Sudbury rink on fire at junior curling championships

The Tanner Horgan rink is almost there.

With two games remaining in their crossover schedule at the 2016 Canadian Junior Curling Championships in Stratford, Ont., the Copper Cliff Curling Club quartet have put themselves in a great position to earn a berth in the semi-final battle Saturday night.

In fact, a direct bye to the final is not yet out of the question.

Team Horgan — that includes Tanner and younger brother Jacob Horgan (vice), Nick Bissonnette (second) and Maxime Blais (lead) — improved to 7-1 on Wednesday with a pair of big wins.

The local rink swept away Alberta (Karsten Sturmay) by a score of 8-6 and stropped Ontario (Doug Kee) with a 6-4 tally. Currently holding down top spot is Matt Dunstone of Manitoba, boasting a record of 7-0, with British Columbia (Tyler Tardi) deadlocked with the Northern Ontario crew at 7-1.

Dunstone captured the national crown in 2013, with Manitoba sweeping the past three years, as the Braden Calvert-skipped rink won in both 2014 and 2015.

Horgan and company kept themselves in the hunt thanks, in part, to a great start in both games. The locals scored three in the opening end against Alberta, adding two more in the fourth and sixth, and surrendering two to Team Sturmay on only two occasions.

Northern Ontario also bolted to a 3-0 lead in the evening affair, adding two in the sixth (leading 5-2 at that time) and forcing Ontario to blank both the seventh and eighth ends, a definite recipe for success.

"It's the best we've ever curled," Horgan said late Wednesday night. "It takes something special to be at 7-1 at a national. But it doesn't feel like we're just hot, either.

"It feels like everything is just clicking. It's been a long progression to where we're at now, but we could kind of see it coming."

If there was a turning point in the all-Ontario matchup, it was a quadruple takeout from vice Jacob Horgan, one that older brother acknowledged provided a key emotional lift.

"It's not that we're making a ton of big shots," said the even-keeled skip. "There have been some, but we're beating teams more on consistency. That's the main thing that we're doing better this time around."

With three teams locked in third place at 4-3 (New Brunswick, Saskatchewan, Quebec), the Copper Cliff Club representatives need only a win in their final two games to secure a top three placing.

Horgan will go toe to toe with the Dunstone rink for the third time this year, taking to the ice tonight at 6:30 p.m., before facing Quebec tomorrow. The Manitoba crew knocked off the locals in an extra end at a bonspiel earlier this year, beating them more handily in the final a few games later.

In other local curling news:
In play in the women's draw, the Megan Smith Sudbury Curling Club rink of Kira Brunton, Kate Sherry and Emma Johnson hit the win column in their first game in the seeding pool.

Posting a preliminary round record of 2-4, Team Smith edged Newfoundland & Labrador 7-6 on Wednesday, still to face Yukon and Prince Edward Island, as they look to finish atop the consolation grouping.