SAULT STE. MARIE, February 4…The Northern Ontario women and the Ontario men are the only unbeaten teams as they top the leaderboards at the M&M Meat Shops Canadian Juniors after the completion of Draw 5 Monday afternoon.

Northern Ontario, skipped by Ashley Miharija of Thunder Bay, had an afternoon bye to remain perfect at 3-0, while British Columbia (Kelly Thompson of Richmond) moved to 3-1 after defeating Saskatchewan (Stephanie McVicar of Saskatoon), 9-4. 

In other games, New Brunswick (Mary Jane McGuire of Fredericton) won its first, edging Nova Scotia (Danielle Parsons of Halifax) 6-5 in an extra end, while Prince Edward Island (Erin Carmody of Summerside) blitzed winless Northwest Territories (Valisa Aho of Yellowknife), 12-3.

Behind the two leaders are four teams at 2-1:  Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec.

On the men’s side, Ontario (Travis Fanset of St. Thomas) also had a bye to stay at 3-0, but previously-unbeaten British Columbia (Jay Wakefield of New Westminster) gave up steals in the ninth and 10th ends in dropping a 9-7 decision to Saskatchewan (Brennen Jones of Regina). 

In other games, New Brunswick (Jon Rennie of Rothesay) hammered winless Nova Scotia (Kelsey Amero of Halifax), 9-2 while Prince Edward Island, skipped by last year’s runner-up Brett Gallant of Charlottetown, took an 8-4 decision over winless Northwest Territories (Colin Miller of Yellowknife).

British Columbia and Saskatchewan are now deadlocked with 3-1 marks.  Alberta, Manitoba, Northern Ontario and Quebec are next at 2-1.

The next draw is at 7:00 pm, as round robin play continues at both Soo Curlers Association and Tarentorus Sports Club through Friday, with draw times at 9:00 am, 2:00 pm and 7:00 pm ET.

At the conclusion of the round robin, the first place teams advance to their respective finals on Sunday, while the second and third place teams meet in semi-finals on Saturday evening.

Both finals at Soo Curlers Association will be televised live across Canada on CBC-TV.  The women’s final will start at 12 noon, with the men’s final beginning at 1:30 pm ET.  The winners will then represent Canada at the world junior curling championships, March 1-9 in Östersund, Sweden.   Canada has won a leading 16 world junior men’s titles since 1975 and eight women’s crowns since 1988.

CurlTV (www.curltv.com) is also providing extensive event coverage of the M&M Meat Shops Canadian Juniors to its subscribers.

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