Mark Kean and his Fenelon Falls team beat defending champion Greg Balsdon 9-3 Tuesday to top the round-robin standings with a 3-0 record at the Recharge with Milk Ontario Tankard in Dorchester, Ont.
Kean gave up a steal of one in the first but recovered to take the lead with a deuce in the second and never looked back from there by swiping a point in the third and scoring three-enders in five and seven.
Balsdon, from Hamilton, was held to singles in the fourth and fifth ends and dropped to a 1-1 record.
All three of Kean’s victories have ended after just seven ends.
Programming Alert: Watch Draw 4 of the Recharge with Milk Ontario Tankard live tonight at 7 p.m. ET on Rogers TV Sports+.
Kean is the lone undefeated skip in the tournament after Ottawa’s Ian MacAulay upset John Epping and his Toronto-based rink with an 8-4 victory.
MacAulay (1-1) scored a deuce in the second, stole two in the third and swiped a single in four to slide out to a 5-1 lead. Epping (2-1) settled for one in the fifth and a steal of one in the sixth to cut the deficit but MacAulay added another pair in seven to stay in command at 7-3. The two rinks exchanged singles through the eighth and ninth ends.
Elsewhere in Draw 3 action, Toronto’s Peter Corner picked up a 12-6 win over Cory Heggestad of Markdale to move up to a 2-1 record.
Corner stole one to open the scoring in the first. The two teams traded points through the second and third ends before Heggestad (0-3) pulled ahead 3-2 with a deuce in the fourth. Corner jumped back into the lead 5-3 with a double takeout in the fifth end to count three.
After blanking the sixth, Heggestad had a chance to grab a three-ender of his own in the seventh but he didn’t hit Corner’s stone at the right angle and instead gave up a steal of one.
Heggestad recovered in the eighth and nailed the double takeout to get his trio that tied it 6-6. Corner was forced to draw to the four-foot circle to avoid a steal and grab a one-point lead heading home.
Corner sat five in the 10th and he caught a break when Heggestad’s final shot picked to bring out the handshakes.
Ottawa’s Colin Dow improved to a 2-1 record with a 10-2 rout in six ends over Jon St. Denis of Listowel (1-2). Dow stole singles through the first four ends and wrapped up the game with a six-ender in the sixth.
Joe Frans of St. Thomas (1-2) made the takeout shot to score the winning single in the extra end of a 9-8 victory over Guelph’s Rob Rumfeldt (1-2).
Aaron Squires (1-1) and his team from the Kitchener-Waterloo Granite Club held the bye in Draw 3.
The winner of the Recharge with Milk Tankard will represent Ontario at the Tim Hortons Brier, starting Feb. 28 in Calgary.
