Bonot rink bounced from senior playdowns

The difference between victory and defeat often came down to one shot for Bryan Bonot at the provincial senior playdowns in Kirkland Lake last week.
In fact, if the Stratton rink would have won their final game of the six-team round-robin against Wayne Lowe (North Bay), they would have forced a five-team logjam for first place.
Instead, a 7-3 loss sent the local foursome home with a 2-3 record–and no doubt left organizers breathing a sigh of relief.
Lowe jumped out to a 1-0 lead after the second end but then stole a pair in the next to grab control of the game.
After the teams traded singles in the next two ends to make it 4-1, Bonot fought back with one in the sixth and a steal of one in the seventh to pull to within 4-3.
But Lowe put the game out of reach with a pair in the eighth and a steal of one in the ninth for a 7-3 advantage. The teams shook hands after that.
“We just couldn’t get it going,” said third Terry Lee. “It wasn’t a bad game but we couldn’t get it going and they played well.”
But despite failing to make the playoff round, Bonot’s rink, which also included second Ron Martinuk and lead Ted Stewart, played well–and even came back with two in the 10th to beat eventual champ Mike Coulter (Sault Ste. Marie) by an 8-7 count.
(Coulter earned a berth to the national playdowns in Portage La Prairie, Man. next month with a 10-6 win over Lowe in the final).
Bonot’s rink opened with a narrow 4-3 loss to Ken Kozmenski (Dryden) but rebounded with an 8-6 victory over Don Sauve (Haileybury).
Then after beating Coulter to improve to 2-1, they lost a tough 8-7 match in an extra end to Gord McKnight (New Liskeard) before falling to Lowe in their final game.
Trailing McKnight 5-2 after five ends, Bonot clawed his way back into the game with three in the sixth. Then down 7-6 in the 10th, he scored one with the hammer to force the extra end.
“The McKnight game–and losing on a last rock to Kozmenski–were tough but I think that five teams could have been tied for first showed everyone was equal,” said Lee.
“Even Sauve, who was 0-5, was just as good as the rest,” he noted, adding they didn’t curl as well as they did in Thunder Bay to advance to the provincials.