Alberta men book a spot in championship pool at Canadian juniors

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. – B.C. skip Tyler Tardi remained perfect at the Canadian junior curling championships with a 6-2 win over Northern Ontario’s Tanner Horgan on Wednesday afternoon.

The win, in a rematch of last year’s final, pushed two-time defending champion Tardi to 7-0. Horgan is now 4-3.

It marked the first game of championship pool play for both teams.

Saskatchewan’s Rylan Kleiter improved to 6-1 with a 10-4 win over Quebec’s Vincent Roberge in the other championship pool game on Wednesday afternoon.

In women’s play, Alberta’s Selena Sturmay upped her record to 7-0 with a 9-8 extra-end win over Quebec’s Laurie St-Georges.

Meanwhile, Sarah Daniels of B.C. (6-1) beat Manitoba’s Mackenzie Zacharias 15-6.

In evening play, Saskatchewan’s Sara England earned an 8-2 win over Kaitlyn Jones of Nova Scotia, Northern Ontario’s Kira Brunton downed New Brunswick’s Justine Comeau 8-3 and Tyanna Bain of the Northwest Territories beat Nunavut skip Sadie Pinksen 7-6 on the women’s side.

Meanwhile, Daniel Bruce of Newfoundland and Labrador toppled Nova Scotia’s Owen Purcell 10-6, New Brunswick’s Jack Smeltzer beat Trygg Jensen of the Yukon 10-4, Manitoba’s JT Ryan defeated Alberta’s Desmond Young 10-3 and Northwest Territories skip Sawer Kaeser picked up an 8-5 win over Javen Komaksiutiksak of Nunavut.

The winning teams at the nine-day event will represent Canada at the 2019 world junior championships, Feb. 16-23 in Liverpool, N.S.