Team Manitoba wins men’s junior curling championship, N.S. takes women’s title

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This article was published 31/01/2016 (3726 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was sweet victory for the Manitoba men’s junior curling team Sunday as they pounded Northern Ontario to win the 2016 Canadian Junior Curling Championships in Stratford, Ont.

Vice-skip Kyle Doering, 20, who throws second and holds the broom for skip Matt Dunstone, could barely contain his excitement after beating the Northern Ontario team skipped by Tanner Horgan.

“It feels great. I dreamed about it; it’s a dream come true,” he said in a phone interview of the 11-4 victory.

Both Doering and skip Matt Dunstone, 20, said their foursome from the Granite Club in Winnipeg were down 2-0 halfway through the first end but bounced back with the hammer to make it 3-2 after the first.

They scored three more and were up 6-2 by the fourth end and never looked back and never relinquished the lead.

“We kept the pressure up after that,” Doering said.

The pair said their confidence never wavered and they knew they would succeed just by playing their game.

“We let the mechanics do the work,” Doering said.

The foursome, which includes lead Rob Gordon, 20, and third Colton Lott, 20l are flying home to Winnipeg Monday afternoon.

But as for Sunday night, they planned to relish the win with a steak dinner at a great restaurant with family, Doering said.

Three of the four are eligible to return to juniors next year, but Dunstone is aging out and will have to curl at senior levels. But he said the four are best friends and may continue curling together in senior events next year.

The Manitoba team advanced to Sunday’s finals by beating B.C.’s Tyler Tardi Saturday night at the Stratford Rotary Complex.

Dunstone’s Manitoba team will play in the World Junior Championships in Taarnby, Denmark, from March 5 to 13, trying to defend the gold medals won by Canada’s Kelsey Rocque and Braden Calvert last year.

Mary Fay’s clutch eighth-end draw clinched the women’s title for Nova Scotia at the Canadian junior curling championships.

Fay’s shot broke open a 5-5 tie as Nova Scotia, rounded out by third Kristin Clarke, lead Janique LeBlanc and second Karlee Burgess, went on to a 9-5 win over British Columbia’s Sarah Daniels in Sunday’s final.

“It felt great to make that draw,” said Fay. “Whenever I’m throwing a draw, I always feel confident because I have Karlee and Janique sweeping for me. They have the hard job; it’s not to too hard to throw it, but to judge the weight? But I have two amazing sweepers and I’m confident in them.”

The foursome from Chester stole two in the ninth to seal the victory after B.C. came back to tie the game with back-to-back steals in the sixth and seventh ends.

Nova Scotia ran B.C. out of rocks in the 10th.

“Holy. I don’t even know how to explain it,” Burgess said. “Going into the last end, we knew we just had to throw clean shots and Mary would have an open shot at the end.”