Weekend winners and losers, a bad April Fools' joke and what's next for women's hockey

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The Canadian Women's Hockey League folded

Twelve years after it started, the league says it's shutting down because its business model is "economically unsustainable." The announcement came exactly a week after the Calgary Inferno defeated Les Canadiennes de Montreal in the Clarkson Cup championship game, which the league said was watched on TV by a record 175,000 people. The CWHL had six teams this past season — those two we just mentioned, plus two in the Toronto area and one each in Massachusetts and China. The league owned and operated all the teams and had a total budget of $3.7 million. Players only started getting paid last season, and their salaries ranged from $2,000 to $10,000. Attendance didn't grow like the league hoped it would, and an ominous sign came last fall when a venture capitalist pulled his financial backing.

The abrupt ending seemed to catch players and team executives off guard. They found out about it on a conference call yesterday morning with the league's board of directors. Some of the players called in from Finland, where they're preparing for the start of the women's world championship tournament on Thursday. Calgary's Dakota Woodworth told CBC News the announcement was "really surprising and a huge bummer." But she's also optimistic something can be done to make sure there's women's pro hockey in Canada next season.

So what's next for women's pro hockey? There's still the National Women's Hockey League, which is made up of five U.S.-based teams. Before the demise of the CWHL, there was talk of a merger, and players have pushed for a single league. Ideally, it would be backed by the NHL — much like how the NBA funds the WNBA, which is heading into its 23rd season. Most of the NWHL teams have a partnership with the NHL club that plays in their area, but the NHL itself has stayed out of it. Deputy commissioner Bill Daly gave a vague statement of support yesterday for women's pro hockey but was non-committal about his league doing anything to help.

Weekend winners and losers

Winner: The Calgary Flames

Not only did they clinch their first division title in 13 years with last night's win over San Jose. They also wrapped up the top spot in their conference for the first time since 1990 — the year after the franchise won its only Stanley Cup. Not to bring things down here, but Calgary got upset in the first round of the '90 playoffs by a Kings team that finished five games under .500. In fact, the last four times the Flames won their division, they were bounced in the first round.

Winner/loser: The Montreal Canadiens

The Habs did what they could do, picking up a big win at Winnipeg in their only game of the weekend. But more time ran off the clock for them in the three-team race for two playoff spots. Columbus won both its games and now leads Montreal by two points. Carolina is one point up after splitting its two weekend games. All three teams have three games left and Montreal's schedule is brutal. The Habs face Tampa Bay, Washington and Toronto — three of the NHL's best teams.

Loser: Duke

The top-ranked team in college basketball was eliminated from the March Madness tournament yesterday by Michigan State. This wasn't a shock, because Duke never really played like the favourite. The Blue Devils went 0-4 against the point spread and barely escaped their two games before this one. It was a tough night for Canadian R.J. Barrett, whose 21 points were undone by seven turnovers and two big misses late in the game. With about 10 seconds left and his team down two, he bricked a long three-point attempt. Seconds later, to his credit, Barrett took the ball to the hoop and drew a foul. He needed to make both free throws to tie it, but he clanked the first one. Now Barrett is likely headed for the NBA draft, where he could be picked in the top three. Teammate Zion Williamson is the consensus No. 1 choice.

Winner: New blood

For all the talk of this being a chalky tournament (and it definitely was through the first two rounds), most of the favourites are gone now. With Duke, North Carolina and Gonzaga out, the only No. 1-seeded team going to next weekend's Final Four is Virginia. And neither they, Texas Tech (a 3 seed) nor Auburn (a 5 seed) have ever won the tournament. So there's plenty of new blood, and only one blue blood left: 2-seeded Michigan State. The Spartans have won the title twice, and coach Tom Izzo has made the Final Four eight times.

Winner: The Blue Jays' starting pitching

After rookie Trent Thornton threw five shutout innings in yesterday's loss to Detroit, the Jays' starters have now tossed 24 consecutive scoreless frames to start the season. It's the longest such streak since Atlanta's starters reached 25 at the beginning of the 1994 season. That Braves rotation is legendary. It featured three future Hall of Famers in Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz. But before Jays fans get too excited, consider that life is easier for starting pitchers these days. For one, the average team last year scored about half a run less per game than in '94. Also, today's starters aren't asked to work as deep into games. Back in '94, the Braves' big three all pitched at least seven innings in their first start of the year. That's the max so far for the four Jays who have started, and two of them went only five innings.

Winners: Christian Yelich and Josh Hader

The Milwaukee Brewers are off to a 3-1 start, thanks partly to these two guys. Yelich, the reigning National League MVP, has hit a homer in every game so far, and Hader threw an "immaculate inning" on Saturday night. That's three strikeouts on nine pitches. His pitch selection? All fastballs.

Quickly...

Canadian Chris Boucher is the MVP of the NBA's minor league. The Raptors 905 forward was also named the NBA G League's defensive player of the year after averaging 27.2 points, 11.4 rebounds and 4.1 blocked shots this season. He's the first player to win both awards, and the first non-American to win the MVP.

Felix Auger-Aliassime moved way up in the tennis world rankings. He jumped 24 spots to No. 33, thanks to his surprising run to the semifinals at the Miami Open, and earned a wild-card invite to the Madrid Open. Another Canadian teenager, Denis Shapovalov, rose three spots to No. 20 after also making it to the semis in Miami, where he lost to Roger Federer. Shapo is now only five spots behind Canada's top-ranked player, Milos Raonic.

Canada is on a roll at the world men's curling championship. Kevin Koe's team is 4-0 heading into its only game today. It's at 4 p.m. ET vs. Norway, which is 0-3. Two other teams are 4-0: Japan and defending champion Sweden. CBC Sports' Devin Heroux is covering the tournament in Lethbridge, Alta., and you can follow his live updates here.

And finally...

Tom Brady is starting a new career as a standup comic. That's a bad April Fools' joke. And so is this:

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