The Provincial AAAA High School Hockey Championship begins today at the Hockey for All Centre in Winnipeg. Steinbach Regional will play round robin games against the Dauphin Clippers at 3 p.m. and the Garden City Fighting Gophers at 7 p.m.


The Red River Mudbugs and Springfield Xtreme are going the distance. Dawson Friesen scored the go-ahead goal with 15 seconds left in third period to lift Red River past Springfield 4-3 in Oakbank. Braden Hildebrand added a pair of goals for the Mudbugs who evened the best-of-seven semifinal at three games apiece. Bryson Loewen had the other Red River goal. Chase Janas, Mattix Carpenter and Braeden Rebeck replied for the Xtreme. Game seven goes Saturday night in St. Jean. 


The South Eastern Manitoba Hockey League's best-of-seven final begins tonight (8 p.m.) in Morden as the Bombers host the Ste. Anne Aces. The Bombers eliminated the defending champion Warren Mercs three games to one in their best-of-five semifinal while the Aces swept the first place Portage Islanders in three straight. Morden and Ste. Anne met twice during the regular season schedule. The Aces won 12-5 on January 6th in Ste. Anne and the Bombers won 6-4 in Morden two weeks later.


Seven Hockey Manitoba Provincial Championships are on this weekend and they include the Under-13 Rural AA in Winkler; Rural A in Dauphin, Rural B in Lakeside; Rural C in Manitou, Rural A1 in St. Adolphe and Rural A2 in Brandon. The Provincial U-18 Rural A/B Championship is in La Broquerie. 


Lorette will meet Leo Remillard at 2 p.m. in the semifinals of the Provincial AAA Junior Varsity Girls Basketball Championship at Gray Academy in Winnipeg. The Scorpions downed St. Norbert 35-29 in the quarterfinals. Gabrielle Roy will face the host Frontier Raiders at 2:15 p.m. in the semifinals of the Provincial A/AA Junior Varsity Boys Championship at Cranberry Portage. Les Roy outscored Rosenort 62-57 in the quarterfinals. Ross L. Gray of Sprague will take on either Margaret Barbour or Treherne/St. Claude in the consolation semifinals at the Provincial A/AA Junior Varsity Girls Championship in The Pas. 
 

The Providence University College Pilots lost their second straight match at the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association Men's Volleyball National Championship in Toronto. The Briercrest Clippers swept the Pilots 25-18, 25-16, 25-18. Providence will face Dragons de Sainte-Anne from Montreal in the 7th place game.


Matt Dunstone defeated Tanner Horgan of Northern Ontario 9-2 and finished the round robin with a perfect 8-0 record at the Brier in London. Dunstone, B.J. Neufeld, Colton Lott and Ryan Harnden were first in Pool A. Defending champion Brad Gushue of St. John's, Newfoundland & Labrador finished first in Pool B. Mike McEwen of Ontario will meet Kevin Koe of Alberta and Horgan will take on Brendan Bottcher of Calgary at 12 p.m. in page playoff qualifiers. The winners join Dunstone and Gushue on the 6 p.m. draw. Dunstone will play either Horgan or Bottcher and Gushue will face either McEwen or Koe. The winners will advance to the 1-2 Page Playoff Game. The losers will play in the 3-4 game.


The Steinbach Huskies eliminated the Niverville Clippers and the Red River Mudbugs have forced a seventh and deciding game in their semifinal with the Springfield Xtreme. Coaches Ben Plett of the Huskies and Jim Dick of the Mudbugs will join Clayton Dreger on the Hanover Tache Junior Hockey League Report which airs Fridays at 5:15 p.m. on AM 1250 Radio.