SALMON ARM, BC, February 6....With one draw remaining, it's not known yet who will finish first, but all six playoff teams have been determined at the M&M Meat Shops Canadian Juniors, after Draw 17 was completed Friday afternoon at the Sunwave Centre and Salmon Arm Curling Club.

On the women's side, Alberta, skipped by Casey Scheidegger of Lethbridge, has clinched at least a berth in Saturday afternoon's semi-final at 3:30 pm after destroying Newfoundland and Labrador, 10-1.  Alberta's record is now 9-2, the same as Ontario's Rachel Homan.  Ontario plays Saskatchewan this evening, while Alberta faces Nova Scotia. 

Ontario, though, holds the advantage for first place and a bye to Sunday's final at 11:30 am PT if the teams wind up tied in the standings, since it defeated Alberta, 5-4 during the round robin.

The third place finisher is the defending champion, Manitoba's Kaitlyn Lawes of Winnipeg, who clinched a berth in the semi-final by defeating New Brunswick (Ashley Howard of Moncton), 7-3, finishing with an 8-4 mark. 

Meanwhile, British Columbia (Kelly Shimizu of Richmond) missed its chance for a possible tiebreaker berth when losing to Northern Ontario (Vanessa Maloney of Sudbury), 5-4.   British Columbia is now 6-5 with one game remaining against Quebec.

"We're pretty ecstatic," said the 21-year-old Scheidegger.  "We're in the semi-final.  We're solidly second and possibly first (after the round robin).  We can do no worse than third place (overall) so we're on the podium.

"This is our first year here as a team, other than (third) Kalynn (Park), so to get this far already in my last year in Juniors is awesome.  So we're really happy.  Tonight, against Nova Scotia, we'll just go out and play our game."

"We knew there were a lot of good teams here, like Kaitlyn Lawes, defending champion and Rachel Homan, who's done well on the women's tour, and others with experience, but we had faith in our ability."

On the men's side, Northern Ontario, Alberta and Prince Edward Island are headed for the playoffs.   Northern Ontario, skipped by Dylan Johnston of Thunder Bay, can be no worse than second after crushing British Columbia, 9-3 while improving to 9-2. The win was also a birthday present for the colourful Johnston, who turned 20 years-old today.

Not only did he dye his hair in the Northern Ontario colours of green and gold for the Juniors, but he also had a tattoo of his surname emblazoned across his back shoulder blades several weeks ago.

Johnston's team had got off to a quick 6-0 start, then lost two games, to Nova Scotia and Alberta, before starting another win streak, which is now at three.

"We didn't play good those two games, but now we're back on track.  It's my birthday today, too," said Johnston.  "I'm not a very talkative guy really but everything stood up, even through those tough losses."

If Northern Ontario defeats Newfoundland and Labrador Friday night, it will claim first place and a bye to Sunday's final at 4:00 pm PT.    If it loses, Alberta (Kevin Yablonski of Calgary) could claim first if it defeats Nova Scotia.  

This afternoon, Alberta whacked Newfoundland and Labrador (Kelly Schuh of St. John's), 11-3, to raise its record to 8-3, the same as Prince Edward Island's Brett Gallant of Charlottetown.   Alberta defeated Northern Ontario and Prince Edward Island during the round robin, so it holds the tiebreaker edge over both if tied in the standings, while Northern Ontario defeated Prince Edward Island in the round robin.

Prince Edward Island, which has clinched a semi-final berth at 7:30 pm on Saturday, meets Northwest Territories in tonight's round robin final draw at 7:00 pm.

-30-