SAULT STE. MARIE, February 9…Ontario (Travis Fanset of St. Thomas) and Saskatchewan (Stephanie McVicar of Saskatoon) won third place tiebreakers Saturday afternoon at the M&M Meat Shops Canadian Juniors to advance to their respective semi-finals tonight.
Ontario proved a comfortable winner over Saskatchewan (Brennen Jones of Regina), taking the contest, 7-2. Although Saskatchewan took an early 1-0 in the second after a blanked first end, it was all Ontario the rest of the way.
Ontario took a deuce in the third, then stole singles in the fourth and sixth ends to go up 4-1. After a Saskatchewan single in the seventh, Ontario answered with a pair in the eighth and a theft of one in the ninth end to seal it.
Next up for Ontario is last year’s runner-up Prince Edward Island (Brett Gallant of Charlottetown) in the semi-final at 7:00 pm, with the winner advancing to Sunday’s final to battle Quebec (William Dion of Drummondville). Both teams finished the round robin with 9-3 marks. Ontario decisioned Prince Edward Island, 8-6, back in Draw 2 last Sunday.
Meanwhile, Saskatchewan kept the fires going by knocking off Northern Ontario (Ashley Miharija of Thunder Bay), 6-5. It was the second win of the day for Saskatchewan after eliminating Alberta, 8-7 in the first tiebreaker this morning.
A steal of three in the third end put McVicar’s squad up 4-0 and from there, they never looked back. McVicar wound up shooting a red-hot 92%.
Now, Saskatchewan faces Nova Scotia (Danielle Parsons of Halifax) in the women’s semi-final, also at 7:00 pm, with the winner going against Manitoba (Kaitlyn Lawes of Winnipeg) on Sunday. Saskatchewan beat Nova Scotia, 9-7 in the first draw of the championship.
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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