Montreal's Felix Asselin (Photo: Melanie Johnson/Curling Canada) won 7-3 over Pierre-Luc Morissette Friday morning to sit 3-1 in the standings at the Shorty Jenkins Classic. By: Cameron Sallaj Following the departure of his brother Emile, Felix Asselin and teammates Martin Crete and Jean-Francois Trepanier added 2006 Brier champion Jean-Michael Menard to the team as their new third, bringing Menard back to competitive men's play for the first time since 2018. In their first event together, the AMJ Campbell Shorty Jenkins Classic in Cornwall, the team suffered an 8-4 loss in their opening game to Duluth's John Shuster. Since then, they got on a roll, picking up a 7-5 win over Scotland's Kyle Waddell and defeating Halifax's Owen Purcell 7-3. In their fourth game Friday morning, the team faced a fellow Quebec rink in Quebec City's Pierre-Luc Morissette. Beginning with the hammer, Team Asselin had a chance for two in the opening end, however, Felix's final stone did not curl enough, only giving the team one point. Then in the second end, a miss on Asselin's final rock gave Team Morissette the chance to tack two points on the board and take a 2-1 lead. After some early game misses, Asselin's rink put together a strong third end, taking four points and putting them ahead by a 5-2 margin. They then forced their oppositions to one in the fourth end, maintaining a two-point lead with last rock advantage. Facing five on his last rock of the fifth, Morissette's final freeze attempt did not curl enough, and his team conceded the game. This gave the Asselin rink two more points as they secured a 7-3 win in their fourth game of the season. AMJ Campbell Shorty Jenkins Classic - Draw 10 - Felix Asselin vs Pierre-Luc Morissette: Now 3-1 in the standings, Asselin, Menard, Crete and Trepanier sit second in their pool behind Italy's Joel Retornaz who is undefeated. That is who the team faces in their final round robin game Saturday night at 8:00 PM ET as they look to secure a spot in the knockout round. Team Morissette falls to 0-2. Team Asselin currently ranks 39th on the world rankings and 15th in Canada. At the end of the month, the team will compete in the PointsBet Invitational single knockout event where they will meet sixth seed Reid Carruthers in their opening game. All games from the 2024 AMJ Campbell Shorty Jenkins Classic are available on YourTV on YouTube with select games being broadcast on COGECO across Ontario. All streaming links are available on CurlingZone's live scoring page of the event. Visit CurlingZone.com for SCORES, NEWS, and STREAMING LINKS. |