Nova Scotia & Quebec – Tied at 6-2

Nova Scotia’s Brent MacDougall moved into a tie with the host province’s Mike Fournier in a well played 8-7 thriller in draw 11 at the 2013 Canadian Mixed Curling Championship at the TMR Curling Club in the Town of Mount Royal, Quebec. In the decisive 10th end, CFB Halifax’s MacDougall made a quiet out-turn tap back to sit two. When Fournier missed the double takeout, the NS skip made a routine take-out to score the two points for the win. The match was dominated by Quebec in the early going as Fournier scored deuces in both the 2nd and 5th ends and a steal of one in the 3rd had him leading 5-2 at the break. Nova Scotia roared back with a three count in the 6th to tie the score and the teams traded singles in the next three ends setting up the winning 10th end. Both teams are now 6-2. Officially, Team Ontario is leading the pack in the loss column at 5-1 with two games in hand on Quebec & NS. Orillia’s Cory Heggestad had a bye this morning and will face MacDougall and Nick Saturnino later today. Saskatchewan’s Jeff Hartung stayed close to the leaders with a 6-3 win over NWT’s Saturnino. Hartung played this game wide open considering Saturnino’s upset win over previously undefeated Quebec last night. Hartung led 3-2 playing the 8th end when he scored three points to take command. Hartung is 5-2 and Saturnino sits at 1-6. BC’s Tom Buchy has quietly moved into playoff contention with a strong performance against 2011 Canadian Mixed runner-up Terry McNamee of Brandon, Manitoba.  The Kimberley CC skip scored deuces in each of the 1st, 3rd and 7th ends, leading the game by two with the hammer playing the last end.  The BC crew ran the Manitobans out of stones for a 7-5 win. Buchy is now 4-3 while Manitoba is now 2-5. Two-time Canadian Mixed champion Robert Campbell of Charlottetown kept his slim playoff hopes alive scoring three in the 6th and four more points in the 7th for a 10-5 win over winless Steve Fecteau of Whitehorse. Campbell is 4-4 and Fecteau is 0-8. Teams with this morning’s byes were Alberta’s Kurt Balderston (2-4), NB’s James Grattan (4-2), Northern Ontario’s Mike Assad (3-3) and Heggestad. Play continues all week at the TMR Curling Club in the Town of Mount Royal, Quebec (part of greater Montréal) with the championship final set for 2:00 pm EST on Saturday, November 24th. Real time results are available at www.curling.ca Live streaming is available at www.canadianmixed.com Wednesday’s draws are scheduled for 10:00am, 2:30pm and 7:00pm EST.