Threes Are Wild For Ontario

Ontario’s Cory Heggestad scored three points in three ends: the 2nd, 6th and 8th in defeating Alberta’s Kurt Balderston 9-8 in draw 14 at the 2013 Canadian Mixed Curling Championship at the TMR Curling Club in Town of Mount Royal, QC. The Orillia CC skip is now in a three way tie for first place with the host province’s Mike Fournier and Nova Scotia’s Brent MacDougall, each at 7 wins and 2 losses. In what promises to be a wild finish to this 50th edition of the national mixed championship, Ontario has Quebec and Saskatchewan as opponents in its final two games, while Fournier must also play Manitoba. Nova Scotia’s MacDougall, a pre-qualifier surivor, has BC’s Tom Buchy and NB’s James Grattan on his dance card. Grattan, an experienced Brier competitor, scored five points in the 9th end in defeating Mike Assad of Northern Ontario 10-6. Both teams entered this morning’s games at 5-3. NB is alone in 4th place at 6-3 anxiously looking on a top three finish while Assad is in a four way tie for 5th with BC’s Buchy, PEI’s Robert Campbell and Saskatchewan’s Jeff Hartung at 5-4.

BC’s Dave Toffolo (photo by Eve Bélisle)

Buchy kept his playoff hopes alive in a back and forth struggle with Hartung. The key end was the 8th end when, with the score tied at 5, Hartung missed a routine take-out to blank that end giving Buchy a steal of one. Hartung was forced to take a single in the 9th and could only watch as Buchy made his last stone for a 7-6 win. Also in this morning’s draw, Manitoba’s Terry McNamee defeated NWT’s Nick Saturnino 9-2 for his third win this week. NWT drops to 1-8. Morning byes were enjoyed by Quebec (7-2), Nova Scotia (7-2), PEI (5-4) and Yukon (0-9). Play continues until Saturday 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 Thursday’s games are scheduled for 10:00am; 2:30pm and 7:00pm EST.