SPORTS

Canadians headed to playoffs at world junior curling championships

The Canadian Press Published Sunday, March 2, 2014 6:11PM EST

Team Manitoba celebrate their win at the men's final at the M&M Meat Shops Junior Curling championship in Liverpool, N.S., Sunday, Jan.26, 2014. Left to right are Manitoba skip Braden Calvert, Manitoba third Kyle Kurz, Manitoba second Lucas Van Den Bosch and Manitoba lead Brendan Calvert. (Michael Burns Photography/Mark O'Neill/ THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO)

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FLIMS, Switzerland -- Winnipeg's Braden Calvert and Edmonton's Kelsey Rocque are headed for the playoffs at the world junior curling championships after both Canadian teams won their final two games on Sunday, the last day of the round-robin portion of the tournament.

Rocque and her rink of Keely Brown, Taylor McDonald, Claire Tully, alternate Alison Kotylak and coach Amanda-Dawn Coderre secured their spot in the Page 1-2 playoff against Korea after defeating both Scotland and Denmark to finish in second place.

The Canadians needed an extra end to squeak out a 7-6 win over Scotland's Gina Aitken in their first game on Sunday.

Riding a four-game winning streak into the final game of the round robin, Rocque scored a huge seven points in the eighth end to nail down a 12-7 victory over Denmark's Christine Svensen (0-9).

"They had an unfortunate break in that end and we were fortunate enough to capitalize," said Rocque about the unusual score of seven. "It was the wrong side of the inch for Denmark with a lot of their stones in that end."

The Canadian women enter the playoffs in second place with a 7-2 record behind South Korea's Kyeong-Ae Kim, also at 7-2, who defeated Canada in the round robin.

Calvert and his junior men's team of Kyle Kurz, Lucas Van Den Bosch, Brendan Wilson, alternate Matt Dunstone and coach Tom Clasper are also off to the playoffs after wrapping up the round robin with two lopsided victories.

The Canadians needed only six ends to dispatch American Jake Vukich 8-1 in a game that Canada controlled from the start. They scored three in the first end and had built a 7-1 lead by the fifth-end break. A steal in six put the game away.

"We got off to another good start and had all the momentum the whole game, I think, and we were in control," said Calvert.

In their final game of the round robin, Calvert and crew cruised to a 9-1 win over Sebastian Wunderer of Austria who came into the game with a 3-5 record. Canada scored four in the fifth and stole another two in the sixth to put the game out of reach.

Norway will play Scotland in the men's Page 1-2 .

Calvert finishes the round robin in third place with a 6-3 record and will play the winner of the tiebreaker between Italy's Amos Mosaner and Switzerland's Yannick Schwaller in the Page 3-4 playoff on Tuesday.