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Sudbury rinks challenged at Canadian championships

Still with plenty of junior eligibility remaining, the Idylwylde Golf & Country Club rinks skipped by Krysta Burns and Tanner Horgan are finding themselves extremely competitive at the 2015 M & M Meat Shops Canadian Junior Curling Championshi
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Four Sudbury curling rinks will be in Sault Ste. Marie this week to take part in the Tim Horton's NOCA Bantam Provincial Championships. File photo
Still with plenty of junior eligibility remaining, the Idylwylde Golf & Country Club rinks skipped by Krysta Burns and Tanner Horgan are finding themselves extremely competitive at the 2015 M & M Meat Shops Canadian Junior Curling Championships in Corner Brook (Newfoundland).

The question remains whether it will be enough to qualify both teams for the playoff round of the national bonspiel, that portion which kicks off Wednesday following pool play.

Both Burns and Horgan are sitting at 1-2 heading into play on Monday, though both schedules to date have been challenging. The Burns quartet (Krysta Burns, Leah Hodgson, Sara Guy, Laura Masters) opened with an 8-7 loss to Beth Peterson of Manitoba, surrendering a 6-5 lead when Peterson scored three in the ninth, with Burns able to counter with only one in the tenth and final end.

Back in action on Sunday morning against Chelsea Brandwood of Ontario, Team Burns again took a mid-game lead, up 4-3 after six and 5-4 after eight, only to see her provincial counterpart secure the win when she counted three in the ninth, besting the Northern Ontario girls 7-5.

Undaunted by a pair of close defeats, Burns and company sizzled in Game 3, scoring six points between the third and fifth ends and cruising to a 9-3 win over Bailey Horte of Yukon.

The local ladies will play their first back-to-back encounters today, battling Quebec (2-1 - Emilia Gagné) and Nunavut (0-3 - Sadie Pinksen) before closing out round-robin play Tuesday against front-running Alberta (3-0 - Kelsey Rocque).

Meanwhile, the Tanner Horgan rink (Jacob Horgan, Connor Lawes, Maxime Blais) did not throw their first rock until Saturday evening, dropping an 8-6 decision to Jacob Hersikorn of Saskatchewan.

Holding last rock advantage out of the gate, Horgan scored two in the first end and was clinging to a 6-5 lead after seven when Hersikorn scored two in the eighth and added a steal of one in the ninth to secure victory.

A good night's sleep and right back at it first thing Sunday morning as Team Horgan tripled Matt Miller of the Northwest Territories 9-3, counting four in the second end and adding two more in the fourth in bolting to a 6-1 lead.

The honours of the most defensive match of the Sunday might well go to Horgan and Alberta skip Karsten Sturmay, as the pair blanked five ends in a 3-1 Alberta win over Northern Ontario.

The teams exchanged single point ends in the second and third, with Horgan forcing Sturmay into settling for a singleton again in end six. Unfortunately, the turning point would come in the eighth end when Alberta was able to steal one, running Northern Ontario out of rocks as Horgan and his mates attempted to score two in either nine or 10 to force extra ends.

The local foursome will face Joe Wallingham of Yukon (1-3) on Monday afternoon, closing out with back-to-back matchups on Tuesday, going head to head with Réné Comeau of New Brunswick (3-1) and Tyler Smith of Prince Edward Island (1-2).

That last contest could will decide the fourth and final team from Pool B that will move on to continue their week the next day.

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