World Financial Group

The World Financial Group-sponsored Nanaimo Clippers, currently in the first round of the BCHL playoffs, won their first two games over the Victoria Grizzlies on the road.  The best-of-seven series moved to the Clippers home ice of Frank Crane arena for games three and four.  How would the Clippers on their home ice?

In game three played on Monday, March 1 the Grizzlies took a 2-0 lead in the first period, but Nanaimo answered back with three goals in the second from Andrew Gladiuk, Colton Cyr (on the power play) and Carson Schell. Victoria came back to tie the game with 1:03 remaining in the third period and score the game winning goal in overtime to win this one 4-3.  Clippers goalie Loic Boivin, who blocked 39 out of 43 shots, was named the Second Star of the Game.

Game four of the series hit the ice on Tuesday, March 2.  Like the previous night’s game, the Grizzlies jumped to an early lead, but thanks to goals by Kyle Kramer and Joe Perry (on the power play), Nanaimo took a 2-1 lead into the third period.  As in game three, Victoria came back to score in the third to force overtime, which, once again, resulted in a Grizzlies game winning goal to take the fourth game 3-2.  Kramer was named the Second Star of the Game.

The best of seven series is now tied at two games each.  Game 5 will be played on Thursday, March 4 in Victoria with game 6 played the next night at Frank Crane Arena.  If necessary, the WFG-sponsored Clippers will play game 7 in Victoria on Sunday, March 7.  GO CLIPPERS!

Over the weekend, the World Financial Group-sponsored Nanaimo Clippers of the BCHL entered the quarterfinals for the Fred Page Cup against the Victoria Grizzlies.  Both teams entered the postseason with strong momentum, but who would be the stronger of the two teams?

Game one was held in Victoria Friday, Feb. 25.  The Clippers’ forward Teal Burns scored the first goal of the game during the second period, and although Victoria scored the next two goals, Nanaimo scored two more – one by Brayden Jaw on the power play and the other by Colton Cyr - to win the first game of the best of seven series with a score of 3-2.  Burns was named the First Star of the Game while Mike Domsodi was named the Second Star.

Saturday evening (Feb. 26) was game two, also played in Victoria.  The home ice advantage was a help for the Grizzlies as they scored the first two goals of the game.  But the second period was a scoring display by the Clippers with Tristan Lowenberger, Teal Burns and Kyle Kramer all scoring in the “middle 20” to take a 3-2 lead.  A Victoria goal in the third forced overtime, and at 5:59 into the extra frame, Luc Olivier Blain scored the game winner with an assist from Burns for the Clippers to take game two 4-3.  Stars of the Game honors went to Blain (First) and Kramer (Second).

Our WFG-sponsored hockey team returns to Frank Crane Arena with a two game lead. Games three and four will be played this Monday and Tuesday on Nanaimo’s home ice.  The puck will drop at 7 p.m. (Pacific Time).  GO CLIPPERS!

The World Financial Group-sponsored Nanaimo Clippers of the British Columbia Hockey League ended its regular season on Saturday against the Alberni Valley Bulldogs.  The Clippers have been on a hot streak, winning six of their last seven games.  Would they enter the playoffs on a win?

The Clippers got off to a strong start in the first period thanks to a goal by Andrew Gladiuk off an assist from Kyle Weber and Second Star of the Game Mike Domsodi.  The Bulldogs, however, would bite back for two more goals going into the third period.  Then, on a power play, Teal Burns tied the game with a goal thanks to assists from Luc Olivier Blain and Andrew Gladiuk.  Unfortunately for Clippers’ fans, the Bulldogs would score the game winner in overtime to take the final regular season game 3-2.

After sixty games, the WFG-sponsored Clippers finished the season 24-25-1-10, earning 59 points in the standings.  This has earned the WFG-sponsored “Junior A” hockey team the sixth seed in the BCHL Coastal Conference playoffs.  Postseason play begins on Friday in Victoria against the Grizzlies.  Keep reading WFGSports.com for the latest postseason action from Nanaimo.  GO CLIPPERS!

The World Financial Group-sponsored Nanaimo Clippers have been on the road a lot lately.  Their last four games were away, and they won three of them.  This past week saw the “Junior A” hockey team play two on their home ice of Frank Crane Arena and one more road trip.

The first home game was Wed., Feb. 10, against the Williams Lake Timberwolves.  Although the game wasn’t “all Nanaimo”, it was close.  The scoring started early in the first period thanks to a power play goal by Second Star of the Game Luc Olivier Blain.  Then First Star of the Game Mike Domsodi scored two goals, one on a power play, before the first intermission.  In the second period, Tristan Lowenberger and Teal Burns scored to take a 5-0 lead.  Although the Timberwolves scored in the third, Nanaimo took this game 5-1.  Goalie Loic Boivin blocked 15 out of 16 shots.  For his hard playing, Kyle Weber was named the Third Star of the Game.

Friday night saw the Quesnel Millionaires visit Frank Crane Arena.  The Millionaires lost in their last game against our hockey club, and they were looking for payback.  And, although the Millionaires did force the game into double overtime, it was the Clippers’ night thanks to goals by Colton Cyr, Second Star of the Game Brayden Jaw and First Star of the Game Luc Olivier Blain on the power play.  Nanaimo won 3-2.

Saturday saw the WFG-sponsored Clippers board their bus again for their last regular season road game against the Cowichan Valley Capitals.  The Clippers were playing to win, shooting 38 shots on goal.  Four points were scored in the first period by Brayden Jaw, Colton Cyr, Joe Perry (on the power play) and Luc Olivier Blain, but the scoring wasn’t done.  Andrew Gladiuk scored in the second.  Brayden Jaw scored again in the third and Cody Bremner scored to take this game 7-4.  Stars of the Game honors were all Clippers: Carson Schell, Luc Olivier Blain and Brayden Jaw.  With this win, the Clippers will be in the BCHL playoff that begins Fri.,Feb. 26.

The Clippers next take the ice this Friday, Feb. 19, against the Alberni Valley Bulldogs in their last regular season game on home ice.  The puck drops at 7:30 local time at Frank Crane Arena.  GO CLIPPERS!

The World Financial Group-sponsored Ferbey 4, the “Kings of Canadian Curling”, traveled to Olds, AB to participate in the 2010 Alberta Boston Pizza Cup.  The winner would determine who would represent Alberta in the 2010 Tim Horton’s Brier.  And Randy, David, Scott and Marcel were all raring to go to represent for this great honor.

The Ferbey 4’s first match was Wednesday, February 2, opposite Rob Armitage’s rink out of Red Deer.  Our rink had the hammer and used it to win 9-2 in six ends.  The next morning, the men in the WFG curling shirts faced off against the rink of James Pahl out of Sherwood Park.  This match was so evenly played, it went to eleven ends.  However, David’s final rock was good enough to earn the Ferbey 4 an 8-7 win. 

Later that day, our rink faced their cross town competitors Kevin Koe to determine the first finalist for the cup.  Again, eleven ends were needed to determine the outcome.  However, Kevin would take this one by a score of 10-8.

With one qualifier determined, Randy and the guys took the house again Friday afternoon opposite Rob Armitage’s rink.  This match also went to eleven ends.  Thanks to the hammer, the Ferbey 4 won 8-7.  Later that day, our WFG curling rink became the second finalist by winning opposite Lloydminster’s Warren Hassall by a score of 9-5.  Warren’s rink had the hammer, but the Ferbey 4 only needed nine ends to win this one.

In the first match of the semifinals held on Saturday night, Randy and the team faced Kevin Koe again to determine who would go to the final game.  The loser would play an additional game opposite the winner of the semifinal “play-in” game.  Although giving a great effort, Randy lost to Kevin by a score of 10-6 in nine ends.  But in the second semifinal game, the Ferbey 4 faced the fellow Edmonton rink of Ted Appleman.  And, thanks to the hammer, our WFG curling team took this contest 6-4 in ten ends.

After the round robin and the elimination rounds, the Ferbey 4 faced Kevin Koe for the third time this tournament.  And the winner would represent Alberta in the 2010 Brier in Halifax.  However, Koe’s rink proved too strong for our WFG curling team and won the 2010 Alberta Boston Pizza Cup by a score of 7-5 in nine ends.

Randy, David, Scott and Marcel will return to competition March 25 to in the Bear Mountain Classic.  Keep reading here for the latest on World Financial Group’s own “Kings of Canadian Curling”. 

January finally ended for the World Financial Group-sponsored Nanaimo Clippers of the BCHL.  And February looked to be tough with a four game road trip to start the shortest month of the year.  But after ending January with a win, it looked as if our team was starting to turn around and make it into the BCHL playoffs.

The first game of the trip saw the Clippers take on the Merritt Centennials last Tuesday.  Clippers forward Cody Bremner scored the first goal of the game after a no scoring first period.  Merritt answered back, but Carson Schell, Nicholas McIntyre and Colton Cyr (unassisted into an empty net) all scored in the third period to win 4-2.  Bremner was named the First Star of the Game and goalie Loic Boivin, who blocked 32 out of 34 shots, was named the Third Star.

The next night saw our WFG-sponsored “Junior A” hockey team visit Quesnel to take on the Millionaires.  Andrew Gladiuk got the offense fired up with the first goal of the game.  He also scored a goal in the second and a goal in the third (on the power play), earning Gladiuk a hat trick!  And, for good measure, Colton Cyr added a goal of his own in the third period as Nanaimo took this one 4-3.  Gladiuk was named the First Star of the Game, and Brayden Jaw earned the title of Second Star, thanks to his hard playing and two assists.

After an off night, the Prince George Spruce Kings wanted to avenge their loss to the Clippers last week.  And revenge they did get by taking this game 5-2. Scoring the goals for Nanaimo were Kyle Kramer and Brayden Jaw.  Both were on the power play.

But Saturday would see no rest for the Clippers.  Our team visited the Williams Lake Timberwolves and took an early lead.  Carson Schell scored the lone goal of the first period (unassisted) and Cody Bremner scored the lone goal of the second.  The Timberwolves then scored three unanswered goals to take the lead.  But the Clippers came back, thanks to goals from Teal Burns, Brayden Jaw (on the power play) and Victor Newell (unassisted).  Nanaimo won this one 5-3.  For his goal and second period assist, Burns was named the Second Star of the Game.

After a long road trip, the WFG Nanaimo Clippers return to the confines of Frank Crane Arena opposite the Williams Lake Timberwolves this coming Wednesday and the Quesnel Millionaires on Friday.  Then another road game beckons for our team in Cowichan Valley on Saturday.  Go Clippers!

The month of January has not been kind to the Nanaimo Clippers thus far as the “Junior A” hockey club, sponsored by World Financial Group, has lost more games than they have won.  So would the last week of January be better for the team?

Last Tuesday, the Clippers hit the road playing opposite the Cowichan Valley Capitals.  The Clippers went on the power play seven times in the contest and scored on three of them, with two goals from Teal Burns and one from Luc Olivier Blain.  Unfortunately, the Caps took this contest 4-3, even though Clippers’ goalie Loic Boivin was able to save 30 shots on goal.

The next night, the WFG-sponsored hockey team came home to Frank Crane Arena to host the Prince George Spruce Kings.  This game had to go to two overtimes to decide a victor, but this time, the Clippers won 4-3!  Scoring goals in the victory were Teal Burns, Kyle Kramer, Luc Olivier Blain and Cody Bremner in double OT. Kramer and Bremner were named the Second and Third Stars of the Game, respectively.

With their first win of January, the Clippers returned to the road to take on the Alberni Valley Bulldogs.  And, like the previous game, this one was close all the way to the third period.  One goal per period was scored by Clippers teammates Brayden Jaw (first), Kyle Kramer (second, unassisted) and Cody Bremner (third).  However, the Bulldogs matched all those goals, and earned two more, to win the game 5-3.

But the Clippers had one more road game this past week with another visit to Victoria to take on the Grizzlies.  Lately, the Grizzlies have had the Clippers number.  But in this game, the Clippers gained the lead early and never trailed in a 4-3 win.  First Star of the Game Colton Cyr scored the first two goals and Third Star Teal Burns added the other two, including a power play goal in the second.

The WFG-sponsored Nanaimo Clippers return to the road for four more games.  On Tuesday, the team visits the Merritt Centennials and Wednesday sees the Clippers take on the Quesnel Millionaires.  Friday is a rematch against the Prince George Spruce Kings, and on Saturday the road trip ends opposite the Williams Lake Timberwolves.  Go Clippers!

A little more than two weeks have passed since the World Financial Group-sponsored Ferbey 4 took second place at the Casino Rama Skins Game without fourth thrower David Nedohin. Last weekend, however, David returned with his team as they competed at the BDO Canadian Open, another match in the “Grand Slam of Curling”.  Unfortunately, team skip Randy Ferbey had to sit out this tournament with a knee injury, so Paul Fleming of Halifax, NS, threw third for our curling rink as David took over the skipper role for the Open. 

On the first day of competition, Fri., Jan. 22, our “Kings of Canadian Curling” faced three teams.  First was the fellow Edmonton rink of Kevin Koe.  The Ferbey 4 had the hammer and used it to throw to a 7-3 victory in seven ends, and it was Paul Flemming who had the best accuracy during the match with 90%. 

Immediately after this win, our team took on Jason Gunnlaugson of Beausejour, MB.  And the guys in the WFG curling shirts used the hammer to score four rocks in the first end and won the second match 7-4 in seven ends.  Scott Pfeifer led all shooting with 92% accuracy.

The Ferbey 4’s third opponent was the rink of Thomas Ulsrud of Oslo, Norway.  While our rink had the hammer, Ulsrud’s rink ended victorious in eight ends by a 6-4 score.  But lead thrower Marcel Rocque, of the Ferbey 4, had the best accuracy among both teams with 84%.

The next day’s Round Robin started opposite the Edmonton rink of Ted Appelman.  Ted had the hammer and used it to win 10-7, but the Ferbey 4 did take the match to extra ends thanks to Marcel’s 91% throwing accuracy.  The Round Robin ended for our WFG-sponsored team with a game against Kerry Burtnyk from Winnipeg, in which David led the team to a 7-4 win, despite Kerry having the hammer.  Scott’s 85% accuracy was the best of this match.

The 3-2 record at the end of the Round Robin helped land the Ferbey 4 in the quarterfinals.  Their opponent was Thomas Ulsrud and although our guys gave the Oslo rink a run for its money, Ulsrud had the hammer and used it to win 6-5 in eight ends.  However, this match boasted another top accuracy rating from Scott with 89%.

Although our team lost the BDO, they are still in a good place to take the “Grand Slam of Curling”.  David tells us that “we are number two right now [in the “Grand Slam” standings] going into the final event, the Player’s Championship, in April.”  David also tells us that the Ferbey 4 is in a very good position and they are certainly in the running to win the title outright.  The next tournament our WFG-sponsored rink looks to win is the Alberta Provincial Championship being held February 3-7.  Keep reading here for all the latest on our favorite curling team!  

The World Financial Group-sponsored Nanaimo Clippers of the BCHL took to the ice recently for two contests. 

The first game, on Wed., Jan. 20, had the WFG-sponsored hockey team visiting the Victoria Clippers.  Despite 30 Nanaimo shots on goal, Victoria blanked the Clippers 2-0.  Goalie Loic Boivin was named the Second Star of the Game for blocking all of Victoria’s 17 shots on goal in the first period and 36 total shots in the game.

Nanaimo returned to the friendly confines of Frank Crane Arena on Fri., Jan. 22 to take on the Cowichan Valley Capitals.  Although Clippers’ goalie Loic Boivin shut the Caps out of the third period, the Capitals had already scored a goal in both the first and second periods.  While Nanaimo’s forward Teal Burns scored in the second period on a power play, the Caps won this one 2-1 in front of 1,621 Clippers fans.  Burns was named the Second Star of the Game. 

The WFG-sponsored Nanaimo Clippers have a busy week ahead of them.  Tuesday sees the Clippers visiting the Capitals.  The next night, the Prince George Spruce Kings visit Frank Crane Arena.  Then the team hit the road on Friday against the Alberni Valley Bulldogs and another trip to Victoria on Saturday.  Go Clippers!

Last year, the World Financial Group-sponsored Ferbey 4, the “Kings of Canadian Curling”, played in and won the Casino Rama Skins game in Orilla, ON, and the team was invited back to defend their title.  However, this year featured a different lineup for our favorite curling rink as David Nedohin was sidelined with a back injury.  Filling in for David was Wayne Middaugh, the Victoria Harbour, ON skip - and he looked great in the WFG blue and yellow.

In a Skins Game, the teams compete for “skins” awarded with a victory in a particular end.  These skins were worth anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000 during an eight end game.  If nobody wins the particular end, the skin carries over.  This could be advantageous to the rinks as some skins are worth more money than others. 

The Ferbey 4’s first match of the tournament was opposite Ontario’s Glenn Howard.  No skins were won in the first two ends, although Howard jumped to an early lead.  Then, in the sixth end, the WFG curling team won a $3,000 skin.  The match went into a carry-over, making the last two skins worth $11,000, which the Ferbey 4 won both - totaling $14,000 - and a spot in the final.