Opening day success
Lenentine, MacKenzie record two victories at Scotties, Tankard
The Lauren Lenentine and Eddie MacKenzie rinks won twice Thursday on the opening day of the P.E.I. provincial curling championships at the Cornwall Curling Club.
Lenentine and her teammates (Kristie Rogers, Breanne Burgoyne and Rachel O’Connor) will meet the Veronica Smith squad of Jane DiCarlo, Sabrina Smith and Whitney Young today in the A qualifier in the triple-knockout Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
MacKenzie and his team of Josh Barry, Chris Gallant and Sean Ledgerwood will face the Philip Gorveatt rink of Kevin Champion, Mike Dillon and Mark Victor in the A qualifier of the Tankard. Both A finals are slated for 2 p.m.
Women
Lenetine scored 8-5 wins over rinks skipped by Tammy Dewar and Lisa Jackson on Thursday.
Lenentine defeated Dewar in nine ends, scoring three in the sixth to take a 7-3 lead. Lenentine was trailing Jackson 4-2 after four ends before scoring three in the fifth. Jackson tied it in the seventh, but Lenentine scored a deuce in the eighth and stole one in the ninth.
Smith knocked off defending champion Robyn MacPhee team 9-0 in seven ends in the opening draw. The game was scoreless through two ends before Smith stole a deuce in the third end and kept scoring with two in the fourth, three in the fifth and singles in the sixth and seventh ends to end the contest.
MacPhee bounced back with a 7-3 win in eight ends over Dewar in Draw 2. They will play Jackson today at 2 p.m. while Dewar has one life left and will play their next game at 7 p.m.
Men
MacKenzie and his defending championship squad scored a deuce in the 10th end to defeat John Likely 10-9 in their opening game.
Likely held a 4-1 lead through four ends and 7-2 after six before MacKenzie scored triples in the seventh and eighth ends to take an 8-7 advantage. The teams traded deuces in the final two ends.
MacKenzie kept rolling with a 9-3 win over Tyler Harris in the night draw. Trailing 3-2 after five ends, MacKenzie scored one in the sixth, four in the seventh and two in the eighth to end it.
Gorveatt defeated Alan Inman 6-4 after scoring two in the fourth and sixth ends in his only game of the day.
Likely rebounded to double Inman 6-3 by scoring deuces in the first and sixth and singles in the third and ninth. Inman had singles in the second, fifth and eighth ends.
Likely and Harris meet today at 2 p.m. while Inman is down to his final life with a 7 p.m. matchup to come tonight.