SALMON ARM, BC, February 3 (CCA)…Just when it looked like there may be no more undefeated teams at the M&M Meat Shops Canadian Juniors, Northern Ontario, skipped by Dylan Johnston of Thunder Bay, pulled another one out of the fire Tuesday night at the Sunwave Centre.
Down 7-3 to Saskatchewan (Mike Armstrong of Saskatoon), after giving up four in the fifth end, Northern Ontario counted a deuce in the sixth, then proceeded to steal singles in the seventh, eighth and ninth ends in taking an 8-7 lead.
Although Saskatchewan was able to tie the game in the 10th, Northern Ontario counted one in the 11th when Armstrong was a little heavy trying a draw to the button, leaving a Northern Ontario stone biting the button as the winner, 9-8. Johnston didn’t have to throw his last stone, as his team improved to 6-0, halfway through the championship.
It was the second great escape of the day for the boys from T-Bay. Earlier in the afternoon, they stole four singles, including ones in the 10th and 11th ends, to edge pre-event favourite Prince Edward Island (Brett Gallant of Charlottetown), also by a 9-8 verdict.
“We did two of those (kinds of games) today,” said Johnston, a 19-year-old ice technician at the Fort William Curling Club. “Both tough games, stole against PEI (to win), stole here (to get the lead).”
Johnston’s an easy person to recognize, what with his spiked hair dyed in the Northern Ontario colours of green and gold.
“I’m just a wild kid. I do weird stuff, I guess,” he continued. “Might be a once in a lifetime opportunity. We thought we’d do pretty good (coming here). The people who came here (to the national championship) last year were out of the playoffs by one game. They gave us some pointers about what to do. So we thought we had a good chance.
“That (giving up big ends) happens more often than we like. But we always seem to come back and that’s good. We just don’t get down, ever. Put the pressure on the other team. We’re always aggressive.”
Right behind the leader is New Brunswick (Steve Burgess of Fredericton), which improved to 5-1 after a 5-3 win over Nova Scotia (Paul Dexter of St. Andrews). Alberta (Kevin Yablonski of Calgary), British Columbia (Bryan Kedziora of Maple Ridge), Newfoundland and Labrador (Kelly Schuh of St. John’s) and Prince Edward Island are another game back at 4-2.
In other Draw 9 games tonight, Prince Edward Island whacked Quebec (Andrew Leigh of Lachine), 12-5; British Columbia won its fourth in a row, 9-4 over Yukon (Thomas Scoffin of Whitehorse) and Northwest Territories (Colin Miller of Yellowknife) won its first, edging Newfoundland and Labrador, 8-7 in an extra end.
On the women’s side, co-leaders Alberta (Casey Scheidegger of Lethbridge) and Ontario (Rachel Homan of Ottawa) were idle this evening with 5-1 records. Quebec (Kristen Richard of Lachine) pulled into a tie for third with Manitoba (Kaitlyn Lawes of Winnipeg), both with 4-2 marks, after defeating Prince Edward Island (Erin Carmody of Summerside), 8-5.
Six teams are at 3-3: British Columbia, New Brunswick, Northern Ontario, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Saskatchewan.
Other scores saw Northern Ontario (Vanessa Maloney of Sudbury) beat Saskatchewan (Brooklyn Lemon of Regina), 8-2; British Columbia (Kelly Shimizu of Richmond) edge Yukon (Sarah Koltun of Whitehorse), 7-6 in an extra end; Nova Scotia (Marie Christianson of Halifax) defeat New Brunswick (Ashley Howard of Moncton), 7-2, while Northwest Territories, skipped by local substitute Jennifer Gerow, replacing an injured Kate Maksymowich, duplicated the feat of the NWT men, winning its first game, also in an extra end, 6-5 over Newfoundland and Labrador (Erin Porter of St. John’s).
The round robin continues through Friday with draws at 9:00 am, 2:00 pm and 7:00 pm Pacific time, 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 AT.
The winners of the M&M Meat Shops Canadian Juniors will then represent Canada at the world juniors, March 5-15 at the Olympic Centre in Vancouver. Canada has won a leading 16 world junior men’s titles since 1975 and eight women’s crowns since 1988.