By Danny Lamoureux, CCA.
New Brunswick skip Sylvie Robichaud from Curling Beausejour in Moncton leads the pack at the Canadian Mixed in Sudbury. Robichaud reeled off three consecutive wins Saturday to lead the field alone at 3-0. In round 3, Robichaud dispatched Yukon’s Scott Hamilton 11-3 highlighted by a score of five in the 6th end.
There are four teams with two wins and no losses: Quebec (Martin Ferland) and Ontario (Mark Homan) who had the evening byes, Saskatchewan by virtue of Jason Ackerman’s defeat of Nova Scotia’s Chris Sutherland 9-2, and Northern Ontario’s Mike Assad from Thunder Bay who dropped BC’s Doug Marshall 9-3.
PEI’s Brett Gallant survived a three game day with two wins, including the evening defeat of Alberta’s Kurt Balderston 7-3. The 2009 World Junior silver medalist stands at 2-1. In the afternoon draw, Homan and his Rideau CC foursome (Ottawa) defeated Gallant 7-2 in eight ends. In an opening round battle of pre-tournament favourites, Gallant made a terrific triple takeout in the 8th end to score two points, holding off 2009 Canadian Mixed Champion, Manitoba’s Sean Grassie, 8-6. Down one point in the last end without the hammer, Grassie tried to draw around a stone in the top of the house but came up light and Gallant did not have to deliver his final stone of the game for the win. On Sunday, PEI plays Northern Ont. at 3:30 PEI time, and BC at 8 pm Atlantic.