The Red Deer Rebels suffered their fourth consecutive WHL road loss Wednesday despite — in the opinion of GM/head coach Brent Sutter — being the superior team.
“Actually our team played pretty well tonight,” said Sutter, following a 5-4 loss to the Kelowna Rockets in front of 4,875 patrons at Prospera Place.
Another significant injury to start the season has Calgary Flames head coach Bob Hartley shuffling his lineup again.
The loss of rugged winger Lance Bouma to a broken bone in his leg means alteration up front for the Flames, who are 1-2 heading into two ballyhooed games in as many nights.
Going into the off-season RDC Kings hockey head coach Trevor Keeper made a concerted effort to add depth and skill to his blue line.
Although they are only four games into the Alberta Colleges Men’s Hockey League regular season, it’s obvious Keeper accomplished his goal. The Kings are seven deep on the blueline, with the newcomers looking as steady as the three veterans.
The Connor McDavid era has begun — unofficially.
McDavid recorded a pair of assists in his NHL preseason debut as the Edmonton Oilers defeated the Calgary Flames 4-2 on Monday in a preseason split-squad game.
Andrew Miller, Leon Draisaitl, Anton Lander and Nail Yakupov scored for the Oilers.
One of the biggest problems for the RDC Kings soccer team over the last several years has been a lack of depth.
When they ran into injury problems, head coach Steve Fullarton struggled to find a quality reserve.
That doesn’t appear to be a problem this season. In fact with eight returnees and four others back from two years ago Fullarton can only smile when talking about the team’s depth.
When Red Deer boxer Cam O’Connell steps into the ring Friday night at the Edmonton Shaw Conference Centre, he’ll be looking at a relatively unknown opponent.
Unknown, at least, to him and his handlers.
Blood donors are needed to help children like four-year-old Brielle Robichaud fight cancer.
In January, Brielle was diagnosed with a tumour in the middle of her brain. Surgery was too dangerous due to the location of the tumour. She was too young for radiation. The only treatment option was chemotherapy.
The Tour of Alberta finally sets up well for Canadian cycling star Ryder Hesjedal. He just needs to recover his race legs to take advantage of mountain climbs and dirt roads.
The third edition of the Alberta’s stage race opens Wednesday in Grande Prairie, with a team time trial. The six-day, 900-kilometre event includes 120 riders from 15 teams.
In terms of experience Ian Vanderhoek is still in the infante stages of his development in throwing the javelin.
But thanks to a great arm and God-given natural talent the 19-year-old native of Bentley is one of the top junior athletes in the country.
The Red Deer Renegades’ attention to detail paid off Sunday at Edgar Park.
“We’ve been focusing a bit more on tactics and formation,” said co-coach Patrick Sweiger, following the team’s 2-1 Alberta Major Women’s Soccer League win over Lethbridge FC.
Sometimes the best laid plans are stopped unexpectedly by life itself. That can happen even when it comes to getting hitched — as it did for at least three Central Alberta couples.
The weddings have been called off mainly because the to-be-weds have felt, directly and indirectly like thousands of other Albertans, the economic slowdown blamed on low oil prices.
The Mets trailed early, blew a ninth-inning lead and fell behind again in extras — all against baseball’s hottest team.
Still, in the end, they remained perfect in New York against the Blue Jays.
Wilmer Flores singled to cap a two-out, two-run rally in the 11th inning and the Mets ended Toronto’s team record-tying 11-game winning streak, beating the Blue Jays 4-3 Monday night. The Mets improved to 10-0 at home against the Blue Jays with the comeback victory.
The Red Deer College Queens hockey team finally has a new head coach.
College alumnus Kelly Coulter takes over from Bob Rutz who took the Queens to the ACAC final last season where they were defeated by the NAIT Ooks.
Coulter has spent the last 18 years in Grande Prairie coaching at several different levels, including as an assistant coach with the Alberta Junior Hockey League’s Storm.
A year ago at this time, as Jack Daines announced it would be his last time organizing the Daines Ranch Pro Rodeo, there were plenty of questions about the future of the event.
While Jack was certainly the face and the voice of the rodeo, turns out the family’s next generation is proud of the half-century tradition bearing the Daines name, and they’re eager to carry it into the future.
The IOC approved new events Monday in snowboarding, Alpine skiing, speedskating and curling for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Big Air in snowboarding, mass start in speedskating, mixed doubles in curling, and a team skiing event were the additions ratified Monday by the International Olympic Committee executive board.
The snowboard parallel slalom event, meanwhile, was dropped from the Olympic program to make room for Big Air.
In an effort to rebuild from the back end, the Olds Grizzlys have traded their top offensive player.
On Tuesday the Grizz sent former Canadian Junior Hockey League rookie of the year and Red Deer native Chris Gerrie to the Penticton Vees of the B.C. Hockey League for defenceman Jarod Hilderman.
The Anaheim Ducks stumbled back to their dressing room after regulation in disbelief. Jonathan Toews had just scored two improbable goals in 72 seconds, and Game 5 of the Western Conference finals was headed into an overtime where everything seemed tilted toward Chicago.
These Ducks were stunned, but not staggered. And they needed less than a minute of extra time to get to the brink of the Stanley Cup finals.
Belarus beat the United States for the first time 5-2 at the ice hockey world championship on Thursday.
The other favourites didn’t allow similar stumbles. Finland blanked Slovenia 4-0, Sweden topped Germany 4-3, and the host Czech Republic was a 5-1 winner against France.
Tom Bast could only wonder about what might have been.
“A bounce here and there and it could have been a different story,” the Red Deer Sutter Fund Chiefs head coach said Saturday at the Arena following his team’s 2-1 loss to the Sudbury Lady Wolves in the final of the Esso Cup tournament, the Canadian midget girls hockey championship.
The Art Ross Trophy race came down to the final minutes of a game on the last day of the NHL regular season. And that’s not the only reason it was a historic accomplishment.
Jamie Benn of the Dallas Stars picked up two points in the final 125 seconds Saturday night to pass John Tavares of the New York Islanders for his first Art Ross. Benn’s 87 points are the lowest to lead the NHL since Gordie Howe’s 86 in 1962-63 and the second-lowest points per game in history (1.06), behind the trophy’s firs