The Virden Oil Capitals suffered their first loss of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League playoffs Saturday night in Steinbach. Zack Power scored his second goal of the game 24 seconds into overtime to lift the Pistons past Virden 5-4 in game one of their best-of-seven semifinal. Braden Fischer had a hat trick for the Oil Capitals. Dylan Halliday had the other Virden goal. Game two goes tonight in Steinbach and then the series shifts to Tundra Oil & Gas Place for games three and four Wednesday and Thursday. Dauphin doubled up on Winkler 4-2 in game one of their series at Credit Union Place. Mathew Rathbone gave the Kings a 3-2 lead just 19 seconds after Ryan Monias had tied the game 1:08 seconds into the third period.


The Winnipeg Ice will take on the Prince Albert Raiders and the Brandon Wheat Kings face the Red Deer Rebels in the opening round of the Western Hockey League playoffs. The Wheat Kings and Ice played their final games of the regular season schedule Saturday night. Brett Hyland scored Brandon’s lone goal in a 5-1 loss to Prince Albert. The Wheat Kings (35-28-3-2) finished in sixth place in the Eastern Conference. Mikey Milne, Tanner Brown and Matthew Savoie each had a goal and an assist as Winnipeg defeated the Regina Pats 6-4. The Ice (53-10-3-2) finished first overall in the WHL.


The Winnipeg Jets gave up five unanswered goals and lost 7-4 to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Nikita Kucherov had two goals and two assists and Victor Hedman had four helpers for the defending Stanley Cup champions. Paul Stastny, Josh Morrissey, Blake Wheeler and Kyle Connor with his team leading 43rd of the season did the goal scoring for the Jets who have six games left and are 10 points back of the Dallas Stars who hold down the second wild card spot in the NHL’s Western Conference. Winnipeg will face the New York Rangers Tuesday at Madison Square Garden.


Evan Polei had a goal and an assist as Manitoba edged the Rockford IceHogs 3-2 at Canada Life Centre. Nicholas Jones and Jeff Malott also scored for the Moose who received a 17-save performance from Mikhail Berdin.


Kerri Einarson will meet Anna Hasselborg in the women’s final and Niklas Edin will take on Bruce Mouat in the men’s final at the Grand Slam of Curling’s Players Championship in Toronto. Einarson defeated Satsuki Fujisawa 7-3 and Tracy Fleury 8-4 on Saturday. Fleury beat Isabella Wrana 5-3 in the quarterfinals. Jason Gunnlaugson fell 8-3 to Brendan Bottcher and Mike McEwen lost 7-5 to Mouat in their playoff openers.