Author: Robert Britt

When the Portland Winterhawks take the ice this weekend to host the Everett Silvertips and the Seattle Thunderbirds at the Rose Garden they will be skating with three potential members of Canada’s junior national team, including this week’s top player in the Canadian Hockey League.

Portland’s Joe Morrow, Brad Ross and Ty Rattie were among 41 players invited Monday to Team Canada’s selection camp for the 2012 World Junior Championship. Rattie was on the same day named the Western Hockey League’s Player of the Week, an honor duplicated by the parent-league CHL on Tuesday.

The Portland Winterhawks played on home ice for the first time in nearly a month and treated fans with a pair of dramatic victories over the Spokane Chiefs on Friday and Saturday at the Rose Garden.

On Friday, Portland’s Brad Ross scored with 40.5 seconds left in regulation to tie the game at 5-5 and force overtime. With neither team scoring in sudden death, it took six rounds of shootout before Taylor Leier slipped the puck between the legs of Spokane goalie Mac Engel to win the shootout, 4-3, and give the Hawks a 6-5 victory on the night.

One of the most thrilling Fall Classics in modern baseball came to an end Friday with the St. Louis Cardinals defeating the Texas Rangers in Game 7 of the 107th World Series.

The Cardinals earned their 11th championship in franchise history and capped a season full of surprise comebacks with a 6-2 victory over the Rangers in front of a packed house at St. Louis’ Busch Stadium to win the Series, four games to three.

In the midst of their longest road trip of the season, the Portland Winterhawks are looking to catch a break in the middle of the Great White North.

The Winterhawks (6-5-1-1) are on a nine-game, 17-day road trip that is taking them nearly 2,600 miles through western Canada and the Western Hockey League’s Central Division.

In the zero-sum world of sports, where final scores clearly separate winners from losers, it’s easy for a single defeat to overshadow a series of successes.

SEATTLE—Portland State went hit-for-hit with two nationally ranked teams in the first round of the NCAA softball tournament, but the underdog Vikings were unable to prevail and instead had their postseason come to an end last week.

When Portland State sophomore Anna Bertrand caught Loyola Marymount’s Kelly Sarginson with a called third strike on Saturday the result was more than an out, a win or a championship.

Today marks the beginning of the championship weekend in the Pacific Coast Softball Conference, and the Portland State Vikings may hope that Friday the 13th brings about some bad luck for their opponents.

After Portland State opened Pacific Coast Softball Conference play last month by dropping three of four games to visiting Utah Valley, the Vikings knew the road to a second-straight division title would be long and arduous.

Portland State closes out Pacific Coast Softball Conference play at home this weekend with a four-game series that will ultimately decide the Vikings’ postseason fate.

When Portland State took the field at Northern Colorado on Saturday morning, the two teams were tied for first place in the Pacific Coast Softball Conference’s Mountain Division. However, by Sunday evening that had all changed.