Calvert does his part in Maple Leaf sweep

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This article was published 09/03/2015 (4068 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE journey hasn’t sunk in yet for Braden Calvert, the remarkable trajectory that launched him from a farm near Carberry, to his new place atop the world stage.

Pinch him, it’s real. On Sunday — well before dawn, Manitoba time — Calvert’s Team Canada took the ice in Talinn, Estonia, and claimed world junior gold.

The two-time reigning Canadian champions rocked out a confident win, shooting 91 per cent to beat Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller in a 6-3 final.

Later, their junior women’s counterparts would do the same, as Edmonton’s Kelsey Rocque won her second straight title to complete the Maple Leaf sweep.

“It’s kind of a dream come true I guess for us,” Calvert said, before leaving the Talinn’s Tondiraba Ice Rink after both games. “It’s unbelievable. We’re still a little bit shocked, maybe it’ll sink in a little bit.”

The achievement was the last jewel in a remarkable year for the Calvert rink, and the last honour they can achieve together as juniors. Next year, Calvert’s front end of lead Brendan Wilson and second Lucas van den Bosch will age out, though the skip and third Kyle Kurz still have time left at this level.

Giving Wilson and van den Bosch a world title, Calvert agreed, was special to the team, and they came into Talinn gunning to win.

The foursome was hot off a remarkable show in the provincial men’s championship, where they battled to the 3 vs. 4 game and put up a stout opposition there to Jeff Stoughton. They did that, despite being exhausted from curling their way to the Canadian junior title just a week before.

In retrospect, Calvert thinks that helped their world championship run. “I definitely think we’ve just been riding this wave of momentum as events have gone on,” Calvert said. “We’ve played pretty well at all of these events. It (the Safeway) got us right ready to go.”

In Talinn, the team came out firing, bolstered by a vigorous cheering section of friends and family who made the trip.

The Canadians lost just one game in the round robin, edged Switzerland with a 10th-end steal in the 1 vs. 2 game to advance straight to the final, and curled brilliantly there. This is the same Swiss skip, by the way, who knocked them out of the world playoffs in the 2014 3 vs. 4 game — though Calvert said they weren’t thinking about that too much in Sunday’s final.

“We tried to stick to our own game and not worry too, too much about our opponents,” he said. “We knew we’d have to play really well to not only beat them one time, but to beat them three times. It’s pretty impressive.”

They got a hot start in the ultimate game. In the first end, the Swiss team tried and failed to knock out a stubborn Calvert rock gnawing at the back edge of the 12-foot. That set the Canadian team up for a comfortable deuce — and a big confidence boost.

‘We’re still a little bit shocked, maybe it’ll sink in a little bit’

— Manitoba’s Braden Calvert (right), seen celebrating the world junior curling championship Sunday.

“We kind of set the end up simple, and we tried to spread the rings the best we could,” Calvert said. “We kind of rode the momentum the rest of the way. It established a good start for the team – we were pretty fired up to be in the game, and we weren’t holding too much back.”

From there, the Canadians locked down with a tight defensive game. Switzerland finally got on the board with a single in the seventh, but Calvert and company promptly struck back with a deuce. Schwaller picked up two in response, but there was no time left to close the gap. The Canadians ran Switzerland out of rocks to bring on handshakes in the 10th end.

Now, after a wild season, Calvert and his team can finally look forward to landing back in Winnipeg tonight and taking a break from the ice. They may play in a few fun spiels with friends, he said, but mostly they plan to give their championship ride a chance to sink in.

After all, it’s not every day you get to stand on a world stage.

“It’s pretty neat to be able to travel in these great places,” Calvert said. “It kind of puts itself in perspective for sure. We know how fortunate we are to be able to do this.”

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca