Second chance

Ask Ray Skillen to describe the Cody Johnston curling foursome in one word and it takes the veteran coach about two seconds to come up with an answer.

“Resilient,” he said Tuesday night, awaiting the pipers to be given the signal to march Johnston, Mark Adams, Mike Badiuk and Michael Makela up the stairs at Fort William Curling Club, kicking off the traditional send-off party in advance of their departure to the Canadian Junior Curling Championships in Calgary.

Johnston, who lost the 2009 national junior final playing on his brother Dylan’s team, will be making his second appearance at the Canadian championship. It’s a goal that’s stuck with him since he lost the 2009 title game to Prince Edward Island, a 7-6 win the Maritimers pulled out scoring a pair in the 10th and final round.

It’s been weighing on his mind for two years.

“I’m glad to get this opportunity back. It’s my last year of junior and I’m not going to get this opportunity ever again,” Johnston said. “Hopefully we can go and win nationals this year. It would be great to represent Canada and go to Scotland.”

It’s that experience that could give the Thunder Bay curlers an edge this time around, everything from understanding how exacting the 12-team tournament can be and the ability to bounce back from defeat.

That and a sense of desperation, Johnston said.

“It’s all of our last years in juniors. We’ve tried hard and done everything we can to prepare. We’ve been working out all summer. Every day we could we’ve been practising. We’ve been practising Tuesday mornings at 7 a.m., Friday afternoons, Saturday afternoons.

“We just put everything into it we could and finally got back to nationals.”

The Johnston rink – Badiuk and Makela were also members of the 2009 finalists – earned their berth to Calgary earlier this month, defeating fellow Thunder Bay skip Brennan Wark 10-6 in the Northern Ontario provincial final.

Their strength, Johnston said, echoing his coach, is they never let the little things get them down.

“We’ll get down for a few seconds, but we get over it quickly. There’s been a few games where we were behind by a lot,” he said. “For instance, I was playing my brother (Dylan) in Men’s Major League, and we were down 7-1 after four ends and we came back to beat him,” Johnston said.

“Who would have expected that? But we never give up and we keep trying hard.

Skillen, who coached the 2009 team, said there’s lots of things that make this team special. First and foremost is their knowledge of the game, a knowledge that speaks beyond their years.

“They have a lot of curling maturity, which means that they’ve been around the block. They’re very experienced. For three of them, this is their second nationals. Mark has been to three nationals. So we’ve got a lot of experience.

“The first time you go to a national championship, it’s a little bit overpowering. So we’ve got that behind us now. We know what we have to deal with, so I think that puts us in pretty good stead,” Skillen said.

But thinking experience alone is enough to lay claim to a title is not the way to think, he added.

“There are a lot of teams that are returning. So we’re not the only ones with experience. But we also have a lot of intangibles on this team ... Nothing really fazes us. We can get behind in the game, we don’t give up, we fight back. We can have some adversity in the game, a rock picking, and we shake it off right away.

“These are things that you have to have at a national competition.”

Team Northern Ontario’s first match is Saturday at 4 p.m. EST against Alberta.