Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 19, 2020, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE B2 B 2 SUNDAY, JANUARY 19, 2020 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COMSPORTS CAPTAIN KREBS LEADS ICE TO VICTORY Captain Peyton Krebs led an overwhelming special teams effort by Winnipeg, scoring once on the power play and adding another short-handed, to lead the Ice to a 5-2 Western Hockey League victory over the Calgary Hitmen before 1,621 fans at Wayne Fleming Arena Saturday night. The Ice, winner of three straight, finished the night with three power-play goals in six chances while the Hitmen went 0-for-5 with the man advantage. Krebs, who now has seven goals in 21 games since returning from off-season Achilles tendon surgery, improved his season points total to 28. MOOSE STONEWALLED BY PRIMEAU, ROCKET Cayden Primeau stopped all 17 shots he faced for his third shutout of the season as the Laval Rocket blanked the Manitoba Moose 3-0 on Saturday in American Hockey League action. Charles Hudon scored his team-leading 19th goal of the season at 1:35 of the second period to open the scoring. Riley Barber and Nikita Jevpalovs were the other goal scorers for the Rocket (21-16-4), the AHL affiliate of the Montreal Canadiens. Eric Comrie turned aside 33-of-36 shots in defeat for the Moose (19-24-0), the AHL affili- ate of the Winnipeg Jets. Laval was scoreless on their six power- play opportunities, while Manitoba failed to convert on three chances with the man advantage. MANITOBAN SCORES IN LOSS TO RUSSIANS LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Denton Matey- chuk of Dominion City and Adam Fantilli of Nobleton, Ont., had the lone goals for Canada in a 6-2 loss to Russia in preliminary round play at the Youth Olympics under-17 male hockey tournament on Saturday. Canada was unable to overcome a quick start by the Russians, who held a 4-0 lead after 20 minutes. Matvei Michkov and Vyacheslav Malov had two goals each for the winners. Ilya Kvochko and Ruslan Gazizov had one apiece. The Canadians play Denmark on Sunday. FORMER CANUCK EXTENDS BOBSLED LEAD IGLS, Austria — Kaillie Humphries of the U.S. extended her lead atop the women’s bobsled World Cup standings Saturday, teaming with Sylvia Hoffman to pick up a bronze medal at this weekend’s stop at historic Innsbruck. Olympic champion Mariama Jamanka and Annika Drazek of Germany won the race in 1 minute, 47.34 seconds. Laura Nolte and Erline Nolte of Germany were second in 1:47.53, barely holding off Humphries and Hoffman — third in 1:47.56. Humphries, who did not race last season and transferred to the U.S. team from her native Canada this past September, now has a 23-point lead over Germany’s Stephanie Schneider in the season standings. Canada’s Christine De Bruin and Kristen Bujnowski were fourth in 1:47.60. PARK TAKES LEAD, HENDERSON FALLS OFF LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Inbee Park finally made a bogey, but she still finished with a 4-under 67 Saturday and a two-shot lead over Sei Young Kim heading into the final round of the season-opening Diamond Resorts Tourna- ment of Champions. Brooke Henderson of Smith Falls, Ont., fell into a tie for fifth place after she carded a 1-over 72 on Saturday. Henderson now sits five shots back of the leader heading into Sunday’s final round. Park, a 19-time winner on the LPGA Tour, hadn’t made a bogey since November’s season-ending CME Group Tour Championship. JIMINEZ PLAYOFF BIRDIE FENDS OFF ELS, COUPLES KA’UPULEHI-KONA, Hawaii — Miguel Angel Jimenez made a 12-foot birdie putt on the second hole of a playoff Saturday with senior newcomer Ernie Els to win the PGA Tour Champions’ season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship. Fred Couples dropped out on the first extra trip down the par-4 18th at windy Hualalai, missing a short par putt. Jimenez, paired with Couples in the second- to-last group, birdied Nos. 13-15 in a 5-under 67. The 56-year-old Spaniard has nine victories on the 50-and-over tour, also winning at Hualalai in 2015. He has won in all seven his senior seasons. Els made his senior debut Thursday with an even-par 72 to fall eight strokes behind lead- ers Jimenez and Bernhard Langer, then rallied with consecutive 65s to post at 14-under 202. — staff, wire services BRIEFS M ISSISSAUGA, Ont. — The battle for Canada’s lone berth in men’s singles at the world figure skating champion- ship was destined to be a dogfight. But the toughest part for Roman Sadovsky on Saturday night was watching the skaters that took the ice after him. The 20-year-old from Toronto won his first Canadian figure skating title, setting the standard with two clean quadruple jumps and a score of 260.57. Then Sadovsky sat nervously and watched as pressure got the better of both Keegan Messing and Nam Nguyen. They both fell twice. “When you’re skating it’s one kind of stress level, but you’re sort of in control of what you’re doing, but once you’re sitting down you have no control and you’re just watching and it’s not a good feeling,” Sadovsky said. “It’s sort of bittersweet because you want to place well but at the same you want to see your friends compete well.” Emily Bausback won a women’s singles event that saw three newcom- ers climb the podium, while Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro won their second consecutive pairs title, and Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier captured their first national dance title. Canada has just one men’s spot at the world championships in Montreal based on last year’s results. The spot was playing out as a battle between good friends Messing and Nguyen. But Sadovsky, who’d captured a bronze on the Grand Prix circuit in the fall, never counted himself out. “I put the pressure on myself, I definitely wanted it really badly, I’ve been thinking about it since last worlds when I found out we only had one spot,” Sadovsky said. “I’m still sort of in disbelief, I’ve always wanted to get a national title, not just in senior but anywhere. “To win my first national title at senior is fine, I like it.” Nguyen, a former world junior cham- pion, opened with a beautiful quad toeloop, but fizzled from that point on. He was second with 243.51 points. “I just kind of fell apart as the program went on,” he said. “I think that’s more than a physical thing than a mental thing.” Nguyen said Sadovsky had been training with him at his Richmond Hill, Ont., rink once a week, and “I’ve been seeing his progress, he’s come a long way for sure, he’s such a beautiful skater to watch.” Messing, the leader after the short program, wound up third with 241.79. “That one (world) spot had a big shadow over me at this competiton,” Messing said. “After the warmup, I was standing back here, and I felt myself slowly slipping away. I just kept telling myself ‘No, you’re going to fight, you’re going to keep pushing.’ I guess I just wasn’t 100 per cent.” In ice dance, Gilles and Poirier had stood on the national figure skating podium seven times, but never on the top step. But Saturday, after nearly a decade of skating in the large shadow of su- perstars Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, they captured gold. “It’s obviously something that we’ve worked really hard to get and it hasn’t come easily,” said Gilles. “But I think everything is about timing in life... we’re just both really proud of ourselves.” Skating to Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now — they chose a Canadian art- ist because the world championships are in Montreal — Gilles and Poirier scored 136.76 for their free dance, for a total score of 225.62, a Canadian record. While the scoring system has changed meaning scores aren’t truly comparable to those prior to the 2018- 19 season, the duo was thrilled. “It’s really big,” said Poirier, a native of Unionville, Ont. “It’s huge,” echoed Gilles, who was born in Illinois but calls Toronto home. “One judge gave us all 10s (for the component scores). All 10s!” Gilles and Poirier, who are both 28, had five national silver medals, and two bronze. However the retirement of Virtue and Moir (who was in the audience Saturday), and the absence of Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje, who are taking the season off and could also retire, left a huge door open. “This season and especially this competition for us has really been about seizing the opportunity that we had a really good shot at winning this event, and really making a big statement,” Poirier said. “It was ours for the taking and we really had to embrace it... performing as if we are champions.” Their victory comes a day after they had a major wardrobe malfunction in Friday’s short dance. Gilles was looping under Poirier’s arm when the top of her braided crown of hair got caught for several seconds in a button on his shirt. No such troubles Saturday. Dressed in caramel-coloured costumes covered in tiny mirrors, they skated a virtually flawless performance, bringing the crowd to its feet. After their fifth-place finish at last month’s World Cup Final, they went back to the drawing board to “figure out the little bits that were killing the momentum of the piece,” Poirier said. “I think we’ve opened up a few little bits of the program that I think has allowed us to skate with more freedom, and more abandon and more speed, which I think are things that leave a strong impression with judges and with the audience as well, just to be able to see the power behind every- thing,” he said. Marjorie Lajoie and Zachary Lagha — last season’s world junior champions — won the silver with 198.92 points, while Carolane Soucisse and Shane Firus took the bronze (190.29). Moore-Towers, from St. Catharines, Ont., and Marinaro, from Sarnia, Ont., handily won gold with a score 215.67, their only obvious error coming on their opening jump sequence — Moore- Towers singled their triple salchow. “I was proud of the recovery,” Moore-Towers said. Two months out of the world cham- pionships in Montreal, the two said it was key to lay down a strong skate. “Our goal here was obviously to so- lidify ourselves as the No. 1 Canadian team and we’re thrilled to have done that in a year when the competition is a little steeper,” Moore-Towers said. ”We were a little bit slow and tight out there today,” Marinaro added. “Ob- viously on the world stage we’re going to have to bring a bigger skate and bigger performance than we did today, but we’re headed there.” — The Canadian Press Sadovsky wins dogfight for lone world skating berth Upsets Messing, Nguyen with brilliant performance LORI EWING PHOTOS BY FRANK GUNN / THE CANADIAN PRESS Roman Sadovsky performs in the men’s free skate on his way to winning at the 2020 Canadian Tire National Skating Championships in Mississauga, Ont., Saturday Kirsten Moore-Towers and Michael Marinaro perform their pairs free program Saturday. B_02_Jan-19-20_FP_01.indd B2 2020-01-18 11:06 PM ;