SAULT STE. MARIE, February 8…After a wild finish to the round robin, the playoff schedule has been determined for the M&M Meat Shops Canadian Juniors.
In women’s, Manitoba (Kaitlyn Lawes of Winnipeg) finished first with a 10-2 record to advance directly to Sunday’s final at 12 noon ET, live on CBC-TV, despite losing to Alberta, 8-5 Friday night.
Nova Scotia (Danielle Parsons of Halifax) finished second with a 9-3 record to advance to Saturday night’s semi-final at 7:00 pm. Nova Scotia was beaten by Northern Ontario, 7-6. Had they won, they would have finished first, since they'd beaten Manitoba, 6-5 during the round robin.
With the victory, Northern Ontario tied for third, joining Alberta (Maria Bushell of Calgary) and Saskatchewan (Stephanie McVicar of Saskatoon), all with 8-4 records. Since they were 1-1 within the group, it meant that the pre-event draw to the button skills competition results were used for seeding.
Northern Ontario was the highest-ranked and advances to the second tiebreaker on Saturday at 2:00 pm. Alberta faces Saskatchewan in the first tiebreaker at 9:00 am, with the winner advancing to meet Northern Ontario. The winner of the second tiebreaker becomes the third place finisher and advances to Saturday evening’s semi-final against Nova Scotia.
In other games, Prince Edward Island beat British Columbia, 10-8 in an extra end, Saskatchewan came back to edge Newfoundland and Labrador, 6-5, stealing singles in the ninth and 10th ends to qualify for a tiebreaker and Quebec defeated Yukon, 6-2.
The rest of the standings were as follows: New Brunswick (Mary Jane McGuire of Fredericton) and Quebec (Kristen Richard of Lachine) tied at 7-5, followed by Ontario (Danielle Inglis of Burlington) at 6-6. Prince Edward Island (Erin Carmody of Summerside) and Newfoundland and Labrador (Julie Devereaux of St. John’s) tied at 5-7. British Columbia (Kelly Thompson of Richmond) was 4-8, with Northwest Territories (Valisa Aho of Yellowknife) at 1-11. Yukon (Sarah Koltun of Whitehorse) finished 0-12.
In men’s, Quebec (William Dion of Drummondville) finished first with a 10-2 mark to advance to Sunday’s final at 1:30 pm ET, live on CBC-TV. Quebec clinched the top spot with a 9-4 victory over Yukon.
Prince Edward Island (Brett Gallant of Charlottetown), Saskatchewan (Brennen Jones of Regina) and Ontario (Travis Fanset of St. Thomas) all tied for second with 9-3 records.
Similar to the women, the teams were 1-1 within the group, meaning that the pre-event draw to the button skills competition results were used for seeding.
Thus, Prince Edward Island was placed second and advances to the semi-final Saturday night at 7:00 pm. Saskatchewan meets Ontario in a tiebreaker for third place at 2:00 pm, with the winner then advancing to the semi-final to meet Prince Edward Island.
In other games Friday evening, Prince Edward Island edged British Columbia, 7-6, Saskatchewan defeated Newfoundland and Labrador, 5-2, Alberta bested Manitoba, 7-5 and Northern Ontario edged Nova Scotia, 7-6.
Behind the top four finishers came Alberta (Aaron Sluchinski of Drayton Valley) and Northern Ontario (Kory Carr of Thunder Bay) at 7-5, Newfoundland and Labrador (Colin Thomas of St. John’s) at 6-6, Manitoba (Kyle Peters of Winnipeg) and British Columbia (Jay Wakefield of New Westminster) at 5-7, New Brunswick (Jon Rennie of Rothesay) at 4-8, followed by Nova Scotia (Kelsey Amero of Halifax) and Yukon (Thomas Scoffin of Whitehorse), tied with 3-9 marks. Northwest Territories (Colin Miller of Yellowknife) wound up 1-11.
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. Saskatchewan has won a leading 10 Canadian junior women’s crowns since the event began in 1971 in Vancouver.
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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