From the PEI Tankard closing ceremonies, here is a photo of the winning Eddie MacKenzie rink:

Photo (L-R): Al Ledgerwood (coach), Robbie Doherty (lead), Matthew Nabuurs (second), Sean Ledgerwood (third), Eddie MacKenzie (skip)

Please note that the team lineup has been changed from the one that was originally provided to us for the event. The current lineup is: Eddie MacKenzie (skip), Sean Ledgerwood (third), Matthew Nabuurs (2nd), and Robbie Doherty (lead). Phil Gorveatt will be their fifth player at the Brier. Team coach is Al Ledgerwood.

Here is a photo of the runner-up team, skipped by Phil Gorveatt.

Photo (L-R) Mark Butler (lead), Mike Dillon (2nd), Kevin Champion (3rd), Phil Gorveatt (skip)

Both rinks curl out of the Charlottetown Curling Complex.

The Eddie MacKenzie rink from the Charlottetown Curling Complex beat their clubmates, the Phil Gorveatt foursome, by an 8-2 score this afternoon to win the Tankard Provincial Men’s Curling Championship, held at the Silver Fox Curling and Yacht Community Complex in conjunction with the Scotties women’s championship and the Future Scotties/Tankard developmental event for young curlers. The Scotties was won earlier by the Robyn MacPhee foursome, while the Cruz Pineau rink from the host club was the only team to go undefeated in the three-game, partial round robin Future Scotties/Tankard combined event.

Photo (L-R): Matthew Nabuurs, Robbie Doherty, Eddie MacKenzie. Photo credit: Emily Gray

In this afternoon’s Tankard final, MacKenzie, whose team includes Sean Ledgerwood at third, second stone Matthew Nabuurs, and lead Robbie Doherty, with coach Al Ledgerwood, was leading 5-0 after five ends of play, stealing singles in ends 1, 3, and 4, and a deuce in the second end. Gorveatt took singles in ends six and seven, but a MacKenzie triple in the eighth brought the game to an early conclusion. 

MacKenzie won only one of the three modified triple knockout sections in the event, while Gorveatt won the other two, making it necessary for MacKenzie to win two championship round games today while Gorveatt would have won the championship had he taken either one. In this morning’s game, MacKenzie had an 8-7 lead going into the final end, where he stole a single for a 9-7 win. Other members of the runner-up Phil Gorveatt rink are Kevin Champion at third, second Mike Dillon, and lead Mark Butler.

The MacKenzie team now advance to the Tim Hortons Brier, March 4-12, 2017 at Mile One Centre in St. John’s, NL. Phil Gorveatt, skip of the runner-up team, has been named as tbeir alternate at the Brier.

It’s down to the championship round for the Tankard Men’s Provincial Curling Championship, and the Scotties Tournament of Hearts Provincial Women’s championship, and to the final draw in the three-game partial round robin for the Future Scotties/Tankard under 21 developmental event, all happening today at the six sheet Silver Fox Curling and  Yacht Community Complex in Summerside. The three events are all happening at the same time and venue as part of a pilot to increase interest in the Olympic sport of curling.

The Phil Gorveatt men’s team and the Robyn MacPhee women’s rink can wrap up their respective championships with a win in the 10 am draw, as they won two of the three sections in the modified triple knockout draw, giving them a “double life” in the championship round. Their opponents, the Eddie MacKenzie men’s rink, and the Veronica Smith women’s foursome have to win their first game to force a winner-take-all final at 3:30. All four teams are from the Charlottetown Curling Complex.

The Future Scotties/Tankard is a combined event, with six junior girls and two junior boys teams taking part. Although the emphasis is on the Scotties and Tankard experience rather than the results, the Cruz Pineau boys team from the host club, and the Lauren Ferguson girls team from the Cornwall Curling Club are both undefeated going into their third game. These teams don’t play each other in the event – Ferguson is taking on clubmate Rachel MacLean (1-1), while Pineau faces Charlottetown’s Katie Shaw, also at 1-1.

Phil Gorveatt calls to his sweepers Mike Dillon and Mark Butler in Tankard action on Saturday (Emily Gray photo)

Eddie MacKenzie rink (Emily Gray photo)

In Tankard action on Saturday, Gorveatt advanced to the C final with a 7-2 win over Tyler Harris and his combined Charlottetown/Western Community Curling Club team in the C semi-final, and then edged Robert Campbell and his squad from Charlottetown and the Silver Fox by a 9-8 score in an exciting C final, taking a tying deuce in the tenth end  and stealing a single in the extra. Gorveatt also won the B section, while clubmate Eddie MacKenzie took the “A”. Campbell eliminated the host club’s Blair Jay foursome with an 8-6 win to advance to the C final.

Eight teams – four from the Charlottetown Curling Complex (skips Phil Gorveatt, Eddie MacKenzie, Jamie Newson, and Dennis Watts), two from the host Silver Fox Curling and Yacht Community Complex (skipped by Blair Jay and Calvin Smith), a combined Charlottetown/Silver Fox rink skipped by Robert Campbell, and a Tyler Harris-skipped combined rink from Charlottetown and the  Western Community Curling Club in Alberton, took part in the PEI Tankard, with the winning team advancing to the Tim Hortons Brier, March 4-12, 2017 at Mile One Centre in St. John’s, NL.

It was an exciting evening at the Silver Fox Curling and Yacht Community Complex, with the “B” finals in both the Scotties provincial women’s championship, and the Tankard men’s, plus the opening game in the Future Scotties and Tankard developmental event for young curlers all going on at the same time on the six sheet ice surface. As a pilot to help increase interest in the Olympic sport of curling, the Tankard and the Scotties, along with the Future events, are being held on the same weekend at the same venue.

There will definitely be at least one championship round game in the Tankard, as there are separate winners of the A and B sections. Eddie MacKenzie of Charlottetown won the A final over Blair Jay of the host club on Thursday, but lost his B semi-final game this afternoon 8-3 to clubmate Phil Gorveatt. Jay got by Charlottetown’s Jamie Newson by an 8-7 score in the other B semi. In this evening’s B final, Gorveatt kept Jay off the scoreboard in the first half, leading 5-0. Jay got on the board with a deuce in the 6th, but a single in seven and a deuce in the eighth brought the game to an early conclusion, with Gorveatt winning 8-2. 

The “C” semi-finals go Saturday at 1, with Jay taking on Charlottetown’s Robert Campbell, and Gorveatt facing clubmate Tyler Harris. The winners square off in the C final at 6 pm. If Gorveatt is in that game and wins it, he, like MacPhee in the Scotties, would have a “double life” in the Sunday championship round, and would win if he took either game. If there is a different winner, two of the section winners would square off in the first championship game, Sunday at 10, with the winner advancing to the 3:30 pm second championship game against the team that played in the most section finals.

The winning Tankard team advances to the Tim Hortons Brier, March 4-12 at Mile One Centre in St. John’s, NL.