Round robin play wrapped up Friday night at the Labatt Tankard Final Eight Provincial Men’s Curling Championships at the Montague Curling Club.
Charlottetown’s John Likely rink, which includes third Phil Gorveatt, second Mark Butler, and lead Mike Dillon, with 5th player Robert Campbell, finished atop the standings with a 6-1 win-loss record, while Ted MacFadyen and Rod MacDonald of Charlottetown both finished at 5-2. Because MacFadyen edged MacDonald 8-7 in their round robin encounter, he will finish in second place, advancing to the 1st vs 2nd place Page game against Likely. Other members of the MacFadyen rink are Craig Mackie, David Murphy, and Mike Coady, while Kevin Champion, Andrew Robinson, and Mark O’Rourke, with 5th Peter MacDonald, and coach Pat Aylward round out the MacDonald squad. Champion and O’Rourke were on last year’s winning team, skipped by Peter Gallant, who bowed out of the Tankard this year to coach his son Brett to a Canadian Junior Championship.
Likely, MacFadyen and MacDonald are all Tankard veterans, with two-time winner Likely winning his first at second stone in 1985, and MacFadyen, a five time winner, and six-time Senior champ, skipping his first Tankard winner in 1980. MacDonald has five Tankards to his credit, winning his first in 1978 as third for his brother Peter.
Three teams, skipped by Bill Hope and Jamie Newson of Charlottetown, and Mel Bernard of the Silver Fox, finished with 3-4 win-loss records, and will play off in tiebreaker rounds Saturday at 9 am and 2 pm, with the winner advancing to the 3rd vs 4th place game against MacDonald.
Mike Gaudet and his Charlottetown rink ended play with a 2-5 record, while Clair Sweet of the Maple Leaf Curling Club in O’Leary went 1-6.
The Page playoffs between Likely and MacFadyen, and MacDonald and the tiebreaker winner will take place at 7 pm Saturday, with the winner of the Likely/MacFadyen game advancing directly to the 3 pm Sunday final, and the loser facing the winner of the 3rd vs 4th place game in the semi-final Sunday morning at 10, with that winner playing in the final.
The Labatt Tankard champion will advance to the Tim Hortons Brier, March 7-15 at the Pengrowth Saddledome in Calgary.
In Friday play, Likely coasted to 6-2 and 5-1 wins over Clair Sweet and Jamie Newson, respectively, with both games wrapping up early.
MacFadyen lost to Newson 6-3 in the afternoon draw, but beat Sweet 7-2 in the evening draw, taking a triple in the second end and stealing a pair of deuces in three and four to end the game after 5 ends.
MacDonald edged Bill Hope 8-7 in the afternoon, and doubled Mike Gaudet 6-3 in the nightcap, following a second end pair with a single in the third and a triple in the fourth end.
In other games, Mel Bernard edged Gaudet 8-7, but lost his final game 8-4 to Hope.