The Alex MacFadyen rink from the Silver Fox club in Summerside remains undefeated in the four-team junior men’s division, and needs to win just one of their next three games in order to become the Pepsi Provincial Junior Men’s champions. They captured the “A” final on Wednesday, and the “B” final this evening, both against Mitchell Schut and his Cornwall team, winning this evening by a 9-4 score, after stealing a triple in the eighth end to bring the game to an early conclusion. This win puts the MacFadyen team into the “C” final of the modified triple-knockout draw, as well as both games of the two-game championship round. A win in any of these games will give him the title, without having to play the subsequent games.
In the other junior men’s game this evening, the young Chase MacMillan rink from Charlottetown eliminated the Devin Schut team with a 9-3 win in eight ends, leading 6-0 at the fifth end break. MacMillan now takes on Mitchell Schut in the “C” semi-final at 9:30 am Friday, with the winner facing MacFadyen in the “C” final at 6:30 pm.
On the Junior Women’s side, the defending champion Lauren Lenentine rink from Cornwall, who won the “A” final, is still undefeated, and will play their clubmates the Lauren Ferguson rink in the “B” final at 9:30 am Friday. Lenentine led 7-0 after three ends in her “B” semi-final game this evening against clubmate Rachel MacLean, going on to win 9-3 in seven ends. The other Lauren (Ferguson) and her team from Crapaud, Cornwall, and Charlottetown downed Charlottetown’s Annika Kelly squad by an 11-3 score in only six ends, recording both a four and a five-point end.
The “C” event also gets underway on Friday morning at 9:30, with Cornwall’s Sydney Howatt and Rachel MacLean facing off in one “must win” game, and Emily Sanderson of Cornwall taking on Kelly in the other. The winner of Howatt vs. MacLean takes on Ferguson in one “C” semi-final at 2 pm, with the winner of Sanderson vs. Kelly facing Lenentine in the other. The winners advance to the “C” final at 6:30.
The two-game championship round is scheduled for Saturday at 9:30 and 2 pm. If Lenentine, who won the A final, also wins the B and C finals, the championship round would not be required.
The eventual junior men’s and women’s winners advance to the 2018 New Holland Canadian Junior Curling Championships, Jan. 21 – 28 in Shawinigan Quebec.