Gallant still in playoff hunt

SOREL-TRACY, Que. - Brett Gallant is still fighting for a playoff spot, and Sarah Fullerton got a must-win to keep her chances alive Tuesday night at the Canadian junior curling championships.
The Charlottetown Curling Club rink of Gallant, Adam Casey, Anson Carmody and Alex MacFadyen split two games Tuesday and sits with a record of 5-3, behind three teams in the standings.
The team picked up a 9-6 victory over Northern Ontario in the afternoon draw, which Gallant said was critical.
"Today was another big game for us," said Gallant. "I guess they're all big games now, but we hung in there and got a few breaks late in the game and really put some pressure on them."
In the evening draw, Gallant suffered an 8-3 setback to Saskatchewan, one of the teams ahead of his rink in the standings.
But the defending champions remain very much alive for a playoff spot.
"It's very important to us (to be in the playoff chase)," he added. "We're definitely trying to get back into playoffs. We needed a few big games after we fell to 1-2. Now we're playing better and hopefully we can continue to play well."
"If we play our game, we should be OK, but every team is really good here this week and every game is going to be tough, so we have to play well and make sure we're sharp. If we play well, we should take care of our own business."
Manitoba remained undefeated, at 7-0, to top the junior men's standings after last night's games.
Saskatchewan improved to 6-1 and Ontario is 5-1.
On the women's side of the championships, Fullerton prevented Saskatchewan from recording its sixth victory Tuesday night.
The Cornwall skip, along with Michelle McQuaid, Sara MacRae and Whitney Young, held on for a 10-8 victory to drop Saskatchewan to 5-2 and third place.
Earlier in the day, the P.E.I. team lost 10-3 to second- place Northern Ontario.
Fullerton's team has a 4-4 record and will be hard-pressed to grab a playoff berth.
While the rink is not yet eliminated, they may need to win all of its remaining games to get into a tie breaker position in order to claim a playoff berth.
"We got a big lead, but then we kind of struggled in the second half, but we managed to pull it off," Fullerton said of her team's victory after breaking out in front 8-2.
"It was a really big win for us," she added. "It puts us at 4-4, so we're still in contention. There's probably going to be tie breakers, so we're pretty excited. It was really important to stay in contention."
"Right now, we're just trying to get every win that we can to stay alive," she said. "Our goal was to come the top half, so that's looking good. And if we can do even better, that would be a bonus."
On top of the women's standings is Rachel Homan of Ottawa.
The Ontario team, which lost the final last season to Manitoba, improved to 6-0 to stay ahead of Northern Ontario, and Saskatchewan.

Live scoring and standings at
www.seasonofchampions.ca/2010juniors