Manitoba makes mixed semifinal

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/11/2010 (5674 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LOCALS will be front and centre in the playoffs today at the Canadian Mixed Curling Championship.

Brandon’s Terry McNamee and the rest of Team Manitoba — third Lana Hunter, second Allan Lawn and lead Lisa Blixhavn — salvaged new life and some hope with a dramatic 7-6 win over Ontario’s Chris Gardner in a playoff tiebreaker game at the Morris Curling Club Friday night.

The win, which ended a three-game losing streak for Manitoba, eliminated Ontario and advanced Manitoba to this morning’s 9 a.m. semifinal against Nova Scotia’s Paul Flemming. The winner will advance to this afternoon’s 1:30 final against Prince Edward Island’s Robert Campbell.

“It was a great game,” McNamee said after the Ontario win. “We played a good game, there was lots of rocks in play and we’re pretty happy about it.

“We’re lucky and we’re looking forward to playing tomorrow for sure.”

It is an inspired finish for a roller-coaster Manitoba team that had been in first place — or at least a share of first — since the first round-robin draw last Saturday, only to lose their last three round-robin games and plunge themselves into a three-way tie for the third and final playoff spot.

That forced two rounds of tiebreaker games on Friday, with Manitoba drawing a bye to Friday night’s game — based on results of a pre-event skills competition — while Ontario had to beat New Brunswick 9-3 earlier in the day to advance.

Manitoba beat Ontario 6-2 during the round-robin and had the hammer in the tiebreaker, but the advantage was short-lived as Manitoba surrendered a steal in the first end.

McNamee battled back and carried a 3-2 edge into the fifth-end break, but an Ontario deuce in the sixth end and another steal in the seventh swung the advantage back to Gardner.

But that proved to be all for Ontario. Manitoba tied the game 5-5 in the eighth end, forced Ontario to take one in the ninth end and then was lying two buried when Gardner sailed his last rock of the 10th end through the back of the house to give Manitoba the game-winning deuce.

It all sets up a dramatic semifinal encounter this morning with Nova Scotia, which defeated Manitoba during the round-robin Wednesday night to touch off that three-game losing streak.

But instead of remembering the loss to Flemming, McNamee was talking Friday night about how he missed his final shot of the 10th end in that game to gift the win to Nova Scotia. “We should have won that game — for sure,” McNamee said. “I’m looking forward to getting another chance against them.”

Whoever wins this morning will have to take on P.E.I. — and maybe even a sense of destiny — in the final.

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That’s because there would be all kinds of symmetry to P.E.I.’s Campbell winning in Morris today. The only other time the Charlottetown skip has curled in the Canadian Mixed was in 1989, which also just happens to be the last time Manitoba hosted the event.

What’s more, Campbell also won it all in 1989, when the event was held at Brandon’s Keystone Centre.

The P.E.I. foursome has been the most consistent team all week, finishing with a sparkling 10-1 record.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca