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.

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 4^th 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.