St Malo Warriors win back-to-back CRJHL championships

By the narrowest of margins, the St Malo Warriors won consecutive Capital Region Junior Hockey League championships.

The Warriors needed every little bit of advantage they could get, defeating the Beausejour Comets 4-3 in their best-of-seven final, pulling out three overtime wins, including in game six just to force a decisive game seven, which was hosted in St Malo April 4.

Brady Gregoire played the hero in Beausejour April 2, scoring seven minutes into the second overtime period by banging home a rebound after a Teagan Fillion rush chance, setting up what might have been the hottest ticket in town a couple nights later.

Fans were so eager to get a good seat for the game, they arrived at 10:30 a.m. to try and reserve their spots. The players could feel the pressure of a game seven as well.

Wednesday is ‘Fight Night’ at Maximum Fitness gym

Boxing, often referred to as the “sweet science”, has arrived in Steinbach.

Maximum Fitness at Clearspring Village, has set up a regular boxing ring to give customers another alternative to their workouts. Owner Les Spence, who opened the workout gym five years ago, says it is something he has considered for quite some time. This winter, he purchased $5,000 in equipment to set up the boxing facility.

The ring is actually only set up on Wednesday evenings, when sparring takes place. But available for training workouts any time are three punching bags, including two speed bags and a heavy bag.

Grace Bartel has been working out at Maximum Fitness for more than two years, and is one of about 20 regulars who have been working out with the equipment and a boxing instructor.

DANKOCHIK’S DRAFTINGS: Learning the ebbs and flows of junior hockey

It was a weird moment for me at this year’s Steinbach Pistons banquet and awards ceremony.

Seeing Spencer Penner and Noah Szabo on stage as graduating players is my first lesson in how fast a junior hockey roster can turn over.

When I grew up in Gimli, we didn’t even have a junior B team, just senior, and when I worked in Flin Flon, I was only there for a single hockey season.

Since joining The Carillon in 2022, we’ve been lucky to have teams with plenty of success on the ice, including that Pistons squad.

AS I SEE IT COLUMN: Gretzky’s MAGA madness worsens

In a classy move, last Friday Wayne Gretzky was in attendance as Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals were in Chicago. Ovie was three goals away from breaking the once untouchable record of 894 career goals. Just like Gordie Howe was in the rink in 1994 when Gretzky broke Howe’s all-time goal scoring record, Gretzky wanted to respect the history of the game and be in attendance when Ovechkin had a chance to break the record.

On such an historic night, who would Gretzky be sitting beside? Would it be former teammates Jarri Kurri, Mark Messier or Paul Coffey, who assisted on several hundred of Gretzky’s goals? Would he bring Howe’s son or grandson to make a classy show of the record’s continuity? Given his penchant for conservative politics, would he bring Trump wanna-be Pierre Poilievre?

Nope, Wayne sat next to Kash Patel, the new head of the FBI and likely the most unsavoury member of felon Trump’s cabinet (which is saying a lot). He is an avowed believer in an ultra right-wing extremist conspiracy group called QAnon. How extreme? They believe that Democrats are pedophiles who drink the blood of young children. (Yes, you read that correctly. It is one of their core beliefs.)

Gretkzy has come under withering criticism in Canada for his unabashed friendship with felon Trump, for not wearing a Maple Leaf uniform when he was the honorary captain of Team Canada at the 4 Nations Cup, but mostly for staying completely silent while his convicted criminal buddy Trump disrespects Canada’s Prime Minister by calling him “governor” and threatening to eradicate Canada as a sovereign nation.

Ste Anne Aces top Manitoba senior hockey mountain

Another provincial championship banner is set to hang inside Ste Anne’s Maurice Chaput Arena.

The Ste Anne Aces swept the provincial senior A championship over the Killarney Shamrocks in the most dramatic of fashion, scoring with under 10 seconds to go in a decisive game two to tie the game, before a Steph Pattyn marker in overtime clinched a 6-5 victory for Ste Anne.

“I said to the boys, ‘why do we do this to ourselves,’” team captain Brenden Walker quipped after returning to Ste Anne.

The Aces needed a late tying goal from Walker and an overtime winner from Cody Fowlie to beat the Springfield Winterhawks for the league title to make provincials.

Steinbach Pistons celebrate graduating players at year-end banquet

The Steinbach Pistons hosted their year-end banquet a little earlier than they would have liked April 3. The team honoured award winners and its eight graduating players just days after getting knocked out of the first round by the Portage Terriers in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League quarterfinals.

“Every year I feel like I’m not prepared for this day, and probably moreso than ever before,” head coach and general manager Paul Dyck said before introducing the team’s crop of graduating players.

“We thought this might be happening in May this year.”

It was no surprise to hear Connor Paronuzzi’s name called the most during the team’s awards ceremony. Paronuzzi was named the league’s most valuable player, winning the MJHL scoring race while setting a new single-season points record for Pistons players.

Larocque seeking further success wearing Maple Leaf

Ste Anne’s Jocelyne Larocque has turned wearing the Maple Leaf into an annual tradition.

The defender has now played over 100 games for Team Canada at the senior level, including last year’s world championship, where she helped Canada to a gold medal.

Larocque and the Canadians will be seeking to defend that championship this week, as they travel to Czechia for the 2025 edition of the tournament.

With the 2026 Olympics fast approaching, the World Championship takes on a more important meaning.

Providence Pilots honour top athletes at banquet

Riley Paul capped off a spectacular collegiate career in style, getting named the Providence Pilots men’s player of the year at the school’s awards banquet March 27.

In his final games with the Pilots, the Brandon basketball centre surpassed 1,000 points scored for the college, as he was named to the National Christian Colleges Athletic Association’s all-region second team.

The women’s Pilot of the Year went to volleyball left side Tyra Peters for the second consecutive year. The senior from New Bothwell had another outstanding season for the Pilots, leading them offensively to an Manitoba Colleges Athletic Conference championship, with the team picking up the program’s first win at a national championship this season as well.

The school’s scholar athlete of the year also came from women’s volleyball, as Maddie Oselies, a junior libero from Edmonton posted a 3.99 GPA.

Carillon Sports Second Shots: April 3 edition

Featuring photos from Niverville's HTJHL championship victory, game four of the Capital Region Junior Hockey League finals between St Malo and Beausejour, the Eastman Selects game five win in the Manitoba Female Hockey League U18 AAA finals, game one of senior provincials in Ste Anne and MJHL playoff games with Niverville and Steinbach.

Coursey becomes full time Providence athletic director

After 13 seasons behind the bench of Providence Pilots basketball teams, Joel Coursey will be taking a step away from coaching and into administration.

The long-time bench boss was forced into serving as both Providence College’s interim Athletic Director and women’s basketball coach this season when Russell Willms left for Canadian Mennonite University in August.

Coursey chose to take the job as full-time athletic director, admitting it was “bittersweet,” to be leaving the basketball team he has molded.

“It’s time for a new chapter in my life,” Coursey said.

Steinbach to host curling grand slam in 2026

The Southeast Event Centre has its first major event announced.

The Grand Slam of Curling will be back in Manitoba, as Steinbach hosts the AMJ Players’ Championship in January of 2026. The tour hasn’t been in the Keystone Province since 2018, when Mike McEwan won the Elite 10 in Winnipeg, a match play format similar to skins.

The Players’ Championship is one of five tier one events put on by the Grand Slam. The tour was created in 2001 and acquired by new ownership, The Curling Group, last year.

Four of the five top tier events are taking place in first-time venues in the 2025/2026 season, including the tour’s first time playing an event in the States, when they go to Lake Tahoe, Nev. in November.

SPORTS FLASHBACK 2010: Blumenort fighter prepares for light heavyweight match

Nick Penner of Blumenort is one of the top prospects in the world of mixed martial arts and with a record of 10 wins (six were won in the first round), and only one loss, he is looking forward to his next Maximum Fighting Championship (MFC) fight.

Penner told The Carillon the scheduled fight with Chris Price would be not only be a tough one, but that it would also be a really challenging one for him, since he recently dropped down a weight class to light heavyweight.

While Penner feels the weight class drop will help him, since he’s simply not big enough for the heavyweight class, a lot of training is still needed to compete at the lighter weight-class.

In preparation for the upcoming fight on the MFC card Penner turned more towards training in standing-up styles, such as Muay Thai and Greco-Roman wrestling, to help avoid takedowns and help to get out of certain Jujitsu holds.

DANKOCHIK’S DRAFTINGS: A post-season cut short too early

And just like that, the Mantioba Junior Hockey League season has ended for me.

Within 10 minutes, both the Niverville Nighthawks and Steinbach Pistons fell in game six of their respective first round series. Over the past few years, I’ve gotten used to my hockey season lasting until early May.

This year, both MJHL teams in our coverage area were eliminated before the calendar turned to April.

A big reason for both teams early exit is the MJHL’s playoff format. By staying in division in the first round of the playoffs, the Pistons, owners of the league’s second-best regular season record, had to play the third-seeded Portage Terriers.

Ste Anne Aces lead provincial final 1-0 after game 1 win

The Ste Anne Aces are one game away from becoming provincial champions once again.

The Aces nabbed a 4-2 win on home ice over the Killarney Shamrocks, the champions of the Tiger Hills Hockey League, taking a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three provincial final.

The Shamrocks took a 1-0 lead in game one, played March 30 at the Maurice Chaput Arena, but Ste Anne stormed back to take a 3-2 lead into the third period.

Braden Purtill got the South East Manitoba champions on the board, when Mathieu Moreira picked up a rebound in the slot. With goaltender Brian Archibald way out of his crease to make the initial save, Moreira circled below the goal-line, then banked a shot off Purtill, who had parked himself right in front of the Killarney cage, and into the back of the net.