CANADA’S U-21 CHAMPS OFF TO A GOOD START AT WORLD JUNIOR-B CHAMPIONSHIPS 

Canada got off to a strong start in their quest for gold at the World Junior-B Championships in Lohja, Finland on Friday.

Opening the tournament with a massive 15-1 win over Romania, Canada’s U-21 women, skipped by Myla Plett of the Airdrie and Sherwood Park Curling Clubs in Alberta, proceeded to defeat Spain 7-3 later in the day.

“We’re really happy with our first day,” said Plett. “It’s really exciting to be here and to play against all the various countries from around the world.” 

Plett and teammates vice-skip Alyssa Nedohin, second Chloe Fediuk, and Allie Iskiw, move to the top of Pool A with their two-win day. Italy, skipped by Rebecca Mariani, also started with two victories and shares the lead in the group.  

“We’re really enjoying the experience as a team,” said Plett, representing Canada for the first time on the international stage. “We are very honoured to be here.” 

The honour was earned with the team’s New Holland Canadian Under-21 Curling Championship win in March. But because of last year’s world juniors results, Team Canada was relegated to the ‘B’ group championship, where a top three finish will earn a spot in the ‘A’ group championships in February. The junior men’s champions, also from Alberta, will face the same challenge next week. 

The team, along with coach Blair Lenton, assistant coach Dave Nedohin, and team leader Lori Olson-Johns, arrived in Finland on Tuesday after a long trip from Edmonton. After a day to get settled and a pre-competition practice, they hit the ice Friday morning, which was the middle of the night back home. 

Based on the pre-game Last Stone Draw scores, Canada started the first game without the hammer. That didn’t faze the Canadians, though, as they stole three in the first end. After forcing Romania to a single point in the second end, Canada didn’t look back, scoring six in the third and stealing four more in the fourth. With the game safely in hand, two more steals of one allowed the Canadians to cruise to the finish line, as Romania conceded after the minimum six ends of play. 

Spain, however, put up more of a fight. Starting the game with hammer, the Spanish, skipped by Leyre Torralba Viela, led 3-1 after four ends. Plett and Co. fought back with a single in the fifth and a steal of two in the sixth to take the lead 4-3.  

Another steal, this time of three points, in the seventh end gave Canada the cushion it needed to close out the win. 

Canada will have one game tomorrow versus Italy, which, for now, would be for the top spot in the pool. The top eight teams in the 25-team field will advance to the quarterfinals after each plays a round robin.

Live scoring can be found here: https://livescores.worldcurling.org/wjbcc/aspnet/current?EventID=2 

Some games are found on the live stream available here: https://www.youtube.com/@CurlingFinland/streams