The provincial champions from Centretown’s Ottawa Curling Club ended up on the wrong side of a thrilling final at the M&M Meat Shops Canadian junior championship in Calgary on Sunday.
The Ontario rink of Mat Camm, David Mathers, Andrew Hamilton and Scott Howard were defeated 8-7 by the Braeden Moskowy-led Saskatchewan team in an extra end. The decisive yellow stone in the 11th end was less than a centimetre closer to the button than Ontario’s red rock.
Camm said he knew the match against the undefeated team would be a challenge.
“Saskatchewan has been curling great all week,” Camm had said ahead of the final match. “They (were) just on fire.”
The game was as exciting as they come. Both sides curled exceptionally well, which made for a picture-perfect finale.
The contest reached its climax with Ontario lying three stones in the extra end, forcing Moskowy to make a difficult shot to earn a point and win the game.
The shot was nearly perfect. Moskowy cleared two stones from the house and placed his right next to Camm’s. It was still unclear who had won, so officials called out the measuring stick to determine the outcome.
Saskatchewan’s stone was a tiny distance closer to the centre, and Team Moskowy walked away with the victory.
The Saskatchewan rink will now represent Canada at the world junior curling championship in Perth, Scotland, which takes place March 5 to 13.
Back in Ottawa, Andrew Denny, who had curled before with Camm, says the tournament was still a success.
He credits the Team Camm’s work ethic. Team members practised almost every day in the weeks before the tournament.
“They’re always in throwing rocks and tweaking things,” said Denny. “They just always seem to be working.”
Camm said this tournament was unlike any he had experienced before.
“It’s the calibre and pressure behind it all,” he said. “It’s one of the biggest things you can do in sport – play the nationals – so there’s a lot of pressure.”
The tournament’s final game was televised nationally on TSN.