Friday the Thirteenth doesn’t scare top teams at Mixed

Draw 13 on Friday the 13th of November proved to be good luck for the top teams at the 2016 Canadian Mixed Curling Championships at the Weston Golf and Country Club in Toronto. Quebec’s Maxime Elmaleh, Roxane Perron, Jean Gagnon and Sonia Delisle took on Nova Scotia’s Doug MacKenzie, Jocelyn Nix, Richard Barker and Shelley Barker in their second-last games of the round robin. The game see-sawed with the teams trading points throughout the game, including a three-ender by N.S. in the fourth end. Going into the eighth end, Quebec led by a single point. The four-foot quickly became crowded and saw the teams jockeying for position on the button. With N.S. sitting one at the top of the button, Quebec attempted a freeze with its last rock to sit shot. The rock stayed wide and opened the door for N.S. to squeeze in for second shot. When MacKenzie’s rock failed to curl up as well, the game was sent to an extra end. In the ninth end, a series of doubles by Gagnon and Perron meant the elimination of all N.S. rocks and a clear playing field. Quebec secured the 7-6 win with an open hit on the last rock. Quebec moves to 5-4 while N.S. drops to 6-3. The Northwest Territories team took on Northern Ontario on Sheet D. The first half of the game saw Northern Ontario’s Colin Koivula take a single in the second, followed by a steal of one in the third. N.W.T.’s Steve Moss took two in the fifth end to tie the game up. In the sixth end, Koivula haired by a guard to execute an impressive hit for four to go up 6-2. A single by N.W.T. in the seventh end wasn’t enough to climb back into the game as Northern Ontario ran Moss out of rocks in the eighth for the 6-3 win. N.W.T. falls to 3-6, while Northern Ontario inched closer to a playoff position with a 7-2 record. British Columbia’s Dean Joanisse, Shannon Aleksic, Tyler Orme and Kelsey Steiger battled Manitoba’s Bob Sigurdson, Erika Sigurdson, Al Purdy and Lindsay Baldock in sheet C action. After tying up the game 2-2 in the third end with single point, Joanisse stole two points in the fourth. Sigurdson picked up a single in the fifth end, which B.C. promptly followed up with a three-ender in the sixth to increase its lead to 7-3. Manitoba picked up a deuce in the seventh, but it wasn’t enough to save the game, as B.C. completed a hit in the eighth end to secure a 7-6 victory. B.C. now sits at 3-6 while Manitoba drops to 4-4. Current Standings Championship Pool 8-0 Alberta 7-2 Northern Ontario 6-3 Nova Scotia 5-3 Saskatchewan 5-3 New Brunswick 5-4 Quebec 3-5 Northwest Territories 3-6 Yukon Seeding Pool 5-3 Ontario 4-4 Manitoba 3-4 Newfoundland and Labrador 3-6 British Columbia 1-7 Prince Edward Island 0-8 Nunavut Action continues on Friday with the Championship and Seeding Pools competing at 2:30 p.m. ET and 7 p.m. ET. For event, team and draw information, visit www.curling.ca/2016mixed. For a downloadable copy of the event draw, click here. For a downloadable copy of the team rosters, click here. To watch the live streaming, click here. Draw scores/standings will be immediately available on Curling Canada’s website, www.curling.ca.