Levesque rink perfect on Day 2

Northern Ontario is in the thick of things after two days of play at the 2012 Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championship.

The hometown squad swept both of its games Tuesday at Fort William Gardens and sits at 3-1, in a two-way tie for third place with Saskatchewan.|

Manitoba, who on Monday handed the skip Carl Levesque his only loss of the week to date, and Alberta top the standings at 4-0.

The Northern Ontario squad, which includes lead Sharon LaFroye, second Mel Prairie and third Rick Bell, jumped out to a quick 5-1 lead after four ends against British Columbia in the morning draw, sailing to an 8-3 triumph over Frank Labounty's squad from Nanaimo.

Levesque and company had a tougher time in their afternoon match against Sudbury's Rick Prud'homme's rink, acting as the official host squad.

Once again Northern Ontario jumped out to a 5-1 lead, but Prud'homme got two back in the fourth and stole another in the fifth to trail 5-4.

Levesque doubled his lead in the sixth and stole one of his own in the seventh to go up 7-4, though the Sudbury squad made it close in the eighth and final end, scoring two points to lose 7-6 and fall to 0-4.