CANADA DOWNS TURKEY AT JRS. 

CANADIAN JUNIOR WOMEN ADD ANOTHER WIN IN FINLAND; MEN DROP A PAIR 

The team’s Facebook post said it all: “We gave our fans a break from all the extra end stressful games we’ve had.” 

After a number of last rock finishes and extra end nail-biters, at the World Junior Championships in Lohja, Finland, Canada’s U21 women skipped by Myla Plett finally let their supporters breathe easier during their afternoon matchup with Turkey. 

“We played Turkey in the B Worlds and know they are a strong team ,” said Chloe Fediuk, Canada’s second.  “We knew we had to come out strong.” 

And boy, did they! 

Starting the game with the better Last Shot Draw score, Plett (with Alyssa Nedohin at third, Fediuk at second, and lead Allie Iskiw) put two on the board right away in the first.  

Then they stole two in the second, two in the third, two in the fourth, and one in the fifth. Up 9-0 at the break, Canadian fans were comfortable, maybe for the first time all week. 

“We have been really improving as a team each game,” said Nedohin. 

With the game out of reach, the team took the opportunity to bring in their fifth player, Kaylee Raniseth, while Fediuk took a break. While Raniseth’s world championship debut only lasted one end, she made the most of the experience, putting up 100% stats on her two shots. World rules only require a six-end minimum, so Turkey conceded after scoring a single. The final was 9-1 for Canada, putting them in second place overall with a 4-2 record. 

“We are super happy with having a 4-2 record knowing how good all the teams are here,” said Nedohin. “This puts us in a great spot for our upcoming games!” 

The Canadian women will face South Korea and Germany on Wednesday, both of whom have 2-4 records. They are supported by coach Blair Lenton, assistant coach David Nedohin, and team leader Lori Olson. 

The men’s results, however, were not as cheery Tuesday, as they dropped both of the day’s matchups. While the opponents, Italy and Norway, sat tied at the top of the leaderboard to start the day, Canada had a chance to bring one or both of them back to the pack. 

It was not to be, though, as Italy broke a close game open with a steal of four in the fifth end after skip Johnson Tao wrecked on a guard with his final shot. That gave Italy a 7-1 lead. Canada was unable to recover and finished with a 8-3 loss. 

“We struggled to figure out the playing conditions early in the game, which resulted in that steal of four, which obviously really hurt us,” said lead Adam Naugler. “We got better as the game progressed, but it was too little too late.” 

In the evening game, the Canadians (Tao, Jaedon Neuert, Zach Davies, and Naugler) were hoping for a better result vs. Norway, but got in a bit of a hole early on, down 3-0 after three ends. Canada scored a single in the fourth, but a late deuce and another three put the finishing touches on Norway’s 8-4 win. 

“Norway played exceptionally well,” said Naugler. “And while we played pretty good we couldn’t quite keep up. We had a good debrief after though, and we know what we need to do better.” 

The Canadian men (along with coach Skip Wilson, assistant coach Ben Morin, and team leader Rob Krepps) will take the morning to reset, and look to improve in their afternoon game with the United States, who are also sit with a 3-3 record. 

Live scores can be found at https://livescores.worldcurling.org/wjcc/default.   

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