Wark rinks settles for second a junior nationals

The Brennan Wark foursome just didn't have enough gas to knock off the week's No. 1 team in the final at the Canadian Men's Junior Curling Championship.

The Thunder Bay skip spent most of Sunday's title match fighting from behind, ultimately falling 9-6 to Alberta's Brendan Bottcher, who captured the province's 16th junior men's title.

It was the third consecutive year the same province captured both the men's and women's crown at the event, held in Napanee, Ont. in 2012.

Alberta appeared to take early control of the game, scoring two in the first and stealing another in the second when Wark wrecked on a guard to take a 3-0 lead.

But Wark and teammates Joel Adams, Kyle Toset and Kristofer Leupen fought back, ultimately evening the score 5-5 through six ends.

Alberta scored two in the seventh, with Wark grabbing one of those back in the eighth. The two sides blanked the ninth and Bottcher forced his opponent to make a come around draw to the button, which Wark failed to do, scoring two more for Alberta and salting away the championship.

“Sorry we didn’t get the win, but it was a really good game,”  the 19-year-old Wark, told Curling.ca. “Alberta played good as well. We had a really good week. Second’s not all that bad. We don’t think that right now but overall it was a pretty good week for us.

“The skip (Bottcher) was playing lights out that game (a game high 89 per cent). We kept it close. He was making all his shots. That was a great last shot he played. I didn’t have hardly anything. I tried to catch the button but went a little deep. We tried out best. (We) brought it to the last rock.”