Just like last year, it was another sweep for the Tyler Smith foursome from the Montague Curling Rink at the Pepsi Provincial Junior Men’s Curling Championship, winning a repeat title on Sunday morning at the Crapaud Community Curling Club with a come-from-behind 10-6 decision over Cornwall’s Mitchell Schut squad. Under the rules, a championship round is not required when a team wins all three sections of the modified triple-knockout draw.

Team Smith

Schut had a 5-3 lead at the 5th end break, and stole a sixth end single to lead by three points, but Smith kept the Cornwall team off the scoreboard after that, following a pair of deuces with a single and another deuce to win 10-6. Other members of the winning Smith rink are third Ryan Abraham, second stone Jake Flemming, and lead Ryan Lowery, with Tyler’s father Kevin Smith coaching. Rounding out the Schut foursome was third Chase MacMillan, second Liam Kelly, and lead Cruz Pineau, with coach Brenda MacMillan. Schut finished play with a 2-3 win-loss record, while the third team in the junior men’s event, skipped by Brayden Snow out of the Silver Fox and Charlottetown curling clubs went 0-3.

Lauren Ferguson

Meanwhile, defending champion skip Lauren Ferguson, playing with a new team this year, will have two chances for a repeat Junior Women’s title, with a championship round win at either 2 or 7 pm, as she won two of the three modified triple knockout draw sections (A and C) while opposing skip Rachel MacLean and her team, who won the B section, would have to win both games. All four teams in the Junior Women’s section are from the Cornwall Curling Club. In this morning’s “C” final, the Ferguson rink edged the Katie Shaw team 5-4.

The Tyler Smith rink and the winner of the Junior Women’s championship will represent PEI at the  2020 New Holland Canadian junior championships in Langley, BC from January 18-26.