Former members of the Eastman ‘AAA’ Selects played an instrumental role in leading the Winkler Flyers to a convincing four-games-to-one series win over the Melfort Mustangs, on the way to capturing the Anavet Cup, and a berth in the Canadian Junior Hockey Championships in Winnipeg early in May.

The Flyers won the first two games of the best of seven series, on the road, at the home of Melfort Mustangs, the champions of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League.

The Flyers edged the SJHL champions 2-1 in that game, and a decisive win in the second game gave the Flyers the opportunity to win the series at home, with the next three games of the series slated for Winkler.

Dave Martin, a native of Niverville, scored three goals in Winkler’s decisive 9-1 win in Game Two. Yvan St Vincent of Ste Anne was in the Winkler net, stopping all but one of the 42 shots he faced.

In the latest example of a sports story becoming a front-page hard news story, we travel across the ocean to Britain.

As the inventors of soccer, Brits are extremely passionate about the game, just as Canadians are intensely passionate about hockey. They take their “football” very, very seriously.

So when the top soccer broadcaster was taken off the air on BBC (the country’s public broadcaster) for criticizing the British government’s harsh stance on immigration and asylum-seekers, it was above-the-fold news and sparked a fury all across England.

While not as vile and cruel as former President Trump’s immigration policy where he ripped babies from their parent’s arms, put young children in cages and made sure the documentation process was purposefully and intentionally lax to make family reunifications as hard as possible – basically the personification of pure evil and reason number one why no moral person can justify supporting such a disgusting person – Britain is proposing tough new laws where asylum-seekers would be detained, deported back to their country of origin and banned from ever re-entering Britain.

After half a season of playing really good hockey and looking like a team that could compete – and even beat – pretty much any team in the league, the Jets now look like a team where something is very wrong.

With the playoffs just around the corner and their post-season lives hanging in the balance, it is a decidedly bad time of the season to be playing bad, uninspired hockey.

I have gone full circle in thinking about what it is, exactly, that ails the Jets.

Initially I thought something was seriously wrong with the players. Why else would then coach Paul Maurice quit coaching midway through a season? I’ve covered a lot of sports over the years and cannot recall a coach – in any of North America’s four major league sports leagues – abruptly quitting in the middle of a season.

FULL DISCLOSURE: Artificial Intelligence (AI) and chatbots have been in the news a lot recently, so I thought I’d see what the fuss was all about. This entire article was written by AI. I typed “write a 500 article on why Russia’s invasion of Ukraine should disqualify it from the Olympics” and hit the send button. In less than 30 seconds it produced the 627-word column you see above. It was terrifying and amazing all at the same time.

The Olympic Games are one of the most prestigious sporting events in the world, bringing together athletes from all over the globe to compete in the spirit of friendly competition and goodwill. However, when a nation engages in illegal and aggressive actions against another sovereign state, it raises serious questions about their commitment to the principles of peace, respect, and fair play that are the foundation of the Olympics. This is precisely the case with Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, which has not only violated international law but also undermined the very values that the Olympic Games seek to promote.

The conflict between Russia and Ukraine began in 2014 when Russian forces annexed Crimea, a Ukrainian territory. Since then, Russia has continued to support separatist groups in eastern Ukraine, leading to ongoing fighting and instability in the region. The international community, including the United Nations, has condemned Russia’s actions as illegal and a violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty.

Given the severity of the situation, it is reasonable to question whether Russia should be allowed to compete in the Olympics. After all, the Olympics are not just about athletic performance, but also about upholding a set of values that promote peace, friendship, and mutual respect. By invading Ukraine and supporting separatist groups in the region, Russia has shown a disregard for these values, and therefore should not be allowed to participate in the Olympics.

Curling has often been called a game of inches, and a shot that was just that far short eliminated the SRSS foursome from the schoolboys’ championships at Virden last weekend, after the rink had battled their way to the ‘B’ side final of the draw.

Trailing by one coming home, the team could have forced at the very least an extra end and possibly a shot at A-B finals, but their last rock fell inches short.

Earlier in the championships, the SRSS foursome of Lorne Pauls, Doug and Allan Penner, and Kelly Barkman had come up with victories in their first two games, 8-4 over Okumura of Grant Park and 7-4 over Robertson of Neepawa.

The victories advanced them to the semi-finals of the ‘A’ side of the draw, where they lost to Light of Transcona in an extra end.

I love when a sports story becomes more than just a sports story and leaps from the sports section into the news section.

At last weekend’s NBA All-Star Game a singer brilliantly changed one single word to the Canadian national anthem and the reactions – those in favour of the change and those not in favour – were as you would expect.

The vast majority of the responses to the one-word change were extremely positive. So much so that on social media, the hashtag #ourhomeONnativeland was trending shortly after the NBA All-Star Game.

Here was the change: Instead of “O Canada, our home and native land,” Canadian R&B singer Jully Black replaced the word “and” with “on” so the line was “O Canada, our home on native land.”