As much as overtime in game two was disappointing to Montreal Canadiens fans, the goal in Tampa Bay was to achieve a split. The next target was to hold home-ice advantage through the weekend.

Game three is often the first game where the eventual momentum that will carry the series begins. Not in this case, as these two teams couldn’t solve anything between them, forcing an overtime for a third straight game.

In overtime, the Canadiens took the lead in the series with the winner scored by a man made for the moment, Lane Hutson.

Wilde Horses

Credit to Head Coach Martin St. Louis for reading the room, and for reading his players. After the game two defeat, fans were calling for changes, and at the top of the list was Kirby Dach followed by Alexandre Texier and then Zachery Bolduc. The head coach was defiant that he knew his group, and those players would respond.

Five minutes in, it was Dach with a sweet feed to Bolduc who found Texier in the high slot. He ripped it as soon as he got it. Texier to the top shelf before Andrei Vasilevskiy even moved. The Canadiens opened the scoring.

Three shifts later, it was Dach again with a smooth play. He grabbed the puck with his hand, quickly got it to his stick, and he fired it off the cross bar. In the first period, that line was the best line on the Canadiens. They made the coach look like a genius.

Also shining in the first period was Alex Newhook. He was absolutely flying down the wing where he is more suited to be free to play the kind of hockey that he can. If he is worrying about his defensive responsibilities as a centre, Newhook doesn’t unblock his speed.

Oliver Kapanen was put back to centre where he is better suited to handle the defensive side of the puck with his intelligent decision making.

In the second period, the Dach Redemption Night added another chapter. He had a clean look that was stopped, then, on the same shift, Dach fired a shot from the half-wall. It found a path for his first of the series. The line was absolutely dominant in the eye-test and analytics with an 82 Expected Goal share.

On defence, Arber Xhekaj and Jayden Struble with another dominant contest with an 89 share after two periods. That makes their outstanding first two games look pedestrian by comparison, (more on the pair in the Wilde Cards below). On the second goal, Xhekaj manhandled his check to keep the play alive for Dach to finish it.

Xhekaj is levelling up at the age of 25 right before our eyes. The play is so much better, and his element of physical power is making the Lightning keep their head on a swivel for their own safety.

Through 60 minutes, a team that wasn’t tight defensively held Tampa to 17 shots. They didn’t catch the system right away, but they’re figuring it out well now because that total is an excellent shutdown total against a great hockey team.

Montreal had the better chances. They had three breakaways without getting a sniff. Ivan Demidov, Cole Caufield, and Josh Anderson all had clear cut breakaways from the blue line. Two of the three would have been choices to have breakaways, but no one counted.

In overtime, the Dach Reclamation Project finished its work. The line dominated the entire game. They deserved the result. Dach with the screen in front. Texier with the dangle to win space. The pass to Lane Hutson and he wired it home for the game winner.

Hutson said after the first season when he had six goals that he would improve his shot, and make a difference. His second season he got 12 goals. He did improve his shot. It had a lot more power on it. It had great accuracy.

The culmination of all that work came to the moment that effort meets opportunity. Hutson lifted the Bell Centre roof. Hutson was interviewed moments later, and not a word he said could be heard. Every fan was still in the building chanting Olé.

The Canadiens lead the series 2-1. This is not last year. They are not second best. They are not getting pushed around.

Wilde Goats 

In the first two games, the officials left almost everything, and it got out of hand in Tampa Bay. In the next game, they called everything in the first period, and it was an even bigger joke.

The four penalties called in the first period of game three all would not have been called as penalties in games one or two.

However, it’s not that they called a lot in game three, or that they called a little in Tampa Bay. It’s that there is no standard that is set. Ever.

It’s extremely frustrating to be a fan of hockey and the National Hockey League. In watching other leagues officiate their game, they set a standard and they keep that standard. Every player becomes acutely aware of what he can do and what he cannot do.

Take the National Football League and the pass interference call. The referees call it the same way without fail. The players know what they can do in defending, and what they cannot do to the infinite degree.

In the NHL, the only standard set is ‘puck-over’glass’. That’s it. If a defender puts the puck over the glass without it being deflected, it’s a penalty. Every other infraction is open to interpretation, and that interpretation centres around who had the previous penalties.

In the third period, even ‘too-many-men-on-the-ice’ they made a false interpretation because of the score line. It could not have been more obvious. The entire Canadiens bench had their arms up screaming for a call.

It’s called game management by the officials, and they can’t help themselves to engage in it. They live by it. It’s embarrassing. The league puts out press releases to say how close so many games are. People of any intelligence can put it together that one can achieve closer games by the way they are officiated.

Down by two goals, and the league wants a close game, it’s quite easy to work toward that end. They can manage the game through penalties. The officials likely don’t even know they are doing this. It’s an easy thing to subconsciously become enraptured in without awareness.

Announcers fall prey as well. They will hail that the officials need awareness of the situation. Poppycock!

The referees should have absolutely no awareness at all. They shouldn’t know the score, the period, the series score, the anything. The reason is that their awareness alters their perception of what is a penalty and what is not. They change their standards.

The key is, like the NFL, like the NBA, like MLB, set a standard and stick to it. Stop interpreting the rulebook to fit the moment.

The referees should be complete idiots about absolutely everything except that a penalty is a penalty is a penalty.

Wilde Cards

The analytics in the series have not been in the Canadiens favour in the first two games. However, there is one giant surprise, and it bodes well for the future of the franchise.

Montreal wants to add some toughness to the roster, but they need that toughness to be stable. Toughness without good shifts means nothing positive to the overall structure of the team. The Canadiens want a reliable third pair of defenders who will be physical, and who will keep the puck out of the net.

Enter Arber Xhekaj and Jayden Struble. Admittedly, the pair will often be spared the most difficult match-ups, and may get easier zone starts, but the numbers are the numbers, and the numbers are outstanding.

Lane Hutson has regularly tagged his defensive partner with a superior Expected Goals all season of higher than 60 percent. However, according to Money Puck, Hutson and Kaiden Guhle are struggling five-on-five this series with a 39 share only. The Mike Matheson pairing with Alexandre Carrier is also struggling with an Expected Goals share of 27 percent.

At the entire other end of the spectrum is Struble and Xhekaj with an Expected Goals share of 87 per cent. If someone prefers Corsi as their metric, the pair has a 72 share.

It’s remarkable from the two. If they can keep this up, this is exactly what is needed from the final pairing: toughness, stability, some fisticuffs if needed, and not expensive.

Both of these players know their NHL standing and aren’t going to command big money which is also what you need from the third pair.

Let’s see if the outstanding sample continues as the series progresses. They finished the regular season well, so the strong sample is getting bigger and more impressive, even as the games become more important.

Xhekaj is a fan favourite, and fans may get their wish that he establishes himself as a regular NHL player worthy of more minutes.

Brian Wilde, a Montreal-based sports writer, brings you Call of the Wilde on globalnews.ca after each Canadiens game.

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Quebec’s Court of Appeal has ruled that theatre actors can smoke on stage during performances, finding the practice can be protected as artistic expression.

The province’s highest court upheld a lower court decision that had struck down fines issued to three theatres for allowing performers to smoke during plays.

In her ruling, Justice Judith Harvie found that the harm caused to freedom of expression by banning an actor from smoking during a theatrical performance outweighed any benefits provided by forbidding it.

“No one argues that staff or the public should be allowed to smoke for personal purposes in a place where cultural or artistic activities are presented,” the judge said in her ruling.

The case stems from fines issued under Quebec’s tobacco control law, which bans smoking in enclosed public spaces, including cultural venues.

The ruling says the act of smoking in a theatrical context can carry expressive content and form part of a broader artistic message.

The government had appealed a Superior Court decision striking down $500 fines issued between 2017 and 2019 to three theatres in Quebec City: Théâtre du Trident, Théâtre de la Bordée and Théâtre Premier Acte.

The Superior Court argued that the smoking ban was justified because there is “no safe exposure threshold for second-hand smoke in enclosed spaces.”

Judge Harvie, however, found that the exposure to second-hand smoke during a show would be limited.

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Watch the full broadcast of Global National with Dawna Friesen for Friday, April 24, 2026.

View more Global National videos here

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

A sociology and public health researcher says the Saskatchewan government’s policies for dealing with addictions are rolling back progress made in the last 30 years, in the wake of the shutdown of Saskatoon’s only safe consumption site.

“I think that we are taking a step backwards in our approach of looking at abstinence-only treatment focus modalities in isolation from looking at things like harm reduction, for looking at other modes of community supports, community-based resources, or other prevention mechanisms that look at whole communities and whole families,” said Maryellen Gibson, doctoral candidate at the University of Saskatchewan.

Two weeks ago, Prairie Harm Reduction closed its doors for good after discovering a financial shortfall of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Since then, the provincial government has remained steadfast in its recovery-focused and “saying no” approach to dealing with addictions across the province.

“Proactive is not doing the drugs at all in the first place,” said Saskatchewan health minister Lori Carr on Thursday, when asked by reporters about reactive and proactive measures to address addictions and overdoses.

“We’re working with individuals. That’s why we have education campaigns out there that talk about not using drugs, and, of course, illicit drugs are very dangerous and that’s what we’re seeing happening right now.”

But education campaigns are not enough to address the complex nature of addiction and why people choose to use drugs, said Gibson.

“Of course, having education and prevention campaigns is a piece of our work in preventing the harms around substance use, but it is not the be-all and end-all,” Gibson said.

“We need to have a full continuum of care and a continuum of interventions and responses for people.”

The province’s health minister is also pointing to the tabled forced drug treatment bill, called The Compassionate Intervention Act, as a means of addressing the crisis. This act would allow those with addictions to receive treatment against their choosing, with recovery orders to be requested by family members, medical professionals or through police intervention.

The bill has yet to move beyond its first reading in Saskatchewan’s legislature, but Gibson, who is conducting research on it, said it is likely to pass given the province’s majority government.

The province touts that the bill will be used in a small number of cases, but Gibson said recent rhetoric from the province that claims it will help with the crisis is conflating this.

“If the idea of this bill is solving all of these crises that we’re having, it doesn’t in fact mean that it’s going to be reserved for the most severe cases and only being used in a very small amount of the time,” Gibson said, adding that the act could support people in extreme cases.

The provincial stance on addressing Saskatchewan’s addictions is being echoed in Ottawa, with Saskatoon West MP Brad Redekopp pushing the federal government Thursday to keep the site shuttered.

“Saskatoon needs hope, recovery, treatment and safety, not a new licence for the same disaster under different management,” said Redekopp during question period.

Redekopp has also been vocal online, sharing his thoughts on the closure of Prairie Harm Reduction to his social media following.

“Here is my response to a Google review that called me ‘heartless’ for advocating for the closure of Prairie Harm,” he said in a post on April 23.

“What was heartless was leaving people in addiction while our neighbourhood paid the price. Real compassion means treatment, recovery, rehabilitation, and safer streets.”

Earlier this week, Regina issued an overdose alert after seeing 140 overdoses in the first three weeks of April.

Since Prairie Harm Reduction shut down, fire crews in Saskatoon say they have been responding to around 16 overdose calls every day.

There is no silver bullet approach to resolving the addiction crisis, said Gibson, adding that funding for community organizations and the health-care system are meaningful starting points.

“Until basic needs are met and until we are looking at a decolonial approach to the way that our province is providing health care and support, we will continue to see substance use proliferate in our communities,” said Gibson.

“We need to have a reliable and consistent funding source for organizations that are providing resources and supports for people at various levels of … their substance use or also precarity.”

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Across much of Saskatchewan, a winter storm has been sweeping into the province. It didn’t feel like spring on Friday, but its effects are starting to take hold.

As the snowpack begins to melt, water levels are rising. That’s according to the president of the Water Security Agency, Shawn Jaques.

“There is still snow in the Meadow Lake area, and as I said in the forested areas there is still a fair bit of snowpack,” said Jaques.

Provincial resources are assisting with the flooding in Meadow Lake, as well as the Beardys and Okimasis First Nation.

In the town of Foam Lake, the community has mobilized. Students created sandbags in physical education class and laid them out alongside Highway 301 leading into the town.

It was more than just the students. More than 100 volunteers from around the town participated in the effort. The Co-op provided snacks, and a local business, 3 boyz Plumbing & Heating, brought in machinery to help haul equipment and sandbags to the scene of the flooding. Student and employee Hayden Helberg explains why.

“We always try to give back. They asked us to bring the skid steer out, they have bigger tractors but they can’t move as fast. They know we had a skid steer, so we brought that out,” said Helberg.

Although the added precipitation from the snow will eventually melt into the rivers, the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency says that the cooling temperatures could slow down the speed of the melt.

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Saskatoon looked like a shaken snow globe Friday, with strong winds and bright, white snow clouding visibility.

It made for rough driving conditions in the city, with 52 collisions between 6:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. in Saskatoon Friday. None resulted in serious injuries.

Some drivers who may have been fooled by a false spring and have already switched over to summer tires a little early may be in a bit of a pickle.

“I would say we are well behind in years past for taking tires off just because our winter has been extending for so long,” said Jae Malinowski, owner of Faithfull Tirecraft Saskatoon.

He says drivers have been switching their tires since March, but he’s also seeing a lot of people looking at the amount of snow outside and changing their minds.

“Day like today, we’ve had a number of cancellations. Last week we had a number of cancellations and the week before we’ve had a number of cancellations on the days it snows like this,” Malinowski said.

“Again, a lot of clients live out of town who are on the highway a lot, so there’s that safety aspect involved there, too.”

Drivers will likely need to be patient into the weekend as a yellow warning for snowfall was reissued Friday morning.

“I think in the end we’ll probably end up seeing 10 to 25 cm in the Saskatoon area, probably actually 15 to 25 cm. But it’s been compact snow; parts of the north seeing up to 30 to 50, even 60 cm, a little bit lesser amounts in the south where we’re talking 5 to 10 cm in the Regina area,” said Global News meteorologist, Peter Quinlan.

This latest round of snow is expected to turn into light flurries through the weekend, but areas further north probably won’t be as lucky.

While it’s all expected to melt in areas like Saskatoon and Regina by the end of the month, it may stick around in other parts of the province until the end of May.

And don’t expect to put the toques and mitts away quite yet, as more could fall again in coming month.

Watch above for more on the collisions in Saskatoon during the snowfall.

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

A B.C. Supreme Court justice has ruled against an application that would prevent the RCMP from disposing of thousands of pieces of evidence that were seized during the investigation into serial killer Robert Pickton.

Thousands of pieces of evidence were seized from serial killer Robert Pickton’s pig farm decades ago, whether it was used in his murder trial or not.

Some of the items also belonged to Pickton’s victims.

RCMP had applied to the court for permission to dispose of about 15,000 items.

A group of plaintiffs in civil actions against Robert William Pickton and his brother, David Francis Pickton, fought to have the evidence preserved, but Justice Fritz Verhoeven has ruled that civil claims will not be prejudiced by the disposal of evidence.

The plaintiffs are children of some of Robert Pickton’s victims.

Advocates for victims whose cases remain unsolved say the ruling is a blow at their attempts to get justice.

“It is part of a larger picture of failing, and it’s failures by the police, it’s failures by the justice system to properly and thoroughly investigate cases of disappeared and murdered, marginalized and mostly Indigenous girls and women, and those failures persist to this day,” Sue Brown with Justice for Girls told Global News.

The items were seized from the Pickton’s Dominion Avenue property during Project Evenhanded, which was a police investigation into missing and murdered women from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

Verhoeven said in his ruling that only a small portion of those items were entered as exhibits at Pickton’s trial and were then returned to the RCMP. The judge ruled that over the years, RCMP continued to make efforts to repatriate items to determine ownership and what should be done with them.

“Having reviewed the affidavits before me today on the RCMP’s applications, I fully accept that the process has been, as counsel have said, painstaking, careful, and thorough. It has taken a long time and a great deal of effort to get to this point. In saying that it has taken a long time, I mean no criticism,” Verhoeven wrote.

Pickton was charged with 27 counts of first-degree murder and convicted of six counts of second-degree murder.

He was given a life sentence and was killed in prison in 2024.

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Saskatchewan weather is known to be crazy and unpredictable, but this year is especially so.

Just after golfers were getting out their clubs and people were strolling the streets in shorts and T-shirts, the province is expected to be hit with another layer of snow on Friday.

But Saskatoon isn’t seeing the worst with some parts further North already seeing upwards of 50cm.

Candle Lake Mayor Colleen Lavoie says they have more than a metre of snow on the ground Wednesday night, but things aren’t too bad there as they were prepared for the storm.

“I know today one of our businesses had to close for a snow day, and I think overall it’s been OK,” Lavoie said. “I think we were well-prepared as a community to make sure the roads were clear and the parking lots are clear.”

Although Saskatchewan usually sees snow until May, the amount that’s already fallen this winter seems to have people ready to move on.

“I think it’s because this spring has kind of seen that snow, first of all, linger on the ground before melting, it’s been cooler, and then we usually only see one or two big snowfalls in April, we’ve seen four now. So, I think that gets a little bit tiresome for people who are ready to move into spring,” said Global News meteorologist Peter Quinlan.

He says there is an upside, with the amount of snow on the ground potentially making for a less ferocious wildfire season.

“I think the snow will help with, first of all, a slowing down of the start of wildfire season. It might wait until the middle of the summer as to that earlier summer’s wildfire season that we sometimes do see.”

Watch above for more on the snowfall Saskatchewan is seeing at the end of April.

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

On May 1, Metro Vancouver will skip Stage 1 of water restrictions and move straight to Stage 2.

“We really need folks to pay attention to that outdoor use this year,” Linda Parkinson with Metro Vancouver Water Services said on Friday.

Officials say it is unprecedented this early in the year to move to Stage 2, but with a dry forecast and a low snowpack, it is necessary.

“Like the province announced on Friday, we’re also being told to prepare for drought conditions this summer,” Parkinson said. “So we’re looking at an El Niño summer.”

Metro Vancouver is also pointing to a strain on the system from the ongoing water supply tunnel replacement through Stanley Park.

Under Stage 2 conditions, all residential and non-residential lawn watering is banned.

Residents can water trees, shrubs and flowers any day from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. if using an automatic or manual sprinkler, or any time if hand watering or using drip irrigation. Hoses must have an automatic shut-off nozzle.

Vegetable gardens can be watered at any time.

Non-residential property owners can water trees, shrubs, and flowers any day from 4 a.m. to 9 a.m. if using an automatic or manual sprinkler, or any time if hand watering or using drip irrigation. Hoses must have an automatic shut-off nozzle.

Vegetable gardens can be watered at any time.

“Lawns will go brown in the summer, and they will start to bounce back in the fall,” Jerry Dobrovolny, Metro Vancouver CAO, said.

Parkinson said there are other bans around pressure washing and other restrictions posted online.

“We do expect that we will need to go to Stage 3 in early June, and we’ll continue to share information as it becomes available,” Dobrovolny said.

Stage 3 has not been activated since 2015.

It would include bans on washing vehicles and filling pools or hot tubs without a permit.

Metro Vancouver is reassuring the public that there is no shortage of drinking water.

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Julia MacIsaac was a compassionate and kind-hearted woman who worked at the University Health Network (UHN) as a medical lab technologist

She dated David Slinger for approximately 10 years. The two broke up in 2017.

Following the breakup, MacIsaac purchased a three-bedroom townhouse on Scarborough Golf Club Road where she allowed 45-year-old David Slinger to stay in a separate bedroom down the hall from her own.

MacIsaac had an independent locking mechanism on her second-floor bedroom which she had used to lock her bedroom from the inside.

In a downtown courtroom Friday, that ex-boyfriend pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, admitting he brutally killed MacIsaac in her own bedroom two years ago.

The agreed statement of facts are so disturbing, many of MacIsaac’s relatives left the courtroom before the facts were read into the record.

On March 14, 2024 at 4:08 am, Slinger called 911 and stated that he was in a psychosis, and that he had killed his roommate Julia through strangulation and then by hitting her over the head repeatedly with a baseball bat.

He told the 911 operator that she kept the bat in her bedroom.

When firefighters arrived, they found Slinger outside MacIsaac’s townhouse on Scarborough Golf Club Road near Kingston Road.

He told the fire crew that she was dead upstairs.

First responders then entered the home and found MacIsaac face-down on the floor in a pool of blood between the wall and the mattress of her bedroom.

She had significant trauma to her head and face, a severely broken right arm, and no vital signs.

A baseball bat covered in blood was found right next to her body.

Her independent locking mechanism was located on the bedroom floor.

A pathologist determined the 42-year-old’s cause of death was blunt force head trauma.

There were also features supportive of neck compression, though their contribution to MacIsaac’s death could not be determined.

There were also injuries on her right arm which were consistent with defensive-type injuries, with the characteristics of these injuries suggestive of a rounded object such as a baseball bat.

Just a week before the murder, on March 7, 2024, around midnight, Slinger called an ambulance for himself. At the time, he was expressing suicidal thoughts and in an agitated state.

As a result, Slinger was apprehended pursuant to section 17 of the Mental Health Act and was transported by paramedics to Scarborough Centenary Hospital. He was later discharged on March 11, 2024, and returned to MacIsaac’s home.

The same day, at approximately 9:57 p.m., Ms. MacIsaac and Slinger’s sister had a conversation over text message about Slinger staying there after his discharge from hospital.

MacIsaac expressed that it wasn’t going well, but she was afraid to tell Slinger that she needs a break from having him stay there because he had nowhere to go and she didn’t know what he would do.

She also expressed to her partner that she was concerned about Slinger’s behaviour and felt uneasy about him staying there.

On March 13, 2024, at approximately 11:16 p.m., Slinger and MacIsaac had a conversation about household chores on the main floor of the residence.

Sometime after this conversation, Ms. MacIsaac went to her bedroom on the second floor of the residence.

On March 14, 2024, at approximately 2:30 a.m., Slinger was captured on video going up the stairs to the second floor of the residence in an agitated state.

He began banging on the door of Ms. MacIsaac’s bedroom and eventually forced his way inside.

The video camera in the stairwell captured the deadly attack.

Prior to calling 911, the facts state Slinger made a phone call to his sister Donna Slinger at approximately 3:50 a.m.

At approximately 4:01 a.m., he changed his clothing and then knocked over the camera in the second-floor stairwell, obstructing its view.

Ten minutes later, Slinger called 911.

MacIsaac was remembered as a” gentle and deeply empathetic” woman who loved animals, especially chinchillas whom she rescued. She was also dedicated to her work as a microbiologist.

“She should have been safe in her own home. Instead, she was violently murdered in it,” said Jennifer MacIsaac, Julia’s older sister. “It is unbearable to know that her life ended in fear.”

Jennifer told the court her sense of security has also been taken away and called her sister kind, passionate and loyal. “She saw the good in others, even when there was none,” said Jennifer.

Matthew MacIsaac told court he feels betrayed by Slinger. “Julia helped him for years, including by letting him live in her condo, and by helping him find a lawyer eight days before he killed her,” said Matthew.

He also said that Slinger delayed taking responsibility for his actions and made the family sit through a preliminary hearing.

Assistant Crown attorneys Ben Snow and Samantha Alston told Superior Court Justice Maureen Forestell that Crown and defence had agreed a life sentence with a parole ineligibility period of 12 years was appropriate.

“What is particularly tragic is that these same virtues of compassion and kindness is what made her vulnerable to this horrendous action of violence by David Slinger,” said Snow.

“At the time this occurred, she allowed Mr. Slinger to stay in her home as a lifeline for stability to prevent him from going to the streets, with his deteriorating mental health issues,” Snow added. “She put a lock on the door to prevent him from breaking through. The violation is aggravating.”

Defence lawyer Anthony De Marco said Slinger did not have a not criminally responsible (NCR) defence, though he said there was some information from psychiatrists before and after the murder that he was experiencing mania.

De Marco said Slinger had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Forestell then sentenced Slinger to life in prison with a parole ineligibility period of 12 years, agreeing with the joint submission.

“If not for the mental health issues of Mr. Slinger, there’s no question the parole ineligibility period would be higher,” the judge concluded.

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.