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Manitoba's Gunnlaugson moves into first place at Brier – TSN

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CALGARY — Only two unbeaten teams remain in the 18-team field at the Canadian men’s curling championship.

Pool leaders Kevin Koe of Wild Card Two and Jason Gunnlaugson of Manitoba remained perfect on Monday. But there were some unexpected team placements below them in the standings as the preliminary round reached the midway point.

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New Brunswick’s James Grattan, Wild Card Three’s Wayne Middaugh and Nova Scotia’s Scott McDonald have all enjoyed solid starts while Canada’s Brad Gushue, Wild Card One’s Mike McEwen and Northern Ontario’s Brad Jacobs have work to do to make the cut.

It’s shaping up to be a rather interesting midweek stretch at the WinSport Arena.

Gunnlaugson moved into sole possession of first place in Pool A after an 8-5 victory over McEwen to improve to 3-0.

“It’s a good start but it’s a long, long week,” Gunnlaugson said.

Alberta’s Brendan Bottcher defeated Middaugh 5-3 and Grattan edged Jacobs 7-6 in an extra end. That left Alberta and New Brunswick even at 3-1 while Middaugh fell into fourth place at 2-1.

Bottcher, who has reached the Tim Hortons Brier final in each of the last three years, earned a critical steal in the eighth end when Middaugh was light on his draw.

“It’s early in the week but these wins count as much as the ones on Thursday, Friday and Saturday,” Bottcher said. “You need to win them while you can.

“We played a really good game there and it was nice to cap it off and pull out the W.”

In the other afternoon game, British Columbia’s Steve Laycock dumped Yukon’s Dustin Mikkelsen 9-2.

Gunnlaugson, who was 5-6 in his Brier main draw debut last year, has already knocked off two expected contenders in McEwen and Bottcher.

“It’s hard to put into words how valuable it is to have a guy like Jay on your team,” said Manitoba lead Connor Njegovan. “Everything is so planned out and when he’s hitting well, it’s very hard to stop us.”

Wild Card One and Northern Ontario were tied in fifth place at 2-2 while B.C. improved to 1-2. The Northwest Territories (0-3) and Yukon (0-4) remained winless.

In Pool B, Koe dumped Nunavut’s Peter Mackey 11-3 and Saskatchewan’s Matt Dunstone made a draw for a piece of the button in a 6-5 win over Gushue.

“A great team shot,” Dunstone said. “To do it at the Brier against Team Canada is a great moment for us. Hopefully we carry this momentum moving forward.”

Koe was 5-0 while Dunstone moved into a second-place tie at 3-1 with idle Ontario skip John Epping.

Nova Scotia’s Scott McDonald made a brilliant triple takeout in the 10th end of a 9-6 win over Quebec’s Michael Fournier that left both teams at 3-2.

“You live to make big shots to win games,” McDonald said. “We made a couple big ones today and we’re really happy to pull out the victory.”

Gushue, who has won the Brier in three of the last four years, was alone in sixth place at 2-2.

Greg Smith of Newfoundland and Labrador (1-4) earned his first victory with an 11-7 win over P.E.I.’s Eddie MacKenzie, who remained in last place with Nunavut at 0-4.

The preliminary round continues through Thursday night at the Markin MacPhail Centre on the grounds of Canada Olympic Park. The top four teams in each pool will advance to the two-day championship round.

The final is set for Sunday night. The winner will represent Canada at the world men’s curling championship next month at the same venue.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 8, 2021.

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Vasilevskiy stops 23 as surging Lightning beat Bruins – Sportsnet.ca

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Here’s what we know about the allegations against Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara

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LOS ANGELES –

Only a week has passed since the Los Angeles Dodgers abruptly fired Ippei Mizuhara, the interpreter and constant companion of their new $700 million slugger, Shohei Ohtani.

But the biggest story of baseball’s spring is still murky — and shocking — as the regular season begins in earnest Thursday.

The scandal encompasses gambling, alleged theft, extensive deceit and the breakup of an enduring partnership between the majors’ biggest star and his right-hand man. Investigations are underway by the IRS and Major League Baseball, and Ohtani publicly laid out a version of events Monday that placed the responsibility entirely on Mizuhara.

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Here are the basics as Ohtani and the Dodgers prepare for their home opener against St. Louis on Thursday:

Why was Ippei Mizuhara fired by the Dodgers?

Ohtani claims his close friend repeatedly took money from his accounts to fund his illegal sports gambling habit. Ohtani also says he was completely unaware of the “massive theft,” as his lawyers termed it, until Mizuhara confessed to him and the Dodgers last week in South Korea, where the team opened its regular season against the San Diego Padres.

Mizuhara has given more than one version of his path to this trouble, which was catalyzed by the IRS’ investigation of Mathew Bowyer, an alleged illegal bookmaker. Mizuhara has consistently said he has a gambling addiction, and he abused his close friendship with the Dodgers superstar to feed it.

Did Shohei Ohtani ever bet on sports?

That’s the biggest question to be answered in Major League Baseball’s investigation, and the two-time AL MVP emphatically says he has never gambled on sports or asked anybody to bet on sports for him.

Further, Ohtani said Monday he has never knowingly paid a bookie to cover somebody else’s bets. Mizuhara also said Ohtani does not bet, and Bowyer’s attorney said the same.

Mizuhara told ESPN on March 19 that Ohtani paid his gambling debts at the interpreter’s request, saying the bets were on international soccer, the NBA, the NFL and college football. If that were true, Ohtani could face trouble even if he didn’t make the bets himself — but ESPN said Mizuhara dramatically changed his story the following day, claiming Ohtani had no knowledge of the gambling debts and had not transferred any money to bookmakers.

MLB rules prohibit players and team employees from wagering — even legally — on baseball. They also ban betting on other sports with illegal or offshore bookmakers.

What’s next for Ohtani?

Ohtani has played in every Dodgers game since the story broke, and he is expected to be their designated hitter in most regular-season games this season while baseball’s investigation continues.

Ohtani says his legal team has alerted authorities to the theft by Mizuhara, although his team has repeatedly declined to say which authorities have been told, according to ESPN.

Ohtani’s new interpreter is Will Ireton, a longtime Dodgers employee and fluent Japanese speaker who has filled several jobs with the team in everything from game preparation and analytics to recruiting free-agent pitches. But Ireton won’t be Ohtani’s constant companion, and manager Dave Roberts said Tuesday he’s optimistic that Ohtani will become closer to his teammates without the “buffer” provided for years by Mizuhara.

What don’t we know?

MLB’s investigation of Ohtani’s role in the events could last weeks or months, and it’s unlikely to be publicized until it’s complete. No one outside of Ohtani’s inner circle knows what it will find or how serious any repercussions could be, and nobody outside the circle is making informed speculation about the process.

One major question looms: How did Mizuhara have enough access to Ohtani’s bank accounts to get the alleged millions without Ohtani knowing? Is the slugger overly trusting, or is he wildly negligent in managing his vast fortune, which includes years of lavish endorsement deals in addition to his baseball salaries? Why didn’t the team around him, including his agent, do more to prevent the possibility of the theft he claims?

Finally, where is Mizuhara? Anybody who knows isn’t saying. He was fired in South Korea and apparently didn’t travel home with the Dodgers. Japanese media have visited his home in Southern California to look for him. Although he was born in Japan, Mizuhara’s life is in the U.S. — but his life will never be the same.

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