Missed shots, poor play plague Gobeil rink

In past years, Scott Gobeil’s Northern Ontario rink usually came up with the key shot at pivotal times to pull out victories at the national police curling playdowns.
But those game-winning shots were nowhere to be found this time around in Halifax. The result was a 6-5 record and an early exit.
“We had good games where we would come out and not miss a shot and then other games we would have half-misses and then get down two or three points,” said Gobeil.
“This year’s team didn’t play well. If one guy was flat, we needed the other guy to pick him up.
“We all had bad games,” he stressed.
A disappointing 6-5 loss to Newfoundland in their final round-robin game last Thursday afternoon–keyed by giving up a deuce in the final end–sealed the fate of Gobeil and his rink of third Jeff Simpkins, second Don Robertson, and lead Dave Jones.
“It is disappointing because we should have won a few more games,” said Robertson. “It came down to missing a couple of shots here and there.”
Northern Ontario had stormed out of the gate with a 4-1 record until a disappointing 9-3 loss to Manitoba. After that, Gobeil’s rink could only manage two wins in their final four games.
In fact, they lost their final two games. “We had to split and we lost both,” lamented Gobeil.
Five losses won’t get a team into the playoffs at the nationals.
“We expected two, three, or four [losses] but we didn’t think five,” said Robertson, adding they haven’t had a record this mediocre at the police nationals since the early ’90s.
“There were lots of good teams,” he noted. “The top teams were real good but the field had more good teams.”
B.C. was the class of this year’s field, edging Manitoba 4-3 in the final Saturday to win this year’s national crown.
They had finished atop the 12-team standings after the round-robin with a 9-2 record, then dismantled second-place Manitoba (8-3) by an 8-0 score in the first playoff game under the Page system.
P.E.I. nipped Ontario 7-6 in their playoff matchup but then were bounced 8-6 by Manitoba in the game to see who advanced to the final against B.C.
“They [B.C.] were a good team. I can’t say the most solid team but the most consistent,” said Gobeil.