Tanner Horgan and his Northern Ontario foursome from Sudbury kept their winning streak alive on Monday morning, stealing three ends on the way to an 11-3 victory over Daniel Bruce of Newfoundland and Labrador at the 2018 New Holland Canadian Junior Curling Championships taking place in Shawinigan, Que.
Horgan is making his fifth consecutive appearance at the national championship and is looking to improve on his silver (2016) and bronze (2017) medals. The Curl Sudbury team is 3-0 and sits in second place in Pool B, one game behind Ontario’s Matt Hall (4-0). Hall scored five points in the first end against Nunavut’s Javen Komaksiutiksak on the way to a 13-1 victory.
Tanner Horgan, skip of Northern Ontario, calls the line at the 2018 New Holland Canadian Junior Curling Championships in Shawinigan, Que. (Curling Canada photo)
In men’s Pool A action on the third day of the round robin, J.T. Ryan and his Assiniboine Memorial Curling Club foursome join Hall and Horgan in the undefeated category after stealing a deuce in the ninth end to take a 5-3 win over Saskatchewan’s Rylan Kleiter.
Matthew Manuel of Nova Scotia stole a single in the tenth end to defeat Liam Marin of New Brunswick 8-5. With the win, Manuel improves to 3-1 and takes over second place in Pool A standings, right behind undefeated Manitoba.
On the women’s side, Shae Bevan (Manitoba) and Kayla Skrlik (Alberta) came into Draw 7 with matching 2-1 records. Skrlik stole both the eighth and ninth ends to secure a 9-7 win. Skrlik now sits tied with Quebec’s Laurie St-Georges at the top of the women’s Pool A standings with matching 3-1 records.
Lauren Lenentine, skip of Team PEI, in action at the 2018 New Holland Canadian Junior Curling Championships in Shawinigan, Que. (Curling Canada photo)
Lauren Lenentine is making her second appearance at the national championship, and she remains undefeated in Pool B after a 13-3 win over Northwest Territories’ Tyanna Bain on Monday morning. Before coming to Shawinigan, Lenentine and her Cornwall Curling Club foursome were finalists in the P.E.I. Scotties playdowns, losing to repeat provincial champion Robyn MacPhee and just missing out on a chance to go to the national Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Penticton.
In other Pool B action, British Columbia’s Taylor Reese-Hansen notched her first win, a 9-2 victory over Nunavut’s Sadie Pinksen.
The round robin continues on Monday with games at 2 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., all times ET.
Fourteen men’s and 14 women’s teams will compete for Canadian titles, separated into two seven-team pools per gender for an initial round robin, followed by a Championship Round (top four in each pool) leading to the playoffs. The top team advances to its respective final on Sunday, Jan. 21, while the second- and third-place teams meet in a semifinal on Saturday, Jan. 20, to determine the other finalist.
TSN/RDS2 will carry complete live coverage of the semifinals (women at 1 p.m. [all times ET], men at 6 p.m.) on Jan. 20 and finals (women at 1 p.m., men at 6 p.m.), held at the Aréna de Grand Mère.
It’s the first year of event title sponsorship by New Holland, a world leader in the manufacturing and selling of agricultural and construction equipment.
For event information, visit www.curling.ca/2018juniors.