PEI’s Adam Casey beat defending champion Steve Laycock 8-5 in the Page A vs B game Saturday evening to advance directly to Sunday’s 4:30 pm PEI time championship game at the SaskTel Tankard in Tisdale Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan teams in the provincial men’s championship are allowed one out-of-province curler, and Winsloe PEI resident and Seven Mile Bay native Casey, who skipped winning PEI Tankard teams in 2015 and 2016, joined the rink skipped by Sean Meacham this season, and then moved up to skip position, with Catlin Schneider playing third, Meachem at second, and lead Dustin Kidby.

Adam Casey (Anil Mungal photo for Curling Canada)

In the A vs B Page game, Casey stole the first end, but Laycock took a deuce and stole a single to pull ahead 3-1 after Casey nearly made a tough angle run double to remove both Laycock stones, but left behind one Laycock counter, giving up the steal of one. 

Casey tied the game at 3-all by making a difficult double in the fourth end, after Laycock pulled off a tough come around corner freeze. The teams exchanged singles in ends five through seven, but Casey pulled ahead with a big three-ender in the eighth, followed up with a steal in the 9th, and ran the defending champ out of rocks coming home, with a final score of 8-5. Laycock now drops down into the semi-final, where he plays Bruce Korte in an all-Saskatoon battle Sunday morning at 9:30 PEI time, with the winner facing Casey in the final.

Team Casey lead Dustin Kidby left the competition earlier in the week with a shoulder injury, missing one full game, but has recovered and is in the lineup for today’s final.

(with info from CurlSask.ca)