It was a good day for PEI teams on Tuesday at the Travelers Curling Club Championship at the Halifax Mayflower Curling Club, with the Phil McInnis and Tammi Cudmore rinks winning their only games of the day, against Saskatchewan, after having the bye in the day’s early draws. McInnis won his game 9-3, while Cudmore had to pull off a miracle shot for her 8-6 extra-end win. PEI women sit at 2-0 going into Wednesday play, while the men are 1-1.
Men
Photo copyright Travelers Canada
In a very tight match between the men from Saskatchewan and PEI the sixth end saw PEI carrying a 4-3 lead and rocks all around the four-foot. A nice double by PEI leaves Saskatchewan with a hit opportunity and one rock in the back button. PEI continues to put on the pressure and with another hit sits two rocks in the control zone and one lonely yellow Saskatchewan rock. Down to skip stones, PEI throws a guard that bites the 12-foot but leaves the Saskatchewan rock open for a delicate tap that appears to be for second shot. McInnis makes a tough draw to grab a part of the button, two points and a commanding 6-3 lead.
In the deciding seventh end at skip stones, PEI makes a double to sit three. Saskatchewan makes a good draw behind cover, which McInnis follows with a nice hit and roll to sit two. SK skip Kory Kohuch is then forced to make a very tricky out-turn draw through a port to lie one. McInnis followed him down and makes a hit to sit three. Kohuch is forced to a straight draw for one but just rubs the high guard resulting in a steal of three. Handshakes.
Women
Photo copyright Travelers Canada
Not to be outdone by their male counter-parts, the Saskatchewan and PEI women put on a great show for the fans. After swapping deuces in the first, second and third end, PEI took a 4-2 lead into the fourth end. After a number of great draws the centre-line was stacked with stones. After some precision taps and draws by both teams, SK skip JanaTisdale is left with an out-turn draw to catch a piece of the button. The rock hangs and it comes down to a measure. After three times around, the official points to the PEI rock and a critical steal of one.
Saskatchewan scores two in the fifth; Cudmore just misses raise-double and gives up steal of one. All square at five with two to play. In the seventh end, PEI’s first skip stone is a pistol, just by the guard and results in a hit and roll to lie buried. Tisdale’s last is a beautiful out-turn just behind the t-line. Cudmore follows her down to take one going to the last.
After a very tight eighth end, Tisdale throws her last with 47 seconds on her clock for the win but just misses the second point – off to an extra end!
In a back and forth extra end draws are traded and there are multiple guards out in front of the house. Saskatchewan’s third, Jade Ivan, makes a great hit leaving them shot and spend the rest of the end guarding. After a well-placed guard Cudmore is faced with a very tough board-weight hit through the narrowest of ports. She just gets by the top guard to push the Saskatchewan stone back scores one. The crowd goes wild for one of the best shots of the week. Final, PEI wins 9-3.
Nova Scotia women, skipped by PEI native Marion MacAulay are at 1-2, winning their opener against Nunavut on Monday, but losing their Tuesday contests against Saskatchewan and Quebec.
MacAulay will face Cudmore Wednesday at 4:45 pm, with Cudmore starting her day against Nunavut at 9:30 am. PEI men play Nunavut at 1:15, and Nova Scotia at 8:15 pm.
With information from Day 2 recap.
Follow all the curling scores on Curling.ca.
The event draw can be found here.