Lucas Punkari
With any chance of making the playoffs at the Northern Ontario men’s provincial curling championships having gone out the window yesterday, Tim Nordin of the Stratton Curling Club will be trying to derail the hopes of two others today at the Fort William Curling Club.
Sitting near the bottom of the 12-team field with a 3-6 record, Nordin and the rest of his crew, including third Mitch Sequin, second Adam Bolen, and lead Travis Showalter, went up against the 6-3 Mike Pozihun foursome (Port Arthur Curing Club) in this afternoon’s draw (the outcome wasn’t known by press time).
Then he’ll wrap up round-robin play tonight against Mike Jakubo (5-4) from the Copper Cliff Curling Club.
Nordin’s own playoff hopes were dashed yesterday morning with an 8-4 loss to Mike Assad (Fort William Curling Club). But he bounced back in the evening draw, downing John Salo (Geraldton) by a 5-3 score.
That loss dropped Salo, whose team features Devlin native Mike Badiuk at lead, along with third Kris Leupen, second Cory Nephin, and alternate Kurt Pristanski, to a 4-5 record after having lost 8-5 to Assad yesterday afternoon.
Salo was facing Robbie Gordon (Sudbury) this morning before concluding round-robin play versus David MacInnes (Englehart) this afternoon.
Defending champ Brad Jacobs (Sault Ste. Marie) held the top spot in the standings heading into today’s action with an 8-1 record.
The final will be held Sunday, with the winner going on to represent Northern Ontario at the Brier next month, in London, Ont.
