockey tour to Prince George this weekend, he ash a thought. Talking about a fight Dan Hamhuis of the Canucks got into earlier in the week against the Philadelphia Flyers, MacLean says, “The Watson brothers, who are from Smithers, like Hamhuis, would have been proud of him for dropping the gloves, and I know Don Cherry would have been watching that one too. “Actually, I might suggest to Don that we talk abut that on Coach’s Corner...

The Prince George Cougars season will not end on Saturday. A 4-2 win over the Kamloops Blazers on Wednesday evening means the Cougars will, at worst, host a one-game playoff for the final playoff spot in the WHL Western Conference. However, the Cougars also need to get just one point from their final two games of the regular season, both against the Blazers, to clinch third place in the B.C. Division and a first-round playoff series with the Victoria Royals. The Cougars host the Blazers...

The season came to an end for the Prince George Spruce Kings on Tuesday night at the Coliseum. The Kings lost 4-3 to the Chilliwack Chiefs, as the Chiefs swept the best-of-seven Mainland Division series in the BCHL playoffs. The winning goal for the Chiefs came on a power play with 20 seconds left in the third period, capping a three-goal rally by the Chiefs, who now move on to the double round-robin portion of the playoffs, meeting the winners of the Island and Interior divisions. After...