THUNDER BAY – Coming off a lopsided loss last week to Krista McCarville, Al Hackner was bound and determined to find his way back into the win column.
He barely broke a sweat getting there on Wednesday night.
The 66-year-old skip broke open a 2-2 match with three in the third, then stole two more in the fourth and went on to down fellow senior Mike Desilets 11-4 in Week 4 action in Tbaytel Men’s Major League of Curling play at the Port Arthur Curling Club.
The shorthanded Hackner squad, playing without two of its regular members, improved to 3-1 on the season and he said it was great to get the bounce-back win in the books.
“It was a big win for us. It is one of the better teams in the league and we didn’t want to go to 2-2,” Hackner said. “We played the first four games without our regular third and our regular second. So to come out of this 3-1, we’ll take that.”
It was a couple of half misses by Desilets team in the third that proved to be the difference.
“We were able to capitalize and I made a really good shot with my last one for the three. I could have missed it and they’d have stolen one,” Hackner said.
“I shaved the other rock and everything stayed for the three. In the next end, our third made a really good hit-and-roll to the button and we were sitting with a couple rocks on the button and back-four, guarded. They had to make really good draws to the edge of the button to do it. They came close, but when those two rocks are that close to the button, it’s hard to out-draw them.”
Only two teams are ahead of Hackner in the standings.
Dylan Johnston improved to 4-0 with a 6-2 win over Dallas Burgess (0-4), while veteran Frank Morissette (3-0) scored a 9-2 win over Gary Weiss. The turning point in Morissette’s match came in the fifth, when he threaded the needle on his final stone, removing shot rock and sticking around to score three, turning a 2-1 game into the start of a rout.
The skip, who played in the 1976 Brier with Calgary’s Wayne Sokolosky’s team, said they’re not taking anything for granted, despite the strong early run.
“It’s only just begun. We played three games and we’ve won three game. We’re off to a good start, so hopefully that will continue,” Morissette said.
“There are a lot of games left, so we just have to keep playing well and it should be close in every game. We’re just throwing the rock well. It’s the beginning of the year, but we’re all playing decently well.”
He’s not alone.
McCarville, who is using the Major League of Curling season to stay sharp for a possible Scotties invite, captured her second straight match, scoring three in the fifth to pull away from the Bryan Burgess rink, doubling them 8-4 to jump to 3-1 and a tie for third with Hackner.
She said they used a cautious playbook in their first appearance at Port Arthur Curling club this season.
“We felt like we wanted to play a little bit more defensive, than traditionally playing a little more offensive. But when we have the opportunity to go, we have to go, and in that one end we did have the opportunity,” McCarville said.
“We had a short run-back. If I made it perfect I would have gotten four, but three is pretty nice too.”
It was the first loss for Burgess, who fell to 2-1.
In other action, Mike McCarville had steals in the third, sixth and seventh ends to put away Britney Malette 6-2, handing his opponent her third loss in three outings. It was the first win for McCarville, who improved to 1-2.
Mike Pozihun (1-2) stole singles in the seventh and eighth ends to edge Ben Mikkelson 8-6, handing Mikkelson (2-2) his second straight loss.
