Calvert and Rocque headed for playoffs at World Junior Curling Championships

Winnipeg’s Braden Calvert and Edmonton’s Kelsey Rocque are headed for the playoffs at the 2014 World Junior Curling Championships after both Canadian teams won their final two games on the last day of the round robin in Flims, Switzerland. Rocque and her team of Keely Brown, Taylor McDonald, Claire Tully, alternate Alison Kotylak and coach Amanda-Dawn Coderre secured their spot in the Page 1 vs 2 playoff against Korea after defeating both Scotland and Denmark to finish in second place.
Kelsey Rocque (Photo WCF/Richard Gray)

Kelsey Rocque (Photo WCF/Richard Gray)

The Canadians needed an extra end to squeak out a 7-6 win over Scotland’s Gina Aitken in their first game on Sunday. Riding a four-game winning streak into the final game of the round robin, Rocque scored a huge seven points in the eighth end to nail down a 12-7 victory over Denmark’s Christine Svensen (0-9). “They had an unfortunate break in that end and we were fortunate enough to capitalize,” said Rocque about the unusual score of seven. “It was the wrong side of the inch for Denmark with a lot of their stones in that end.” The Canadian women enter the playoffs in second place with a 7-2 record behind South Korea’s Kyeong-Ae Kim, also at 7-2, who defeated Canada in the round robin. Despite that previous loss, Rocque expressed confidence about her team’s chances. “We were two and two, two days ago and now we’ve won five in a row,” she said. “So we’re feeling really good with how we are playing right now.”
Braden Calvert with sweepers Brendan Wilson and Lucas Van Den Bosch (Photo WCF/Richard Gray)

Braden Calvert with sweepers Brendan Wilson and Lucas Van Den Bosch (Photo WCF/Richard Gray)

The Canadian junior men – Braden Calvert and his team of Kyle Kurz, Lucas Van Den Bosch, Brendan Wilson, alternate Matt Dunstone and coach Tom Clasper – are also off to the playoffs after wrapping up the round robin with two lopsided victories. The Canadians needed only six ends to dispatch USA’s Jake Vukich 8-1 in a game that Canada controlled from the start. They scored three in the first end and had built a 7-1 lead by the fifth-end break. A steal in six put the game away. “We got off to another good start and had all the momentum the whole game, I think, and we were in control,” said Calvert. In their final game of the round robin, Calvert and crew cruised to a 9-1 win over Sebastian Wunderer of Austria who came into the game with a 3-5 record. Canada scored four in the fifth and stole another two in the sixth to put the game out of reach. Norway will play Scotland in the men’s Page 1-2. Calvert finishes the round robin in third place with a 6-3 record and will play the winner of the tiebreaker between Italy’s Amos Mosaner and Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller in the Page 3 vs 4 playoff on Tuesday at 6 a.m. (ET). The Page 1 vs 2 playoff between Canada and South Korea can be streamed Mon., March 3 at 1 p.m. (ET) on World Curling TV: https://www.youtube.com/WorldCurlingTV The live coverage schedule is available along with news, live scores and galleries on the event website: https://wjcc2014.curlingevents.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WorldJuniorCurlingChampionships Twitter: @worldcurling and @WCFmedia Twitter Hashtags: #WJCC2014 #curling The World Curling Federation (WCF) is the international sport federation governing the Olympic winter sport of curling and the Paralympic winter sport of wheelchair curling. The WCF is one of seven International Sports Federations currently part of the Winter Olympic programme. It represents 53 Member Associations and is generally acknowledged to direct one of the fastest-growing international winter sports. www.worldcurling.org