Carr falls short

Paul Carr’s run at a Canadian Masters Curling Championship came to a crashing halt on Friday night.

Needing a win and at least one loss between Nova Scotia and Manitoba in their round-robin finales at the Port Arthur Curling Club, Carr came up short against previously winless Yukon skip Dave Kalles, falling 5-4 to miss the semifinal round.

Not that his result really mattered at that point.

Both Nova Scotia and Manitoba won their final games to advance to the playoff round.

Carr, who dropped two of his final three matches, finished 3-5, tied with Quebec for third place in the Pool B standings.

Northern Ontario just made too many critical mistakes, he said.

“It was just one of those days. Obviously we’ve curled better throughout the tournament. I’m really pleased with the way my team played and stuck with it throughout the whole tournament,” said Carr, whose team began the week with three straight losses.

“Today it just wasn’t going to happen for us out there and I’ll you what, that Yukon team we were playing played lights out. They made everything. And the last end they made a triple kill, a double kill, a peel. They just made it all.”

They weren’t a 1-7 team, Carr added, saying they knew when they threw their first rock of the match they were going to have to be careful.

After all, Kalles and company had nothing to lose.

“They came out and played very well, played very loose and made everything.”

The trouble for Carr, lead Ed Koivula, second Ken Ketonen and third Glen Fossum began in the opening end, when Carr missed his final shot, surrendering a steal of one.

Northern Ontario got it back in the second and stole one in the third to take a 2-1 lead. Then they forced Kalles to take an unwanted point in the fourth to even the match at the break, taking the hammer back.

It didn’t help.

Carr tried a tap-back that would have scored three if successful, but was light and Yukon took a pair. He missed a double take-out in sixth that led to another Yukon point.

The Thunder Bay rink managed to get two back with the hammer in seven, but Carr’s final stone in eight came up short and the two sides shook hands.

“We didn’t have our best game. We struggled a little bit with the ice. We struggled a little bit with the rocks, and it was just one of those games.”