Joey Payeur
Outsiders with no sense of recent history would consider the men’s provincial curling championship merely a coronation ceremony for Brad Jacobs.
But don’t count Travis Showalter among that group because he and his rinkmates are proof positive that doesn’t necessarily have to be the case.
The Nestor Falls native filled the lead role for the Dylan Johnston rink of Thunder Bay, which also includes Devlin’s Mike Badiuk at third, that crafted a 4-0 record at the West region playdowns held here over the weekend to clinch first place and one of three berths to the provincial playdowns Feb. 8-12 in the Lakehead.
Whoever survives that test will advance to the Tim Hortons Brier national championship March 4-12 in St. John’s, N.L.
The biggest obstacle standing in their way? Jacobs, the Sault Ste. Marie powerhouse who has won six of the past seven Northern Ontario titles.
Jacobs also is the defending Olympic men’s champ, as well as the 2013 Brier winner and world silver-medalist.
But if there’s a knocking sound to be heard, it’s not coming from Showalter’s knees.
“We beat [Jacobs] at last year’s provincials,” he noted. “There’s no reason we can’t do it again.
“Is this our year? I definitely feel that way.”
Showalter said communication was a big key to the team’s success this past weekend.
“That’s something we’ve been working on very hard in practice.”
Johnston already had a top-three spot wrapped up after beating Bryan Burgess (Kakabeka Falls) 10-6 on Friday night, then edging Jordan Chandler (Thunder Bay) 5-4 and Stratton native Trevor Bonot (skipping Mike Assad’s Geraldton rink) by a 6-5 score on Saturday.
But Showalter said Sunday’s 8-7 win in extra ends over Colin Koivula (Thunder Bay) in the Johnston rink’s final game still was of vital importance.
“It’s good for us to win that last one to keep our morale up going into the provincials,” he reasoned.
Burgess wound up in second place in the standings at 3-1 while Bonot, Koivula, and Chandler all finished tied at 1-3–necessitating two tie-breakers later Sunday to decide the final berth.
Koivula earned a bye to the second tie-breaker thanks to having the shortest combined distance to the button on his pre-game draws throughout the weekend.
Bonot and Chandler squared off in the first tie-breaker, with Chandler exerting early control with three-enders in the first and fourth and a steal of one in the fifth to lead 7-2.
But the mid-game break seemed to settle down Bonot and his team of Assad at third, Andrew Hackner at second, Dwayne Sutherland at lead, and Jamie Childs at fifth.
A deuce in the sixth, followed by a steal of one in the seventh, put Bonot within hailing distance. Then he held Chandler to one in the eighth to trail 8-5.
But Bonot only could score one with the hammer in the ninth–meaning he had to steal two in the 10th to force an extra end.
He only managed to get one, however, and was eliminated with the 8-7 loss.
Chandler then went on to dump Koivula 9-3 in eight ends to nab the final berth.
“We got behind the eight ball early with a couple of missed opportunities,” said Bonot, who lost 11-3 to Koivula in seven ends on Friday and 4-3 to Burgess on Saturday.
He then beat Chandler 9-4 in eight ends before losing to Johnston to cap a busy Saturday.
“We had to fight for every point to battle back and make a game of it,” added Bonot, who teamed up with his sister, Jackie McCormick, and Megan and Kory Carr of Thunder Bay, to capture the 2017 national mixed curling championship in Yarmouth, N.S. back in November.
“By the 10th end [in the first tie-breaker], we had closed the game to just two points and we were able to sit two half-buried by my last shot,” he recounted.
“But it wasn’t enough and Chandler was able to make a pick take-out for the win.”
Still, Bonot remained positive in the aftermath of the loss by his team, which was put together at the last minute.
“I am very proud of the team,” he remarked. “We had only one win but we had a lot of close games.
“Looking back, it is easy to see our first two losses may have been different if we weren’t going through the growing pains of getting to know one another,” Bonot added.
“That being said, I felt like we got better with each game we played,” he said.
“I had a lot of fun curling with these guys and that is the main thing.”Andrew Hackner at second,
