Mark Kean shook off a two-game skid to bounce back and beat Peter Corner 10-5 during Draw 8 action Thursday afternoon at the Recharge with Milk Ontario Tankard in Dorchester, Ont.
Kean opened the tournament red-hot winning his first four games but cooled down dropping both of his matches Wednesday. The Fenelon Falls team stepped it up and took a 4-2 lead with a three-ender in the fourth. Team Corner, from Toronto, blanked the fifth end but settled for one in the sixth. Kean added another trio in the seventh to make it 7-3.
Three-time world champion Wayne Middaugh, who joined Team Corner for the draw and threw skip stones, made a double takeout with his last shot in eight to score a deuce and narrow the gap. But Kean added another three points in the ninth to bring out the handshakes.
Team Corner now holds a 4-4 record in the round-robin stage.
Programming Note: Watch Draw 9 of the Ontario Tankard live tonight at 7 p.m. ET on Rogers TV Sports+.
The 5-2 Kean team is tied for second in the standings with Ottawa’s Ian MacAulay, who erased a six-point deficit and won 9-8 in the extra end against Aaron Squires of Kitchener-Waterloo.
Squires (2-5) opened the game scoring a deuce in the first and stole pairs in the second and third ends. The rinks traded singles through four and five before MacAulay charged back with two in the six and a steal of one in seven. Squires was held to a single in eight, MacAulay took two more points in the ninth and stole another pair in the 10th to force the extra frame. Squires came up light on his final rock and couldn’t knock off MacAulay’s shot stone to give up the winning steal.
Toronto’s John Epping tops the standings at 6-1 after a 7-5 victory over defending champion Greg Balsdon of Hamilton. Epping trailed 5-4 after eight ends but tied it with a single in one and pulled ahead stealing two in the ninth. Balsdon’s first skip stone in the 10th didn’t make it to the house and he opted to shake hands.
Team Balsdon (4-3) is locked in a three-way tie for fourth place with Ottawa’s Colin Dow and Guelph’s Rob Rumfeldt.
Rumfeldt rolled to a 9-2 win in seven ends over Jon St. Denis of Listowel. Rumfeldt snapped a tied game with a single in the fourth and stole three in the fifth to go up 5-1. St. Denis (2-6) settled for one in the sixth and shook hands after Rumfeldt scored a four-ender in the seventh.
Dow held the bye during Draw 8.
Joe Frans of St. Thomas (4-4) scored three-enders in the second and eighth during an 8-5 win over Markdale’s Cory Heggestad (0-7).
