The first two of the four teams to advance to the championship round at the PEI Tankard provincial men’s curling championship were decided Friday at the Crapaud Community Curling Club.
The Eddie MacKenzie rink qualified first with a 6-5 extra-end victory over the Rod MacDonald foursome in the A section qualifier of the triple knockout draw. MacDonald then took on defending champion Mike Gaudet in the B section qualifier, scoring three points in the fifth end to lead 6-3 at the half. Gaudet narrowed the gap with a deuce in six, while MacDonald took a single in the seventh. Gaudet then pulled ahead, scoring a triple in the eighth to lead by an 8-7 score. MacDonald then scored a four-ender to lead 11-8 coming home, and ran Gaudet out of rocks in the final end to grab qualifier number two. MacDonald was seeded first going into the event, with MacKenzie second, and Gaudet fourth.
The participants in the third and fourth qualifiers, scheduled for Saturday morning [now Monday] at 11 (weather permitting) are set, with Gaudet taking on Robert Campbell for the third qualifying position in the championship round, and number three seed Jamie Newson playing Blair Weeks. All the teams in all four qualifier games are from the Charlottetown Curling Complex.
Campbell edged Charlottetown clubmate Robert Shaw 8-7 in an extra end this afternoon, while Newson shaded the Mel Bernard rink from Summerside’s Silver Fox Curling & Yacht Club 7-6. Weeks lost to Gaudet 5-2 this morning in the “B” semi-final Friday morning, and dropped down to the fourth qualifier slot.
MacKenzie and MacDonald now compete in the Page 1 vs 2 game, scheduled for Saturday [now Monday] at 4 pm, with the winner advancing directly to the 4 pm Sunday [now Tuesday] final, and the loser competing in the 11 am Sunday [now Tuesday] semi-final against the winner of the Page 3 vs 4 between the third and fourth qualifiers, with the winner going to the final.
The winning team from this year’s Tankard will advance to the Tim Hortons Brier, March 2-10 in Edmonton Alberta. Admission fee to watch the PEI Tankard live is just $2 per draw. End-by-end results, and any rescheduling notices will be available at peicurling.com/tankard