Saskatchewan wraps up first-place finish in championship round at Canadian Mixed Curling

The hometown Saskatchewan team of Shaun Meachem, Kelly Schafer and Chris and Teejay Haichert finished on top of the championship round and earned the number one seed in the semi-finals at the Canadian Mixed Curling Championship with two more wins at the Swift Current Curling Club on Friday.

Saskatchewan took a 7-1 record and a seven-game winning streak into a matchup with Jamie Koe and the Northwest Territories in the afternoon draw. The teams were tied 2-2 after five ends until Meachem started pulling away with three in the sixth to go up 5-2. Koe responded with two in the seventh to cut the deficit to 5-4 coming home, but Saskatchewan scored three in the final end to take an 8-4.

In other action, Manitoba edged Ontario 4-3 to stay unbeaten and set up a battle against Saskatchewan on Friday night with first place in the championship pool on the line. Meachem got off to a fast start with four in the first end, and after forcing a single in the second, scored two more in the third to go up 6-1. Manitoba picked up another single in the fourth and after a blank in fifth, Saskatchewan picked up a five-ender in the sixth to wrap up an 11-2 victory and hand Kyle Kurz and his team from the Fort Rouge in Winnipeg their first loss of the event on the very last round-robin draw.

Saskatchewan finished first in the eight-team championship round with a 9-1 record with Manitoba (9-1) finishing second. Ontario (7-3) finished third after beating Team NWT 9-3 in their final game to put Koe’s team out of contention, and Nova Scotia (7-3) rounded out the top four.

Saturday’s semi-finals will see Saskatchewan face Nova Scotia in a rematch of the opening draw of the event, which Paul Flemming and his team from Halifax won 6-5 on Sunday for what turned out to be Meachem’s only loss of the round-robin. Scott McDonald and Team Ontario will face Manitoba in the other semi-final.

Both semi-final games start at 10:00am on Saturday with the winners advancing to the gold medal game at 2:30pm, while the losers will play in the bronze medal game at the same time.