February 26, 2025

Laurier rinks, Calgary men remain undefeated after Day 2 of Championships

The Laurier Golden Hawks made a statement Tuesday, with both rinks alongside the Calgary Dinos men remaining perfect atop the standings, after the first two days of competition at the 2025 U SPORTS / Curling Canada Championships at the Lethbridge Curling Club.

Tied at two at the break, Golden Hawks skip Emma Artichuk nailed a tough double score over the Regina Cougars in the eighth to win 4-2 on Tuesday night, and improve to 3-0, in a battle of undefeated teams.

It was the second win of the day for Laurier, who earlier stole seven straight points in the final three ends to take a commanding 9-2 victory over Guelph.

“It’s always awesome being at the top of the leaderboard with a few more games left, so we’d love to take the momentum from this,” said Artichuk. "It was definitely a tricky game (against Regina), they were a great team...so we want to take that momentum forward into the rest of the week and finish strong.”

Also in the morning draw, the Cougars stole one in the sixth and added a pair in the final frame to edge Dalhousie 7-6. But the Tigers would rebound in the afternoon, carefully protecting a 5-4 lead late and securing three in the seventh to beat the Gryphons 8-4.

Meanwhile, the host Lethbridge Pronghorns women made program history with their first-ever win at the event, defeating StFX 6-5 after stealing the game-winner in the eighth. The excitement however was short-lived, as the Pronghorns later trailed Thompson Rivers 6-1 after three, and 8-1 after five, eventually falling to the WolfPack 10-4.

The WolfPack also routed McMaster 10-3 on the strength of three in the first, four in the third and a steal in the fourth, fifth and sixth, while the Marauders got out to an early 4-0 lead over StFX after two and never looked back, winning 9-2.

One the men’s side, the Golden Hawks and Dinos both took defending champion Regina, who now sit at 0-3 and are tied at the bottom of the table. In their first game, Laurier got off to an early 4-0 lead on Regina and held off a late Cougars comeback, scoring four in the seventh for a 9-4 win.

“We had a few miscues in the sixth end, just got caught with the ice more than anything, some spots we hadn’t seen,” said Golden Hawks skip Kibo Mulima, whose rink also dispatched Lethbridge 13-2 in the nightcap. “But we limited the damage...so it was good resilience and I like the way the team’s feeling.”

It was more of the same for the struggling Cougars in the evening, with the Dinos scoring six in the third en route to avenging their recent CW Championship loss between the two sides by a score of 7-2. Calgary’s impressive day also featured scores in five consecutive ends to start their game against Lethbridge, dominating the Pronghorns 7-1.

“It was a sneaky six where angles were in our favour,” said Dinos third Ky Macaulay of the high-scoring end, celebrating the result the night before his 21^st birthday. “We had one corner guard that everything just kind of happened to be behind, and they had a freeze that went a few inches deep. It just rolled off enough to give us a big weight shot and rack them up.”

“Coming out tonight playing was one of those games where it’s like, ‘Okay, little bit of redemption on the board, (let’s) settle the score,’” he added, referencing the CW title match won by the Cougars. “The guys have been playing great, communication as a team has been perfect and we’re just really jelling this week, so it’s just lovely to see.”

In other men’s early matches, Brock scored a pair in the eighth to bounce Memorial 4-3, while UNB had three in the second and fourth to beat Carleton 9-4. The teams then traded opponents in the evening, with the Ravens scoring a triple in the sixth to down Brock 7-4, while UNB stole a pair in the fourth for a narrow 6-5 result over Memorial.

Day 3 of the U SPORTS / Curling Canada Championships resumes Wednesday morning, beginning once again with the first of four draws at 10:30 am ET / 8:30 am MT.

Schedule and Results

TEAM STANDINGS

Men

Calgary 3-0

Laurier 3-0

UNB 2-1

Carleton 2-1

Brock 1-2

Memorial 1-2

Regina 0-3

Lethbridge 0-3

Women