EE10_Juniors:EE4_Ford_HotShots
9/28/09
9:06 PM
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M&M Meat Shops Canadian Juniors Played in Salmon Arm, British Columbia, at the Salmon Arm Curling Club and Sunwave Centre January 31 to February 8, 2009
Northern Ontario’s Dylan Johnston forced P.E.I.’s Brett Gallant to draw to the full eight-foot for the win after Johnston was light on a draw.
26 www.seasonofchampions.ca
PHOTOS: MICHAEL BURNS PHOTOGRAPHY
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RINCE EDWARD ISLAND, skipped by Brett Gallant of Charlottetown, won the 2009 M&M Meat Shops Canadian junior men’s championship at the Sunwave Centre in Salmon Arm, British Columbia, edging Northern Ontario’s Dylan Johnston 7-6 in the final. It was only the second Canadian junior men’s title for a Prince Edward Island team since the championship began in 1950. Skip Bill Jenkins won the first 33 years ago, in 1976, in Kapuskasing, Ontario. In a game that featured some excellent shot-making, it all came down to the 10th end, when Gallant — lying one with hammer but needing a deuce — drew to the full eight-foot for the win after Johnston was light on a draw. The match didn’t start well for the
The Canadian junior men’s trophy went to, from left, P.E.I.’s Brett Gallant, Adam Casey, Anson Carmody and Jamie Danbrook. The Charlottetown squad edged Dylan Johnston of Northern Ontario 7-6 in the final to give the Garden province only its second junior men’s title and first since 1976.
Islanders, with Northern Ontario jumping to a 3-0 lead in the first end. But by the sixth end, Gallant had squared the account. Northern Ontario blanked the seventh but was forced to take the go-ahead single in the eighth and then Gallant blanked the ninth before posting the winning deuce at the finish. The 2007 Canadian juniors runner-up — he lost in an extra end to Alberta’s Charley Thomas — Gallant directed third Adam Casey, second Anson Carmody and lead Jamie Danbrook. “Finally,” said the elated 18-year-old, a business student at the University of Prince Edward Island. “We played a great game. We were very prepared for this game. The first end was really
unlucky, a picked rock and a jam. But then we had some good ends. We just had to keep the pressure on them.” Northern Ontario and Prince Edward Island had finished the round robin with identical 9-3 records, but Northern Ontario earned the bye to the final thanks to its 9-8 extra-end, round-robin win over the Islanders. It was a game in which Northern Ontario stole four singles, including one in the extra for the victory, after Prince Edward Island, ironically, had gotten off to a 3-0 start. Casey and Danbrook were named to the first all-star team, along with Alberta skip Kevin Yablonski and New Brunswick second Robbie Doherty. Gallant and Carmody were named to the second all-star team.