The PEI teams each had a pair of close losses on Wednesday at the Canadian Under 18 Boys and Girls Curling Championships in St. Andrews New Brunswick, with Team Lauren Ferguson sitting at 1-3 win-loss, and Team Mitchell Schut at 0-4 going into the final day of round robin play.
Ferguson lost to New Brunswick’s Erica Cluff Wednesday afternoon in a conservatively-played game until the last two ends, with NB leading 4-2 after six. Ferguson then stole a triple to go ahead 5-4 coming home without hammer, but Cluff took four points in the final end for an 8-5 win and a 3-1 win-loss record.
PEI had a 2-1 lead at the 4th end break in their game against Saskatchewan, who scored a deuce in the fifth to pull ahead by one. PEI tied the game with a single in six. Saskatchewan blanked the seventh to keep last rock advantage coming home, and scored four points in the eighth for a 7-3 win, improving their record to 3-1.
Team Ferguson has two games today, with their 10 am game against the Northwest Territories livestreamed by Bell Aliant TV1 at player.communitylive.ca/Player/Player/183.
Their final round robin game is at 2 pm, against undefeated (4-0) Ontario.
Another couple of well played games. We lost vs NB and SK today, but both games came done to last rocks. #U18CC2018 #TeamPEI
Our game tmr AM at 10 vs Team NWT can be live streamed through the link below;https://t.co/NcsEz6lblR
— Team Ferguson (@TeamFergusonPEI) April 12, 2018
Team Schut was leading 4-3 after six ends in their game against Liam Marin and his Saint John NB team, but a stolen deuce in seven put NB ahead by one. PEI forced an extra end with a single in eight, but NB won 6-5 with a single in the extra, and have a 2-2 record.
Schut’s low-scoring evening match was against Ryan McNeil Lamswood from Newfoundland and Labrador, with the 1st two ends blanked, and NL picking up singles in 3 and 4 to lead 2-0 at the break. PEI got on the board with a single in five, but NL picked up singles in ends six and eight for a 4-1 win and a 3-1 win-loss record.
PEI concludes round robin play at 10 this morning against BC (0-3), skipped by Dawson Ballard out of Vancouver.
Another close game, another hard loss. We have had a close game every game and gone down to skip stones every time. Tomorrow at 10 we play BC and are really wanting to pull out the win. #noregrets #U18CC2018 @peicurling @cornwallcurling
— Team Mitchell Schut (@TeamMSchutPE) April 11, 2018
Quebec and Ontario women continue to roll undefeated through the round robin, with the 2017 champions from Northern Ontario dominating on the men’s side.
The top four teams in each pool will move on to an eight-team championship double-knockout playoff round beginning on Friday.
The playoff round will determine the four men’s and four women’s teams that will compete in the Olympic-style semifinals on Saturday, April 14, at 1:30 p.m. AT. The semifinal winners will play for gold while the losers will play for bronze at 6 p.m. AT the same day.
The teams that don’t make the playoffs will take part in a mixed doubles competition.
Follow the PEI Teams on Twitter at @TeamMSchutPE and @TeamFergusonPEI
Use the event’s Twitter hashtag #U18CC2018 for other information.
Go to the event website, www.curling.ca/2018under18/, for links and more information about scoring, live streaming, teams and results.