It’s down to two games at the PEI Tankard provincial men’s curling championship, which wraps up with the semi-final at 11 am and the final at 4 pm Tuesday at the Crapaud Community Curling Club.
The Eddie MacKenzie rink beat the Rod MacDonald foursome by a 7-2 score in the Page 1-2 game this evening to earn a bye to tomorrow’s final. Single steals in ends five and eight, and a stolen deuce in nine gave MacKenzie the upper hand in today’s game. It’s not over for MacDonald, though – he gets a second chance in the semi-final tomorrow.
MacDonald’s opponent in the semi will be Jamie Newson, who fought back from a 7-3 deficit against defending champion Mike Gaudet to win the Page 3-4 game by a 9-7 score. The game, which began with three blank ends, was tied at 3-3 after seven, when Gaudet scored a four-ender to pull ahead. Newson then took a deuce in the ninth, and stole another pair in the tenth to tie the game. He stole another deuce in the extra end for the win.
The winner of the 11 am MacDonald/Newson semi will advance to the 4 pm final against MacKenzie, with the winner of the final advancing to the Tim Hortons Brier, March 2-10 in Edmonton Alberta.
End-by-end PEI Tankard results are available at peicurling.com/tankard.
10 teams took part in this year’s event. All the teams in the championship round curl out of the Charlottetown Curling Complex.