It’s a good thing Christmas was last month because Scott Henderson won’t be on the gift-giving list of any district curlers anytime soon.
The Fort William Curling Club skip sent two of the three local rinks packing on his way to clinching the third and final provincial berth up for grabs at the North Western Ontario Curling Association men’s playdowns in Kenora last weekend.
Henderson first dashed any Brier dreams Raymond Roy may have had by downing the Fort Frances rink 6-4 during the double-knockout round Saturday afternoon, eliminating them from further contention.
Then after nipping fellow Fort William curler Ron Rosengren 8-7 on Sunday morning, Henderson scored one in the 10th end to edge Lorne Jackson (Fort Frances) 4-3 that afternoon in the last-chance final.
Henderson joins Kenora’s Murray Affleck and Bryan Burgess (Fort William) at the provincial men’s showdown Feb. 3-9 at the Port Arthur Curling Club in Thunder Bay.
Jackson and his rink of third Don DeBenedet, second Derek Jackson, and lead Wayne Beacham had survived two-consecutive must-win games before finally succumbing to Henderson.
The rink opened action in the triple-knockout round last Thursday afternoon with a 9-6 win over Ken Blackwood (Terrace Bay) before surprising former two-time world champ Al “The Iceman” Hackner 7-5, stealing singles in the ninth and 10th ends to pull out the win.
The road turned rocky after that for Jackson, who fell 11-6 on Friday afternoon to Rosengren before trading bullets in a shootout with Roy that turned into the tournament’s highest-scoring game.
After falling behind 8-2 after the fifth end, Jackson stormed back to tie the game 10-10 by scoring three in the sixth end, four in the seventh, and two more in the 10th.
But Roy made his last-rock advantage count, nabbing a single point in the extra end to secure the wild victory.
“I can’t ever remember a scene like that,” chuckled Jackson. “We had a good team talk after. We knew we had to win our next game.”
The loss left Jackson in a rematch against Hackner on Saturday morning—with the loser heading home.
In what was a back-and-forth affair through seven ends, Jackson trailed 6-5 but managed to blank the next two ends before chilling Hackner by picking up four in the 10th to cap a 9-6 win.
“What really helped us was beating [Hackner] the second time,” said Jackson, who had faced him “a couple of times” before this season. “That showed us that we were playing well.”
Burgess doubled Jackson 8-4 to open the double-knockout round to once again push the local foursome to the brink. But showing a flair for the dramatic, Jackson used singles in the 10th end to eliminate Jeff Zechner (Nipigon) and Bruce Melville (Port Arthur Curling Club) by identical 6-5 scores.
Then a defensive struggle with Henderson on Sunday afternoon saw the Thunder Bay skip score two in the third for the game’s only multiple-point end to take a 2-1 lead.
After two blank ends, the teams traded singles from the sixth through the eighth to make it 3-3, with Henderson holding the hammer.
“It boiled down to the eighth,” recalled Jackson, who had beaten Henderson in the final of the Home Hardware cash ’spiel at the Fort William Curling Club back in November.
“We were looking good at a possible two or three, but Scott made a perfect half come-around freeze on top of our stone and forced us to draw for one,” he remarked.
Blanking the ninth put Henderson in the driver’s seat in the 10th, as he came through for the single point to end Jackson’s run at a spot in the provincials for the second-straight year.
“The way the season started, we had our sights set on getting right back to the provincials,” said Jackson. “We just fell one shot short of it. We just have to re-group and get ready for next year.”
Meanwhile, Roy’s team of third Tim Nordin, second Bill Carroll, and lead John Commine was sharp early with an 8-6 win over Kenora’s Wayne Warkentin in their opener last Thursday.
But then Henderson rallied from a 4-1 deficit after three ends to beat Roy 11-9 later Thursday, clinching the win with three in the ninth.
A tight battle with Red Lake’s Michael Procyk on Friday afternoon ended with Roy scoring once in an extra end to take a 6-5 decision before his slugfest versus Jackson earned him a place in Saturday’s final eight.
“We were pretty scared there for a bit,” Roy said of the Jackson match. “But we still had control with last rock, so we knew we were still okay.”
Saturday afternoon was a different story, though, as Melville rung up a five-ender in the fourth end en route to a 10-5 victory over Roy.
“We had two or three chances to bail ourselves out,” Roy said of the decisive fourth. “We had a shot at a couple of nice freezes, but didn’t make them.”
From there, it was a rematch with Henderson to stay alive in the competition. And another close affair between the two rinks came down to Henderson grabbing a pair in the ninth before running Roy out of rocks in the 10th.
“It was a really well-played game,” said Roy. “They just made every shot.
“Henderson was phenomenal,” he added. “We had one frozen to one of his on the button in the ninth and he picked it out for his deuce.”
Roy had considered Henderson and Burgess strong possibilities to advance to the provincials, but said Affleck’s performance surprised him.
“[Affleck’s] been around forever and this we’ll be his first try at the provincials,” said Roy. “It has to be considered somewhat of an upset.”
There was no masking his disappointment at not snaring one of the three berths up for grabs in Thunder Bay.
“We’ve been [to the districts] so many times,” lamented Roy. “You’re going there to win. We had a good team. We know we can play with these other guys.
“We just didn’t do it.”
Stratton’s Craig Armstrong, along with third Bryan Bonot, second Terry Lee, and lead Mark Loney, weren’t as fortunate as their district counterparts.
The squad dropped a 10-4 decision to Melville in their opener Thursday, then stole singles in the fourth, fifth, and sixth ends to beat Zechner 7-2 in eight ends.
Burgess turned the tables on Armstrong, stealing a single in the seventh and three more in the eighth to win 10-8 on Friday morning, thereby pitting Armstrong against Hackner to stay alive.
The Thunder Bay skip busted open a 2-2 game with four in the fourth, then salted the game away with a steal of two in the eighth to eliminate Armstrong by a 10-7 count.
“The tough part is that in the three games we lost, we were in all three, and it was one big end that cost us each time,” said Armstrong.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
