It’s alright, everyone — you can all breathe easier this holiday season. Canada is back where it belongs when it comes to international junior curling.
And you can thank Yellowknife’s Adam Naugler for helping to do that.
Naugler got the chance to wear the maple leaf for the first time in his burgeoning curling career at the World Junior B Curling Championships in Lohja, Finland last week. He was playing with his rink skipped by Johnson Tao and they earned the right to play in the event by virtue of winning the men’s crown at the Canadian Junior Curling Championship earlier this year.
The only problem was they would have to play in the B pool because Canada’s entry in 2022 finished low enough in the standings that they were relegated. But that didn’t matter as the boys came out on top by beating the U.S. on Tuesday by a score of 7-4 in the final.
Naugler said the goal is to always win, but in this case, it was about getting Canada back into the top flight.
“That was the big picture for us,” he said. “Wearing the maple leaf and representing Canada was such a thrill, but it’s an even bigger thrill to win for Canada and get us back up.”
Canada was one of 22 teams competing with just the top four getting spots in the A pool. They began with a 6-3 loss to Ukraine in their opening contest, but came back with an 11-2 victory over Turkiye and followed that up with a 7-2 win over Kazakhstan in their next game. A 6-3 loss to Japan put the boys up against the wall, but they responded with two wins over Austria (7-5) and Poland (7-2) to finish the round-robin with a record of four wins and two losses.
“The Ukrainians have had a really strong season,” said Naugler. “They train in Scotland and they won the European B Championships. I think we had some nerves in our first game, but we got over that and figured out the ice pretty well.”
They managed to sneak into the playoffs with that record and started with a quarter-final date against Sweden in which they prevailed, 6-4. That win guaranteed them a return to the A flight, but there was still the business of winning it all. They would take on New Zealand in the semifinal and emerged victorious, 7-4, to advance to the final with the Americans.
In the final, Canada had the hammer and scored a deuce in the opening end, which the Americans could only answer with a single in the second. Canada would score two more in the third with the hammer and again, the Americans could only answer with one in the fourth as the Canadians took a 4-2 lead into the mid-game break.
“We got control early and put the pressure on them to produce,” said Naugler. “We’re scoring two with hammer and the job is to make sure they’re only scoring one when they have it. You’re going to win a lot of games doing that.”
Canada would score one in the fifth end to extend their leads to 5-2, but the Americans got one in the sixth and stole another in the seventh to cut the deficit to 5-4. Canada, though, had the hammer coming home in the eighth and scored two after running the Americans out of rocks.
The team is taking a break for the holidays, but will be back at it beginning Jan. 3. They’ll also get the chance to represent Canada again when the World Junior A Curling Championships happen in February at the very same venue.
“We’ll focus on refining our systems, our execution and be in a good spot when we go back over,” said Naugler.