SALMON ARM, BC, February 4 (CCA)…Things have tightened up considerably in the men’s competition at the M&M Meat Shops Canadian Juniors.
There is now a four-way tie for first place after the results of Draw 12 Wednesday evening at the Sunwave Centre and Salmon Arm Curling Club.
Alberta, New Brunswick, Northern Ontario and Prince Edward Island are deadlocked with 6-2 marks, with two days of round robin action remaining.
It was a tough day for last night’s undefeated leader, Northern Ontario, skipped by Dylan Johnston of Thunder Bay. First, they fell 9-6 to Nova Scotia in the afternoon, then tonight they were blown out by Alberta, skipped by Kevin Yablonski of Calgary, 10-5, a game in which Alberta was up 8-1 at the fifth end break after stealing four in the third.
“They were 6-0 coming into today,” said Yablonski, about his Northern Ontario foe. “Then they dropped one. We knew that if we took a few points and got the upper hand, that we were just going to go from there. We just knew that if we had our A game out, we’d be alright.
“On the steal, we had a little discussion on the shot…either draw one in and sit two or try an easy two-foot runback and sit four in the 12-foot, and if the skip is a little nervous about it, he might put it through like he did.”
Alberta has been on a bit of a roller coaster itself….winning its first three, then dropping two and now back on a three game win streak. “We’ve got three wins after those two losses so we are back on track,” said Yablonski.
Prince Edward Island, skipped by Charlottetown’s Brett Gallant, kept pace with a 9-3 victory over Ontario (Bowie Abbis-Mills of Waterloo), while New Brunswick (Steve Burgess of Fredericton) rebounded from its afternoon loss to Prince Edward Island by beating Quebec (Andrew Leigh of Lachine), 7-3.
In other games, Manitoba (Sam Good of Winnipeg) improved to 4-4, tied with Saskatchewan and idle Newfoundland and Labrador (Kelly Schuh of St. John’s), after a 10-3 pasting of Yukon (Thomas Scoffin of Whitehorse), while Northwest Territories (Colin Miller of Yellowknife) stunned Saskatchewan (Mike Armstrong of Saskatoon), 4-3.
On the women’s side, Ontario’s Rachel Homan of Ottawa improved to 7-1 with a tight 6-5 victory over Prince Edward Island (Erin Carmody of Summerside). Carmody now has a 4-4 win-loss record. Right behind at 6-2 is Alberta (Casey Scheidegger of Lethbridge), which defeated Northern Ontario (Vanessa Maloney of Sudbury), 7-4.
But in one of several shockers, Manitoba’s Kaitlyn Lawes of Winnipeg, the defending Canadian champion, dropped an 8-6 decision to Yukon (Sarah Koltun of Whitehorse), giving up steals in the ninth and 10th ends. The loss dropped Manitoba to 5-3, now alone in third place, while Yukon went to 3-5.
In another surprise, Northwest Territories, skipped by local substitute Jennifer Gerow, won its second game and is now 2-6 after beating Saskatchewan (Brooklyn Lemon of Regina), 6-3. Saskatchewan is now one of six teams knotted at 4-4.
The other game saw New Brunswick (Ashley Howard of Moncton) get back on the winning track after a three-game slide, defeating Quebec (Kristen Richard of Lachine), 6-4, as both teams went to 4-4.
On Thursday, the PEI teams play Newfoundland/Labrador in the morning, and Alberta in the evening draws.
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/9:00 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.