Gushulak edged in playoff at mixed playdowns

Matt Gushulak’s dream of advancing to the Bantam mixed provincial playdowns were dashed with his final shot Sunday morning at the association playdowns in Marathon.
Trailing Rob Skinner (Fort William) 5-4 with the hammer in the eighth and final end, Gushulak missed with his last stone, ending the Fort Frances rink’s chance to advance to the provincials in Peterborough next month.
“I just missed a wide-open hit,” said Gushulak. “Definitely I’m disappointed but I’m glad we got the exposure, and I hope in the future the experience will help us.”
It was a bitter end for the 16-year-old skip, who curled his final game at the Bantam level. His rink played extremely well in the first two days of action, jumping out to a 4-0 record in the eight-team field.
After dumping Nipigon-Red Rock 9-4 in the opening draw last Thursday, Gushulak trounced one of the host Marathon rinks 11-2 on Friday morning and then downed Port Arthur 8-2 that afternoon.
Then they earned a 7-4 win over Fort William later Friday.
But a pair of losses–7-4 to Chris Ramsaywak (Marathon) and 7-6 to Richard Chitty (Red Lake)–put Gushulak in a must-win situation against Ian Hamilton (Dryden).
And Gushulak, whose rink included third Christin Thomson, second Steve Gushulak, and lead Lindsay Roy, rose to the challenge, dumping Hamilton 9-2 to force a playoff with Skinner after both rinks finished the seven game round-robin with 5-2 records.
Ramsaywak already had earned one of the two berths up for grabs to the provincials after finishing in top spot with a 6-1 record.
“They played well and they should be proud of what they did,” coach Raymond Roy said. “They went a long way.”
Roy said the key to their success was their ability to position their rocks where they wanted to in the house, setting up much tougher shots for the other team’s skips.
But while the rink will have to undergo a facelift next season with the loss of their skip, the rest of the team should remain intact–and have a strong future because the remaining trio are still just 14 years old.