Jackson edged at zone playdowns

Rob Shubat doesn’t have anything personal against Kenora, but he’s okay with missing out on this particular road trip.
The Thunder Bay curler already made a round-about journey by signing his team up with the Atikokan Curling Club so his rink could take part in last weekend’s Zone 7 men’s playdowns at the Fort Frances Curling Club.
It turned out to be a wise decision, with Shubat nipping Lorne Jackson’s local rink 11-9 in the second and deciding playoff game Sunday afternoon to win the event and qualify for the Northwestern playdowns Jan. 15-18 in Thunder Bay.
“It’s nice to know we don’t have to go to Kenora now,” Shubat said about getting to avoid the Zone West bonspiel being held there Jan. 2-4, which will serve as a last chance for those rinks still wanting to advance to the Northwesterns.
“It takes a lot out of you to play that event,” he noted.
But Shubat—teamed up with Bruce Melville (who threw the skip’s stones), second Rob Dueck, and lead Gary Champagne—almost saw a well-played weekend of curling go down the drain.
He went through the round-robin of the five-team event undefeated at 4-0, meaning Shubat only had to win once in the playoffs while any opponent would have to beat him twice under the bonspiel’s two-loss clause.
Shubat’s winning streak went by the boards in the first playoff game Sunday as Jackson built up a 7-2 lead and then hung on for an 8-6 victory.
“We did our best to take some positives out of that game,” said Shubat, who had beaten Jackson handily in the round-robin. “We knew we were getting our game together in the last five ends, and thought we’d be able to take that into the second game.”
So much for the best laid plans of mice and curlers. Jackson, playing his third game of the day after nosing out Stratton’s Bryan Bonot 8-7 in an extra end earlier Sunday, bolted out to a 3-0 lead after two ends and a 5-2 advantage through four.
Then the proverbial wheels came off for Jackson’s crew.
“I can’t remember the last time that happened, especially at this level,” a disbelieving Jackson said about surrendering a five-ender in the fifth that put Shubat up 7-5.
“We gave up far too many three-enders throughout the weekend as it was,” he remarked.
Jackson steadied himself to score one in the sixth, then after giving up a single in the seventh, put a three-spot on the board in the eighth to go back in front 9-8.
But Shubat scored two in the ninth, and despite not having the hammer, left Jackson in deep trouble as the 10th end unfolded.
“Once the opportunity arose in that end, we said we weren’t going to play defensively,” said Shubat. “We thought to ourselves we can steal here.”
The end culminated with Shubat lying one at the edge of the four-foot and behind partial cover. Jackson was left to try a thin takeout to score one and force the extra end, but his last rock wicked off a Shubat stone in the eight-foot and sailed wide of the shot stone to give the visitors the victory and the Zone 7 title.
“If we had swept it earlier, it may have had a chance,” Jackson said in retrospect. “But we missed the line call, and it broke late, and broke hard.”
Jackson, who went 3-1 in the round-robin, isn’t bothered by having to qualify through the Zone West bonspiel in Kenora for the district playdowns, where he lost to Scott Henderson 4-3 in a last-chance final to just miss advancing to the provincials last season.
“I feel we’ll be well-prepared for Kenora,” he remarked. “We usually do better when we play out of town.
“It’s difficult to play regular club games here all the time, and then to have to make that switch to the other level rather than what you’d play at on Monday and Wednesday nights,” he reasoned.
As for Shubat, he’s looking forward to getting plenty of practice time at the host facility of the district championships while not having to stray from home. But he isn’t overstating his chances, either.
“We won’t be the favourites there,” he admitted. “But with four weeks to prepare and strengthen our game, our next goal is certainly to qualify for the provincials.”
Bonot finished the round-robin at 2-2 while the two other Fort Frances rinks of Sheldon Kelly and Garry Windigo wound up at 0-3.
Both those teams declined to play against each other in their final round-robin showdown Sunday morning because they already were out of contention.