JUNIORS PERFECT ON SUNDAY 

CANADIAN U21 TEAMS WIN THREE GAMES AT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 

After a slow start yesterday, the Canadian juniors hit stride Sunday with a perfect three-win day. 

Skips Johnson Tao and Myla Plett, both from Edmonton, each rallied from an opening loss to sit at 2-1 at the World Junior Curling Championships in Lohja, Finland.  

Tao, along with teammates Jaedon Neuert, Adam Naugler, and Zach Davies, opened the day with a convincing win over New Zealand. While it was a tie game after four ends, the Canadians reeled off three consecutive steals of two to put the game out of reach. The final was 9-4. 

“It was a great bounce back game for us,” said Davies. “We started a bit slow, but picked it up as the game went on. We’re just hoping to keep the momentum going. It’s a long week.” 

In the evening draw, Canada faced Switzerland. After opening with a deuce, the next few ends were fairly low scoring. Late in the game, however, it was a big steal from the Canadians that was the deciding blow. Up two playing the eight, a steal of three gave Canada more than enough cushion to reach the finish line with the win. 

“We started the game off really well picking up that two-score,” said Neuert. “We kept that intensity going for the entirety of the game.” 

On the junior women’s side, Plett (along with Alyssa Nedohin, Chloe Fediuk, and Allie Iskiw) knocked off China in a dramatic last rock finish. Up two, with hammer, Plett needed to eliminate two Chinese stones to claim the win. 

“I had a pretty sketchy first half but the team really pulled me through it,” said Plett. “I was able to make a great team shot for the win on my last. China played super well gave us a tough game but obviously with a lead of 2 in the last end we had a pretty decent shot of winning. Definitely had a tough last shot but thankfully pulled through!” 

Both teams are hoping to finish in the top four spots of the ten-team event to earn a spot in the playoffs. Each team still has six more games over the next four days. 

The men, coached by Skip Wilson (with Ben Morin and Rob Krepps also on the bench) will face China tomorrow. The women, coached by Blair Lenton and team leader Lori Olson, will have two games Monday vs. Scotland and Japan. 

On the women’s side Japan, Norway and Switzerland lead the pack with 3-0 records, while in the men’s event, only Denmark remains unbeaten. 

Live scores can be found at https://livescores.worldcurling.org/wjcc/default.  

Paid streaming can be found here: https://curlingchannel.tv/