OFF AND RUNNING AT JUNIOR-B

CANADA’S U-21 MEN SPLIT OPENING DAY GAMES AT WORLD JR-B CHAMPIONSHIP 

Canada’s opening day at the World Junior-B Championship in Lohja, Finland didn’t start exactly as planned. The U-21 Men skipped by Johnson Tao, however, rebounded in a big way in their second game to get back on track and finish the day with a 1-1 record. 

The Edmonton-based foursome opened the competition with a surprising loss against Ukraine, failing to steal any points or generate any multiple point ends. The Ukrainians, on the other hand, managed both and hung on for a 6-3 win.  

“The team actually played pretty well in game one,” said team leader Rob Krepps. “In fact, they out-executed Ukraine by a wide margin, unfortunately a few key shots ended up making a big difference on the scoreboard.” 

Tao, Jaedon Neuert, Zach Davies, and Adam Naugler – all students at the University of Alberta – rebounded in a big way, taking their frustrations out on their next opponent, Turkey, skipped by Selahattin Eser. 

The Canadians opened with a steal of two, followed by three more steals of one, five, and two, taking a 10-0 lead to the fourth end break. Turkey got on the board with two in the fifth, but it was a bit too late to start a convincing comeback. Canada scored one in the sixth which led to handshakes and their first victory of the tournament.  

“We were really proud of how the team responded in game two,” said Krepps. “It was a dominant performance where they had Turkey chasing every end. Hopefully, they can keep it rolling tomorrow.”

Canada will have to complete a six-game round robin, and finish in the top eight spots overall to reach the playoff round. The 22-team event is split into three pools. They’ll play Kazakhstan, Japan, Austria and Poland over the next three days. 

Reaching the semifinal would qualify them for the ‘A’ Group World Championship in February, again in Lohja, Finland. This the first time that Canadian junior men have participated in the ‘B’ championship (based on last year’s results). Both last year and earlier this week, Canada’s junior women managed to advance back to the ‘A’ group. 

Tao and his Golden Bear teammates are supported by coach Skip Wilson, assistant coach Ben Morin, and team leader Rob Krepps. Morin was on the team that won the national title earlier this year, but aged out prior to the world championship. Davies stepped in to replace. 

Live scoring can be found here: https://livescores.worldcurling.org/wjbcc/aspnet/current?EventID=1 

Some games are livestreamed here: https://www.youtube.com/@CurlingFinland