Updated with today's schedules for N.L. teams
Both teams representing Newfoundland and Labrador have advanced to the playoff round at the national junior curling championships in Shawinigan, Que., and Mackenzie Glynn and her rink from St. John’s did so with emphasis.
Glynn and her team of Katie Follett, Sarah Chaytor and Camille Burt scored two points in the 10th and final end to down British Columbia 6-5 Tuesday night in the final draw of the preliminary round-robin, giving the Newfoundlanders a 5-1 record, tied for best in the seven-team B pool.
The Glynn rink — coached by Dave Trickett — will take that record into the championship pool, where play begins today. There, the top four finishers from the B pool will play the top four from the A pool in a cross-over round-robin. At the conclusion of those games, the three teams with the best combined records — preliminary and championship pools — advance to the medal round. The top finisher goes directly to Sunday’s final, while the second- and third-place teams meet in a Saturday semifinal.
Glynn and her teammates play New Brunswick (4-2) this afternoonto begin play in a junior women's championship pool that inclides all four teams from the Atlantic provinces.
Newfoundland’s junior men’s team out of the Corner Brook Curling Club needed a win in its final preliminary-round game Tuesday afternoon to secure its playoff berth with a 3-3 record.
Skip Daniel Bruce and rinkmates Ryan McNeil Lamswood, Andrew Bruce and Nathan King scored a single point in the 10th end to nip Prince Edward Island 8-7. Had P.E.I. won, it would have gone to the championship pool, while the Bruce rink would have dropped to a six-team seeding pool.
But it's the N.L. junior men advancing to take on Nova Scotia (3-3) in their first championship-pool game tonight.
The eventual winners of Sunday's finals will represent Canada at the world junior championships in Aberdeen, Scotland in early March.
