(by Al Cameron) LIVERPOOL, N.S. — Camille Boisvert and Team Quebec are still alive at the 2014 M&M Meat Shops Canadian Junior Men’s and Women’s Curling Championships.
Boisvert’s team from St-Romuald — vice-skip Sarah Dumais, second Myriam Arsenault, lead Nancy Rochon and coach Michel Blais — held off the Yukon’s Sarah Koltun 7-6 on Tuesday night at Queens Place Emera Centre to grab the eighth and final berth into the championship round, which gets underway on Wednesday to determine the three teams for Saturday’s playoffs.
Quebec skip Camille Boisvert watches her shot during her tiebreaker win over the Yukon on Tuesday night. (Photo, CCA)
Both teams had finished with 3-3 records in Pool A.
Boisvert, an 18-year-old student at Champlain College, made an open hit for the victory in the 10th end, and admitted to some nerves afterwards.
“Yes, I was really, really nervous on my last one,” said a smiling Boisvert. “My legs were shaking because I knew that rock was THE rock of the game. But I knew I had time so I took my time, and then just shot normally.”
The Yukon team — three of the four players, including Koltun, will compete at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts Canadian women’s championship beginning Feb. 1 in Montreal — fell behind 4-1 but rallied to tie it with three in the sixth end. But Quebec bounced back immediately with a deuce in the seventh to settle down.
“We just said (after the sixth end), it’s tied. Breathe, relax and just go,” said Boisvert. “The pressure is off my shoulders now. And I’m excited.”
The preliminary round records carry over, with the Pool A teams playing the Pool B teams to determine the teams that move on to the playoffs. Joining Quebec in the championship round are Alberta’s Kelsey Rocque (6-0 Pool A, Edmonton), B.C.’s Kalia Van Osch (4-2 Pool A, Nanaimo/Delta), Saskatchewan’s Kristen Streifel (3-3 Pool A, Saskatoon), Ontario’s Molly Greenwood (5-1 Pool B, Kitchener-Waterloo), Nova Scotia’s Mary Fay (5-1 Pool B, Chester), New Brunswick’s Jessica Daigle (3-3 Pool B, Fredericton) and Manitoba’s Meaghan Brezden (3-3 Pool B, Winnipeg).
The Yukon goes to the seeding round to determine the final rankings of the 2014 event, which will set the seeding for the 2015 M&M Meat Shops Canadian Juniors in Corner Brook, N.L. Also in the seeding round are the Northwest Territories’ Carina McKay-Saturtino (2-4 Pool A, Inuvik), Nunavut’s Sadie Pinksen (0-6 Pool A, Iqaluit), P.E.I.’s Veronica Smith (2-4 Pool B, Cornwall), Northern Ontario’s Krysta Burns (2-4 Pool B, Sudbury) and Newfoundland/Labrador’s Sarah Hill (1-5 Pool B, St. John’s).
In seeding-round play on Tuesday night, Newfoundland-Labrador beat Nunavut 9-3, while Northern Ontario turned back the Northwest Territories 6-4.
The men’s seeding round also opened on Tuesday, with Newfoundland/Labrador’s Stephen Trickett (2-5, St. John’s) beating P.E.I.’s Kyle Holland (1-6, Charlottetown) 10-8, and the Northwest Territories’ Matthew Miller (2-5, Inuvik) knocked off Nunavut’s Jamie Airut (0-7, Rankin Inlet) 13-7.
The men’s championship pool opens play on Wednesday, featuring Manitoba’s Braden Calvert (6-0 Pool A, Winnipeg), Saskatchewan’s Tyler Hartung (4-2 Pool A, Kronau), Ontario’s Ryan McCrady (4-2 Pool A, Ottawa), Northern Ontario’s Tanner Horgan (4-2 Pool A, Sudbury), New Brunswick’s Rene Comeau (5-1 Pool B, Fredericton), Alberta’s Carter Lautner (5-1 Pool B, Calgary), Nova Scotia’s Robert Mayhew (4-2 Pool B, Windsor) and B.C.’s Cameron de Jong (3-3 Pool B, Victoria).
Round-robin games are taking place at both Queens Place Emera Centre and the Liverpool Curling Club in the beautiful South Shore region of Nova Scotia.
Once the top three teams for each gender have been determined, all playoff games will be played at Queens Place Emera Centre. The women’s final is Saturday while the men’s final is Sunday Both finals will be televised live on TSN/RDS2 at 4 p.m. AST/3 p.m. EST.
For the second consecutive year, the competition format involves all 14 Member Associations of the Canadian Curling Association (10 provinces, plus Northern Ontario, Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon).
The full scoreboard can be viewed at www.curling.ca/scoreboard
The leaderboard can be viewed at www.curling.ca/2014juniors-en/standings