Three teams still looking for a win at national wheelchair championship

Three teams remain undefeated and three are still looking for a win after the second draw of the Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championship at the RA Centre in Ottawa. In a close game between Manitoba and Quebec, Chris Sobkowicz of the Assiniboine Memorial Curling Club in Winnipeg scored a single in the eighth to tie it up at 5-5. In the extra end, Quebec’s Benoît Lessard was able to hide a rock behind cover for the 6-5 win.

Manitoba second Melissa Lecuyer delivers her stone at the 2013 Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championship in Ottawa (Photo Morgan Daw)

Newfoundland and Labrador started strongly in the afternoon game, scoring three in the first end and keeping the pressure on. Joanne MacDonald and her team from the RE/MAX Centre in St. John’s stole two more points in an 8-4 win over Ontario’s Ken Gregory. Northern Ontario’s Gino Sonega of the Fort William Curling Club in Thunder Bay scored five in the second end on the way to a 10-4 win over Trendal Hubley-Bolivar and his team from the Lakeshore Curling Club in Lower Sackville, N.S. In other action, Alberta and Saskatchewan squared off in a rematch of last year’s championship final. Saskatchewan’s Darwin Bender started strong, but a steal of four in the eighth end enabled Bruno Yizek and his team from the Calgary Curling Club to win 9 – 6. New Brunswick and British Columbia traded deuces early, but steals in the next three ends helped B.C’s Gary Cormack to a 9-5 win over Michael Fitzgerald and his team from the Thistle-St. Andrew’s Curling Club in Saint John. Draw 3 will get underway at the RA Centre in Ottawa on Tuesday morning at 10 a.m. EDT. Teams at the Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championship will compete in a round robin from March 25-29, leading to the Page playoffs on Saturday, March 30. The semifinal will be played at 10 a.m. EDT and the final at 3 p.m. EDT on Sunday, March 31. Draw results and other event information will be available at www.curling.ca and https://www.curling.ca/championships/wheelchair.