Manitoba, skipped by Shannon Birchard of Winnipeg, stole one in the 10th end to defeat Yukon, 8-7, claim first place and earn a bye to Saturday’s final [live on TSN at 8:00 pm AT] at the M&M Meat Shops Canadian Junior Curling Championships in Napanee.Manitoba will now await the winner of the semi-final between Alberta’s Jocelyn Peterman of Red Deer and British Columbia’s Kesa Van Osch of Nanaimo, Saturday at 3:00 pm.
Manitoba and Alberta finished tied for first with 10-2 records, but Manitoba was awarded first place for its 9-5 round robin win. British Columbia wound up third at 8-4.
“We were controlling our own fate this game,” said the 17-year-old Birchard, who throws third stones while Selena Kaatz fires fourth rocks. “They played really well. It was a tough game. We were lucky in that last one that she (Yukon skip Sarah Koltun) was a little heavy and we got the steal. We struggled a little bit in the eighth end, and in the beginning, too.
On the men’s side, Alberta, skipped by Brendan Bottcher of Edmonton, finished first with an 11-1 mark to advance directly to Sunday’s final, also at 8:00 pm AT, live on TSN.
However, there was a three-way tie for second amongst Northern Ontario, Manitoba and Nova Scotia, all with 9-3 records. The logjam came about when Northern Ontario (Brennan Wark of Thunder Bay) defeated New Brunswick, 12-7 while Yukon beat Manitoba, 5-4 in the final draw of the round robin.
Subsequently, Northern Ontario, which had beaten both Manitoba and Nova Scotia during the round robin, was placed second and advanced to the semi-final on Sunday at 3:00 pm.
Manitoba (Kyle Doering of Winnipeg) and Nova Scotia (Stuart Thompson of Halifax) will now meet in a tiebreaker for third place Saturday at 3:00 pm, the same time as the women’s semi-final, to determine the other semi-finalist.
The women’s final standings, behind the three leaders, showed Ontario (Jamie Sinclair of Manotick) and Nova Scotia (Emily Dwyer of Halifax) tied with 7-5 records.Saskatchewan (Kristen Streifel of Saskatoon), Northern Ontario (Kendra Lilly of Sudbury) and Prince Edward Island (Sarah Fullerton of Cornwall) were next at 6-6. New Brunswick (Jennifer Armstrong of Rothesay) was 5-7, while Quebec (Roxane Perron of Ste-Foy) and Yukon (Sarah Koltun of Whitehorse) wound up 4-8.
Sarah Fullerton (CCA Photo)
Newfoundland/Labrador (Erica Trickett of St. John’s) finished 3-9 and Northwest Territories (Taryn Williams of Yellowknife) was 2-10.
In men’s, behind the four playoff teams, came Saskatchewan (Brady Scharback of Saskatoon), Yukon (Thomas Scoffin of Whitehorse) and Quebec (Félix Asselin of Montreal), all at 7-5, with Ontario (Brett DeKoning of Omemee) at 6-6.
New Brunswick (Josh Barry of Fredericton) finished 5-7, Prince Edward Island (Alex Matters of Charlottetown) was 3-9, Northwest Territories (Daniel Murray of Yellowknife) and Newfoundland/Labrador (Colin Thomas of St. John’s) were 2-10 and British Columbia (Josh Hozack of Victoria) was 1-11.