Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - February 2, 2020, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE B2 B 2 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2020 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COMSPORTS M ARK Scheifele pictures himself hori-zontal, buried beneath a mountain of an NHL player, the night the NHL officially returned to Winnipeg. That was eight years, three months and, as of today, 24 days ago. On Friday night, the dare-we-say veteran forward reached a milestone, suiting up for the 500th game of his NHL career. The 26-year-old from Kitchener, Ont., was the first-ever draft choice of the Jets 2.0, chosen seventh overall in 2011. He cracked the opening- night roster and made his debut Oct. 9, 2011, against the Montreal Canadiens, marking the league’s official return to the Manitoba capital. What does he recall most vividly about Game 1 for both he and the organization, a night when the Jets fell 5-1 to the Habs? “I remember (6-7, 245-pound defenceman) Hal Gill sitting on me, here against Montreal,” Scheifele said recently. “It’s crazy how time flies. Hopefully, there’s 500 more.” It was far from the only time that gangly kid found himself flat on the ice in those early days as a Jets forward, tumbling at times like he was constructed out of cardboard. At 6-3 but barely 180 pounds, he was unprepared for full-time duty in the fall of 2011. Or 2012. And even though he continued to tear up the Ontario Hockey League as a key piece with the Barrie Colts, some maintained Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff and his scouting staff misfired with that prized 2011 first-round selection. Remember, they chose him over players such as centre Sean Couturier, defenceman Dougie Hamilton, and winger Sven Baertschi, all ranked ahead of him on Central Scouting’s final ranking list. Now, as Scheifele sits 13th in NHL scoring nearly two-thirds of the way through his seventh full campaign, it’s difficult to argue the orga- nization got it right. And it’s been apparent for several seasons. Since his NHL debut — just one of 11 games he’d play with Jets in two seasons following the draft — Scheifele had scored 174 goals and as- sisted on 251 others, prior to Winnipeg’s battle with the St. Louis Blues on Saturday night. He also has 16 goals in 27 playoff games. He’s one of the league’s premier centres and has been selected to participate in the all-star weekend the last two seasons. Scheifele was asked to assess the evolution of his game since he gained a regular spot in 2013- 14. “It’s not just one thing, it’s been everything. I try to focus on my entire game, not just one thing. Whether it’s practice or whatever it is, try to improve every day on every aspect of my game and just want to continue to grow and con- tinue to find new things about myself,” he said. “It’s a pretty fun journey when you get to do this for your job, so I’m definitely very thankful and very lucky.” Jets coach Paul Maurice offered another rea- son Scheifele’s steep trajectory, beyond the player’s undeniable skill and ambition. “We talk about him a lot, his desire to improve his game. The biggest change, year over year, is actually physical strength. He’s going tell you he’s learning where to put himself on the ice, how to position, how to take pucks, and he works on all that. But you’ve seen it this year, from the hash marks down in the offensive zone, there’s big men leaning on him and boy is he getting good at controlling that puck,” said Maurice. “He’s in the 95th percentile in the NHL for puck-on-stick control in the offensive zone, He has it on his stick and he’s able to control the puck. He’s just physically stronger. He looks, this year, different than any other year on physical strength alone.” jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @WFPJasonBell JASON BELL OF course, the medals won at this week’s Canadian National Badminton Champions are signifi cant, but more important than who won and lost is what this event meant to the para- badminton community. The four-day competition, which was held at Winnipeg’s Prairie Badminton facility, came to a close on Saturday afternoon. This year’s nationals were the first time able-bodied and para-athletes competed for the country’s top prizes under the same roof at the same time. “This was awesome. I’ve been preaching this since I started badminton,” said Bernard Lapointe, 35, a Moncton, N. B., native who won gold in wheelchair singles and doubles Satur- day. “I played tennis, sledge hockey and I’ve played all types of sports and you can’t have both. You can’t have the able-bodies and paras together because everything is different. But for badminton, anybody can show up at any court and just play. I’m proof of it because I play with able-body players all the time. So, I think this is the best scenario to have every- body together.” Canada is way behind in the world of para- badminton. Badminton Canada only started having a national event for the para partici- pants four years ago. Since then, the word has slowly begun to spread. “I’ve been playing badminton for 18 years until a coach approached me last year and said ‘Hey, you should play para-badminton,’” said Duc Goi, who needed three sets to defeat William Roussy in the SL3 final (21-15, 21-23, 22-20) in what was arguably one of the most exciting matches of the day. With para-badminton set to make its Para- lympics debut this summer in Tokyo, it only made sense for Canadian nationals to include it as well. “It’s more exposure for para because usually, we wouldn’t get this kind of audience. So that’s definitely good for growing the sport” said Goi, a 38-year-old from Mississauga. The breakout star of the event was 16-year- old Rachel Chan of Markham, Ont., who became the youngest player to win gold in women’s singles. Chan defeated Brittney Tam in the final (21-13, 23-21). This week was only the second time that Chan had competed at a senior women’s level. “I think cause I’m younger, they might be a little bit more nervous or have a little pressure playing me. So, I think the pressure is really on them, not really on me,” said Chan when asked how she was able to outduel more experienced players. In men’s action, Jason Ho-Shue showed why he’s the top-ranked able-bodied Canadian badminton player. Ho-Shue, a 21-year-old from Toronto, capped off a perfect week as he beat Br Sankeerth (21-8, 13-21, 21-16) to win singles gold and then followed that up by defeating Jonathan Lai and Ty Lindeman in the men’s doubles finals (21-17, 21-11) with partner Nyl Yakura to add another medal to his collection. “Going into the tournament, I was very com- fortable with my preparation and how I’ve been getting ready with my body and my mind,” said Ho-Shue, who is currently the No. 53-ranked player in the world. Ho-Shue, the reigning Pan Am Games champion in doubles, appears to be on his way to qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics this sum- mer in both singles and doubles. There are still three months of qualifying events to be played, but Ho-Shue, who took two-time Olympic cham- pion Lin Dan of China to three sets last August, is feeling confident. “Right now I’m just focusing on qualifying. But once I get there, I’ll do my best to try to get out of the group stage. Try to go to the quarter- final or semifinal and just do my best for the country,” Ho-Shue said. taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @TaylorAllen31 A huge win for para-badminton TAYLOR ALLEN Saturday results XD final: Joshua Hurlburt-Yu and Josephine Wu def. Jonathan Lai and Talia Hailey Ng (21-15, 18-21, 21-12) MS final: Jason Ho-Shue def. Br Sankeerth (21-8, 13-21, 21-16) WH Singles final: Bernard Lapointe def. Richard Peter (21-7, 21-7) SS6 Singles final: Justin Lawrence Kendrick def. Anthony Hay (21-8, 21-15) SL3 Singles final: Duc Goi def. William Roussy (21-15, 21-23, 22-20) WD final: Rachel Honderich and Kristen Tsai def. Cather- ine Choi and Josephine Wu (21-14, 21-8) WS final: Rachel Chan def. Brittney Tam (21-13, 23-21) SS6 Doubles final: Émilien Langelier and Tristan Lelièvre def. Anthony Hay and Zachary Lelièvre (22-20, 21-15) MD final: Jason Ho-Shue and Nyl Yakura def. Jonathan Lai and Ty Lindeman (21-17, 21-11) WH Doubles final: Bernard Lapointe and Richard Peter def. Misha Bilenky and Yuka Chokyu (21-16, 21-14) Richard Peter (left) and Bernard Lapointe Scheifele’s first 500 games fly by JOHN WOODS / THE CANADIAN PRESS Jets centre Mark Scheifele celebrates as Patrik Laine scores during Scheifele’s 500th NHL game Friday night. R IVERS — Kerri Einarson knows all about what can happen in a Manitoba curling championship final. She’s played four of them in her time, and today she’ll make it five, and each one left its mark: one of them became her dream come true, but the other three broke her heart. There’s no way to know which way this year’s journey will end, but some things are certain. One is that if Einarson plays the way she did across two games Saturday — not to mention her brilliant win over Jennifer Jones on Friday night — then there aren’t many teams in this entire sport that can beat her. So all Einarson needs to focus on now is this: with a definitive 8-6 win over Tracy Fleury to close the championship round, she locked up the top overall finish at the 2020 Manitoba Scotties, giving her a bye to the final, where she’ll await the winner of this morning’s semifinal bout between Fleury and Jones. Once again, she is one win away from claiming a buffalo jacket. It would be her second, but the first with her current team of vice Val Sweeting, second Shannon Birchard and lead Briane Meil- leur, and it’s hard to put into words what it would mean to her. “It would mean so much,” Einarson said, and her eyes were shining. “This team has worked so hard, and fought so hard to get where we are. We’ve had so many ups and downs, and we’ve felt those tough losses. To get a big win this week, would mean so much to us.” What a year to get it done. Last week, the top three women’s curling teams in all of Canada marched into Riverdale Community Centre, and though there were ups and downs along the way — Einarson lost her first match in an upset by Team Abby Ackland, Jones fell flat against Fleury on Saturday — they are the last three standing. Picking a favourite out of those was hard. They’re so close, they can all beat each other, none of them are de facto dominant against the other, the way Jones once was over a younger Einarson. It always seemed like it would come down to which of the “big three” got hot at the right time — and Einarson was red hot when she needed. In the three most critical games of the week, she exploded. Against Jones on Friday night, she settled down after a few early stumbles to seize control of the game and a 7-6 extra end win. On Saturday afternoon, she dispatched Kristy Watling 7-1 in the first draw of the championship round, and then turned her attention to Fleury. In that game, with the prized No. 1 spot on the line, Einarson was sensational. It was also the first time this week that Fleury looked particu- larly beatable, and Team Einarson had the bul- lets to capitalize on those mistakes. “They played well, and we just weren’t quite ourselves tonight unfortunately,” Fleury said, moments after the loss. “We tried to fight back, and at least made it a game.” Now, Jones and Fleury will face off at 9 a.m. in today’s semifinal, a rematch of their Saturday championship round game and less than 24 hours later. It was by far Jones’ weakest game of the Scotties, and Fleury won 7-4. But after beating Watling at night to clinch her semifinal berth, Jones was ready to put that behind her. “We weren’t sharp this morning,” Jones said. “So we needed to play a bit better, and we started a little shaky in this game, but I thought we re- ally played well in the second half, so we’ll have to carry that forward tomorrow... we know we’re going to have to play our very best if we’re going to beat them.” Both the semifinal and 4 p.m. final will be televised live on Sportsnet. There is one slightly anticlimactic twist to this whole tale, and that is the fact that whatever happens today, all three of Einarson, Fleury and Jones will head to the national Scotties in Moose Jaw, Sask., next week. One of them will be wear- ing the buffalo; the other two will face off in a winner-take-all match for the wild-card berth. But for Watling, it’s the end of the maple leaf road. She’s at peace with that. Her Fort Rouge team’s performance in Rivers was one to be proud of, especially in such a stacked field. It wasn’t so long ago that Watling, 24, was a rising junior; now, she’s announced herself as one to watch in the broader women’s field. “This was a nice week to break through,” Watling said. “This was our goal the entire season, was to make playoffs, because we missed them by a couple of games last year, and the year before. So to break through was great, and we’re just hoping to build on that each year and improve with each game.” Time will tell what that will look like next year. Team Watling third Christine MacKay and second Taylor Maida plan to step back from competitive play next season to focus on their ed- ucation. But Watling still hopes to play, whether that means skipping her own team or sliding into a spot on another good team. For now, Watling will walk away proud that she held her own against Jones. She’d played Jones just once before, at the 2018 Scotties in Killar- ney. Back then she couldn’t shake the thrill who she was going up against out of her head, but this time, she said, the team was able to look past the name and focus on the shots. “I remember playing her the first time, being so nervous,” she said, and laughed. “Playing her this time was completely different. I think we were just ready, and just relaxed, and it was good.” melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca MELISSA MARTIN Einarson roars into final Jones, Fleury will battle in Scotties semifinal this morning TIM SMITH/THE BRANDON SUN Kerri Einarson has been in top form this week in Rivers and on Saturday earned a bye into today’s final. B_02_Feb-02-20_FP_01.indd B2 2020-02-01 11:03 PM ;