Still in contention

Paul Carr says he thinks three losses is the most a team can be burdened with and still make the playoffs at the Canadian Masters Curling Championship.

Trouble is, the Thunder Bay skip started his week with a trio of defeats, putting him in an early hole.  The foursome is on a roll, trying to reverse their slow start and work their way back into contention.

Though not perfect on Thursday morning against British Columbia, Carr and company made plenty of timely – not to mention tricky – shots and scored their second straight win, a 6-4 triumph.

Northern Ontario improved to 2-3, just a game out of top spot in the Pool B standings behind Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Quebec.
“It’s a credit to our team. They never give up. They’ve been down before and we just keep playing and hope that sooner or later it’s going to break for us. In that game we made some shots at the end and the guys came out strong.”

Though Carr scored first, picking up a single in the second, it was B.C skip Wayne Saboe who took control of the match in the early ends.

In the third, Carr needed a nose hit to remove a B.C. rock from the house, but it floated and ultimately Saboe was left for an easy hit-and-stick for three, taking a 3-1 lead.

But Carr struck back in the fourth with a vengeance.

With his first shot, he made two perfect shots to score three of his own.

“We had three rocks behind the T-line, so I was a little worried because I got one in there. I had to play a delicate tap to roll one of ours in front of theirs to guarantee the one. They made a little mistake and rubbed off and gave me a delicate draw right in there to take our three,” Carr said.

“We thank them for that, but we had to make to good shots.”

Team Northern Ontario, which includes lead Ed Koivula, second Ken Ketonen and third Glen Fossum, forced Saboe to take a single in sixth, tying the match 4-4.

Carr struck again in the seventh. He picked out a B.C. stone with little room to spare with his opening shot, the pushed Saboe’s second shot off the button with his final stone to score a pair and take a 6-4 advantage.

“We had two tight shots in the end. We had things all frozen up in the centre and they came out on top,” Carr said. “But they left just a wee piece of a rock for my first one to tick it out of the house. And then my last one I had to throw a pretty delicate come-around tap to the back of the four. It was good sweeping, good calling. It was a team shot and the team did real well.”

The former teacher and principal said he’s hoping it’s not too little, too late.

“We’re throwing them well, we’re playing against really high-quality teams. We’ve got it going and we’re feeling confident. We’ve got to win our way out. We feel three is the max for losses. But if we can win a couple more games, I think we’re thinking tiebreaker,” Carr said.

In other men’s action Thursday morning, Ontario edged Newfoundland 6-5, Saskatchewan slipped past the Northwest Territories 8-6, Alberta doubled New Brunswick 6-3, Quebec dumped Yukon 7-3 and Nova Scotia dropped Manitoba 6-4.