LIVERPOOL, N.S. — After three draws on opening day of the M&M Meat Shops Canadian Juniors, six men’s and six women’s teams are undefeated.
In men’s play, Manitoba (Braden Calvert of Winnipeg) and Ontario (Ryan McCrady of Ottawa) boast 2-0 marks in Pool A. Manitoba beat Nunavut (Jamie Airut of Rankin Inlet), 18-4 in the first draw before decisioning Quebec (Adam Freilich of Montreal), 6-3 in the afternoon session.
Ontario opened with a 10-5 win over Saskatchewan (Tyler Hartung of Kronau), then took out Nunavut, 11-1 in the nightcap. Northern Ontario (Tanner Horgan of Sudbury) is at 1-0 after stealing two in the 10th end to defeat Quebec, 7-5 in its only game of the day.
In Pool B, Alberta (Carter Lautner of Calgary) and New Brunswick (Rene Comeau of Fredericton) also stand at 2-0. Alberta won its opener, 8-2 over Northwest Territories (Matthew Miller of Inuvik), then posted a 5-1 decision over British Columbia (Cameron de Jong of Victoria). New Brunswick took two in the 10th end in its first game to nip host Nova Scotia (Robert Mayhew of Windsor), 8-7, before defeating Prince Edward Island (Kyle Holland of Charlottetown), 12-7 in Draw 2.
Yukon (Joe Wallingham of Whitehorse) won its only game on Saturday, 6-4 over British Columbia in Pool B as well.
On the women’s side, Ontario (Molly Greenwood of Waterloo) and host Nova Scotia, skipped by 15-year-old Mary Fay of Chester, sit atop Pool B with 2-0 marks. Ontario eked out a 12-11 shootout victory over New Brunswick (Jessica Daigle of Fredericton) Saturday afternoon before handily winning its evening game, 8-1 over Prince Edward Island (Veronica Smith of Cornwall).
Nova Scotia pounded Newfoundland/Labrador (Sarah Hill of St. John’s), 10-2 in its opener before besting Manitoba (Meaghan Brezden of Winnipeg), 5-3 in the evening draw. Also in Pool B, Northern Ontario (Krysta Burns of Sudbury) won its only contest, 10-6 over New Brunswick.
In Pool A, British Columbia (Kalia Van Osch of Nanaimo) is alone with a 2-0 mark after victories over Nunavut (Sadie Pinksen of Iqaluit), 19-0 and Quebec (Camille Boisvert of St-Romuald) 6-3.
Alberta (Kelsey Rocque of Edmonton) and Northwest Territories (Carina McKay-Saturnino of Inuvik) are both 1-0. Alberta defeated Quebec, 6-4, while Northwest Territories scored a 9-7 decision over Saskatchewan (Kristen Streifel of Saskatoon).
Fourteen men’s and 14 women’s teams, representing all Member Associations of the Canadian Curling Association (10 provinces, plus Northern Ontario, Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon) are competing for Canadian titles, with the winning teams earning the right to represent Canada at the World Juniors, February 26-March 5 in Flims, Switzerland.
Round-robin games are taking place at both Queens Place Emera Centre and the Liverpool Curling Club. The teams have been seeded (based on last year’s results) into two seven-team pools for each gender and will play a six-game round robin within each pool from Saturday through Tuesday.
The top three teams in each pool, plus two teams with the next best won-lost records, then advance to the Championship Round for a further four-game partial round robin from Wednesday through Friday, with their earlier records carried forward.
The first place teams will then advance to their respective finals, while the second and third place teams meet in semi-finals to determine the other finalists. The women’s final is Saturday, January 25 while the men’s final is Sunday, January 26. Both finals will be televised live on TSN/RDS2 at 4 p.m. AST/3 p.m. EST.
The leaderboard can be viewed at http://www.curling.ca/
Play continues on Sunday with draws at 9:30 a.m., 2:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Atlantic time.