PEICurling.com

While the remaining two junior men’s and junior women’s rinks are battling it out in Charlottetown for the Pepsi Juniors title, two Islanders  have already won provincial junior championships. Charlottetown’s Robbie Doherty, now living in Fredericton NB,  is second on the Stephen Burgess rink, who beat the Jeremy Mallais rink from Moncton 9-7 to win the New Brunswick Junior Men’s championship on Sunday. Ashley Howard won the junior women’s title.

Meanwhile, Alex MacFadyen of Summerside, who won three PEI junior championships with the Brett Gallant rink,  is attending school in Nova Scotia, where he  is now a provincial junior champion. He played second stone on the Paul Dexter rink from the Highlander Curling Club in Antigonish, who edged the Matthew Davidson team from the Chester Curling Club 7-6 this afternoon for the Nova Scotia title. Marie Christianson and Danielle Parsons play off tomorrow for the women’s crown.

Three-time defending junior men’s champion Brett Gallant from Charlottetown, and Summerside’s Erin Carmody, who won the last two junior women’s titles, have captured two of the three sections in the triple-knockout Pepsi Provincial Junior Curling Championships, which wrap up Wednesday at the Charlottetown Curling Club. On Tuesday afternoon in the C division final,  Carmody beat Silver Fox clubmate Anita Casey by a 9-6 score, while Gallant doubled Sam Ramsay, also from the Fox, by a 10-5 score.  Gallant and Carmody have won both the C and B sections, while Ramsay and Casey took the A division. This puts the defending champs in the drivers seat for Wednesday’s championship round, as a win in either the 9:30 am or the 2:30 pm game would give them the title, while Ramsay or Casey, who won only one section, would have to win both games to advance to the M&M Canadian Juniors, January 31 to February 8 in Salmon Arm BC.

Earlier on Tuesday, Casey  doubled Charlottetown’s Katie Sharkey 10-5, while Carmody beat Cornwall’s Sarah Clow 11-5 to set up the junior women’s  C final.

Ramsay edged Alberton’s Spencer Pitre 10-9, while Gallant of Charlottetown defeated Montague’s Matthew Nabuurs by an 8-2 score to go to the men’s C final game.

Playing with Carmody are Geri-Lynn Ramsay, Jessica van Ouwerkerk, and Darcee Birch, with coach Al Ledgerwood. Gallant’s team includes Adam Casey, Anson Carmody, and Jamie Danbrook, who was on British Columbia’s Junior Men’s championship rink last year, and is now attending school on PEI. Brett’s parents, Peter and Kathie Gallant, share coaching duties for the Gallant squad.

It’s the same teams again for the last of three section finals at the Pepsi Juniors in Charlottetown. This morning, Anita Casey of Summerside doubled Charlottetown’s Katie Sharkey 10-5, while two-time defending champion Erin Carmody, also from Summerside, beat Cornwall’s Sarah Clow 11-5 to setup the junior women’s C final.

In the junior men’s section, Sam Ramsay of Summerside edged Alberton’s Spencer Pitre 10-9, while three-time defending champion Brett Gallant of Charlottetown downed Montague’s Matthew Nabuurs by an 8-2 score.

The C finals go at 2:30. Ramsay and Casey won the A sections, while Gallant and Carmody won the B. The winners of the C final between these same teams will have the advantage going into Wednesday’s two-game championship round at 9:30 am and 2:30 pm, as they will only have to win one game to take the championship, while the loser of a C final would have to win both games.

The winning rinks from the championship round will advance to the  M&M Canadian Juniors, January 31 to February 8 in Salmon Arm BC.