Only two teams, the Christopher Gallant men’s rink from the Charlottetown Curling Complex, and the Amanda MacLean team from the host Cornwall Curling Club, remain undefeated at the Pepsi Provincial Junior Curling Championships.

PEICurling.com photo: Amanda MacLean

MacLean, whose team were PEI’s 2011 Canada Games representatives, and includes third Kassinda Bulger, second Emily Gray, and lead Aleya Quilty, with alternate Jane DiCarlo, handed the Kaleigh MacKay foursome from the Crapaud and Silver Fox clubs their first loss, by an 8-3 score on Friday afternoon. MacLean is now 3-0, while MacKay is at  2-1, tied with Veronica Smith and her Cornwall team. The game was tied at 2-all until the seventh end, when MacLean picked up a five-ender, and then stole a single in the eighth for an 8-2 lead. MacKay picked up a single in nine, but couldn’t recover. Emily Keen of Charlottetown sits at 1-2, while Rachel O’Connor of Cornwall has ended play at 0-4.

PEICurling.com photo: Christopher Gallant

Gallant, along with third Kyle Holland, and lead Andrew Cameron were 3/4 of last year’s Pepsi Juniors championship rink, which had been skipped by Alex Matters. Taylor McInnis joins the rink this year at second  stone. They had a very close game on Friday evening agaiinst the other undefeated team, skipped by Charlottetown clubmate Shawn Pitre, with neither team scoring more than a single point in an end. The game was tied at 3-3 after eight ends with Gallant blanking the 9th to carry the all-important last rock advantage into the final end, where he scored a single point for a 4-3 win. Gallant is at 4-0, with Pitre 3-1. The Alex MacFadyen team from the Silver Fox are at 3-2, while the Tyler Smith foursome from the host Cornwall club are at 2-2. Smith beat MacFadyen 9-5 in the afternoon draw, quickly recovering from a 4-2 deficit with a seven point eighth end. The MacFadyen team then beat the winless Justin Campbell foursome from the Fox 8-5 in the evening draw. The Cody Dixon team from Montague are at 2-3, with the Matthew MacLean foursome from O’Leary’s Maple Leaf club at 1-3, and Campbell at 0-4.

The final round robin draws go Saturday at 10 and 2:30. Tiebreakers, if needed, follow at 7 pm and, if needed, Sunday at 1 am.

The semi-finals, between the second and third place teams from the round robin go Sunday at 2:30 pm, with the winners taking on the first place teams in the 7 pm final.

There is no admission charge to watch the event. A 50×50 draw will take place.
End-by-end results are available at peicurling.com/juniors

Seven junior men’s teams, and five junior women’s rinks are taking part. The winning teams will advance to the M&M Meat Shops Canadian Juniors, February 2-10, in Fort McMurray Alberta.