Team Northern Ontario #1 through to quarterfinal at 2026 Canadian Under-18 Curling Championships

Team Northern Ontario #1’s Riley Winters (4-3; North Bay) made good on its 5-12 seed playoff round opportunity Thursday afternoon, defeating Team Alberta #2’s Nolan Duncan (4-3; Edmonton) 5-4 at the 2026 Canadian Under-18 Curling Championships, hosted by the McIntyre Curling Club in Timmins, Ont.

The win grants Winters and his North Bay Curling Club outfit of vice-skip/third Wesley Decary, second Grayson Gribbon, lead Aidan Baxter, and coach Steve Decary a quarterfinal berth against Team Ontario #1’s Tyler MacTavish (6-0; Waterloo) Friday at 9:30 a.m., (all times Eastern)

Winters isn’t dwelling on the high of a playoff victory and is already setting his focus on tomorrow’s quarterfinal, even with a little outside and potentially unsolicited advice.

“Just refocus and win,” said Winters. “We ran into a guy in the (pizza restaurant) who was a little bit of a yapper and he said, ‘It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.’”

Pizza-shop wisdom aside, the journey has been a fruitful one en route to the 5-4 playoff victory, but Winters admits there have been a few bumps along the way. Team Northern Ontario #1 led the match 3-1 after three ends before coughing-up the lead in the fourth, where Team Alberta #2 scored a three.

“We let them get a big end in four,” said Winters. “That was annoying. And then we wanted to get our two right back in five, but it didn’t happen, so we had to be patient there and wait.”

That patience manifested into three-straight blank ends to keep the score locked at 4-3 in favour of Team Alberta #1, but it’s not how Winters had the strategy drawn up. After the blanks in five and six, Winters says his team pivoted to keep the blank-train rolling through the seventh end to retain hammer in eight.

“That wasn’t the plan,” laughed Winters about the glut of blanks. “It (became) the plan after the sixth.”

The revised plan worked flawlessly as Team Northern Ontario #1 played a precise end in the eighth, leaving Winters and open “touch paint and win” draw on his final stone to secure the victory.

Though Winters is comfortable on the ice as the host team, he doesn’t feel there is any home-ice advantage at play.

“I don’t think there’s any advantage,” said Winters. “I don’t think it’s different at all. It’s a national. Just got to focus and play the best we can.”

In other 5-12 seed playoff round matches on Thursday afternoon at the 2026 Canadian Under-18 Curling Championships, Team Alberta #1’s Parker Harris (5-2; Edmonton) needed an extra end to down Team Newfoundland and Labrador’s Zachery French (4-3; St. John’s) 5-4 while Team Ontario #2’s Aaron Genjaga (5-2; Mississauga) bounced Team Manitoba #1’s Evan Boutet 8-3 in six ends, and Team Northern Ontario #2’s Jacob Curtis (5-2; Thunder Bay) stacked a third-straight win 6-4 over Team Saskatchewan #2’s Quinn Snow (3-4; Saskatoon).

Action from the 2026 Canadian Under-18 Curling Championships continue Thursday evening at 8:30 p.m.

Tickets for the 2026 Canadian Under-18 Curling Championship are still available for purchase by clicking here. 

Live scoring, rosters, and draw schedule details can be found at the event website by clicking here.