St. John’s hosting Canadian Pride Curling Championships, Growlers go fishing
Next week, the St. John’s Curling Club is hosting the Canadian Pride Curling Championships for the first time from March 14-17.
The event brings 16 of the top curling teams from 2SLGBTQIA+ leagues across the country to compete for the national title.
It’s just a piece of the curling action taking place that weekend, as the club will also host the fourth annual Big Jib Draw, the local queer bonspiel, at the same time.
The event is being organized by Odds and Ends Curling, the St. John’s 2SLGBTQIA+ Curling Association and League.
GROWLERS WELCOME STEELHEADS
Looking to this weekend, the Newfoundland Growlers are going fishing as they welcome the Idaho Steelheads to the Mary Brown’s Centre in St. John’s for the first time.
The Steelheads come to town having won seven of their last 10 and currently sit in second in the ECHL’S Western Conference with 77 points (37-15-2-1).
They’ve also scored the most goals in the ECHL with 239.
Meanwhile, the Growlers (25-23-7-2) are still clinging to a playoff spot as the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference with 59 points.
Over their last 10, Newfoundland is 5-4-0-1.
While the Growlers have only scored 183 times this season, their special teams match up well with Idaho.
Newfoundland’s penalty kill (78 per cent) is behind Idaho (79 per cent) by a single point, while the Growlers’ powerplay is executing at a 24 per cent clip compared to their opponent’s 29 per cent success rate.
Despite the difference in their record, the Growlers hold a slight advantage over the Steelheads head-to-head.
Earlier this season, the Growlers took two of three from Idaho.
Game 1 of the series goes March 8 at 7 p.m. in St. John’s.
CHAMPIONSHIP THREADS
The recent Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association (ACAA) women’s basketball championship game had local threads weaved throughout.
The game featured the University of King’s College Blue Devils and the Mount St. Vincent University Mystics.
Between them, there were five players from Newfoundland and Labrador competing for the championship.
The Blue Devils bench included Mount Pearl’s Lib Devilla and St. John’s Norah Quinlan. In the Mystics uniform were Amanda Pearcey from Torbay, Victoria Strickland of St. John’s and Emma Renouf from St. John’s.
In the end, King’s College came out on top 81-67 to win the title.
In the game, Pearcey — who was an ACAA All-conference First Team this season — scored 21 points for the Mystics, while Strickland had three points.
Quinlan scored five points for the victors.
MUN GOES INTERNATIONAL
Memorial University’s women’s soccer team made an international splash this week when they announced the signing of Swiss goalkeeper Leana Claude.
Claude will come to St. John’s with an impressive resume. The Grenchen, Solothurn native has played for the Swiss youth national team at the under-16, under-17 and under-19 levels.
Claude is also a two-time national champion with the BSC Young Boys Frauen under-19 and she recently started playing in the AXA Swiss Women’s Super League.
Claude will pursue engineering at Memorial and joins locals Luci Thoms and Ellie Power as the first three signings for the 2024 season.
This season Memorial will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the school’s first and only Atlantic University Sport (AUS) championship.
HOCKEY PLAYOFFS HEATING UP
A pair of local hockey leagues are entering their final stretches this weekend, while another prepares for its semifinals.
In the Avalon East Senior Hockey League, the Rooftech St. John’s Senior Caps lead the Clarenville Ford Caribous 2-0 in their best-of-seven championship series.
The Caps have the chance to put the Caribous in a big hole starting on March 8 when they play Game 3 of their series at the CBS Arena. Game time is scheduled for 8 p.m.
Meanwhile, just days after knocking off the Tri Pen Osprey in an exciting sevengame series, the East Coast Blizzard start the Newfoundland and Labrador Under18 Major Hockey League (NLU18MHL) this weekend against the top-seeded Pinnacle AAA Growlers.
Game 1 in that series is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at the DF Barnes Arena in St. John’s, weather permitting of course.
In the St. John’s Junior Hockey League, their Taylor Cup postseason moves to the semifinals as the CBN Junior Stars defeated the Avalon Celtics in Game 5 of their quarterfinal series on March 6.
The Stars move onto face the Mount Pearl Blades in a rematch of the 2022 Taylor Cup finals. The other series sees the St. John’s Junior Caps meeting the Northeast Junior Eagles.
While there is no start date yet for the Stars-blades series, Caps host the Eagles at the Twin Rinks for Game 1 on March 9.