SAULT STE. MARIE, February 6….There was little change in the standings at the M&M Meat Shops Canadian Juniors, as the leaders all had byes for Wednesday morning’s light, six-game draw.

Undefeated Northern Ontario (Ashley Miharija of Thunder Bay) continues to lead the women’s standings, at 6-0, while Alberta (Aaron Sluchinski of Drayton Valley), Ontario (Travis Fanset of St. Thomas) and Saskatchewan (Brennen Jones of Regina) remain knotted with 5-1 marks in men’s.

Manitoba (Kaitlyn Lawes of Winnipeg) improved to 6-1, though, with an 11-3 pounding of Newfoundland and Labrador, while Nova Scotia (Danielle Parsons of Halifax) moved into third place in the women’s standings by defeating Prince Edward Island by the same score, 11-3, improving its record to 5-2.    The other Draw 10 game saw British Columbia (Kelly Thompson of Richmond) whack Northwest Territories, 10-4.

In men’s, British Columbia (Jay Wakefield of New Westminster) upped its record to 5-2, clipping Northwest Territories, 11-9 by stealing deuces in the 10th and 11th ends.  Newfoundland and Labrador (Colin Thomas of St. John’s) defeated Manitoba, 8-5, while last year’s runner-up Prince Edward Island (Brett Gallant of Charlottetown) beat Nova Scotia, 7-4, to improve to 4-3.

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.

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