Confidence builds for Tardi at World Juniors

Tyler Tardi poured on the offence in an 8-3 decision over Switzerland on Tuesday evening, a win that moves Canada into second place in the standings at the 2017 World Junior Curling Championships in Gangneung, South Korea. Tardi and his B.C. team from Langley/New Westminster (vice-skip Sterling Middleton, second Jordan Tardi, lead Nick Meister, alternate Nicholas Rabl, coach Paul Tardi) took control from the start and needed only eight ends to put the game away. “We don’t want to look too far ahead, we just want to take it one at a time, but we’re feeling confident,” said Tardi. “We’re throwing great and we’re finally playing the game that we’re used to rather than playing it safe so we just want to keep on playing.” It was all about offence for the Canadians, who led 6-1 at the break, thanks to a steal of three in the fifth when Swiss skip Jan Hess missed his final draw. “That was certainly one of the top two games we’ve played here,” said a confident Tardi. “We’re getting better in most of the games, so we’ll see what’s in store for the rest of the week. To be honest, we’re pretty close to our peak performance. There are just a few very minor things and we’ll be fairly tough to beat in my opinion.” Kristen Streifel and her Edmonton-based team of vice-skip Chantele Broderson, second Kate Goodhelpsen, lead Brenna Bilassy, alternate Karlee Burgess and coach Amanda Dawn St. Laurent had a tough day, losing 10-1 to Japan and conceding after six ends. “All I can say is that definitely wasn’t our game today,” said Streifel about the uncharacteristic performance. “To be quite honest we had a tricky time with the rocks and unfortunately those were in ends where I had some key draws. We just kind of grinded, and they were against multiple points, so we got down early in the game. It just wasn’t our day.” The loss gives the Canadian women a 5-2 record, right behind leaders Scotland and Sweden, and Streifel is still feeling confident. “We’re just going to put that one in our back pockets and get rid of that game and just remember how we have been playing this whole week and try and bring that back tomorrow,” she said. Streifel is back on the ice at the Gangneung Curling Centre on Wednesday morning (Tuesday 7 p.m. EST) to face Scotland’s Sophie Jackson. Tardi and his team will go up against Turkey’s Ugurcan Karagoz, who is still looking for his first win (Wednesday 12 a.m. EST). Event information, including news and live scoring, are available at the event website, www.worldcurling.org/wjcc2017 As well, selected games will be streamed live on the World Curling Federation’s Youtube channel, www.youtube.com/WorldCurlingTV