Good day for Nova Scotia at the Mixed

Brent MacDougall did what he had to do today to keep first place and an eye on the bye to Saturday’s championship final with solid wins over contenders Quebec & Ontario at the 2013 Canadian Mixed Curling Championship at the TMR Curling Club in the Town of Mount Royal, Qc. After edging Quebec’s Mike Fournier earlier today, MacDougall scored a big five points in the 5th and another four points in the 8th end dumping Ontario’s Cory Heggestad 11-4. MacDougall is tied atop the leaderboard with Fournier’s Quebec foursome at seven wins and two losses holding any tie-breaker advantage by virtue of his win over Quebec. Ontario drops into a tie for third place at 5-2 with Jeff Hartung of Langenburg, SK who had an afternoon bye.

New Brunswick (photo by Eve Bélisle)

Three teams are bunched in a tie for 5th place only a game back of third place and the final playoff spot. In a tight Maritime battle of two experienced teams, PEI’s Robert Campbell did not have to throw his last stone in the final end of a tie game when New Brunswick’s James Grattan came just short of sitting shot stone with a difficult draw to the four foot area. The final score was 5-3. Grattan is one of those 4-3 teams along with BC’s Tom Buchy who had an afternoon bye and Northern Ontario’s Mike Assad. The Thunder Bay skip scored a total of five points in the 5th and 6th ends to stop Steve Fecteau 8-2. Campbell’s playoff hopes are very much in play sitting at 5-4. Finally,  Fournier rebounded from that tough loss this morning to NS defeating Kurt Balderston of Alberta 10-5. Fournier scored four points in the 2nd end, a deuce in the 6th and three more in the 8th to end the game. Balderston is a surprising 2-5. Teams with this afternoon’s byes were BC’s Buchy (2-4), NWT’s Nick Saturnino (1-6), Saskatchewan’s Jeff Hartung (5-2) and Manitoba’s Terry McNamee (2-5). 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 Wednesday evening’s draw is scheduled for 7:00pm EST.