THUNDER BAY -- With the skips missing in action on both sides, it was up to the back-ups to decide the Major League of Curling final.
Kory Carr, filling in for the injured Scott Henderson, drew for two in the seventh end to tie the championship game 3-3, then laid down a pair of near-perfect guards with his final two stones in the eighth, twice forcing opposing skip Frank Morrisette to attempt a tricky runback kill to escape with the win.
He came close on both tries, but could only graze Team Henderson’s rock rather than remove it entirely, Carr’s team stealing a point to take the title and the $1,000 first prize.
It was a battle fighting back in a match they trailed most of the way, Carr said.
“The seventh end was tricky for us. It was a close game, but they were kind of all over us for the most part,” Carr said on Saturday at Port Arthur Curling Club.
Praising the shot-making ability of substitute second Oye-Sem Won and fill-in third Dylan Johnston in the critical second, Carr admitted his team got a little lucky when Team Henderson skip Denis Malette missed a double takeout in the seventh.
“We split the house and we ended up getting two, which was huge,” Carr said. “Coming into the eighth end it was phenomenal. Gary (Champagne) made two perfect centre guards and we just kept putting them back and putting them back until we were able to come around.”
One thing Carr and his teammates learned this weekend, after knocking off Scotties Tournament of Hearts runner-up Krista McCarville in Saturday’s semifinal, is that filling in for a legend like Hackner, a former world champion curler, is not easy.
It’s especially difficult trying to adjust to new teammates who haven’t curled with the team all season long.
“It’s very different. The first three ends of the earlier game was really tricky trying to find everybody’s release and find all the weight and everything,” Carr said. “It was definitely difficult, but keeping the shots simple closed the gap finding out who’s who and how they throw.”
The two teams blanked three of the first four ends, Team Henderson picking up a pair in the second to lead 2-0 heading into the fifth.
Carr, facing three opposition stones in the house, considered briefly a triple takeout to score two in the fifth, but instead threw control weight on his final rock and settled for a single point, cutting his deficit to 2-1.
Morrisette had a chance to draw for two in the sixth, but his weight was off and Team Henderson – also missing third Mike Pozihun – only managed a single to restore their two-point lead.
They just couldn’t hold on.
“Both runbacks, we couldn’t miss them any better,” he said of their pair of chances in the eighth. “We hit the back rock both times. It was all on my third shots, where we had a half-open hit and it forced Frank to have those double run-backs,” Malette said. “And those are always tough.”
Team Henderson, who captured its final seven games during round-robin play this season, picked up $750 for their runner-up finish.
Trevor Bonot’s team took the third-place game 3-2 over McCarville, who will journey to Nipigon this week for the Northern Ontario Scotties play-downs.
