THUNDER BAY – The Tbaytel Major League of Curling playoff picture is starting to shape up.
Five teams clinched berths in the eight-team championship round on Wednesday night, including teams skipped by Trevor Bonot and Al Hackner, who will join Krista McCarville, Brian Adams, Jr. and Bryan Burgess in the Jan. 20 playoffs.
Two more teams, skipped by Ron Rosengren and Chris Silver, control their own destiny and can snap up berths with a regulation win in one of their final two games, while Gary Weiss, Dylan Johnston, Robyn Despins and Zach Warkentin remained in the hunt, three of the four teams pulling off key wins at the Port Arthur Curling Centre.
Hackner, who has spent most of the current season south of the border working with teams in the United States, said it took him a couple of weeks to get his curling legs under him, but thinks he’s just about there.
The former two-time world champion had the easiest go of it in Week 13, scoring five in the third end and three more in the fifth to hand Despins an early exit, downing his opponent 10-2.
At 8-2-3-0, Hackner is in a three-way tie for second with McCarville and Adams Jr., one point behind top-seeded Bonot (9-0-2-2), who also had a relatively easy time of it on Wednesday, knocking off Jackson Dubinsky 8-3.
“Their skip had a chance to save that end, but she came up with a zero and had to feed off the five. From there we could comfortably control the game, as long as we make our shots,” Hackner said.
“Last night I played in our league game at Fort William (Curling Club) and I threw it good and tonight I threw it good again.”
Hackner gave plenty of credit to the rest of the team, who kept themselves in contention into December, until he was able to return to the fold.
“We knew that we needed a five-man team to pull all this off and Frank (Morissette) was a most able spare for us – and the team came up with some nice wins against some of the top teams. So we’re in good shape. Obviously, the playoffs, that’s where you want to be,” Hackner said.
Bonot came out firing against Dubinsky, picking up a deuce in the first and one in the second to take a 3-0 lead. Dubinsky bounced back with two of his own in the third, but gave them right back in the fourth and allowed a steal of three more in the fifth to put the game out of reach.
“It’s really just about playing consistent and playing sharp and not having burnout,” said Bonot, who will play in a bonspiel this weekend at PACC, has mixed doubles provincials next weekend and is one of 14 teams vying for the Northern Ontario provincial crown later this month in Little Current, Ont.
“Knowing we have provincials at the end of the month is our big goal. We’re just trying to stay focused for that.”
Adams Jr., the defending Major League champion, had a bit more of a test in his match against Denis Malette, having to come from behind, albeit just a 2-1 deficit. He took the lead for good with three in the fourth and stole two in the fifth and went on to win 6-4.
McCarville clinched despite falling 5-4 to Johnston, who stole a point in the eighth to claim victory, the two-time Scotties runner-up’s final shot bouncing an inch or two too far. Johnston checks in with 20 points, two points behind eighth-place Gary Weiss, who pulled off a 7-5 win over Ron Rosengren and now controls his own playoff destiny with two weeks to go in the regular season.
In other action, Warkentin beat Andrew Sinclair 10-3, Silver downed Jodi Judd 6-2 and Burgess took out Ben Mikkelsen 6-4. Mikkelsen, with 16 points, could catch Weiss for eighth, but would need help from other teams to have a shot at the playoffs.
