THUNDER BAY – Kory Carr is in complete control of his own curling destiny.
A 9-0 win over Kent Maarup’s foursome on Wednesday night vaulted him past Trevor Bonot’s rink into top spot in the TbaytelMajor League of Curling standings, a win next week’s regular-season finale guaranteeing Carr top spot and a first-round playoff bye.
“Going into such a close playoff in the Major League, it was important to finish strong,” said Carr, his team improving to 10-3 with the win over Maarup (4-9), who is already destined for the consolation round when playoffs begin on Feb. 19.
“Knowing we have only one game left, that kind of determines where we’re going to be in the standings, or at least gives us a good idea. So tonight, even though we were only with three, it was one of those got to be sharp, got to finish strong.”
At 31 points, Carr’s rink is one point ahead of Bonot, who had a substitute team play on Wednesday night, his squad getting set to start the Northern Ontario provincial play-downs in Sault Ste. Marie, an event originally scheduled for Kenora, but pushed back because of COVID-19.
Team Bonot’s replacements came up short, falling 5-3 to Mike Desilets, a win that kept the Northern Ontario senior’s champions playoff hopes alive.
Desilets improved to 7-6, two points behind Al Hackner for the seventh and final playoff spot, Hackner’s team pulling out a 4-3 win over Bryan Burgess to maintain a two-point edge – but with no games left on their schedule.
A regulation win by Desilets would send him to the championship round and relegate Hackner, who was away for family reasons, to the consolation.
The other six playoffs spots have already been decided, though teams are still jockeying for seeding, including Gary Weiss and Krista McCarville, fresh off a runner-up finish at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
Both captured victory in Week 14.
Weiss needed a draw to the button to edge Frank Morissette 5-4, while McCarville and Ben Mikkelsen (7-6) battled it out until McCarville pulled away with three in the sixth to pull out a 6-2 win to improve to 9-4, putting her in fourth spot, one point behind Weiss (10-3).
Teams get three points for a regulation win, two points for an extra end win and one point for an extra end loss.
“It came down to the wire,” said Weiss, who took a 4-2 lead into the seventh, but gave up a steal of one in the eighth to take it to a shoot-out.
“They really turned it on the last couple of ends. We were in the driver’s seat in the last two ends and curled really well and made it a challenge for us.”
It was the ninth straight win for Weiss, who might be peaking at just the right time.
“A lot of times it’s just getting our team together and having time together as a team and building on that week after week. It usually takes us a little bit to get going every year. We don’t practice as much as the other teams. So as we come to the end of the year we try to get our game together and focus on the Major League playoffs.”
For McCarville, it was a chance to laugh and have some fun, after the intensity of making it to the Scotties championship, where they lost to reigning two-time champion Kerri Einarson and Team Canada.
“We’re getting down to the end of round-robin and we need all the wins that we can get to secure our spot and make sure we’re in the playoffs. That was a big win, really.”
In other action, Dallas Burgess downed a Dylan Johnston’s fill-in team 9-2, with Johnston also in Sault Ste. Marie, and Mike Pozihun defeated Britney Malette 8-2.
Carr, Bonot, Weiss, McCarville, Morissette and Johnston have clinched playoff spots.
