Desmond Young and his rink from Edmonton are still in the mix for the men’s title at the 2019 New Holland Canadian Juniors in Prince Albert.
The Alberta squad advanced into the Championship Pool Wednesday morning as they came away with a dramatic 5-4 win over Ontario’s Samuel Steep in a tiebreaker game at the Art Hauser Centre.
“That was a very exciting game to be a part of and we’re really happy to come away with the win,” Young said. “It was pretty similar to our round-robin game (which Ontario won by a score of 8-7 Saturday) as both teams are pretty evenly matched.
“Now that we’ve reached the Championship Pool, we’re going to stick to our one game at a time approach that got us to this point. We’ll try to get as many wins as we can in the next couple of days and see where that puts us heading into the weekend.”
Without the hammer in the 10th end and with the game tied at four, the Alberta team did an excellent job of getting rocks in the house and had three stones around the four-foot as Steep prepared to shoot his last.
The Ontario skip went for a double runback attempt to try and get the win, but one of the Alberta stones stayed in the four-foot for a steal of one point.
“We knew we had to be aggressive from the start without having the hammer,” Young said.
“Our first six shots that our team threw in the tenth end were excellent and that really put us in a position where we could steal. That was probably the turning point of the game.”
Alberta will be back in action tonight at 7 p.m. as they’ll take on Manitoba’s J.T. Ryan.
Meanwhile, Steep’s rink from the Galt Country Club heads into the Seeding Pool, which determines the groups for next year’s Canadian Juniors.
Standings After Draw 13
Men’s
Championship Pool
- British Columbia (Tyler Tardi) – 6-0
- Saskatchewan (Rylan Kleiter) – 5-1
- Manitoba (J.T. Ryan) – 4-2
- Northern Ontario (Tanner Horgan) – 4-2
- Nova Scotia (Graeme Weagle) – 4-2
- Quebec (Vincent Roberge) – 4-2
- Alberta (Desmond Young) – 3-3
- Newfoundland & Labrador (Greg Blyde) – 3-3
Seeding Pool
- Ontario (Samuel Steep) – 3-3
- New Brunswick (Jack Smeltzer) – 2-4
- Prince Edward Island (Tyler Smith) – 2-4
- Northwest Territories (Sawer Kaeser) – 0-6
- Yukon (Trygg Jensen) – 1-5
- Nunavut (Javen Komaksiutikask) – 0-6
Women’s
Championship Pool
- Alberta (Selena Sturmay) – 6-0
- British Columbia (Sarah Daniels) – 5-1
- Manitoba (Mackenzie Zacharias) – 5-1
- Quebec (Laurie St-Georges) – 5-1
- New Brunswick (Justine Comeau) – 4-2
- Nova Scotia (Kaitlyn Jones) – 4-2
- Saskatchewan (Sara England) – 4-2
- Northern Ontario (Kira Brunton) – 3-3
Seeding Pool
- Newfoundland & Labrador (Mackenzie Glynn) – 2-4
- Ontario (Thea Coburn) – 2-4
- Host Team (Skylar Ackerman) – 1-5
- Prince Edward Island (Lauren Ferguson) – 1-5
- Northwest Territories (Tyanna Bain) – 0-6
- Nunavut (Sadie Pinksen) – 0-6
Draw 14 Schedule – 2 p.m.
Art Hauser Centre
- Sheet A – Quebec/Saskatchewan (Men’s Championship Pool)
- Sheet B – Manitoba/BC (Women’s Championship Pool)
- Sheet C – Northern Ontario/British Columbia (Men’s Championship Pool)
- Sheet D – Ontario/Prince Edward Island (Women’s Seeding Pool)
- Sheet E – Quebec/Alberta (Women’s Championship Pool)
Prince Albert Golf & Curling Club
- Sheet G – Host Team/Newfoundland & Labrador (Women’s Seeding Pool)
- Sheet H – Ontario/Prince Edward Island (Men’s Seeding Pool)
