Saskatchewan In The Hunt, Alberta rebounds

Saskatchewan’s Jeff Hartung improved his record to 2-0 at the 2013 Canadian Mixed Curling Championship with an 11-4 victory this afternoon over New Brunswick Brier veteran James Grattan. Hartung and Langenburg CC teamates Brooklyn Lemon, Kody Hartung and Nicole Lang scored big with the advantage of last stone and held NB to singles when without the hammer. Hartung posted three on the board in the 3rd sandwiched around singles from NB in the 2nd & 4th ends. A deuce in the 5th end and five more points in the 9th end finished the game. Grattan drops to 1-1. In other draw 3 action at the TMR Curling Club in the Town of Mount-Royal (Montréal), Grande Prairie’s Kurt Balderston evened his record at a win and a loss with a win over BC’s Tom Buchy. Balderston controlled the game from the start with scores of two in the 1st, 3rd and 5th ends. Buchy took two in the 8th and stole one in the 9th heading to the last end down only a point. With a BC stone buried near the top eight foot, Balderston calmly drew full eight foot for the win. The final score was 8-6 for Alberta. Buchy’s record is also 1-1. In a battle between two winless teams, Ontario’s Cory Heggestad fell behind 7-0 to Manitoba’s Terry McNamee after just two ends. But perseverance paid off for the Orillia skip with one point in the 4th and then consecutive steals of two, one, one, three (highlighted by a terrific in-off double take-out by Heggestad in the 8th) and one in the 9th and his lead was suddenly at 2 playing the final end. McNamee had a double take-out to tie the match, but missed it on the low side for only a single and a 9-8 loss. Ontario evens their record at 1-1 while surprisingly, Manitoba drops to 0-2. The fourth game of the afternoon saw unbeaten Mike Assad of Northern Ontario (2-0) scoring a lob-sided 14-1 win over NWT’s Nick Saturnino. NWT remain winless in the early stages. Quebec (2-0), Nova Scotia (2-0), PEI (0-2) and Yukon (0-2) had third round byes. Play continues all week at the TMR Curling Club in the Town of Mount Royal, Quebec (part of greater Montréal) with the championship final set for 2:00 pm EST on Saturday, November 24th. Real time results are available at www.curling.ca Live streaming is available at www.canadianmixed.com Tonight’s draw # 4 is scheduled for 7:00 pm EST with a key match-up between two undefeated teams: Quebec and Saskatchewan.