Playoff match-ups are set at Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championship

Quebec, British Columbia, Alberta and Northern Ontario finish in the top four positions and are headed for the playoffs after the final round-robin draw at the Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championship in Ottawa.

Quebec second Sébastien Boisvert (l) and third Carl Marquis (r) in action during Draw 9 at the Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championship in Ottawa (Photo Morgan Daw)

Newfoundland and Labrador’s Joanne MacDonald had a chance to move into tie-breaker position with a win over Manitoba, but just couldn’t get the points on the board, losing to Chris Sobkowicz and his team from the Assiniboine Memorial Curling Club in Winnipeg by a score of 10-4. Quebec’s Benoît Lessard started the game against Ontario’s Ken Gregory by giving up a steal of one, but had control of the game from that point on. Lessard took the next three ends to lead 7-1 at the break, and his team from the Magog Curling Club never looked back, stealing three more points for the 10-1 victory. British Columbia came into Draw 9 with a playoff spot sewn up, but Northern Ontario’s Gino Sonego needed some help from Manitoba to stay in contention. Even though Sonego and his Thunder Bay team lost 10-2 to B.C.’s Gary Cormack, Northern Ontario finishes in fourth place and squeaks into the playoffs with a 5-4 record. After a disappointing loss on Friday evening, Alberta stormed back against New Brunswick to claim third place in the standings with a 6-3 record. Bruno Yizek and his team from the Calgary Curling Club scored multiple points with hammer and held New Brunswick’s Michael Fitzgerald to singles for the 10-3 win. In the one game with no bearing on playoff positions, a four-ender by Saskatchewan’s Darwin Bender was not enough to catch Nova Scotia’s Trendal Hubley-Bolivar. Nova Scotia stole nine points in a 12-4 win over last year’s champions, leaving both teams with 3-6 records. Playoff action at the RA Centre in Ottawa gets underway on Saturday with the Page 1-2 game between Quebec and B.C. at 10 a.m. and the Page 3-4 game between Alberta and Northern Ontario at 3 p.m. EDT. 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 Live-streaming of games is available at: www.ustream.tv/channel/wcblog2.