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ByCurtisPashelka BayAreaNewsGroup MONTREAL The San Jose Sharks put forth their most dominant first period of the season Friday night against the Montreal Canadiens. One thing's for sure: It'll never be forgotten by Timo Meier. Meier's first NHL goal proved to be the winner for the Sharks, who stormed out to a three- goal lead and earned a 4-2 vic- tory over the Canadiens at the Bell Centre. David Schlemko and Patrick Marleau each scored power play goals in the first period and goalie Martin Jones finished with 26 saves as the Sharks won their fourth straight overall and their third straight on this four-game road trip. They can sweep the trip Sunday in Chi- cago against the Blackhawks. Melker Karlsson also scored for the Sharks, who improved to 9-7-1 on the road this sea- son. Brian Flynn and Jeff Petry scored late goals for Montreal. Meier's first NHL goal came with 6:42 to go in the first period on his first shot on goal. After a shot from Schlemko from just inside the blue line, Meier col- lected the rebound just outside the crease and tapped it past Montreal goalie Carey Price for a 3-0 Sharks lead. Meier was behind the net when he knocked the puck off Phillip Danault's stick right to Joonas Donskoi, who sent it back to the blue line for Schlemko. NHL MeierscoresfirstcareergoalinSharks'win SHARKS4,CANADIENS2 Up next:SanJoseSharksat Chicago Blackhawks, 4p.m., Sunday, TV on CSN-CA. THESCORE By Chip Thompson editor@redbluffdailynews.com @editorchip on Twitter RED BLUFF The Red Bluff Lady Spartans won big Friday night over the Corning Lady Cardinals, 62-36, at the Holiday Classic Bas- ketball Tournament. The Spartans got on the board first with a Maggie Winning three-pointer and never looked back. It was a physical game with plenty of whistles, but the Cardi- nals stayed in it until the third quarter, when the Spartans out- scored them 17-4. Winning led the Spartans with 16 points, Jesse Miller had 12, Carissa Twitchell had 7, Allyson Drury and Lexi Pritchard each had 6 and Kylee Kitchell and Me- gan Boone each had 5. For the Cardinals, Mariah Cas- tle led with 15 points, Morgan Ma- son had 14 and Kristie Barr had 4. Earlier in the day, the Foot- hill Cougars fell to the West Val- ley Eagles 65-55. West Valley will face Red Bluff in the champion- ship game scheduled for 6 p.m. Saturday. Corning will take on the Cou- gars in the third place game at 3 p.m. Saturday. In the consolation bracket Thursday, the Chico Wildcats beat the Willows Honkers 59-47 and the Anderson Cubs beat the Paradise Bobcats 66-28. HOLIDAY CLASSIC SPARTAN GIRLS WIN, REACH TITLE GAME LadyCardinalstotakeonFoothillintourney'sthird-placegameSaturday PHOTOS BY CHIP THOMPSON — DAILY NEWS Red Bluff's Allyson Drury drives in for a shot Friday night against Corning. Red Bluff's Megan Boone puts up a shot Friday night against Corning. JEFF LARSON — PARADISE POST Paradise Adventist's Erika Dudar (le ) knocks it away from Los Molinos' Valeria Garnica (3) on Thursday night. By Jeff Larson jlarson@paradisepost.com @jtlarson on Twitter PARADISE Even though it's defi- nitely a team sport, the game of bas- ketball can still be dominated by one particular player on a given night. Los Molinos' Rachael Rogers largely proved that hypothesis on Thursday night at Paradise Adven- tist Academy, scoring a game-high 29 points on a trio of 3-pointers to lead the visiting, upper-division Bull- dogs to a 47-33 win over the Cougars in the opener of a nonleague double- header with the boys team. Rogers, the top scorer in the Northern Section as a whole, had 20 at halftime while hitting from all over the floor, including a couple feet beyond the 3-point arc directly in front of PAA's senior-leader, Erika Dudar. Dudar, averaging nearly 20 a game herself this year, looked perplexed af- ter that shot from Rogers dropped through the net, helping to push Los Molinos' lead to 22-13 mid-sec- ond quarter. Rogers and Los Moli- nos (7-1) would take a 26-13 lead at the break, then jump ahead 35-15 at the midpoint of the third shortly af- ter Rogers dropped her 25th point of the game. "She lives for basketball, she plays year-round," Bulldogs coach Valerie White said. "We have a lot of young girls that look to the older ones and especially Rachael, so we feed the ball to her a lot. They are doing a good job playing together and work- ing hard." Los Molinos is off now till Dec. 28 when it opens the Liberty Christian tournament in Redding, a typical three-day event that caps the calen- dar year and helps the Bulldogs fur- ther prepare for the beginning of Five Star League play in January. White wants her team to remain grounded and continue to play to- gether as a unit. "It can't be the watch Rachael dribble show, you got to move and get open," White recalled telling her PREP BASKETBALL LosMolinosteamssweepPAA Rogers leads girls with 29 points; Isaksen scores 21 for Bulldogs in victory Sunday: San Francisco 49ers at Atlanta Falcons, 1:05p.m., TV on FOX. TUNEIN By Charles Odum The Associated Press ATLANTA Four years after los- ing to San Francisco in the NFC championship game at the Geor- gia Dome, the Atlanta Falcons fi- nally are moving closer to a re- turn to the playoffs. The 49ers are far from the play- offs as they try to end a franchise- record 12-game losing streak in Sunday's game against the Fal- cons. The Falcons (8-5) are tied for the NFC South lead and hold the tiebreaker advantage over Tampa Bay. They are trying for their first winning record since finishing 13-3 with the loss to the 49ers in the NFC championship game to end their 2012 season. Quarterback Matt Ryan says he's not following other scores, including the Buccaneers, dur- ing games. "I don't worry about it too much," Ryan said Wednesday. "At the end of the day, we have to play our best. ... What everybody else does, if we handle our business it doesn't matter." Despite playing without in- jured wide receivers Julio Jones and Mohamed Sanu, the Falcons rolled to a 42-14 win at the Los Angeles Rams last week. Atlanta may be without Jones, who has a sprained toe, for the second straight week. Sanu is ex- pected to return from a groin in- jury. The Falcons average a league- leading 32.9 points per game as Ryan already has his sixth straight season with 4,000 yards passing. It's a tough test for the reeling 49ers (1-12), who are al- lowing the most points (30.2) per game in the league. "They're as good of an offense as there is right now in the NFL," said Niners defensive coordinator Jim O'Neil, who added Ryan is "as good of a quarterback as you have right now in the NFL." The Falcons offense has strong balance. Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman each have seven rushing touchdowns. Ryan has thrown scoring passes to 11 tar- gets, including to Justin Hardy and Taylor Gabriel last week. "They're probably the most complete offense that we've faced all year," O'Neil said. "So it'll be a challenge. We're going to have to play really good football." It was a confidence-building week for the Falcons. "I think it's always hard any- time you have your top two wide receivers down," Ryan said. "It's tough to replace that. Our guys stepped up great." NO FUMBLES Freeman and Cole- man have no fumbles in their combined 269 carries and 62 re- ceptions. Freeman leads the team with 791 yards rushing. Coleman has 328 yards rushing. "I have a ton of respect for NFL Falcons looking to pad skid by 49ers BULLDOGS PAGE 2 49ERS PAGE 2 CLASSIC PAGE 2 SPORTS » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, December 17, 2016 MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS B1