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Congratulations to curlers Brett Gallant and Jocelyn Peterman, who were married here on PEI during this past weekend! Here are some photos, from Facebook:

Canada’s Team Owen Purcell is taking home the bronze medal after emerging victorious on Sunday at the 2022 World Junior Curling Championships in Jönköping, Sweden.

Team Owen Purcell won bronze at the 2022 World Junior Curling Championships. (Photo, Cheyenne Boone/World Curling Federation)

The junior men’s team from the Halifax Curling Club defeated Norway’s Grunde Buraas 13-4 in eight ends at the Jönköping Curling Club to win the bronze-medal game.

“It’s awesome. This is a fantastic moment in my curling career, and I hope it leads to more. Considering we started the event at 0-2, I’m really proud of how we were able to claw back and the way we handled the pressure of needing to make the shots and play the games that counted,” Purcell said.

A spot in the playoffs – never mind the podium – was in question early in the week after Canada started the event with back-to-back losses to the United States and Germany. But Purcell, vice-skip Joel Krats, second Adam McEachren, lead Scott Weagle, alternate Scott Mitchell, coach Anthony Purcell, and team lead Jeff Hoffart dug their collective heels in and battled back. The team finished the round robin on a four-game winning streak to finish third in the standings and secure a playoff spot.

Canada took control of the game in the third end with a score of four and followed with a steal of two in the fourth end to take a 7-2 lead. Team Purcell had the inside track to the bronze-medal victory from that point forward.

“We played phenomenally, set up really good angles and went from there,” Purcell said of the third-end score. “We never looked back, and the guys played extremely well. This is probably one of our best-played games this week, so I’m really proud of the guys.”

Canada forced Norway to one in the fifth end and scored a second four-ender in the sixth end to get a stranglehold on the game. 

Norway conceded after being forced to one point the next end and gave up a deuce in the eighth.

Purcell is quick to credit the team around him for this week’s success, as he wouldn’t be here without them. His teammates on the ice, who battled back from the slow start, to his father sitting behind the bench as the team coach, have played a crucial role in the bronze-medal run.

“It shows that the guys have that ‘star’ attitude. They can play really well when the game is on the line, and I’m really proud of what they’ve done,” Purcell said, adding that getting to wear the Maple Leaf for the first time with his dad has been an incredible experience for the family. 

This experience isn’t just about the victories on the ice either for the 21-year-old skip. Purcell and his team have developed grit and learned a lot about being mindful and staying positive when not everything is going their way. Resiliency was the key theme all week and a trait that everyone on the team can take to wherever life takes them.

“I’m really proud of how we’ve been able to grow as people and players this week. I’m extremely grateful for this opportunity,” Purcell said.

Purcell, a computer science student at Dalhousie University, has another opportunity to represent Canada soon. This September, he and his university curling team will compete at the qualification event to determine Canada’s representation at the 2023 FISU World University Games. 

In 2020, Purcell and teammate McEachren played on a team that earned silver at the U SPORTS Canadian University Championships.

Team Purcell’s win marks the ninth bronze medal a Canadian junior men’s team earned at the event and increases Canada’s leading medal count to 40 medals earned. 

Click to read at Curling Canada: https://www.curling.ca/blog/2022/05/22/bronze-for-team-purcell/

Meanwhile, Canada’s Team Isabelle Ladouceu, which included PEI’s Katie Shaw, finished the World Juniors with a 3-6 record. It drops Canada into the B event next season.

Canadian junior women will now have to place top-3 in the World Junior B event to be able to compete in the World Juniors. Info from Devin Heroux (CBC)

Canada's Team Isabelle Ladouceur finished the World Juniors with a 3-6 record.

It drops Canada into the B event next season.

Canadian junior women will now have to place top-3 in the World Junior B event to be able to compete in the World Juniors. #cbccurl

— Devin Heroux (@Devin_Heroux) May 22, 2022

Skip Owen Purcell and his Canadian junior men’s team from the Halifax Curling Club are among the final four teams to keep their dreams of winning a world junior curling championship alive at the 2022 World Junior Curling Championships in Jönköping, Sweden.

Owen Purcell and his team from the Halifax Curling Club are moving onto the semifinals at the 2022 World Junior Curling Championships. (Photo, World Curling Federation/Cheyenne Boone)

Canada bested Sweden’s Axel Landelius (1-8) by 6-3 during the final round-robin draw for the men at the Jönköping Curling Club. 

Purcell, vice-skip Joel Krats, second Adam McEachren, lead Scott Weagle, alternate Scott Mitchell, coach Anthony Purcell, and team lead Jeff Hoffart finished third overall in the round robin with six wins and three losses. 

“It’s the ultimate goal,” Purcell said of making it this far into the event. “Ever since the start of the season, this was our goal to be in this position. To be able to be doing this with my best friends as well is fantastic.”

Canada’s path to defend its world junior men’s title in 2020 (the event was cancelled in 2021 due to Covid-19) goes through Germany’s Benjamin Kapp (7-2) in a semifinal game slated for 8 a.m. ET (all times ET) on Saturday.

Team Purcell’s spot in the semifinals was never guaranteed after the team started with a 2-3 record. But the unit persevered and made improvements all week long, leading to wins in the remaining four games to clinch the spot. That four-game win streak also included wins against two other playoff teams: first-place Team James Craik of Scotland (8-1) and fourth-place Grunde Buraas of Norway (6-3). 

“It’s a whole new event now. Everybody is starting from the bottom, so now it’s a whole new ball game. We know what we’re doing, we have a game plan that we’re going to stick to it, and we’re ready to get going,” Purcell said.

Heading into Canada’s last round-robin game, Landelius and his team from Sweden already knew they would be relegated to the World B Junior Curling Championship by finishing in one of the bottom three spots at the event. But his team came out firing and determined to go blow for blow against a Canadian team looking to cement a place in the playoffs. 

Sweden started the game with the hammer and blanked the first two ends before taking a single point in the third. Sweden added a steal of one in the fourth end by securing its stone onto the button with backing. It forced Purcell and his team to play a big-weight in-off to dislodge the Sweden stone, and while it was a valiant attempt, Sweden stole the point. 

Canada tied the game in the fifth end, aided by a superb double from Krats to sit two behind cover. Both teams were managing a difficult draw path to the four-foot, which neither could master. Purcell had a triple raise hack-weight shot for three, but it didn’t curl enough.

“I thought we were able to do a lot of what we wanted this game. They played really well, especially in the first half, but they made a few mistakes in the second half, and I thought we capitalized on that really well,” Purcell said.

Those mistakes started in the sixth end when Team Purcell took its first lead of the game. The Canadians played a draw and were a bit wide; however, the stone clipped a guard out front and redirected behind a centre guard. Sweden attempted to follow it in, but it over-curled and Canada stole a point. 

In the 10th end, Purcell made a lone Swedish stone in the house go away and run his opponents out of rocks to win.

“The most important thing that I’ve learned so far is patience. You need to keep making simple shots and then attack when the time is right. That patience and picking your spots have been the most important thing for us this week,” Purcell said of what he’s learned over the nine games played this week.

The winners of the Canada/Germany and Scotland/Norway games will advance to the gold-medal games, while the losers will play in the bronze-medal game. Both of those games are scheduled for Sunday at 3 a.m.

Team Isabelle Ladouceur of Curl Sudbury was not in playoff position on the women’s side. However, there was plenty to play for on Friday, with relegation in the World B Junior Curling Championships being a possibility. 

The team from Curl Sudbury split its final two games to finish the event with a 3-6 record and was relegated to the B division event.

In the morning, Ladouceur, vice-skip Jamie Smith, second Lauren Rajala, lead Katie Shaw, alternate Katy Lukowich, coach Steve Acorn and team leader Lori Olson-Johns defeated South Korea’s Bo Bae Kang (3-6) by a score of 10-3.

Leading 2-1, Canada scored four in the fifth end for a five-point lead and stole a single point in the sixth. South Korea scored single points in the seventh and eighth ends, and Canada ended the game in the ninth with a three-spot for the win.

In the evening, Canada lost to Japan’s Sae Yamamoto by 6-5 in an extra end. The win elevated Japan to a 6-3 record and qualified the team for playoffs. 

Canada will need to finish near the top of the standings at that event to qualify for the 2023 World Junior Curling Championships in Fussen, Germany from Feb. 23 to March 4.

World Curling TV’s Curling Channel on Recast will stream select Canadian games with either light coverage (two static cameras, no commentary) or full coverage (multi-camera with commentary). To see the streaming schedule, click here. 

For Team Canada updates, go to www.curling.ca. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

For the list of teams, draw information and live scoring, visit the event website.

Click to read at Curling Canada: https://www.curling.ca/blog/2022/05/20/playing-for-a-medal/

The Canadian men’s curling team won its third-straight game, while the women’s team is focused on having a solid finish at the 2022 World Junior Curling Championships in Jönköping, Sweden. 

A two-win day for Team Owen Purcell (5-3) elevated the junior men’s foursome from the Halifax Curling Club into the playoff mix with victories over playoff-calibre teams at the Jönköping Curling Club on Thursday. 

Purcell, vice-skip Joel Krats, second Adam McEachren, lead Scott Weagle, alternate Scott Mitchell, coach Anthony Purcell, and team lead Jeff Hoffart started with an all-around efficient morning game win against Jae Beom Lee of South Korea (3-5) by a score of 7-4. Canada leapfrogged South Korea in the standings and was one step closer to a playoff spot with the win. 

“We’re definitely starting to get rolling here a little bit. I think we’re more confident. The ice is starting to straighten out, which I think is working to our favour, as well. But for the most part, it’s the confidence,” Weagle said.

With the game tied 1-1, Team Purcell found its form in the fourth end and carried it throughout by putting a series of well-placed draws and accurate hits on display for the remainder of the match. 

Canada scored two when it had hammer and forced South Korea to one from that point on. In the eighth end, Canada sat one and made a full four-foot draw to get a second point, taking a 7-3 lead. South Korea scored one in the ninth but opted to concede instead of going into the final end three down without hammer.

But to rise into the four-team playoffs, Canada will need to knock one of those existing teams out. On Thursday night in Sweden, it took another step closer to that goal by defeating Norway’s Grunde Buraas 9-3.

The game reached its peak in the ninth end. Leading by one, Purcell settled into the hack and made a stellar triple takeout to score five and finish the game.

“We’re definitely feeling great right now. Skipper made a peach. Definitely one of the best shots I’ve seen in a long time for the five,” said Weagle. “It doesn’t get a whole lot better than that. It was exciting, and it got the boys fired up. It was a lot of fun to be a part of.”

Team Purcell kept Norway off the board for nearly the entire first half of the game. Canada started with the last stone and opened with a score of one. Norway blanked the second, gave up a steal of one to Canada in the third, blanked the fourth and then scored its first point of the game in the fifth end to trail 2-1 at the halfway mark.

It picked up in the second half of the game. The teams traded scores of two in the sixth and seventh ends. Then in the eighth, Canada put the game away with the five-ender, its biggest single-end score of the event.

Weagle and Purcell joined forces in 2018 and found immediate success, winning the 2018 Canadian Under-18 Curling Championships men’s gold medal. Over the past four years, it’s been a whirlwind of an adventure for the team and filled with moments of joy and anguish on and off the ice. 

In 2019 McEachren joined the team, and it had lofty expectations of repeating at the national under-18 event. But the team lost the bronze-medal game to Manitoba. In 2020, Weagle and Purcell competed at the New Holland Canadian Juniors but did not qualify for playoffs. But the Nova Scotia-based team bounced back in 2021 and earned the right to represent Canada at the world juniors by winning a qualification event.

“There’s been some ups and some downs. We had Covid cancel most of our season last year and some of it this year, but it’s been really good for the most part. He’s just a really great guy and fun to be around,” Weagle said, who is embracing every moment representing Canada.

Canada’s combined win with Norway’s loss levelled both teams to records of five wins and three losses and are now in a three-way tie for the final two playoff spots alongside Switzerland’s Kim Schwaller.

Germany’s Benjamin Kapp and Scotland’s James Craik have both qualified for the men’s playoffs with 7-1 records.

For its best chance of qualifying for playoffs, Canada must win its final round-robin game on Friday against Sweden’s Axel Landelius (1-7) at 8 a.m. (all times ET).

“We’re going to keep it the same. Keep rolling with what we’re doing. We’ll try to play a little more conservative but will take our chances when we get them,” Weagle said.

Team Isabelle Ladouceur (2-5; Curl Sudbury) took on Delaney Strouse of the United States (6-1) in its lone game of the day in the women’s competition.

The United States defeated Canada 11-5 and became the first team to qualify for the playoffs with the win. In the middle of the game, the Americans stole three consecutive ends and capped the victory off with a four-ender in the ninth.

Ladouceur, vice-skip Jamie Smith, second Lauren Rajala, lead Katie Shaw, alternate Katy Lukowich, coach Steve Acorn and team leader Lori Olson-Johns started the game with hammer. After giving up a first-end steal of one, the team had the U.S.A. against the ropes in the second. Strouse came through for her team, making a double to limit some damage, and it kept Ladouceur to a draw for two instead of a potential three or more.

In the third end, the U.S.A. regained its lead with a score of two and went on a roll stealing one in the fourth, one in the fifth and two in the sixth. 

Canada scored one in the seventh and stole two in the eighth after the U.S.A. pulled the string on its final draw attempt, but Stouse and the Americans made a hit for four in the ninth and finished the game.

The Canadian women’s team will miss out on the four-team playoffs but aims to finish the final day of the round-robin competition firmly on Friday. Team Ladouceur plays two important games. First, it takes on Bo Bae Kang of South Korea (3-4) at 3 a.m., followed by Japan’s Sae Yamamoto (5-2) at 1 p.m.

The 10 teams of each gender play nine-game round-robin schedules, with the top four advancing to the semifinal playoffs on Saturday. The winners advance to the gold-medal game and losers will play in the bronze-medal game on Sunday. 

World Curling TV’s Curling Channel on Recast will stream select Canadian games with either light coverage (two static cameras, no commentary) or full coverage (multi-camera with commentary). To see the streaming schedule, click here. 

For Team Canada updates, go to www.curling.ca. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

For the list of teams, draw information and live scoring, visit the event website.

Click to read at Curling Canada: https://www.curling.ca/blog/2022/05/19/momentum-canada/