Greg Skauge’s streak as the best men’s curling rink in the NWT ends at one.
That’s because Jamie Koe regained the title on Sunday evening at the Yellowknife Curling Centre by beating Skauge in the final by a score of 7-3. It capped off a perfect event for Koe and his rink of Shadrach McLeod, Cole Parsons and Glen Kennedy as they won all eight of their contests.
It was a tight start in the final as both teams traded singles in the opening two ends before Skauge stole one in the third to take a 2-1 lead. Koe would score a deuce with the hammer in the fourth to go back out in front, 3-2, and stole another in the fifth to make it 4-2. After a blank in the sixth, Skauge would score a single with the hammer to cut the deficit to 4-3 but Koe would score two in the eighth to extend his lead to 6-3, followed by a steal of one in the ninth.
Koe would run Skauge out of rocks in the 10th to claim victory and punch his team’s ticket to the Tim Hortons Brier in Lethbridge, Alta., next month.
“It was a tight first half of the game,” said Koe about the final. “We weathered the storm in the early going but we got stronger as the game went on and we caught some breaks to put the game away.”
It wasn’t a complete walkover for Koe and company as they were pressed in more than one contest along the way, especially the first meeting between both he and Skauge on Friday morning. The final score was 10-5 in favour of Koe — Koe literally stole his way to victory in that game — but Skauge threw down the gauntlet early, putting up a four-spot in the opening end with the hammer.
“You never want to give up four, especially to those guys,” said Koe. “We just had a bad first end but 10 ends is a long game and we had a lot of time to battle back.”
Four teams in total were in contention with Hay River’s D’arcy Delorey and Inuvik’s Mason MacNeil also in the field with Koe and Skauge. The teams played a double round-robin with all four teams entering the Page playoff format. Koe and Skauge finished first and second respectively and played one quarter-final with the winner going right to the final, which Koe claimed. Skauge went to the semifinal to await the winner of Delorey and MacNeil, which went Delorey’s way, and Skauge would beat Delorey to get back to the final.
With the spot in Lethbridge clinched, Koe said the goal now is to try and find as much practice time as possible to get ready for the big show.
“It’s a quick turnaround for us so we’re making plans to see what we can get in terms of practice,” he said. “We have our plan in place and we know what worked for us so it’s all about working on our weaknesses. It’s going to be a mix of serious on and off-ice training.”
Like in past years, there will be the chance of Koe vs. Koe at the Brier as Kevin Koe already qualified for Lethbridge by winning the Alberta Boston Pizza Cup last month and will represent Alberta. There’s also the possibility of Glen Kennedy facing off against his brother, Marc Kennedy, who plays with Brad Jacobs’ outfit from Northern Ontario. Jacobs won the Northern Ontario qualifier over the weekend over Sandy MacEwan in an extra end.
And with Alberta opening things up in terms of gatherings, that means families and fans will most likely be allowed in to watch for the first time in quite some time and Koe said that’s something he’s looking forward to.
“I think you’ll see a lot of fans in attendance and having our families there will be great,” he said. “My folks are making plans to be there but the players will still be cautious. We’ll still have testing to do because we’re still in a pandemic so safety is the big thing.”