Staff
The Jeff Currie rink, which includes Devlin’s Mike Badiuk at lead, pulled off arguably the biggest surprise thus far at the Northern Ontario men’s provincial curling playdowns in Sault Ste. Marie.
The Thunder Bay crew upended defending champ Brad Jacobs 9-3 in nine ends last night to sit at 2-2 heading into play today.
Jacobs, who is from Sault Ste. Marie and has represented Northern Ontario at the last two Tim Hortons Briers, was trailing 4-3 in the ninth when his final stone picked going down the ice, allowing Currie to score five to seal the victory.
It was a bounce-back win for Currie, who had been drubbed 8-2 in five ends by Thunder Bay’s Joe Scharf in the afternoon draw.
Joining Currie and Badiuk are third Dylan Johnston and second Cody Johnston, who played with Badiuk in the junior ranks and were the runner-ups at the 2009 Canadian juniors.
Meanwhile, Stratton’s Trevor Bonot also sits at 2-2 through four draws after defeating Robbie Gordon (Sudbury) 7-4 in nine ends last night.
Bonot, who is joined by third Al Macsemchuk, second Scott McCallum, and lead Tim Jewett, held a narrow 5-4 advantage after eight ends but stole two points in the ninth that led to handshakes.
I, too, was a nice bounce-back win for Bonot, who was hammered 7-1 in six ends by Mike Jakubo (Copper Cliff) yesterday afternoon.
Jakubo was tied for first at 4-0 with Tim Phillips (Sault Ste. Marie) heading into play today, with Jacobs and Scharf next at 3-1.
Bonot and Currie sat just outside of playoff berths with their 2-2 records, with Thunder Bay skips Colin Koivula and Mike Assad joining them in the tie for fifth.
Bonot went up against Koivula this afternoon while Currie took on Phillips.
Tonight’s draw will pit Bonot against David MacInnes (Timmins) while Currie will meet Patrick Gelinas (Mattawa).
