 Jordon McDonald defeated Ontario's Scott Howard for a spot in the final versus Braden Calvert (Photos: Curling Canada) at the Canadian Olympic Pre-Trials. By Connor Simms, #35 World-Ranked squad with Braden Calvert skipping with Corey Chambers at third, Kyle Kurz and Brendan Bilawka on the front end got some well-deserved rest awaiting their opponent. They went 5-2 through the round robin, good enough for first place. In their opening game, Calvert lost 7-2 to Jean-Michel Menard (Amos, QC), then responded with a 9-5 win over Mark Kean (Woodstock, ON). Calvert won 8-4 against Jordon McDonald (Winnipeg, MB). Calvert went on to lose 6-5 against Owen Purcell (Halifax, NS). Calvert responded with a 12-9 win over Jayden King (London, ON). Calvert won 6-4 against Sam Mooibroek (Whitby, ON). In their final round-robin game, they defeated Scott Howard (Navan, ON) 8-6. #23 World-Ranked squad, with Jordon McDonald skipping, and Jacques Gauthier at third, Elias Huminicki and Cameron Olafson on the front end, defeated the odds in their semi-final. They went 5-2 through the round robin, grabbing second place. In their opening game, McDonald defeated Mark Kean (Woodstock, ON) 6-5, then won 11-6 against Jayden King (London, ON). McDonald went on to lose 8-4 against Braden Calvert (Winnipeg, MB). McDonald lost 9-6 to Jean-Michel Menard (Amos, QC), where McDonald responded with a 9-7 win over Owen Purcell (Halifax, NS). McDonald won 8-2 against Scott Howard (Navan, ON), then won 10-8 against Sam Mooibroek (Whitby, ON) in their final qualifying round match. This got them a spot in the semi-finals versus Howard. McDonald started with the hammer due to their better record. After a blank, then trading deuces in the first three ends, Howard got a steal in the fourth end. After a blank in the fifth end, Howard added another steal in the sixth. Another blank in the seventh led to McDonald being forced in the eighth to go down 3-4. McDonald then rallied back-to-back steals in the ninth and tenth ends to claim the 5-4 victory. These two squads from Winnipeg are no strangers to one another. In their skipping careers, they have faced off 14 times. Calvert holds an 11-3 record on McDonald. Over their last two seasons, Calvert is 4-0, including a win over McDonald earlier this week. This is the first season that Curling Canada introduced a best-of-three format final. Game 1 will take place at 7:00 pm Atlantic Time (AT), with Game 2 happening on Saturday at 2:00 pm AT. Game 3 *if necessary will happen on Sunday at 11:00 am AT. The games will be live on TSN. |
A five at the opening end of their first-ever match together in a major international competition sent Katie McMillan and Angus Bryce on their way to a dominant victory over the USA at the ACE & Company World Mixed Doubles Championships in Geneva.
