TIMMINS, Ont. — It wasn’t another completely perfect day for Saskatoon’s Renee Wood at the Canadian Under-18 girls curling championship on Wednesday, but it was enough to get the job done when it came to locking down a playoff spot.
Wood and her Sutherland foursome of third Edie Jardine, second Amelia Whiting and lead Winnie Morin split their two round robin games, taking a 5-2 win over Northern Ontario’s Rhya Baker in the morning draw before falling 5-3 to Ontario’s Charlotte Wilson in their second game of the day.
As a result, Wood caps her round robin with a 5-1 record and will be among the top 12 teams advancing to the playoff round beginning Thursday evening.
The contest against Baker was a low scoring battle that saw Wood score single points the first two ends and Northern Ontario score one in the fourth for the only points heading into the fifth-end break. Wood blanked the sixth and then took control of things with three in the seventh for a 5-1 edge, and Baker would get one in the eighth but no closer.
It was Wilson who got off to the fast start in the second game of the day, picking up single points the first two ends, getting the force in the third and adding two more in the fourth for a 4-1 lead. The teams exchanged points the next two ends before Wood scored one in the seventh to get within a pair, but she’d run out of rocks in the final end and suffer her only loss of the preliminary round.
Wood will now wait for the conclusion of the round robin on Thursday afternoon before learning her quarter-finals opponent.
In the boys draw, Esterhazy’s Brandon Weiss and Saskatoon’s Quinn Snow are both in playoff contention with 3-2 record but will likely need to close out their round robins with a win on Thursday to advance.
Weiss, third Josh Lussier, second Tyler Derksen and lead Carter Nelson rebounded after losing their previous two games with a 6-4 win over British Columbia’s Matthew Reynolds. Weiss actually trailed 4-1 at the fifth-end break after giving up steals in back-to-back ends, but he put up a pair in the sixth, stole two more in the seventh and another in the eighth to secure the crucial victory.
Snow and his Nutana foursome of third David Denis, second Liam Regush and lead Tristan Heal picked up their third straight win, defeating Alberta champion Parker Harris 6-3 in their lone game Thursday.
They also pulled off an epic late-game comeback, as they trailed 4-3 through five ends and gave up a deuce in the sixth to sit three back with two ends to play. Snow would erase the entire deficit with three in the seventh, though, and then stole one in the eighth for the win.
Both Saskatchewan boys teams are back on the ice at 8:30 a.m. Thursday for their final round robin draws, with Weiss facing Quebec’s Raphael Tremblay and Snow facing Prince Edward Island’s Aaron Haight.
Both the boys and girls draws will see the top four teams from each of the three pools advance to the playoffs. All three pool winners plus the team with the next best record receive a bye to the quarter-finals, with the remaining eight teams playing a qualification round.
The qualification rounds for both the boys and girls will take place on Thursday evening, with the boys quarter-finals at 8:30 a.m. on Friday followed by the semifinals at 6:30 p.m. The boys medal games are at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday.
The girls quarter-finals are at 1:30 p.m. Friday, followed by the semifinals at 8:30 a.m. Saturday and medal games also at 1:30 p.m. Saturday.
