END OF THE ROAD AT YOG 

CANADA FALLS JUST SHORT OF YOUTH OLYMPIC PLAYOFFS WITH LOSS TO DENMARK 

Canada’s Youth Olympics curling team knew that everything had to go right for them to reach the playoff round. 

First, they needed a good Last Shot Draw shootout score. Then, they needed to beat Denmark in their final game. After that, depending on the results of two other games, they might find themselves in a tie – which if the right teams won and lost, would be resolved by head-to-head results, and finally by the LSD numbers. 

As it turns out, it was not to be. The shootout score was good, but still left them in second place. The other games didn’t go the way Canada needed them to. But most obviously, the main objective of beating Denmark wasn’t achieved. 

“I think we played great as a team,” said skip Nathan Gray (Dartmouth, N.S.). “We just got a bit unlucky at the wrong times.” 

In a defensive battle with several blank ends and single points, Gray was slightly heavy on his final draw in the eighth, with would have forced an extra end. 

Instead, with a 4-2 loss to Denmark’s Jacob Schmidt, Canada was eliminated from the tournament with a 3-4 round robin record. 

“It’s an unfortunate way to go out,” said Gray, “But there are a lot of good teams here. It’s a super strong field and it seems like anybody could have come out on top in our pool.” 

Denmark finished the B Pool with a 5-2 record, which was good enough to advance in second place. Great Britain, at 6-1, led the pool, while Switzerland (4-3) grabbed the third spot, by virtue of their head-to-head results. 

In the A Pool, China, USA, and Japan advanced (in that order).  

In both qualification games, the B Pool teams were victorious. Switzerland beat the USA 4-3, and Demark defeated Japan 8-3 to advance to the semifinals.  

Denmark will now face China, and Great Britain will take on Switzerland in the medal rounds. 

While the result was disappointing for Team Canada, the foursome of Gray, Chloe Fediuk (Edmonton), Owain Fisher (North River, N.S.), and Allie Iskiw (Edmonton) – along with coaches Helen Radford and Jeff Hoffart – can exit with their heads held high. 

“We’re really grateful to have had this experience,” said Gray. “We had some fun, played hard, and we hope we did Canada proud.” 

On Friday, the 24-team Mixed Doubles event will begin with Cailey Locke (Conception Bay South, N.L.) and Simon Perry (Portugal Cove, N.L.) representing Canada. They’ll play a five-game round robin and hope to qualify for the eight-team playoff. 

Some games are streaming on http://www.youtube.com/olympics and https://olympics.com/en/gangwon-2024/. CBC has daily highlights on http://cbcsports.ca 

Scores, standings, and schedules can be found here: https://livescores.worldcurling.org/