Nova Scotia Earns Bye To the Final

In dramatic fashion, Brent MacDougall’s foursome representing the CFB Halifax CC, has advanced to Saturday’s final at the 2013 Canadian Mixed Curling Championship at the TMR Curling Club in the Town of Mount Royal. Despite a final draw of games Friday morning, the playoffs are set with Ontario meeting Quebec in the semi final with the winner facing Nova Scotia Saturday afternoon. Not only did MacDougall and teammates Christina Black, Kris Granchelli and Jane Snyder survive the four team pre-qualifying tournament, they finished their round robin at 9-2 capped off by a tough draw to the full eight foot in defeating NB’s James Grattan 7-6.

photo by Eve Bélisle

MacDougall was down 3-1 early but grabbed a deuce in the 4th to tie the game. The teams traded singles until the 8th end when NS scored another deuce to lead by one heading to the 9th. A well played end forced Grattan to one in the 9th setting up the clutch draw for MacDougall. Ontario’s Cory Heggestad needed a win over Quebec to guarantee themselves a playoff berth and the Ontario foursome did it in fine fashion. They roared out to a 3-0 lead and amazingly had eight stones in the house when Fournier came to deliver his final stone of the 6th. It’s not often any team in any Canadian championship faces eight, but Fournier calmly drew to a stone in the four foot for a single point earning rousing applause from the full house in attendance. The scare of an eight ender rejuvenated Fournier as they the stole two points in the 7th to tie game. Heggestad doused that enthusiasm though with a deuce in the 8th and a steal in the 9th leading by three playing the 10th. The final score was 7-4. Heggestad is now 8-2 with a morning game against Saskatchewan. A win will give him both last stone advantage and choice of colour for the semi final rematch against Quebec. A loss will leave Ontario with the choice based on his vctory over Quebec. In other games, Northern Ontario’s Mike Assad needed a win against PEI to keep his slim hopes alive and the Thunder Bay skip delivered with a 6-4 win over Robert Campbell. Assad sits at 6-4 while Campbell completes his tournament at 5-6. The Yukon’s Steve Fecteau was hoping to end his mixed championship on a winning note but dropped a 9-4 decision to Alberta’s Kurt Balderston. The Whitehorse skip finished winless while Alberta sits at 4-6. Friday’s semi final will be played at 7:30pm featuring Quebec and Ontario. The championship final will be played Saturday at 2:00 pm EST at the TMR Curling Club in the Town of Mount Royal, Quebec (part of greater Montréal). Real time results are available at www.curling.ca Live streaming is available at www.canadianmixed.com