SAULT STE. MARIE, February 7…Quebec, skipped by William Dion of Drummondville, has moved to the top of the men’s standings at the M&M Meat Shops Canadian Juniors.

Thursday afternoon, Quebec crushed British Columbia, 9-1 to improve its record to 8-2, good enough for sole possession of first place.

Ontario (Travis Fanset of St. Thomas) and Saskatchewan (Brennen Jones of Regina) sit a game back in second, with 7-2 marks, after enjoying a bye in Draw 14.   Right behind those two are Alberta (Aaron Sluchinski of Drayton Valley) and Prince Edward Island (Brett Gallant of Charlottetown) at 6-3.

Other results this afternoon saw Manitoba defeat Yukon, 10-6, New Brunswick wallop Northwest Territories, 11-3 and Alberta take care of Nova Scotia, 7-2.

Meanwhile, on the women’s side, Manitoba (Kaitlyn Lawes of Winnipeg) maintained its hold on first place with a 9-4 decision over Yukon to move to 8-1.

Nova Scotia (Danielle Parsons of Halifax) kept up its red-hot pace, though, besting Alberta (Maria Bushell of Calgary) 6-5 in a nail-biter to go to 8-2, its seventh win in a row.  New Brunswick (Mary Jane McGuire of Fredericton) also kept the fire going, winning a seventh game in its last eight, with a 11-1 thrashing of Northwest Territories to improve to 7-3, good enough for third place.   The other game saw Quebec move to 5-5 after defeating British Columbia, 7-5.

Right behind New Brunswick are Northern Ontario (Ashley Miharija of Thunder Bay) and Saskatchewan (Stephanie McVicar of Saskatoon) at 6-3.

Draw 15 at Soo Curlers Association and Tarentorus Sports Club gets underway at 7:00 pm ET tonight, followed by another full day of round robin games on Friday, at 9:00 am, 2:00 pm and 7:00 pm.

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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