Semifinal defeat

The third time was not the charm for Marion Clark and her team of Northern Ontario curlers.

Clark fell 6-2 on Saturday to a Linda Wagner-led Alberta squad in the semifinal at the Canadian Masters Curling Championship at Port Arthur Curling Club and will have to settle for a shot at a second straight bronze.

The Thunder Bay skip said her team struggled with their shooting most of the contest, though they had a chance to send the game into extra ends on their final shot and were never out of contention in the match.

“I think we just didn’t think around the ice flattening down the centre,” Clark said. “We had a lot of shots that we came up an inch or two short … If you don’t get on the rock right away, or half way down, you lose it because it fudges.

“And I think that happened to us a few times. We just didn’t have control of our draw weight today and we needed that to get around the corners, to do this, to do that. But we sure gave it a valiant effort. We never quit, right to the last moment.”

Alberta, who topped the Pool A standings with a 6-2 mark, identical to Northern Ontario’s, will take on Joyce Potter’s Ontario rink. Potter edged Saskatchewan’s Merle Kopach 7-6 in an extra end in the other semifinal to earn a championship berth.

Wagner said she couldn’t have done it without the help of her teammates, Sandra Turner, Judy Carr and Marilyn Toews.

She gave them full credit for a game-saving double in the eighth end, Northern Ontario needing three with the hammer to force an extra end.

With a pair of Clark’s stones in good position to make the unlikely three a possibility, Wagner said she actually missed the shot she planned to make.

“Without the sweepers, I wouldn’t have made that shot. They made that double for me. That really made the difference in the game,” Wagner said.

Ironically it was as missed shot by Wagner that gave Northern Ontario the early lead. Wagner flashed her first skip stone in the opening end then came up short on her second, handing Clark a steal of one. The two sides blanked the next two ends, before the Calgary rink  took control of the match in the fourth, picking Clark’s shot stone out of a collection of rocks to score three, going up 3-1.

Clark’s troubles continued in the fifth, crashing her first rock on a guard and forced to make a stellar draw to avoid a steal of three, instead giving up a single to Wagner.

Down two in the seventh, Clark came up short again, despite a Wagner flash with a chance to score two with the hammer.

On the men’s side, Alberta defeated Manitoba 9-3 and Ontario doubled Nova Scotia 8-4, setting up an Alberta-Ontario final on Sunday.
Both the final and bronze-medal match are scheduled to begin at 2 p.m.