Two draws are in the books following opening day on Thursday at the Pepsi Provincial Junior (U21) Curling Championships in Charlottetown, with the finalists determined for the 9 am Friday “A” section qualifier games to pick the first junior men’s and junior women’s teams to advance to the Sunday championship round.
Photo: Rachel MacLean
In the Junior Women’s section, where all six teams are from the Cornwall Curling Club, the Rachel MacLean team beat the Emily Sanderson rink 9-5 in their opener, and went on to record a lopsided 15-2 win over the Clara Jack foursome.
Photo: Lauren Ferguson (centre) with Lexie Murray (left) and Alexis Burris (right)
PEI’s Canada Games representatives, the Lauren Ferguson team, stole deuces in ends 7 and 8 to beat the Sydney Howatt squad 9-3 in their opening game, and then went into an intense come-from-behind battle with the Annika Kelly rink, where they trailed 6-3 after eight ends in the ten end contest. Ferguson took a triple in the ninth, and then stole a single in the 10th for a 7-6 win and a ticket to the “A” final.
Photo: Tyler Smith
On the men’s side, the Tyler Smith team from Charlottetown, who had a bye in the first draw, took control early in their game against their younger clubmates the Chase MacMillan rink, scoring five points in the first end, and went on to a 13-3 victory in six ends.
Photo; Brayden Snow
The young Brayden Snow rink from the Silver Fox in Summerside were the first team to grab a spot in the A finals, beating the Devin Schut team from Cornwall 8-4 in the afternoon draw.
With the modified triple-knockout draw, section winners drop down to compete in the other sections. The section winners advance to the Sunday playoffs, unless one team wins all three sections. In this case, they will be the champions and a playoff won’t be needed. The winner of two sections would have to be beaten twice in the championship round against the winner of the other section.
Other draws on Friday are at 2 and 7 pm, with the B and C finals going Saturday and Sunday at 9 am, respectively. Full schedule is on the event web page at: https://peicurling.com/juniors20182019/
The PEI champions will advance to the 2019 New Holland Canadian Junior Men’s and Women’s Curling Championships, to be played Jan. 19-27 in Prince Albert Saskatchewan, co-hosted by the Art Hauser Centre and the Prince Albert Golf and Curling Club.