Alberta’s Selena Sturmay locks up spot in Canadian junior curling championship

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. – Alberta’s Selena Sturmay has one more draw to play at the Canadian junior curling championship, but it’s only for practice.

Sturmay’s Alberta rink locked up a spot in the tournament final with a 7-6 victory against New Brunswick’s Justine Comeau on Thursday night.

Alberta scored a single in the final to break a 6-6 tie and run its record to 9-0 with one more draw ahead of Sunday’s championship. New Brunswick dropped to 4-5 with the loss.

“All the teams here have been super great and you can’t take any teams light here,” Sturmay said. “We’re just happy to (get) through with no losses and super happy with the results that we have.”

Quebec’s Laurie St-Georges has a 7-2 record after defeating Northern Ontario’s Kira Brunton 9-4 and will take on Nova Scotia’s Kaitlyn Jones on Friday with a spot in the semifinal on the line.

Jones (6-3) won her match against Manitoba’s Mackenzie Zacharias (5-4), 7-6 to remain in the playoff picture.

B.C.’s Sarah Daniels also has a 7-2 record after a 9-7 win over Saskatchewan’s Sara England (5-4) in the afternoon.

The men’s championship pool has two teams guaranteed to advance to the three-team playoff, with the final spot still up for grabs.

B.C.’s Tyler Tardi and Saskatchewan’s Rylan Kleiter moved to 8-1 records in the afternoon draw and will move on.

Quebec’s Vincent Roberge picked up an 8-3 win against Newfoundland and Labrador’s Greg Blyde that gives both teams 5-4 records. Meanwhile, Northern Ontario’s Tanner Horgan (5-4) remained in contention with a 9-6 victory against Alberta’s Desmond Young (4-5).

Roberge, Blyde and Horgan can force a tiebreaker scenario if they win on Friday and Manitoba’s JT Ryan (6-3) loses.

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