SAULT STE. MARIE, February 4…There’s now only one unbeaten team still standing at the M&M Meat Shops Canadian Juniors.

That’s the Northern Ontario women’s team, skipped by Ashley Miharija.  Monday night, the Thunder Bay squad remained perfect by defeating Newfoundland and Labrador’s Julie Devereaux of St. John’s, 10-6, notching five in the sixth end, to move to 4-0 after six draws.

Alberta, British Columbia and Manitoba are right behind, all knotted at 3-1.  Alberta (Maria Bushell of Calgary) kept Northwest Territories’ Valiso Aho of Yellowknife winless with a 12-1 pounding, while Manitoba (Kaitlyn Lawes of Winnipeg) disposed of Ontario’s Danielle Inglis of Burlington, 10-4.  British Columbia (Kelly Thompson of Richmond) had a bye.

In other games, Nova Scotia (Danielle Parsons of Halifax) defeated Quebec (Kristen Richard of Lachine), 5-3 and New Brunswick (Mary Jane McGuire of Fredericton) won its second straight game, 10-3 over winless Yukon (Sarah Koltun of Whitehorse).

Behind the top four come six teams at 2-2:  New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island (Erin Carmody of Summerside), Quebec and Saskatchewan (Stephanie McVicar of Saskatoon).  Newfoundland and Labrador is at 1-3, while Northwest Territories and Yukon are 0-4.

In men’s, there are now seven teams tied for the lead with 3-1 marks, after the sole remaining undefeated squad, Ontario’s Travis Fanset of St. Thomas, suffered its first loss, a 9-2 decision to Manitoba’s Kyle Peters of Winnipeg. 

Other scores saw Alberta (Aaron Sluchinski of Drayton Valley) pummel Northwest Territories (Colin Miller of Yellowknife), 11-1, Quebec (William Dion of Drummondville) whip Nova Scotia (Kelsey Amero of Halifax), 8-1, Northern Ontario (Kory Carr of Thunder Bay) defeat Newfoundland and Labrador’s Colin Thomas of St. John’s, 10-7 and Yukon’s Thomas Scoffin of Whitehorse win his first game, taking two in the 10th  end in scoring an 8-7 squeaker over New Brunswick (Jon Rennie of Rothesay).

The results left Alberta, British Columbia (Jay Wakefield of New Westminster), Manitoba, Northern Ontario, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan (Brennen Jones of Regina) all deadlocked with 3-1 records.  Prince Edward Island (Brett Gallant of Charlottetown) is at 2-2, while New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and Yukon are 1-3.   Northwest Territories and Nova Scotia are still looking for their first victories at 0-4.

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.

Alberta leads all provinces with 15 junior men’s titles, while Saskatchewan is next with 13.   Northern Ontario has won four times, the last by Jeff Currie in 1996 in Edmonton.

Northern Ontario has yet to win a Canadian junior women’s crown since the event began in 1971 in Vancouver.  Saskatchewan leads with 10 victories. 

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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