Centre stage

-- It took double overtime Saturday before Zeanan Ziemer took a pass from Ryan Dreger at the 17:42 mark and found the back of the net as the Dauphin Kings beat the La Ronge IceWolves 7-6 in La Ronge, Sask.

The win evened their best-of-seven ANAVET Cup Junior A hockey playoff 1-1 and sent the series back to Dauphin's Credit Union Place for 7:30 p.m. games Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Kings' Joe Kot sent the game into overtime with the tying goal with only three seconds left in regulation time. It was Kot's second goal of the night.

"It was a huge win and effort," Kings' head coach Marlin Murray told CKDM-Dauphin. "I can't say enough about our guys. What a gritty effort. When you're tired, the first thing to go is your mind, and then you make bad decisions. It was a real character win for us, now going home for three games."

Also scoring for the Kings were Shane Luke, Troy Hunter, Mitch Czibere, Dreger and Stephen Shamanski.

-- Head coach Kirby Shepp continues to build his University of Manitoba Bisons men's basketball team for the 2010-11 season, adding 6-foot-4 Garden City Collegiate Fighting Gophers forward Marko Milosevic to his roster.

Milosevic was part of the Garden City title run as a two-time AAAA provincial high school champion (2007-08, 2008-09). The Winnipeg-raised player from Sarajevo, Bosnia, was named a 2009 tournament all-star as the Gophers successfully defended their provincial title against Sturgeon Heights Huskies.

The Grade 12 student also had a successful 2009-10 regular season, averaging 31 points and 11 rebounds per game.

"We are ecstatic," Schepp said of recruiting Milosevic. "He is exactly the type of athlete that we are trying to build our program around. Marko is a true leader in every sense of the word."

-- Canada's national men's under-18 hockey team will not participate in the semifinals of the IIHF World Under-18 Championship tournament in Bobruisk, Belarus.

The Canadian team, which includes Manitobans Calvin Pickard (WHL, Seattle) and forward Quinton Howden of Oakbank (WHL, Moose Jaw), finished fourth in Group A, bumping them down to the relegation round, which begins Wednesday. It marks the first time since Canada's debut at the tournament in 2002 that the national team failed to make the semifinals.

The Canucks finished the preliminary round Sunday with a 5-4 loss to Sweden. Trailing 4-0 after two periods, Canada got to within a goal with 90 seconds left before coming up short.

Ryan O'Connor (Hamilton), Christian Thomas (Toronto), Freddie Hamilton (St. Catharines, Ont.) and Howden all scored in the final 20 minutes for Canada, which was outshot 30-19. Howden also added an assist.

Canada will play Latvia Wednesday and Slovakia Thursday. Canada's 11-3 win over Belarus last Thursday will carry over to the relegation round.

Canada also lost to Switzerland (3-1) and the United States (5-0) in preliminary-round play.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 19, 2010 C5