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Kyle Habkirk’s Victoria Curling Centre rink has played its way back into a playoff position at the sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ Junior Curling Championships at the Royal City club in New Westminster.

After starting the eight-team junior men’s event at 0-2, Habkirk and his rinkmates, third Duncan Silversides, second Ryan Cassidy and lead Alex Horvath, have rattled off four straight victories.

Habkirk, who hails from Coquitlam while the rest of the team is based out of Victoria, defeated Jordan Kiss of Royal City 6-4 in the Thursday morning draw and rebounded with a tight 6-5 win over Hayato Sato, also of Royal City, in the afternoon. Derek Chandler of Victoria plays lead for Kiss.

The pair of wins propelled Habkirk to second place heading into Thursday’s late draw, in which the VCC rink had a bye. Matthew McGrady of Royal City led the junior men’s standings at 5-1, while Tyler Tardi of Langley and Thomas Love of Vernon were 3-1 heading into evening play.

Habkirk faces Love this morning to close out round-robin play with the top four teams heading into the Page playoff system.

In junior women’s play, the VCC’s Mariah Coulombe — with third Taylor Reese-Hansen, second Jordan Koster and lead Kirsten Zucchet — downed winless Megan McGillivray of Vernon 7-4 in the afternoon to improve to 2-3, well back of undefeated leader Corryn Brown of Kamloops, who has Nanaimo’s Marika Van Osch throwing third stones.

Brown downed Sarah Daniels of the Delta Thistle (with Sydney Brilz of Victoria playing lead) 10-7 in the afternoon in a battle of the event favourites. Brown recorded three-enders in the second, third and sixth ends to pull out the win to remain atop the eight-team women’s field at 4-0.

Brown was set to face Alyssa Connell of Prince George (2-2) in the Thursday late draw.

Daniels and the Delta Thistle’s Megan Bourassa were both 3-2 heading into evening play.

The women’s final is set for Sunday at 11 a.m., followed by the men’s championship game at 3 p.m., with the winners advancing to the Canadian Junior Curling Championships, Jan. 21-29 at the Esquimalt Curling Club and Archie Browning Sports Centre.