What to watch this weekend in Canadian sports | CBC Sports

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The CFL and university football playoffs are heating up, one of Canada’s top tennis players is eyeing a huge payday, and the NHL’s best team will go for its 14th win in 15 games. Here’s your guide to all that and a lot more:

CFL: Grey Cup spots are on the line

The matchup for the 111th Grey Cup game will be decided on Saturday as defending champion Montreal hosts Toronto in the East Division final at 3 p.m. ET and Winnipeg hosts Saskatchewan in the West final at 6:30 p.m. ET.

Toronto is seeking revenge for last year’s East final, when the Alouettes shocked the 16-2 Argonauts as 11-point underdogs while forcing five turnovers by quarterback Chad Kelly.

Winnipeg can reach its fifth consecutive CFL title game, which hasn’t been done since Edmonton made six in a row from 1977-1982 with the help of future NFL star Warren Moon. The Blue Bombers won back-to-back Grey Cups in 2019 and 2021 (Covid wiped out the 2020 season) before Toronto and Montreal upset them the next two years.

Winnipeg is once again powered by hometown running back Brady Oliveira, who led the CFL in rushing yards for the second straight season. Oliveira was the runner-up (to Kelly) for the Most Outstanding Player award last year after becoming just the 15th CFL player ever to gain 2,000 yards from scrimmage in a season. He’s a finalist again — and is up for his second straight Most Outstanding Canadian award — after piling up 1,353 yards rushing and another 476 receiving for the top team in the West.

University football: The road to the Vanier Cup continues

Saturday afternoon’s U Sports conference finals will decide who advances to the national semifinals next week.

The best matchup is in Quebec, where defending Vanier Cup champion Montreal, ranked No. 1 in the country, faces No. 3 Laval for the Dunsmore Cup. Both teams went 7-1 this season, and they split their two head-to-head matchups. Those were each decided by one point, including Montreal’s overtime victory.

In Ontario, No. 2 Laurier faces No. 4 Western in the Yates Cup. You can watch it live at 1 p.m. ET on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem.

In the West, it’s No. 10 Saskatchewan vs. unranked Regina for the Hardy Trophy. In the Atlantic, No. 6 Bishop’s meets unranked St. Mary’s in the Loney Bowl.

The Quebec champion will face the West winner in next week’s Mitchell Bowl while the Ontario and Atlantic champs square off in the Uteck Bowl. The Vanier Cup game is on Nov. 23 in Kingston, Ont.

The U Sports soccer and cross-country championships are also taking place this weekend. You can watch them live on CBC Sports’ digital platforms.

Tennis: Gabby Dabrowski goes for big money at the WTA Finals

Dabrowski and her teammate Erin Routliffe of New Zealand won their semifinal this morning to advance to the doubles title match at the lucrative women’s tennis season finale in Saudi Arabia on Saturday at 8 a.m. ET.

Dabrowski is trying to become the first Canadian to win a title at the WTA Finals, which are reserved for the top eight doubles teams and top eight singles players in the world. She and Routliffe have already earned a combined $605,000 US — $170K for participating, $70K for each of their three group-stage wins and $255K for their semifinal victory. Another $520,000 goes to the team that wins the final, so they could be splitting a cool $1.125 million on Saturday. When Dabrowski and Routliffe won the U.S. Open in 2023, they got $700,000.

American Coco Gauff and China’s Qinwen Zheng will battle for an even bigger payday in Saturday’s singles final, which is worth $2.5 million to the winner. They’ve already earned a little more than $2.3 million apiece after going 2-1 in group play and picking up $1.27 million for today’s semifinal wins, so the champion’s total purse will be about $4.8 million. Top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka, who lost to Gauff in today’s semifinals, pocketed “only” $3.6 million for winning this year’s U.S. Open.

In men’s tennis, Denis Shapovalov advanced to the final of the lower-level Belgrade Open today. The 78th-ranked Canadian will face No. 156 Hamad Medjedovic of Serbia on Saturday.

NHL: The Jets are soaring

With their 1-0 win over Colorado last night, the Winnipeg Jets became just the second team in NHL history to win 13 of their first 14 games. Enjoying a five-point cushion atop the overall standings, Winnipeg hosts Central Division rival Dallas (8-4-0) on Saturday at 3 p.m. ET.

Saturday’s slate also includes all-Canadian matchups between Montreal and Toronto (7 p.m. ET) and Edmonton and Vancouver (10 p.m. ET). The Oilers’ Connor McDavid returned early from an ankle injury this week, while the Leafs hope to get Auston Matthews back for Saturday.

Tonight, Canadian Olympic hero Sidney Crosby and his Russian rival Alex Ovechkin square off for the 70th time in the regular season when Pittsburgh visits Washington at 7 p.m. ET. Ovechkin has scored in five straight games and needs 34 more goals to break Wayne Gretzky’s all-time NHL record of 894.

NBA: The Raptors are in L.A.

On Saturday night at 10:30 p.m. ET, Toronto pays its first visit to the Intuit Dome. The Clippers’ new $2-billion arena features “the wall” — a standing-room section priced to attract hardcore fans — and other innovations designed to increase the team’s home-court advantage.

On Sunday at 9:30 p.m. ET, the Raptors return to the arena formerly known as the Staples Center to take on LeBron James’ Lakers. LeBron’s son Bronny will likely not be in the lineup for L.A. as the plan is to assign him to the Lakers’ nearby G League affiliate after tonight’s game against Philadelphia.

Figure skating: A Canadian-free Grand Prix

No Canadians are competing at this week’s Grand Prix stop in Japan after Stephen Gogolev was scratched from the men’s event.

The international athlete to watch at the NHK Trophy is Japanese star Kaori Sakamoto, who leads the women’s event after her excellent performance in today’s short skate. Last year, Sakamoto became the first skater in 56 years to capture three straight women’s world titles. She also won gold at the Grand Prix stop in Halifax two weeks ago.

The closing free skates in the ice dance, pairs, men’s and women’s events (in that order) begin tonight at 10 p.m. ET. Watch them live on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem.

Curling: Homan rolls on at the Canadian Open

The second stop on the Grand Slam circuit is taking place in Nisku, Alta., where reigning national champions Brad Gushue and Rachel Homan were among the undefeated at our publish time.

Homan skipped Canada to the women’s gold at last week’s Pan Continental Championships in Lacombe, Alta., while Gushue lost the men’s bronze game to American John Shuster after winning the title the last two years.

The top eight men’s and women’s teams at the conclusion of round-robin play tonight advance to the playoffs on Saturday afternoon. The semifinals are on Saturday night and the finals are Sunday. Here’s the full schedule and here’s a roundup of today’s results. 

Soccer: NWSL playoffs and a Canadian championship game

The National Women’s Soccer League quarterfinals kick off tonight, but the most interesting match from a Canadian perspective is on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET when the sixth-seeded Portland Thorns visit No. 3 Gotham FC. Portland’s Christine Sinclair is retiring at the end of the season, so this could be the final match for the former Canadian national team star. 

The men’s Canadian Premier League final takes place Saturday afternoon as Calgary’s Cavalry FC hosts Forge FC. The Hamilton, Ont.-based club has never missed the championship match in the CPL’s six-year history and is now going for its fifth playoff title.

Forge’s Bobby Smyrniotis was named the league’s coach of the year for the first time last night while midfielder Tristan Borges won his second Player of the Year award. Watch the CPL final live at 3 p.m. ET on the CBC TV network and CBC Sports’ streaming platforms. Here’s our full streaming schedule.