CONGRATULATIONS TO MANITOBA/CANADA’S TEAM EINARSON!! In their third world championship (their first worlds was wiped out by the pandemic), Team Einarson has won two Bronze medals. The 2022 and 2023 bronze medals are Canada’s first world women’s medals since Jennifer Jones won gold in North Bay in 2018)

(Curling Canada Release) Canada’s Team Kerri Einarson is back-to-back bronze medal champions following a win on Sunday morning at the 2023 LGT World Women’s Curling Championship, presented by New Holland.

Canada’s Team Einarson of Gimli, Man., defeated Sweden’s Team Anna Hasselborg by a score of 8-5 to earn bronze at Goeransson Arena. It’s the second time in a row the teams clashed for third place at a world championship.

“I feel pretty excited to come here and medal. I know it’s not gold like we wanted, but at least it’s a medal. To win bronze two years in a row is pretty special,” skip Einarson said.

Ask any member of Team Canada – skip Einarson, vice-skip Val Sweeting, second Shannon Birchard, lead Briane Harris, alternate Krysten Karwacki, coach Reid Carruthers and national coach Renée Sonnenberg – to describe the week and they’ll say it was an up-and-down event. Canada built momentum early in the week but couldn’t string together wins in the latter part. The team’s 7-5 round-robin record was good to qualify for the third seed in the playoffs. However, a semifinal loss to Norway kept the Canadians short of the gold-medal game and they needed a solid performance to earn bronze.

“It is very special. It was an up-and-down week, but we put ourselves in a good position yesterday and it was really hard to lose that semifinal again. But I’m super proud of how we came out today and getting up against the hometown team isn’t easy either. We have a really good support crew here with our coaching and families and everything and it definitely helped us get through that,” Sweeting said.

Sweden had the support of the hometown crowd, but it didn’t deter Canada, which jumped out to an early three-point lead. Team Einarson found its footing when Canada had to make a pinpoint draw to the side of the button to score two in the first. Sweden had a chance to score in the second end but rolled out on a hit and gave Canada another point.

Canada forced Sweden to one in the third and repeated its deuce with hammer and steal combo in the fourth and fifth ends to take a five-point lead into the fifth-end break. In the fourth end, Canada was sitting five counters, but an excellent draw from Sweden forced Canada to play a long angle raise to score two. In the fifth, Sweden attempted a runback to score but left Canada sitting one.

Team Hasselborg was far from out of it in the second half of the game and hung on until the 10th end. The teams traded deuces in the sixth and seventh ends, then Sweden scored a single with hammer in the eighth and stole a point in the ninth to get within three. Team Einarson ran Sweden out of stones to claim the win.

The bronze-medal win adds another piece of hardware to Team Einarson’s mantel. While gold was the preferred colour to bring back to Canada, the team believes this will be another building block in long-term success.

“The fact that we were able to still get the bronze with not our strongest performance this week is big for our team,” Birchard said. “It’s lit a fire under us. We want to come back and we want to challenge for the gold, obviously, we had hoped to do that this week but it wasn’t in the cards, so we’ll just look forward to next year.”

Manitoba Curling Hall of Fame & Museum President Peter Nicholls is pleased to announce that Sunrise Credit Union will be the Presenting Sponsor of the 2023 Induction Banquet when it is held at Brandon’s Victoria Inn on May 7, 2023.

“We very much appreciate the support of Sunrise Credit Union in our efforts to celebrate the five champion teams, the two curlers, and the two builders who will be honoured at our 2023 Induction Dinner,” Nicholls said. “It is our first time hosting the event in Westman since 1995 and we are pleased to have such as s strong western Manitoba institution join us in the celebrations.”

The 2023 inductees will include:
TEAM:             Martin Bailey (Heather) – 2004 Canadian Masters Champions
TEAM:              Doug Armour (Souris) – 2005 Canadian Masters Champions
TEAM:             Ray Orr (Minnedosa) – 2009 Canadian Masters Champions
TEAM:             Joyce McDougall (Brandon) – 2011 Canadian Masters Champions
TEAM:              Kelly Robertson (Neepawa) – 2011 Canadian Senior Champions (World Silver)
CURLER:         Doug Harrison
CURLER:         Ruth Wiebe
BUILDER:         Bob Flock
BUILDER:         Dave Petursson

The sponsorship by Sunrise Credit Union expands their support of curling Manitoba which began with support of CurlManitoba’s livestream broadcast program in 2022 and again in 2023.

“The history and heritage of curling in Manitoba have strong roots in rural Manitoba. We are pleased to see the Manitoba Curling Hall of Fame dinner returning to Western Manitoba and Brandon for the first time in 28 years,” said Sunrise Credit Union President & CEO Tim Klassen. “We are happy to expand our sponsorship commitment to curling in Manitoba by supporting this event. We congratulate all the 2023 inductees on their achievements.”

Dinner details are being finalized with planned start times of 4:30PM (cocktails) and 5:30PM (dinner). Ticket purchases ($100 OR Table of 8 – $720) will be through the CurlManitoba office. Interested persons are invited to contact info@curlmanitoba.org to request information on exact timing and ticket purchases.

The Western Canadian Blind Curling Championships will return to Manitoba March 8-11 when seven teams from British Columbia, Alberta, and Host Manitoba will compete in a round-robin tournament.

Organized Blind Curling first took place in 1972 as an awareness activity but soon grew into a competitive gathering of curlers. Alberta and Saskatchewan were joined by British Columbia and Manitoba in 1979. The Western Canadian Blind Curling Association, involving the four western provinces, was established in 1982, the same year that the event was hosted in Beausejour, Manitoba.

The game is played just like any other curling game with the exception that each team has an on-ice Coach who may provide needed help to the athletes. In particular this might involve holding a broom near to the person in the hack OR shining a light to give the thrower an idea of the required line of delivery.

The local host committee regrets that, due to health concerns, Saskatchewan is unable to be represented in what is being billed as a celebration of FIFTY PLUS YEARS of Western Blind Curling. The ‘flexible’ billing acknowledges the impact of the recent covid cancellations on the blind curling event.

British Columbia will be represented by teams from Vancouver and Prince George with the first time addition of a team from the Campbell River. Alberta will have the two representatives from the Edmonton Blind Curling league and Manitoba’s representatives are from the Manitoba Blind Sports Association.

The Manitoba teams are:

SKIP:               Darren Hawkins                      Norm Lyons
THIRD:            Hunter McLaughlin                  Bill Liggins (from Ontario)
SECOND:        Debbie Martinuzzi                   Jennifer Moreland
LEAD:              Miriam Hesslebart                   Lucy Chase
COACH:          Brian Fredrickson                    Matt Hesselbart

Events at Charleswood will begin Wednesday, March 8 at 6:30PM with opening ceremonies followed by the first draw. There will be two draws a day (at 9:30AM & 1:30PM) on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

Of special note, Manitoba’s Scotties champions, and former World Junior Champions, Mackenzie and Emily Zacharias, will participate in the Opening Ceremony. Mackenzie Zacharias has a relationship with Manitoba’s Blind Curling community going back to 2019 when, as part of a U of Manitoba studies practicum, she was involved in blind curling as an observer, coach, and participant (blindfolded) to better understand the sport as blind curlers experience it.

Good luck to all of the Manitobans chasing the Tim Hortons Brier championship this week in London, ON. Of course, the curler.com is cheering for a Dunstone-Carruthers rematch of the final we had a couple weeks ago in Neepawa. Failing that, there are several Manitobans in the field who we’d like to see in the final game.

(With the busy schedule of Scotties and Viterra commentary and playing in the Manitoba Stick Championship, I have been delinquent in not posting this story which has been in my files for a while! My apologies for the delay.)

Paige Smith-Heisler and Alasdair Buchanan, both Fort Rouge junior curlers, were the recipients of the inaugural Winnipeg Curling Club Association (WCCA) Youth Curler Awards. The award, in the form of a keepsake plaque and reimbursement of league fees, is an annual award. Recipients must be under 18 and exhibit exceptional attendance, significant improvement, and commendable sportsmanship within their youth program.

Fort Rouge organizers Kara Balshaw and Mike Granove had nominated the two award recipients. Nominations by organizers of any WCCA club junior program are encouraged to make nominations for 2022/23 awards by a deadline of April 15, 2023.

Prospective award recipients will have been enrolled in their home club’s youth program for at least three full years.

The WCCA comprises participating Winnipeg Region curling clubs and was established some years ago to provide the clubs with a common voice when liaising with CurlManitoba, as well as to share information and coordinate regional events.

Currently the President is Jason Shymanski and the Secretary is Paul Batchelor. Information is available at your club or by contacting Paul Batchelor at dpbatch823@gmail.com

CurlManitoba is pleased to announce that Seagram’s Whisky is expanding its support of curling and curling clubs in Manitoba as the new provincial title sponsor of CurlManitoba’s Curling Club Championships.

CurlManitoba’s relationship with Seagram’s Whisky began with their sponsorship of this season’s live-streaming of championship events in Portage, East St. Paul, and Neepawa.

“As a sponsor of our live-streaming program, Seagram’s Whisky helped provide exposure to over 650,000 viewers for this season’s Viterra Championship, Scotties Tournament of Hearts and TELUS Juniors,” said CurlManitoba Executive Director Craig Baker.

“When we talked with Seagram’s representatives about expanded opportunities to support curling here in Manitoba, our Curling Club Championships was an obvious excellent fit.”

Seagram’s is looking forward to our sponsorship with CurlManitoba as well as our Sponsorship of the Men’s and Women’s Provincial Curling Club Championships for the next 3 years and hopefully beyond that.  Seagram’s has been a staple in curling clubs across our province for decades and we are happy to be able to give back to the curling community that has supported us for many years,” said Dean Clayton, Regional Marketing Manager for Charton Hobbs Inc., who are the provincial representative for Seagram’s Canadian Whisky.

The Seagram’s Whisky Curling Club Championships three-year agreement includes this year’s regional qualifying events in March across the province and the provincial championship at the Fort Rouge Curling Club location in the early fall of 2023. The Seagram’s Whisky Provincial Men’s and Women’s champions will represent Manitoba at the national Everest Club Championships at the Assiniboine Memorial Curling Club in November.

Update (9:30PM) Jace Freeman’s Team Manitoba scored a 6 on the sixth end, trailing 5-1 at the time, and went on to win their first round playoff game . Team Freeman will play Alberta’s undefeated Zachary Davies at 8:30AM Friday morning (Ontario time).

Grace Beaudry’s Manitoba #2 team fell short in their playoff game, a 6-4 loss to the Newfoundland-Labrador team and have been eliminated.

(Thursday, February 9, 4PM) FREEMAN & BEAUDRY ADVANCE TO U-18 PLAYOFFS: Jace Freeman and his Team Manitoba have finished the preliminary round of play at the Canadian U-18 Championships in Timmins with a 4W-2L record, good enough to advance to the playoff round.

In the straight knock-out 12-team playoff, all teams start over. Freeman (Elias Huminicki, Jack Steski, Rylan Graham, Coach Graham Freeman) will play Raphael Tremblay-Quebec in their first game with the winner advancing against Alberta’s Zachary Davies. Tremblay had a 4W-2L record while Davies was undefeated in the preliminary round.

Ronan Peterson’s Manitoba #2 team finished out of the playoffs with a 3W-3L record.

On the U-18 Women’s side of the event, Grace Beaudry’s Manitoba #2 team (Cassidy Dundas, Lauren Evason, Tessa Terrick, Coach Guy Beaudry) also finished with a 4W-2L record. They have advanced to the playoffs as well.

The opening game for the Beaudry foursome in the straight knockout playoff will be against Cailey Locke-Newfoundland/Labrador with the winner advancing against Anne-Sophie Gionest-Quebec.

Locke’s record was 3W-3L and Gionest was 5W-1L in the preliminary round.

Dayna Wahl’s Team Manitoba finished with a 1W-4L record and out of the playoffs.

A total of nine teams, seven from Winnipeg along with teams from the Morden and Plum Coulee Fire Departments, contested the Manitoba Firefighters Championship this weekend at Fort Rouge.

Winnipeg firefighter Dan Michalchuk became a three time winner of the Manitoba Firefighters Championship when his team won the final game tonight. Michalchuk , the 2014 and 2017 champion skip, was accompanied by Kris Rosolowich (2015 Manitoba and Canadian Champion), Jeff Phillips, and Ryan Smithson.

They went undefeated through the championship, winning three round-robin games, the Page 1-1 game and the final over the Ken Dusablon team. The Dusablon team was skipped by retired Winnipeg firefighter Gord Cole, with Dusablon absent due to covid.

In the Page 1-1 game, the Michalchuk foursome defeated Mike Mikulik’s team. The Mikulik foursome had also been unbeaten in their three round-robin games. They lost the semi-final to the Dusablon/Cole team who had advanced from the Page 2-2 game. In that game, they had defeated Len Krisko, the defending champion who had also won the title in 2016.

For a complete history of the Manitoba Firefighters Championship, visit mffca.ca

For a complete history of the Canadian Firefighters Championship, visit cffca.ca

Since the Canadian Championship began in 1960, Manitoba has won five times. With thanks to the CFFCA and the association’s website, those winners are:

There are four games left in the TELUS Junior Women’s and Men’s Championships in Portage.

On the late draw Friday, Jordon McDonald (Deer Lodge) and Grace Beaudry (St. Vital) won the Page Playoff 1-1 games to advance to their respective championship games. At the same time, they earned the first of two national championship invitations available in each championship.

McDonald defeated Jace Freeman (Virden) in a short game but there was high drama in the junior women’s game as Beaudry jumped out to 4- lead after six ends but gave up four to Zoey Terrick (Heather) to trail 5-4 after seven. Tied coming home, Beaudry’s fourth thrower, Emily Ogg executed a hit up the centre line through a very narrow port to remove a Terrick shot stone and win the game.

Terrick and Freeman have second lives. They’ll play the semi-finals at 11AM.

Freeman faces Ronan Peterson after the Heather eliminated Colton Olafson (Portage) in the Page 3-4 game. Terrick’s opponent will be Cheyenne Ehnes (Heather) after their comeback win over Tansy Tober (Fort Garry).Ehnes stole singles on the ninth, tenth and extra ends to advance to the semifinal.

Zoey Terrick’s Heather team has already qualified for the championship Page Playoff in the CurlManitoba TELUS Junior Women’s Championship in Portage. They await three more teams who will qualify through the triple knockout event’s “C” division on the earlier draws to day.

Grace Beaudry’s St. Vital team, with Emily Ogg throwing fourth stones, plays Katy Lukowich (Granite) on the 11AM draw in Portage in the “B” Qualifying game. The loser will drop to the “C: Qualifier against the winner between Dayna Wahl (Altona) and Tansy Tober (Fort Garry). The other “C” Qualifier at 3:30PM today will have Cheyenne Ehnes playing the winner of a morning game between Shaela Hayward (Carman) and Morgan Maguet (East St. Paul).

Meanwhile, in the TELUS junior Men’s, the top two seeds have unbeaten 3W-0L records with a game to play on the morning draw. Top seed Jordon McDonald and #2 Jace Freeman are assured of advancing to the Page Playoff round. McDonald will play in the 1 vs 1 game while Freeman must win to earn his pool’s first place ranking.

In the McDonald pool, Ronan Peterson (Heather) can finish at 3W-1L with a win over Tanner Graham (Heather). However, even with that win and a McDonald loss (to winless Jonathan Kostna – Pembina), McDonald will have first place locked up thanks to an earlier win over Peterson. A Peterson loss and 2W-2L record will create a 2W-2L second place tie with Ggaham and Hunter Dundas (Brandon).

In the Freeman pool, the leader plays Aaron Van Ryssel (Springfield). A Van Ryssel win would mean the two teams have 3W-1L records and Van Ryssel would be awarded first place due to the win. A Van Ryssel loss would mean a 2W-2L record and a tie with the winner between Colton Olafson and Zack Norris (Morris). Van Ryssel beat Norris but lost to Olafson in the round robin.