Linking the country ...

Football

• Western coach Greg Marshall says a deal is almost in place for an exhibition game in Saskatoon between the Mustangs and Saskatchewan Huskies.
  
  Marshall's take on Western opening at Ottawa: "It would have been nice to start with a little easier game ... But I think we have enough returning players to rally around whoever the quarterback will be." (London Free Press)
  

Basketball

• There were upsets in women's hoops too: UNB knocked off previously unbeaten No. 4 Cape Breton 87-86 Friday, with Amanda Sharpe hooping 36 points. (Halifax Chronicle-Herald)
  
  
• Somewhat of a bizarro finish in Victoria's 72-71 road win over UBC on Friday. The T-Birds let the clock run out instead of intentionally fouling the Vikes' Kristen Hughes. T-Birds coach Deb Huband did not acknowledge as much, but it might have been done to give them a better chance in a potential tiebreaker scenario:

  "Victoria holds a two-game lead over UBC for second-place behind an unbeaten SFU Clan team riding a 52-game win streak. But UBC and Victoria meet again Saturday. The two teams then wrap up their regular seaosns the following week with drastically differing foes.
  
  "UBC meets struggling Trinity Western, while Victoria gets SFU. So if UBC can beat Victoria by at least two points on Saturday and then beat TWU next week, it would take a Victoria upset of SFU to give the Vikes second place.
  
  "So it was amazing that within the tight framework of a back-and-forth game that was tied nine times and featured 14 lead changes, that the Birds' focus on the big picture was so clear."

  (Little Man on Campus)
  
  
• No. 2 Regina has locked up CW Prairie women's reg-season title. (Regina Leader-Post)
  
  
• No. 10 Carleton, by our math, could clinch home-court advantage throughout the OUA playoffs by beating Laurentian on Saturday. The East champ hosts the provincial final.

Hockey

• St. Thomas, trying to get that last AUS men's playoff berth, is in a must-win vs. Acadia on Saturday. (Fredericton Daily Gleaner)
  
  
• UOIT coach Marlin Muylaert made full use of his timeout, taking it when the Ridgebacks were down three goals early to Lakehead. They roared back to win 6-5 and that might put them in the playoffs.
  
  For Lakehead, it was a case of taking an opponent lightly. (TB NewsWatch, Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal)