Renegades/Oilers

Winnipeg Blue Bombers 37 Ottawa Renegades 21

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers beat the Ottawa Renegades 37-21 in a wet mistake filled game in front of 17,567 fans. The Blue Bombers snapped their 3 game losing streak and the Renegades extended theirs to 4 games now and may be out of the playoffs. This was a must win for Ottawa and things looked good at half time with Ottawa up 21-19, the third quarter saw no scoring and then Winnipeg scored 18 un answered points in the 4th quarter. Ottawa almost had a field goal to make things interesting, but the ball hit the cross bar and bounce out rather than in. That single play seems to describe the whole game for Ottawa, the whole season for that matter, almost there but not quite. It wasn't the kickers fault, it wasn't the holders fault and it wasn't the snappers fault either, it was a combined effort. Losses in Ottawa are always combined effort of mistakes. A lot of players played well, but for every good play they made they also shot themselves in the foot too. Winnipeg wasn't without it's mental mistakes either, I can't count the number of times they were called for offside on defense.
In the end all that this game managed to tell fans is that Ottawa is about the same level as Winnipeg - and Winnipeg isn't exactly a team that you want to compare yourself too.

Edmonton Oilers 2 Calgary Flames 1

In the first NHL game for both teams in over a year the Edmonton Oilers beat the Calgary Flames 2-1 in an overtime shootout under the new NHL rules in front of sellout crowd of 16,839. Calgary got the scoring under way in the second period with a short-handed goal from Lombardi. The Oilers finally got there powerplay clicking midway through the third period as Stoll scored on goalie Brent Krahn. The 5 min. overtime decided nothing and all 3 shooters for both teams failed to score in the shootout forcing a sudden death shoot out. Calgary has first chance at it and Nystrom missed leaving it up to Ryan Smyth as he scored a nice back hander to win the game for the Oilers.
Mike Morrison played well in goals stopping 24 of the 25 shots he faced as Edmonton out shot Calgary 31-25 overall in the game. Other notables, Chris Pronger had an assist in his Oiler debut and Rob Schremp got the first star of the game for his gritty performance.