Birchard’s Manitoba rink to face B.C.’s Brown for junior women’s curling gold

FORT MCMURRAY, Alta. – Shannon Birchard will attempt to give her province a sweep of the gold medals at the Canadian junior curling championships.

Birchard’s team from Winnipeg — third Nicole Sigvaldason, second Sheyna Andries, and lead Mariah Mondor — beat Ontario’s Jamie Sinclair 10-6 in an extra end in the semifinal on Sunday.

With the victory, the Manitoba champs advance to the gold-medal game later Sunday against British Columbia’s Corryn Brown.

It will be a chance for Birchard and Mondor to take one step higher on the podium after they won a silver medal at the 2012 Canadian juniors, losing to Alberta’s Jocelyn Peterman in the final.

“We just have to be a lot calmer than we were last year,” Birchard said. “We started off shaky; we had trouble calming our nerves and we got ourselves into some trouble. There were a couple of strategy mistakes last year and hopefully we don’t make the same ones.”

Matt Dunstone’s Manitoba rink won the men’s title Saturday night.

Manitoba scored four in the fifth end Sunday to take a 5-2 lead, but Ontario fought back with steals in the seventh and 10th ends to force an extra end. Birchard made a runback takeout for the victory.

“It was a good game; everybody made lots of shots,” said Sinclair. “Just one bad end and we were trying to catch up after that.”

If Manitoba beats B.C., it would mark the fourth straight year that one province has swept the titles. Last year. Alberta’s Brendan Bottcher and Peterman claimed gold; in 2011, it was Saskatchewan’s Braeden Moskowy and Trish Paulsen sweeping the championships; and in 2010, Ontario’s Rachel Homan and Jake Walker pulled off the sweep.

The winner of the gold-medal game will represent Canada at the world junior championships, Feb. 28-March 10, in Sochi, Russia, which will serve as a test event for the 2014 Winter Olympics curling competition.