Curling started at St. Vital a couple of weeks ago with very successful Police & Fire Games but the real kickoff to the season is tonight when the club is hosting a FREE Indigenous Cultural Celebration as a season launch – following the 5PM opening draw of this weekend’s St Vital NISO Mixed Doubles Classic – a Manitoba Mixed Doubles Tour event.
The celebration begins at 7PM and features food, entertainment by the Asham Stompers, a Land Acknowledgment and what is being described as a cultural celebration.
Why the name NISO Mixed Doubles Classic, you ask? Perhaps not an exact interpretation but I’m told NISO is a Cree word for two – so it’s a good name for a Doubles curling event with a great line-up of teams. Top-ranked Canadian teams like Jennifer Jones & Brent Laing, Laura Walker & Kirk Muyres, Chaelynn Kitz & Brayden Stewart, and Jennifer Armstrong & Tyrel Griffith will face the challenge of the likes of Winnipeggers Dawn & Mike McEwen, Mackenzie Arbuckle & Aaron Macdonell, and ten other teams.
Preliminary round game times are 5PM Thursday, 4 & 8PM Friday, 9-12-3-6 Saturday.
This is the situation faced by Dale Hockley and his team (throwing blue) down two coming home without – three rocks each to come.
Down 4-1 playing the seventh end – you just drew for 1 facing four to be down two coming home. What are the odds you are going to win the game? What are the odds you are even going to force an extra end?
With three rocks each to come, Canadian Police Champion Dale Hockley’s team faced that turning point shot we have all faced – “game’s probably over if we don’t make a pretty good shot right now!!”
Third Glenn Brannan made a dandy. With the added consideration that it was an early August event in an abnormally hot summer, the fact the St. Vital ice was as good as it was at the end of the Police-Fire Games was a surprise to many – and that made Brennan’s shot maybe as good a shot as you’ll see all winter.
Blue third – second stone covered the pinhole and left no workable angles for yellow to work withYellow third’s second stone was just as perfect – a draw to juggle the centre line pair just a little bit, setting up a straight raise to the shot stoneBlue skip first stone – not where he wanted to take away that double run but it turned out that biting the button with a third stone was also a pretty good idea. One of the benefits of being a curling photographer is that I get to listen to the team conversation as they deliberate and yellow was not convinced that even a perfect shot was going to leave them very well off. They expected there could still very well be two counters left.The yellow skip first stone was not perfect – it over curled and crossed centre as it made contact. The angle and the drag resulted in worst case scenario – all three blue stones still counting. It seemed like all blue needed was a guard to at least set up a very difficult last shot for yellow.Hard to throw that perfect guard on ice swinging from about the outside edge of the 12 foot circle and blue skip’s last stone guard curled almost across centre leaving a deceptively difficult last shot for yellow. As you go to the hack in this situation, every on-looker is thinking “if you miss this, you’ll be explaining for the rest of your life how you lost that gold medal game”.
The body language and the look on the face of Steve Moss tell the story as the yellow last shot didn’t curl up quite enough – rubbed off their own stone biting top four foot – rolled across the face of the other two counters, removing one but leaving a steal of two to force the extra end.
Effectively having been given a second chance, yellow made no mistake on the extra end. As the blue skip went to deliver his final stone, this overhead camera shot does not show the centre line guard, the guards to the right of centre, or the stone to the left from which he hopped a rub-redirect would somehow end up counting. Needless to say, yellow scored four on the extra end without throwing their last. No doubt better memories than that 8th end might have provided!
Over a decade after picking up a World Police & Fire Games silver medal (2009-Vancouver), Steve Moss, Frank McCort, and Chris Haichart have won their gold medal.
Steve Moss, Frank McCort, Chris Haichart, & Gregg Tarasoff with their gold medals.
In 2009, Moss (NWT) has a chance to improve on a silver medal won in 2009 when he skipped his team of Chris Haichart (now Sask), and McCort (ON) teamed with Ryan Lalonde (Wpg) in Vancouver.
This year at St. Vital, the firefighters team with Gregg Tarasoff (Sask) replacing Lalonde and throwing fourth rocks, while Moss skipped, defeated the reigning Canadian Police champions in the Saturday evening gold medal game.
Dale Hockley, Glen Brennan, Randy Nelson, & Daniel Brennan with their silver medals
BC’s Dale Hockley, Glen Brennan, Randy Nelson and Daniel Brennan forced an extra end in the final game, stealing two coming home. The Moss foursome played a near perfect extra end, leaving Hockley facing four clustered in and near the four foot circle. A last stone ‘we have to try something’ attempt failed and the Moss team had their gold medal.
In addition to the 2009 World Games silver medal, Moss (a 3-time Brier skip from Northwest Territories) and Haichart had won the 2008 Canadian Firefighters event. After Haichart moved to Saskatchewan, Tarasoff & Haichart won the Canadian firefighters together in 2013, 2018, and 2019.
The bronze medal game was featured the current Manitoba Police champions playing the current Manitoba Firefighters champion skip with a cross-country team of firefighters.
MP Terry Duguid and United Firefighters of Winnipeg President Tom Bilous were on hand to present the medals
The police team, skipped by Mike Dauk with Braden Zawada throwing last stones and supported by David Aitken & Rob Mitchell, prevailed. Tied 3-3 coming home, Zawada didn’t have to throw his last stone for a 5-3 victory over Dan Michalchuk and his team.
Fourteen teams from across Canada competed in the event. The three medalist teams had all finished the round robin with identical 5W-1L records in the same pool while the Michalchuk foursome were also 5-W-1L to top the other pool.
The Dauk-Zawada team defeated a Hamilton, ON Canadian Border Services team in a cross-over play-in game while Hockley defeated Winnipeg Firefighters Team McDonald.
The Saturday evening medal games turned out to be re-matches of the Page Playoff first round games.
On the top side of the Page Playoff, Dauk-Zawada had beaten Michalchuk (6-5) while Moss defeated Hockley (8-7). The Moss team earned their gold medal game berth with a Saturday morning 6-1 win over the Manitobans.
On the bottom side of the Page Playoff draw, Hockley defeated Michalchuk (6-4) and then Dauk-Zawada 4-3 to earn the gold medal berth. The losses set up the Dauk-Zawada vs Michalchuk bronze medal game.
Braden Zawada, Mike Dauk, David Aitken and Rob Mitchell with their bronze medals.
Steve Moss has a chance to improve on a silver medal won in 2009 when he skipped his team of Chris Haichart, Ryan Lalonde, & Frank McCort to the final game of the World Police-Fire Games in Vancouver.
This year at St. Vital, with Gregg Tarasoff replacing Lalonde and throwing fourth rocks, while Moss skips, the team has earned a spot in tonight’s 6PM gold medal game.
At the start of the week, it might have been difficult to name a favourite to win the gold medal but based on track record alone, three of the names to consider would probably have been Steve Moss; Dale Hockley with his BC team which won the Canadian Police gold medal for 2022-23, and the Mike Dauk-Braden Zawada Winnipeg Police team which won Manitoba and the Canadian Bronze medal last season.
Manitoba Police champion skip Mike Dauk throws while David Aitken and Rob Mitchell sweep his stone in World Police-Fire Games action at St. Vital.
Those are the three teams which could still win the gold.
This morning, Moss advanced with a 6-1 win over the Manitoba Police team, dropping the Dauk-Zawada foursome into the bottom side of the Page Playoff draw.
Their 2PM game to set-up a re-match is against Hockley and his Canadian champion Police team. Earlier today, Hockley defeated Manitoba firefighter champion skip Dan Michalchuk, drawing to the four foot facing two on the final end, for a 6-4 win.
In addition to the 2009 World Games silver medal, Moss (a 3-time Brier skip from Northwest Territories) and Moss & Haichart had won the 2008 Canadian Firefighters event. After Haichart moved to Saskatchewan, Tarasoff & Haichart won the Canadian firefighters together in 2013, 2018, and 2019.
There will also be a bronze medal game. Michalchuk’s foursome gets a second chance to medal. They’ll play the loser of the 2PM game – that game also at 6PM.
FIRST PLAYOFF ROUND: (Friday, August 4) It was an exciting finish in both playoff games Friday evening in the Police/Fire Games at St. Vital. Steve Moss (a firefighter and former Brier rep from NWT, playing with 2 Sask and an Ontario colleague) gave up a five on the 7th end to trail BC’s Dale Hockley (2023 Canadian Police Champion) but built a three coming home to win 8-7.
On the next sheet over, the reigning Manitoba Police champs (and 2023 Canadian Bronze medallists) skipped by Mike Dauk were tied coming home with the hammer against the Manitoba 2023 Manitoba Firefighters’ champion skip Dan Michalchuk (playing with 2 Ontario colleagues and one from Alberta). Michalchuk placed a near perfect guard on his shot stone, forcing Dauk’s 4th thrower Braden Zawada to draw – which he did perfectly for a 6-5 win.
Moss, Dauk/Zawada, and Hockley all finished 5W-1L in their pool but the tiebreaker formula awarded Moss top spot with Dauk/Zawada in second and Hockley third. Michalchuk was also 5W-1L to top the other pool with Team McDonald (Winnipeg Fire) in second and a Hamilton, ON Canadian Border Services team in third. McDonald lost to Hockley and the Hamilton foursome lost to Dauk/Zawada in the 2-3 play-in games.
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