Playoff positioning

Marion Clark says if she’s going to lose, she’d rather lose big.

It leaves less room for questions when analyzing what went wrong, said the Northern Ontario skip, after falling 12-6 Thursday night to provincial rival Joyce Potter’s Ontario rink at the Canadian Masters Curling Championship at the Port Arthur Curling Club.

“So many things went wrong, that you’re thinking it can’t possibly happen again tomorrow,” said Clark, who faces Yukon (1-6) on Friday, a win guaranteeing her Thunder Bay teammates a spot in Saturday’s semifinal.

Ontario wrapped up the other Pool B spot, taking the division with a 6-1 record. Northern Ontario, whose team also includes lead Bev Junnila, second  Tannis Ferguson and third Barbara Ward, slipped to 5-2, hours after pulling out a stunning comeback win over Manitoba, stealing a point in the eighth to force an extra end and two more in the ninth to grab an improbable 8-6 triumph.

Whether it was a letdown from that win or something else, things just didn’t go Clark’s way in her second match of the day.

By the time the rocks were counted after the opening end, Northern Ontario found itself trailing 4-0. Potter stole another point in the second to take a commanding five-point lead. But just like that it all but evaporated.

And then they gave it right back again.

“We had some chances. We got that one big end and got ourselves right back into the game, and then bang, we gave it right back to them.”

After scoring four in the third end to cut the lead to one, Northern Ontario gave up five in the fourth, hitting the break down 10-4.

“It was just one of those things that things weren’t working tonight. We can’t blame the ice at all. I think we can only look at ourselves and say OK, what can we take out of this game, how are we going to play tomorrow? Because it certainly was us, and certainly credit to Ontario, they just made everything.”

Potter called it a bit of a roller-coaster ride, one that ended on an upswing.

“We were lucky to get that four in the first end, which kind of surprised us, and then stealing in the second end,” the Ottawa native said. “But then we turned around and gave them four right back.”

It was all about adjusting and forgetting bad shots as the game moved forward, she added.

“I guess you just put that behind you and focus on the end you’re playing in and try to not worry about it. It’s easy to get frustrated with that kind of thing,” Potter said.

It will be nice to relax on Friday, knowing a semifinal berth is wrapped up.

“We were aiming for a playoff spot all week, so we’re really happy to have that under our belts now. Now we’ll focus on the weekend.”

Clark said she’s hoping there were lessons learned as they try to put the loss behind them and concentrate on wrapping up a playoff berth of their own.

“We expect to win tomorrow, just because we know we can play a whole lot better than we played this game and we want to be back in the semifinal,” said Clark, who brought home bronze at last year’s event in Montreal.

Northern Ontario’s Paul Carr rink wasn’t as fortunate on the men’s side, falling 7-5 to previously winless Newfoundland to drop to 2-4. Carr still has a chance for a playoff or tiebreaker berth, but will need help on Friday.

The Thunder Bay foursome takes on Nova Scotia and Yukon. Three teams top the Pool B standings at 3-3.