Joey Payeur
The Muskie boys’ curling rink ended up getting silver, after all–just not the one they wanted.
A second-place finish at the NWOSSAA championships in Longlac last week left the black-and-gold one spot short of getting a chance to defend their OFSAA silver medal from a year ago.
With regular skip Chris Silver out of action due to a hamstring injury, and with an expected second spot for an NWOSSAA rep at OFSAA no longer a reality, Fort High’s makeshift lineup battled to the end before losing 3-2 in a four-end tie-breaker to the Hammarskjold Vikings (Thunder Bay) to decide the gold medal.
The Vikings will travel to North Bay for the OFSAA championships March 22-25–an event the Muskies already can look forward to being part of next year as the host team.
“I’m really proud of them,” said coach Ron Silver, who shifted third Daniel Vandenbrand to skip and second Jason Bazylewski to third while inserting rookie Owen Riches at second to help out lead Davis Jackson on the front end.
“For all they went through, they did fantastic.”
The team played 15 games in six days between the 2017 U18 boys’ provincials in Nipigon and then the NWOSSAA bonspiel immediately afterwards in Longlac.
“That’s more games than they do at the Brier,” Silver chuckled.
“We had Davis out with the ‘flu for one game at NWOSSAA, and he even came back the next game and gave it his all.”
The Muskie crew, which had finished seventh at the U18 provincials with a 1-6 record, came out flying at NWOSSAA with a 3-0 start.
But a 9-3 loss to Hammarskjold required the Muskies to beat the Geraldton Knights to force a three-way tie for first place with Hammarskjold and the St. Patrick’s Saints (Thunder Bay).
That required a random draw from a hat to determine which team would get the bye to the second tie-breaker while the other two played a four-ender first.
The Vikings had the four-leaf clover on this day, with Fort High and St. Pat’s having to play the extra game, which the Muskies captured to advance to the winner-take-all showdown.
With the Muskie up 2-1 but without the hammer in the fourth and final end, Vikings’ skip Myles Harding made an extremely tough tap-back to score two and pull out the victory.
“It came down to one shot right to the bitter end and they could have just as easily lost it as won it,” noted Silver, who was more than pleased with how Vandenbrand stepped into the skip’s role.
“Daniel came a long way as we went along with his calling of the game and his strategy, and the team had to stick together to make it work,” he remarked.
With a guaranteed shot at a provincial title next year, Silver plans on better days to come–although his lineup could have an altered look.
“Davis has pretty much told me he probably won’t be back and Jason said maybe he’s coming back,” Silver revealed.
“But Chris will be healthy again and Daniel gained fantastic experience as a skip this past week,” he noted.
“Having them throwing rocks back-to-back should make us unbeatable.
“As well, Owen got some valuable experience having never been in competition at this level before and he shot the lights out,” added Silver.
“We wouldn’t have got as far we did without him.
“We also have a couple of other Grade 9s coming up that we can turn to if we need to,” said Silver.
“We are shooting for gold at NorWOSSA, NWOSSAA, and OFSAA next year. That’s our goal.”
