Teams battling for top spot at Wheelchair championship

After three days of competition, the standings are starting to take shape at the 2015 Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championship in Boucherville, Que.
BC's Gerry Austgarden (Photo Morgan Daw)

BC’s Gerry Austgarden (Photo Morgan Daw)

British Columbia and Quebec climbed to the top of the leaderboard on Wednesday with two wins each. In the afternoon draw, BC’s Gerry Austgarden scored five points in the fifth end to overpower Northern Ontario’s Wayne Ficek 12-2. Also at the top, Benoit Lessard and his Quebec team stole three ends against Saskatchewan’s Darwin Bender for a 7-2 victory. Ontario’s Chris Rees, who came into Draw 5 at the top of the standings, fell behind early against Nova Scotia’s Trendal Hubley-Bolivar. Nova Scotia led 7-2 at the break and went on to a 10-5 win. Manitoba’s Dennis Thiessen, the 2014 champion, defeated New Brunswick’s Michael Fitzgerald  10-0 after starting off with a 6-3 loss to Saskatchewan earlier in the day. In other games on Wednesday afternoon, Alberta’s Don Kuchelyma scored three in the final end to defeat Newfoundland and Labrador’s Joanne MacDonald 9-7. Quebec and BC now sit at the top of the standings with 4-1 records, followed by Ontario, Saskatchewan and Manitoba at 3-2. In Draw 4 on Wednesday morning, New Brunswick’s Michael Fitzgerald scored three in the eighth to come from behind for a 7-6 win over Nova Scotia’s Trendal Hubley-Bolivar; Quebec stole three ends, include a four-pointer, in an 8-3 win over Newfoundland and Labrador; and Northern Ontario’s Wayne Ficek stole three ends on the way to a 10-3 victory over Chris Rees of Ontario The round robin continues on Thursday with games at 10 a.m. ET and 3 p.m. ET. Ten teams, representing nine provinces plus Northern Ontario, will play the round robin from April 27 to Friday, May 1, followed by the Page playoff games (1 vs 2, 3 vs 4) on Saturday. The semifinal (loser of 1-2 vs winner of 3-4) goes Sunday, May 3, at 10 a.m., with the championship final scheduled for 2:30 p.m. ET. Selected games are being livestreamed on the Wheelchair Curling Blog at www.wcblog2.com/ For scores and standings, visit Curling Canada’s live scoring at https://www.curling.ca/scoreboard/#/competitions/1654-2015-canadian-wheelchair-curling-championship/scoreboard For results and team information, visit the event website at https://www.curling.ca/2015wheelchair/