SALMON ARM, BC, February 1 (CCA)…The M&M Meat Shops Canadian Juniors got underway Sunday morning in Salmon Arm, British Columbia, as 13 men’s and 13 women’s teams began the battle for national honours.
Round robin games are taking place at both the Sunwave Centre and the Salmon Arm Curling Club through Friday, after which the first place teams advance to their respective finals next Sunday, while the second and third place teams meet in semi-finals on Saturday.
TSN will carry the women’s final live on February 8 at 11:30 am PT/ 3:30 pm Atlantic, followed by the men’s final at 4:00 pm PT/8:00 pm Atlantic.
In opening draw action, Ontario’s Rachel Homan of Ottawa proved an 8-6 winner over Northern Ontario’s Vanessa Maloney of Sudbury. Homan, who has competed with success on the women’s tour this year, held a 6-3 lead at the fifth end break and stayed in front the rest of the way.
“The ice was real good today, lots of curl,” said 19-year-old Homan. “We had a close game going and played pretty well. We got three (in the third) but they never let up…even in the ninth, they got their two and it came down to almost last rock.”
In other women’s games, Saskatchewan (Brooklyn Lemon of Regina) defeated Prince Edward Island (Erin Carmody of Summerside), 7-5; New Brunswick (Ashley Howard of Moncton) was a 9-4 winner of Northwest Territories (Kate Maksymowich of Yellowknife), while Alberta (Casey Scheidegger of Lethbridge) took two in the 10th end to edge Quebec (Kristen Richard), 5-4.
In men’s, Saskatchewan (Mike Armstrong of Saskatoon) upset the pre-event favourite Prince Edward Island (Brett Gallant of Charlottetown), 7-6 in an extra end.
“We had a few good ends set up in the first half,” said the 18-year-old Gallant, who is making his fifth appearance at the Canadian championship, after being the runner-up in 2007 and third place finisher last year. “I just couldn’t get the ice down and the weight. But we played a really good second half.
“(On his last rock in the extra frame), I just tried to tap ours to the top four but it rolled too far. He made a nice shot through the hole (to win). We know it’s a long week. We got off to a real poor start last year. Hopefully we’ll get off to a little better start, although that first game wasn’t the result we were looking for. But we can always build on that. I feel we’re a lot more prepared this year…both mentally and technique-wise.”
Other scores saw New Brunswick (Steve Burgess of Fredericton) defeat Northwest Territories (Colin Miller of Yellowknife), 8-4; Alberta (Kevin Yablonski of Calgary) counted four in the ninth end to salt away an 8-3 victory over Quebec (Andrew Leigh of Lachine), while Northern Ontario (Dylan Johnston of Thunder Bay) counted three in the 10th end to defeat Ontario (Bowie Abbis-Mills of Waterloo) 9-7.
The PEI rinks turned things around in their second draw, with Gallant and his team, curling at 80 percent, beating the Bryan Kedziora rink of BC by an 8-3 score, keeping the BC team off the scoreboard for the entire second half.
Meanwhile, the Carmody foursome lead 8-0 after five ends as they went on to defeat BC’s Kelly Shimizu rink by a 10-4 score. PEI has the evening draw off, and plays Manitoba in the morning, and Nova Scotia in the evening on Monday.
In another Sunday afternoon game, defending Canadian champion Kaitlyn Lawes of Winnipeg douibled Newfoundland and Labrador (Erin Porter of St. John’s) by a 12-6 score.
The winners of the M&M Meat Shops Canadian Juniors will represent Canada at the world juniors, March 5-15 in Vancouver, at the Olympic Centre. Canada has won a leading 16 world junior men’s titles since 1975 and eight women’s crowns since 1988.