SALMON ARM, BC, February 4 (CCA)….There was plenty of action on the men’s side during Draw 11 of the M&M Meat Shops Canadian Juniors taking place at the Sunwave Centre and Salmon Arm Curling Club.
Not only did Northern Ontario suffer its first defeat, a shocking 9-6 setback at the hands of Nova Scotia, but Prince Edward Island thrust itself back into contention in a key contest against New Brunswick.
Skipped by Brett Gallant of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island made quick work of New Brunswick (Steve Burgess of Fredericton), 8-3 in a game which only went six ends. Both teams are now at 5-2, along with Alberta (Kevin Yablonski of Calgary), a game behind Northern Ontario, which fell to 6-1.
Gallant, runner-up at the Canadian Juniors in 2007 and third place finisher last year, was up 3-2 after three ends, but a steal of four in the fourth cemented the early triumph.
“We’ve played a couple of good games now,” said the 18-year-old Gallant “The last two have been really well played.” Tuesday night, Prince Edward Island hammered Quebec, 12-5, after losing a 9-8 extra end squeaker to Northern Ontario in the afternoon, giving up single steals in four ends, including the extra end.
“Against Northern Ontario, I didn’t throw a very good last rock. We should have won that but we can’t really dwell on that. Just play the next game.
“(Today) If we went down to three losses and there’s a few teams ahead of us, that wouldn’t be good. We wanted to bring them down to us. When we stole four in the fourth end, that was the turning point. Steve (New Brunswick last rock thrower Burgess) just came up light in the draw to the four-foot. We play them all the time. We’ve got a good record against them, but they’re a tough team, so you can’t take them lightly.
“We’re feeling pretty good, maybe we had one bad game, but other than that, we’re playing really well, all our stats are good, so we’ll keep going, I guess.”
Northern Ontario, skipped by Dylan Johnston of Thunder Bay, finally lost after managing two major escapes on Tuesday. But surprisingly, it was to Nova Scotia (Paul Dexter of St. Andrews), which came into the contest with a 1-6 mark. A steal of three by Dexter in the sixth end, upping the score to 7-2, helped the ‘bluenosers’ slay the leader.
In other games, Quebec (Andrew Leigh of Lachine) improved to 3-4, stealing two in the 10th for an 8-7 edging of Newfoundland and Labrador (Kelly Schuh of St. John’s), which dropped to 4-4. Saskatchewan (Mike Armstrong of Saskatoon) stopped a five-game winning streak by British Columbia (Bryan Kedziora of Maple Ridge), winning 6-4. Saskatchewan moved to 4-3 while the host province slipped to 5-3.
On the women’s side, the three leaders, Ontario (Rachel Homan of Ottawa), at 6-1, Alberta (Casey Scheidegger of Lethbridge) and Manitoba (Kaitlyn Lawes of Winnipeg), both at 5-2, were idle.
Northern Ontario (Vanessa Maloney of Sudbury) defeated Nova Scotia (Marie Christianson of Halifax), 7-5 to improve to 4-3. Also at 4-3 are Prince Edward Island, Quebec and Saskatchewan.
Prince Edward Island (Erin Carmody of Summerside) defeated New Brunswick (Ashley Howard of Moncton), 10-8; Saskatchewan (Brooklyn Lemon of Regina) took five in the eighth end to defeat British Columbia (Kelly Shimizu of Richmond), 8-4 while Newfoundland and Labrador (Erin Porter of St. John’s) won a defensive struggle over Quebec (Kristen Richard of Lachine), 3-2, taking a winning deuce in the 10th end.
Play continues with Draw 12 Wednesday night at 11 Atlantic.