Alberta to play for back-to-back women’s gold at Canadian Juniors Curling Championships

LANGLEY, B.C. — Alberta’s Abby Marks defeated Nova Scotia’s Taylour Stevens 6-5 in the women’s semifinal of the 2020 Canadian Junior Curling Championships on Saturday.

Marks  recorded the winning point in the extra end without having to throw her final stone to punch her ticket to the final for the second year in a row. 

Marks and her team from Edmonton will face-off against undefeated MacKenzie Zacharias of Manitoba in the women’s gold-medal game.

It will be a chance for Marks and second Paige Papley to win back-to-back gold medals after they played vice-skip and lead respectively for the Alberta team that prevailed last year in Prince Albert, Sask.

Alberta will also be playing for gold against a Manitoba team that has a perfect 10-0 record (including an 8-7 win over Alberta).

Manitoba will be seeking its first Canadian junior women’s title since Kaitlyn Lawes won consecutive championships in 2008 and 2009.

Meanwhile, on the men’s side, Daniel Bruce of Newfoundland and Labrador will makes their first trip to the gold-medal game thanks to a 9-8 victory over Rylan Kleiter’s Saskatchewan.

Bruce’s Newfoundland and Labrador team was down 3-2 to Saskatchewan, before they rallied from behind to win. They manufactured a wonderful sixth end that resulted in a game-turning steal of two and they would score five in the eighth end. 

With the win, Newfoundland and Labrador advances to Sunday’s gold-medal men’s game against the Manitoba #2 team skipped by Jacques Gauthier, a silver-medallist last year.

Manitoba #2 won 10-6 over Newfoundland and Labrador in their round-robin game.

The winners of Sunday’s gold-medal games will represent Canada at the 2020 World Junior Curling Championships, beginning Feb. 15 in Krasnoyarsk, Russia.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 25, 2020.

The Canadian Press