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Leave it to the Eastern Conference Player of the Year to score the biggest goal of the season for the Calgary Hitmen.  Brett Sonne scored the winning goal at 13:10 of the 3rd period to give Calgary a 5-4 win in game 2 of their series with Brandon.  The Hitmen now lead 2-0.

It was a game that certainly could have gone either way, because the 5-4 lead was Calgary’s first lead of the game.  Brandon dominated the 1st period and erased any memory of their 9-3 loss in game 1 with a scorching opening 20 minutes.  The Wheat Kings were quicker, stronger, and more efficient in the first period.

The tide started to turn in the 2nd period, but it was Keith Aulie’s powerplay marker in the 3rd period that seemingly was the turning point in this game.  But a disputed Ian Schultz goal shortly afterward but the momentum firmly in Calgary’s favour…Sonne’s goal less than 3 minutes later would be the last goal of the game.

Calgary needs to be much, much better throughout the rest of the series…the calling card for this team all season has been winning the board battles all game long, and forcing turnovers.  That was the opposite for too long in game 2; they lost the board battles and they were turning the puck over.  But Calgary knows that, and this is a team that adjusts to bad games very well.

Game 3 is Tuesday night at 6 pm in Brandon.

At tonight’s UFC 97 in Montreal, fans will get to witness the return of the best pound-for-pound fighter in mixed martial arts, as UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva puts his belt on the line against BJJ master Thales Leites.  It’s a fight card filled with great bouts, with far too many great matchups being relegated to the non-televised undercard.

Of course, Chuck Liddell is also back fighting Shogun Rua, a fight I previewed on Thursday.  The Silva fight seems like we’re going to see more of the same when it comes to the champ.  As good as Leites (14-1) is, I find it hard to believe he’s going to be able to stand with Silva for more than a minute or so.  He’s never faced a striker with such devestating power like Silva posseses, and I really don’t hold much hope he’ll be able to get out of the clinch.  Do I see Leites taking Silva down in the 1st round?  Maybe, and he can try some BJJ from there, but lets not forget Anderson knows what he’s doing in the grappling game as well.  This seems like a write off until we get Silva-Maia, because that’s the only 185 title match I’m interested in right now.

Cheick Kongo (23-4-1) is back as well, taking on 8-4 Antoni Hardonk in a heavyweight battle.  Always jacked up to see Kongo fight, because he’s ever improving.  Once, just a kick boxing freak, Kongo has transformed into a legit mixed martial artist, and 1 more win puts him in the elite class of the division, in my opinion.  Hardonk is tough though, and he’ll be able to withstand a few Kongo standup barrages, so I think this could be a very good fight.

Now, no offence to some of the other televised fights, but how in the hell aren’t 3 fights on the main card?  We most likely won’t get to see a great matchup between Elliot Marshall and Vinny Magalhaes, a potential show stealer with Denis Kang fighting Xavier Foupa-Pokam, and Jason MacDonald fighting Nate Quarry.  I don’t know which one I’m bummed about potentially not seeing more!  Kang is a freak who was dominating his UFC debut before being caught, and I don’t think there are very many fighters at 185 pounds more well rounded than he is.  the Marshall-Vinny fight is a battle between 2 BJJ black belts who are explosive on their feet; and the MacDonald-Quarry matchup could prove to be a knock down, drag out affair.  I guess we hope for KO’s and they air those fights as filler!

Enjoy the fights!

No one expected to see a 9-3 final in game 1 of the WHL’s Eastern Conference Final, I know that for sure, yet that’s what we saw on Friday night at the Dome.  The Hitmen came away with a game 1 victory and remain perfect on the postseason, improving their record to 9-0.  For Brandon, they suffer their first loss of the postseason and have a ton of motivation to come back with a much better effort on Sunday afternoon.

Couple things to take away from this game.  From a Calgary perspective, 3 more goals on the powerplay…they’ve now scored 11 powerplay goals in their last 5 games.  Overall they are 11 for their last 32 chances.  But Calgary only slightly won the special teams battle, as 2 of Brandon’s goals came on the PP…it was Calgary’s play 5-on-5 that decided this game.  The turning point came in the second period after Brandon failed to convert on a scoring chance to cut the lead to 2-1, Bostjan Golicic went the length of the ice and gave the Hitmen a 3-0 lead 10 seconds later.  15 players registered at least 1 point, while 9 players had multiple point nights.  Not really surprising when you really think about it, that’s what the Hitmen have done all year.

Brandon wasn’t happy after the loss, clearly, but this very well could have been a 9-6 or 9-7 game had the Wheat Kings converted on some chances.  Captain Keith Aulie said it afterwards…the message between the 2nd and 3rd period was “game 2 starts now” and I think Brandon can take some positives from the final 20 minutes.  Brayden Schenn left the game early and without violating WHL rules, it seems like he may have an injury that is going to need to be evaluated.  That’s only the rumours floating around.

Got a chance to talk to Leafs VP of Hockey Operations Dave Nonis in the 2nd intermission, he really likes the type of hard nose hockey Schenn plays, and he’s watched him play in Brandon and now in Calgary.  The Schenn brothers in Toronto would be scary.

With top spot in both the West Division and the National Lacrosse League locked up, the Calgary Roughnecks finish the season tonight in Portland against the Lumberjax (8:30 pm, NLL.com).  The Riggers will find out who they play in the first round of the playoffs after this weekend.

The Roughnecks will host an NLL divisional semi final on Sunday, May 3rd at the Dome…and it’ll be against one of Edmonton, Colorado or Minnesota.  The schedule this weekend will decide how that plays out, as both the Mammoth and Swarm sit 6-9 while it’s a 5-10 record for the Rush.  Calgary is 3-0 against Edmonton, 1-1 against Colorado and 2-0 against the Swarm this season.

It’s a chance for Calgary to rectify some problems that have creeped up the last few weeks in their game.  It’s also a chance to even the season series with Portland, who beat them last weekend at the Dome.  The main thing to look for from a Calgary perspective is consistent goal scoring.  In recent games, we’ve seen stretches of far too long when Calgary has not scored a goal.  With the offensive capability of this team, that shouldn’t be happening.

To me, the most impressive player in the second half of the season for the Riggers has been Kaleb Toth.  His 76 points are 3rd on the team, while his 33 goals are second.  But what’s been impressive are his 4th quarter goals and how he’s really turned it on the last few games.  He has 27 points in his last 5 games.

The Calgary Hitmen open their Eastern Conference Final with the Brandon Wheat Kings tonight on The FAN 960 (7 pm puckdrop, 6 pm pregame).  It’s a battle of 2 unbeaten teams in the WHL postseason, as both Brandon and Calgary have swept their way through the opening 2 rounds.

For Calgary, their powerplay has come leaps and bounds from the end of round 1 to the of round 2.  After the series with Edmonton, Calgary had clicked at just 11% on the man advantage and were 11th in the WHL (remember, this was the number 1 PP during the regular season at over 30%).  After 4 games with Lethbridge, Calgary’s PP has climbed to 6th in the WHL and 23.3% efficiency.  That’s because it went 8 for 25 against Lethbridge.  Kris Foucault and Ian Schultz each have 2 goals on the man advantage.

Congrats to Brett Sonne, the WHL’s Eastern Conference Player of the Year.  He is very deserving, with 100 points in 62 games.  What’s amazing?  In game 4 in Lethbridge, he came back from injury…and was slotted in on the 4th line for the first period in a half.  That shows just how deep this team is.

For Brandon, this team is rolling at an incredible clip.  They were the 3rd highest scoring team during the regular season at 4.1 goals per game.  So far in 8 playoff games, they’re rolling at a clip of 5.6 goals per game…1.5 more than the season.  They have the WHL’s best playoff powerplay and are getting contributions from everywhere.

Both Brayden Schenn and Scott Glennie have 15 points in 8 games…their 1.875 points per game is second in the league right now.  Schenn has scored at least 1 point in every playoff game thus far.  And Colby Robak is on fire from the back end, with 11 points in 8 games; that puts him 3rd among defencemen.  At the same time, his +19 is best in the playoffs period; Flames prospect blueliner Keith Aulie is second at +17.

As Saturday’s UFC 97 draws closer, all eyes will be on Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell, who returns to The Octagon for the first time since September.  With losses in 3 of his last 4 fights, Liddell’s bout with Mauricio “Shogun” Rua is one of the biggest of his career; it’s a fight that’s just as big for Shogun.

Liddell has only 1 win in his last 4 fights, that coming over Wanderlei Silva.  His losses to Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Keith Jardine and Rashad Evans have stuck out like sore thumbs on one of the most dominant records ever in MMA.  Remember, before his KO loss to Rampage, Liddell had won 7 straight fights (including 2 over both Tito Ortiz and Randy Couture).  So what’s been the difference, or has there been a difference in the way Chuck has gone about business.

I had a chance to talk with Liddell (which was an unreal highlight of my career) and go through a few of the issuse.  I asked him about the discussion of him lacking committment to the sport, and he basically said it’s bunk.  According to Liddell, it’s fans and media coming up with excuses as to why he’s been unsuccessful as of late.  But the truth is, Liddell has been caught twice and lost a split decision.  For him, he’s all right with that.

The split decision loss came to Keith Jardine, and I believe it was a good nod by the judges that night.  He looked tentative in his fight with Rampage, but I believe he was winning his fight with Evans before getting caught with the crushing blow.  Liddell told me he got just a little too anxious in those 3 losses, wanting to impress the fans and get back on the winning track just a little too much.

Here’s how I break it down.  Liddell is still one of the most feared strikers in all of mixed martial arts, and that will never change.  The punching power he possesses is always capable of a knockout or  knockdown.  His unorthodox style is still very troubling for most fighters, and while some have figured it out, it still serves him well.  Liddell has been on record, whether in the interview I did or numerous others, that he’s still committed to the fight game.  He told me he’s been training since early January and is itching to get back at it.

As for the fight itself, Liddell says he’s hungry.  Well, Rua is going to be hungry too.  He’s 1-1 inside The Octagon after a decorated career in PRIDE.  Neither UFC performance has been impressive, his loss to Forrest Griffin or his win over Mark Coleman.  So, you know Shoguna is going to be itching to look good, especially in a fight with a legend.  Liddell told me he’s really worked hard on his take down defence, because you know Shogun is going to shoot and try and take this thing to the ground.  Rua is a BJJ master, so you know that aspect of the game might come into play.

I’ll take Liddell in a good performance here.  I don’t think we’ll see Rua get KO’d, but I think Liddell will do enough standing to pull out a decision in this fight.  The rest of the card shapes up well as we know, and we’ll get to that throughout the week!

The Calgary Roughnecks had a whole slew of goals to accomplish this season in the NLL.  Clinch a playoff spot? Check.  Take top spot in the West Division?  Done and done.  Number 1 overall in the league?  In the books.  Now, with all that accomplished, just 1 goal remains…the ultimate goal looms in the balance.

Of course that ultimate goal would be the NLL Champions Cup.  And while that’s the goal of every team entering the season, you’d have to think the Calgary Roughnecks have as inside a track as you can have entering the playoffs.  Before they can do that, they take on the Portland Lumberjax on Friday night (8:30 pm, NLL.com).  They’ll have a home playoff date May 1st, 2nd or 3rd.  There are certainly a lot reasons Calgary could realize their goal, yet there are also a few worrying trends sticking out.

The first would be the inconsistent second half of the season for the Riggers.  After starting the season 5-0, Calgary is now 6-4 since.  Granted, 2 losses in there were by 1 goal (Colorado and Boston), but their 2 most recent losses were disappointing efforts for the team.  In fact, 4 of Calgary’s last 5 games have not been good enough in the eyes of players and coaches on the team.  They were out of sync in a loss to Toronto, inconsistent in a loss to Portland, only showed up for a half in a win over Rochester; same with a win in Minnesota.

Saturday’s win over Edmonton was much better, and it clinched them everything they wanted to clinch.  In talking to the Riggers, they all point to the same thing when it comes to the inconsistency.  Work ethic.  Whether it be Kaleb Toth or Bruce Codd or Tracey Kelusky, they are all on record saying that their gameday shoot arounds have lacked the intensity needed for this time of year.  It’s an interesting point, and very correctable with this group of players.  The leaders addressed it prior to Saturday’s game, and I expect to see a fired up, intense attitude with this team for the remaining (at least) 2 games.

The other thing that concerns me is something that has concerned offensive players all year.  I remember talking to Tracey Kelusky midway through the season, and he pointed this out.  There are times when Calgary can get into a bit of a slump offensively, and it really hampers them.  On Friday night against Portland, Calgary went 17 minutes without scoring in the 3rd and 4th quarters.  Saturday against Edmonton, it was around 10 minutes.  It’s something Calgary is striving to eliminate, and with the talent on this team, should be fairly easily rid of.

Now, all those negatives aside, the positives overwhelm for this team.  I liked Calgary’s response on Saturday in Edmonton, after a disappointing effort on Friday.  It wasn’t perfect at Rexall Place, but it was a hard fought, character win.  They needed a win like that, and I think it’ll be a team firing on all cylinders Friday in Portland.  Good to see Dane Dobbie pot 3 against the Rush, get him back on track late in the season.  Kelusky has been very good the last 2 games while Kaleb Toth has been this teams most consistent performer in all facets the last 5 games.