It wasn't easy, but the Steinbach Pistons will be playing in their third consecutive Manitoba Junior Hockey League (MJHL) Championship.

The Pistons took down the Blizzard in game seven of their semi-final series with a pair of second period goals the difference in a hotly contested series.

Cole Plowman, who started all seven games of the series for Steinbach recorded his first career MJHL shutout in the victory. It was a redemptive performance for the netminder, who let in two last-minute go-ahead goals on home ice earlier in the series.

"I wasn't really happy with my full performance over the series so it's really huge to get a game seven shutout," Plowman said after the game.

Every professional athlete that has ever knelt in silent protest – or any athlete thinking of kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality – can thank former president Donald Trump for forever removing any criticism of athlete police protests.

Yes, you read that correctly. The twice impeached, thrice divorced, four-time indicted, and convicted sexual assaulter (in civil court) has forever made any criticism of athletes protesting during the national anthem null and void.

Sports fans will remember NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick kneeling and silently protesting police brutality and racial inequality. Soon after Kaepernick’s courageous stance athletes in other leagues such as the NBA, WNBA, U.S. National Women’s soccer team, Major League Baseball and even the NHL had their own versions of athletes silently protesting police brutality.

There isn’t room here to list all the different times the former president berated NFL players for kneeling during the anthem. And while he criticizes the athletes, he calls his followers who seriously injured 141 police officers during the January 6 insurrection “hostages” and “patriots” instead of the criminals they are.

Yet another Steinbach Piston alumnus is set to join the professional ranks.

Riese Gaber, who won the Turnbull Cup and Anavet Cup with the franchise in 2018, has signed a contract with the Charlotte Checkers, a minor league affiliate of the Florida Panthers.

After leaving Manitoba, Gaber spent two seasons with the Dubuque Fighting Saints of the United States Hockey League, before spending four years with the University of North Dakota.

In his final season with the Fighting Hawks, Gaber captained the team, scoring 34 points in 40 games. Before suiting up for Steinbach, the Gilbert Plains-born forward played for the Dauphin Kings.

When the news broke of former NHL tough guy Chris Simon passing away and I saw NHL commissioner Gary Bettman on TV (with the sound off), I wondered to myself if Bettman would finally – after years of denying the science on the deadly consequences of repeated blows to the head – acknowledge what all the experts are saying about brain trauma and do something concrete to stop fighting, or at the very least, increase the penalties for hits to the head.

Sadly but unsurprisingly, when I finally heard Bettman’s reaction, it was clear he had kept up his schtick about pretending to not know what the science is saying about CTE.

And then Bettman outright lied, saying “we wait to see what the medical experts tell us.”

That is worse than misleading. It is a lie.