Tonight’s “main event” at the PEI Tankard, taking place at the Cornwall Curling Club, will be the battle for the second qualifying spot in the playoff round, between the Brett Gallant and Mike Gaudet rinks from the Charlottetown Curling Club. Rod MacDonald and his rink qualified first yesterday. Gallant, whose team includes defending champion skip Eddie MacKenzie at third, along with his longtime teamamtes Anson Carmody and Alex MacFadyen, advanced to the qualifier with a 5-4 win over the Bill Hope rink from Charlottetown and Cornwall in this afternoon’s draw, while Gaudet, who is playing with Tyler MacKenzie, Tyler Harris and Sean Clarey, was trailing 5-3 coming home, and pulled off a triple in the final end to win 6-5 over Charlottetown clubmate Robert Campbell.

Qualifiers 3 and 4 will be decided in the 1:30 Sunday draw, with the winners of tonight’s games between Robert Campbell, and Peter MacDonald, and between John Likely and Bill Hope competing for the third spot, and the winner of tonight’s match between Blair Jay of Summerside and Jamie Newson of Charlottetown taking on the loser of tonight’s Gallant vs Gaudet contest.

The four game championship round gets underway Sunday evening at 6:30, with the first two qualifiers facing off in the Page “1-2? game, and the remaining qualifers playing in the “3-4? game. The winner of the “1-2? game will advance directly to the final, Monday at 6:30 pm, while the loser will face the winner of the “3-4? game in the semi-final Monday at 1:30 pm, with the winner of that game advancing to the final.

The PEI Tankard winner will advance to the Tim Hortons Brier, March 3-11 in Saskatoon.