News briefs for Saturday, March 18, 2023

Dubois returns for Jets vs. Preds

12:48 PM

NASHVILLE — The Winnipeg Jets will get a much-needed boost to the offence with the return of centre Pierre-Luc Dubois to the lineup for today’s matinee against the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena.

Dubois has missed the last five games with an undisclosed upper-body injury, but was able to put in a full practice on Friday and was cleared to suit up over the Jets back-to-back road games over the weekend, which ends with a tilt against the St. Louis Blues Sunday. Dubois will be centring a line between wingers Nikolaj Ehlers and Blake Wheeler.

The rest of the lineup looks as follows:

Connor-Scheifele-Niederreiter
Ehlers-Dubois-Wheeler
Namestnikov-Lowry-Appleton
Barron-Stenlund-Maenalanen

Morrissey-DeMelo
Dillon-Pionk
Samberg-Schmidt

Hellebuyck starts.

Jets trail Preds 1-0 after first period

2:18 PM

NASHVILLE — The Winnipeg Jets trail the Nashville Predators 1-0 after one period of play at Bridgestone Arena.

Nashville forward, and Winnipeg native, Cody Glass opened the scoring at the 5:26 mark of the frame, cleaning up a bouncing puck in front to beat Connor Hellebuyck for his 10th goal of the season.

The Jets outshot the Preds 13-3.

Jets trail Preds 1-0 heading into third period

2:42 PM

NASHVILLE — The Winnipeg Jets trail the Nashville Predators 1-0 heading into the third period at Bridgestone Arena.

Nashville forward, and Winnipeg native, Cody Glass opened the scoring at the 5:26 mark of the frame, cleaning up a bouncing puck in front to beat Connor Hellebuyck for his 10th goal of the season.

No goals were scored in the second period.

The Jets are outshooting the Preds 22-13.

Jets edge Preds 3-2 in OT

3:33 PM

NASHVILLE — The Winnipeg Jets, in a fight for their playoff lives, managed to claw out a critical two points in a 3-2 overtime win over the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena Saturday afternoon.

Defenceman Neal Pionk sealed the game 55 seconds into the extra period, shovelling an open puck in front of the net for his ninth of the season. Nikolaj Ehlers and Adam Lowry also scored for the Jets, who improved to 39-28-3.

The Predators, who got goals from Cody Glass and Luke Evangelista, collected a point in the loss. Nashville, who had leads of 1-0 and 2-1, dropped to 34-25-8.

The Jets wrap up a two-game road trip with a tilt against the Blues in St. Louis Sunday.

Einarson dumps host Sweden in worlds opener

4:05 PM

Kerri Einarson’s Gimli team literally stole one Saturday to open the 2023 world women’s curling championship in style.

Down 4-3 playing the ninth end, Team Canada stole two points on a missed draw by Sweden skip Anna Hasselborg and then put four more points on the board in the 10th for a shocking 9-4 triumph over the host nation.

Hasselborg came up way light on a last-rock draw that would have forced an extra end at the arena in Sandviken, Sweden.

The four-time Canadian champions (1-0) play a pair of games Sunday, including a matchup with Tabitha Peterson of the United States at 3 a.m. CT and a battle with Norway’s Marianne Roervik at 1 p.m.

Einarson’s games are all televised on TSN.

Crews respond to fire on Balmoral Street

4:38 PM

Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service was called to the 500 block of Balmoral St. Saturday afternoon for reports of a fire.

When crews arrived to the vacant, three-storey apartment building they found smoke coming from the structure. The fire was under control by 1:10 p.m.

The cause of the fire is under investigation and damage estimates are not available. The building was previously damaged by fire.