Newfoundland and Labrador remains in championship contention in Canadian junior men's curling

Greg Blyde and his St. John’s-based rink have advanced to the championship round of the New Holland Canadian junior men’s curling championship in Prince Albert, Sask.

Blyde, Daniel Bruce, Ryan McNeil Lamswood and Nathan King defeated Nunavut 12-3 Tuesday night to finish 3-3 in the preliminary round of the event.That record left Blyde and Co., who curl out of the Re/Max Centre (St. John’s Curling Club), tied with Ontario and Alberta for third place in their preliminary division.

Four teams in each of the two seven-team preliminary pools advance to the championship round, which will decide the eventual winner. Defending champion Tyler Tardi of British Columbia (6-0) and Saskatchewan (5-1) automatically moved on from N.L’s pool, and so did Blyde, by virtue of having the best last-stone draw (LSD) of the three teams tied at 3-3. Ontario and Alberta will meet in a tiebreaker game today to decide the fourth team advancing from the pool.

The Blyde rink, which has Bruce throwing fourth stones, will face Nova Scotia tonight in the first of its four games in the championship round, where it play the teams advancing from the other pool. Records from the preliminary round will be carried over and combined with that from championship-round games

Blyde is from St. John's, while the other three members of the rink are from the west coast of the province and attending Memorial University.

Meanwhile, the Mackenzie Glynn rink, also from St. John’s, lost 5-3 to Quebec on Tuesday to finish with a 2-4 preliminary-round record in the Canadian junior women’s championship, also being held in Prince Albert this week.

That left the Glynn rink, which also includes Sarah Chaytor, Katie Follett and Camille Burt, in fifth-place in its seven-team pool. The Newfoundland women will compete in a seeding round, where the finishes will determine rankings for the 2020 national juniors. Their next game will be this afternoon against the host team.