Elvis Stojko, a three-time world champion figure skater, seven-time Canadian champ and twice an Olympic silver medal winner, isn’t like that other Elvis – the King of Rock and Roll, who threw down too many peanut butter/ banana/bacon sandwiches.
Our Elvis, who will appear at the Mariposa East figure skating club’s annual ice show on March 10 at the Pictou County Wellness Centre, is past his prime (it happens to everybody), but he is still a must-see for sports fans, even if they’re not into figure skating. They say that Elvis still wows fans when he performs and he is, after all, one of the all-time greats.
It won’t be all about Stojko: even if he wasn’t going to be “in the building,” local figure skaters will be showcasing what they’ve been working on the last few months. Or, more accurately, years. The skaters rarely get a chance to perform in their own building, so it’s a special event when they do.
• If the Junior A Crushers don’t at least force overtime against the South Shore Lumberjacks on Thursday night, their playoff hopes are finished. Even if they wake up Friday morning still clinging to playoff life, there would still be a lot of work to be done in the final weekend of the regular season.
Last Sunday’s 1-0 loss to the St. Stephen Aces wasn’t a fatal blow, but it was a game that, had they won, would have made things a lot easier for the local boys. It was not for lack of trying, of course.
“We ran into a hot goaltender,’ head coach Doug Doull said of Aces’ netminder Joey May, who made 31 saves, denied three Crushers on breakaways and got some help from his friends: the Crushers put two pucks off goal posts, and had an apparent Kevin Mason goal disallowed.
But that was the other day, and it isn’t important now.
They (almost) have to win both games against the Lumberjacks, who have heated up in the last month of the season and will be intent on clinching a playoff spot on Thursday. The Crushers have gotten up off the mat more than once this season, and they have to do it again.
• Meanwhile, in Trenton, the Junior B Scotians have been backed into a corner, down 3-1 in their playoff series against the Glace Bay Miners and needing to win three straight against the Miners – with two of those being on the road.
The Scotians also could see whatever championship hopes they have come crashing down on Thursday, when they play a Game 5 in Cape Breton, where they have been outscored 12-2 in the series. I’m not suggesting things are look grim for them right now… well, I guess that’s exactly what I’m saying.
Teams come back from 3-1 series deficits all the time in sports, even if the odds aren’t very good. Research can be a bothersome thing, but details are important and because you need to know, I did some in-depth investigative work and found that in NHL playoff series over the years, when the team trailing 3-1 has to play Game 5 on the road, their odds of winning the series are less than 10 per cent (7.97 per cent to be precise, for those of you scoring at home).
Grim for sure, yet do-able.
Kevin Adshade is a writer with The News. His column appears each week.
