Playoffs set to begin at Mixed

The final draw of the round robin in the Canadian Mixed Curling Championship concluded Friday morning, but it had no bearing on the playoff schedule, which was determined by the results of Draw 16 last evening. Prince Edward Island, skipped by Robert Campbell of Charlottetown, finished with a 10-1 record, including a 9-5 win over Northwest Territories/Yukon this morning.   Campbell, who won the 1989 Mixed when it was held in Brandon, thus advances to Saturday’s championship final at 1:30 pm CT/2:30 pm ET. Nova Scotia, skipped by two-time (1999, 2003) Mixed champion Paul Flemming of Halifax, finished second with a 9-2 mark, including a 7-4 victory in Draw 17 over Northern Ontario.    Flemming’s team now advances to Saturday morning’s semi-final at 9:00 am CT. There was a three-way tie for third, involving host Manitoba (Terry McNamee of Hamiota), Ontario (Chris Gardner of Arnprior) and New Brunswick (Charlie Sullivan of Saint John).    Since the teams were 1-1 within the group, the pre-event and weeklong draw to the button results were used for seeding purposes. Manitoba was ranked first, and thus advances to Friday’s second tiebreaker at 7:00 pm, to meet the winner of the first tiebreaker at 2:30 pm today between Ontario and New Brunswick. The winner of tonight’s second tiebreaker will be declared the third place finisher and will advance to Saturday’s semi-final against Nova Scotia. Behind the top five came Alberta (Tim Krassman of Medicine Hat) at 6-5, followed by British Columbia (Tom Buchy of Kimberley), Saskatchewan (Steven Slupski of Moose Jaw) and Northern Ontario (Craig Kochan of Thunder Bay), all at 4-7. Northwest Territories/Yukon (Steve Moss of Yellowknife) and Quebec (Simon Hébert of St-Romuald) were next at 3-8, while Newfoundland/Labrador (Gary Wensman of Labrador City) wound up 2-9. Of the playoff teams, Prince Edward Island has two Mixed wins since the championship began in 1964 in Toronto, the last by Campbell in 1989, while Nova Scotia, with seven titles overall, is the defending champion, having won last season in Burlington with skip Mark Dacey. Manitoba has taken eight Mixed crowns, while Ontario and New Brunswick have two wins each.