Dan Falloon
To be the best, you have to beat the best—sometimes twice.
Local skip Kim Beaudry was able to defeat Melanie Patry (Coniston) 3-2 on Sunday morning at the Dominion women’s club curling championship at the Port Arthur Curling Club in Thunder Bay, but that wasn’t quite good enough to earn a berth in the national showdown in Charlottetown, P.E.I. in November.
Since Patry entered the game undefeated, she had to be knocked off twice in order for Beaudry to claim the provincial crown.
And Patry put her second life to good use, stonewalling Beaudry 7-3 in the winner-take-all final later Sunday.
“We played well, we were just on the wrong side of the inch,” Beaudry reasoned. “It was the seventh end [with the score 5-3 for Patry]. If I make a raise-takeout, we’re tied up.
“It didn’t work, and we were down three,” she noted.
In Sunday morning’s 5-3 win to force the deciding rematch, Beaudry and her rink of third Kelly Wagar, second Teresa McFayden, and lead Jeannie Sheppard fell behind 1-0 in the third after the first two ends were blanked.
The local rink then put up singles in the fourth and fifth ends to go up 2-1, but Patry knotted things in the sixth with a single of her own.
After blanking the seventh, Beaudry claimed the necessary single in the eighth.
Beaudry said the win helped her team gain some confidence and hang around until the latter stages of the second match-up.
“We knew we could do it, and it was a pretty close game up until then [the seventh end],” she noted.
“It’s unfortunate we didn’t come out on top, but we gave it a good try.”
In the 7-3 loss that cost her a trip to Charlottetown, Beaudry hung around early but Patry became overwhelming as the game progressed.
After Patry put up a single in the first, Beaudry responded with a pair in the second.
Patry took the lead for good, however, with a deuce of her own in the third before stealing one in the fourth to lead 4-2.
Beaudry climbed to within one with a single in the fifth, but Patry put up one in each of the sixth, seventh, and eighth ends to claim the win.
“They were beatable,” Beaudry remarked. “Obviously, we beat them once.
“[But] we were pretty exhausted by the end of it.”
Beaudry felt her team was able to figure out the ice quickly, nailing down draw weight early.
“They found draw weight pretty well,” she lauded. “Everybody curled well.”
Beaudry had opened the tournament with a 9-0 victory over Sharon Giertuga (Fort William) on Thursday, then improved to 2-0 with an 8-3 win over Judith MacMichael (Soo Curlers Association) on Friday afternoon.
Beaudry revved quickly against Giertuga, posting three points in each of the first two ends to jump out to a 6-0 lead.
She then stole singles in the third, fourth, and fifth ends before the teams shook hands.
In her second game, Beaudry posted two in the first before MacMichael came back with a single in the second.
Beaudry took control from that point on, however, posting singles in the third, fourth, and fifth to get ahead 5-1, and then adding an exclamation point with a steal of three in the sixth.
MacMichael fought back with a pair in the seventh, but that’s all the offence she was able to muster.
Friday night brought Beaudry’s round-robin match-up against Patry, which the eventual champ took 6-2.
Patry came up with a pair in the second before Beaudry responded with a single in the third.
Patry extended the lead to 4-1 with singles in the fourth and fifth.
Beaudry came back with one in the sixth but Patry sealed the win with a pair in the seventh.
Beaudry hoped to rebound Saturday morning against Rejeanne MacLeod (Iroquois Falls), who entered the game winless in three tries.
But MacLeod staged a late comeback to stun Beaudry 6-5 for her lone victory of the weekend.
The rinks exchanged singles through two before Beaudry jumped ahead with a deuce in the third and steal of one in the fourth for a 4-1 lead.
The two teams again traded singles to make the score 5-2 after six ends.
MacLeod then came up with a deuce in the seventh before notching another pair in the eighth to complete the rally.
Sitting at 2-2 with a pair of rinks, Beaudry needed a victory over Karen Saarimaki of Geraldton (also 2-2) to make an appearance in the final a possibility.
And Beaudry didn’t just win, she made a statement—pounding Saarimaki 8-1.
The rinks blanked the first two ends, but Beaudry came through with four in the third before stealing a pair and a single in the fourth and fifth, respectively, to grab a commanding 7-0 lead.
Saarimaki came back with one in the sixth, but Beaudry clinched it with a single in the seventh.
