Early next month Whitehorse curler Thomas Scoffin will be packing his brushes and heading to his first men’s provincial championship.
Scoffin and his rink went undefeated at the Northern Alberta Men’s Curling Championship in Thistle, Alta., Jan. 19-22.
The team, which includes third Tristan Steinke, second Jason Ginter and lead Brett Winfield, will be one of three to represent northern Alberta at the provincials in Westlock, Feb. 8-12.
“We’re feeling really good,” said Scoffin. “Obviously, things went our way this weekend. We’re pretty close to playing at our A game — a little more work and we’ll be right there, where we need to be for provincials.”
Team Scoffin won four straight games in the A division, twice beating other teams from the Saville Sports Centre in Edmonton where Scoffin attends the University of Alberta.
The Scoffin rink won 6-2 over Colin Huber’s team from Vermilion, 9-3 over Glen Hansen’s team from Edmonton, 7-6 over Warren Cross’ team from Edmonton, and 7-4 over Matt Brown’s team from Two Hills.
In their win over Cross — their closest of the weekend — Team Scoffin went up 7-4 by the end of the eighth and held off Cross as his scored singles in the last two ends.
“That was an open end and we just needed to make a rock go away, and we did that,” said Scoffin.
“It was a pretty straightforward win when it came down to it, but it was a close game throughout.”
The northern playdown was Scoffin’s first since winning his first World Curling Tour title at the Dawson Creek Cash Spiel in B.C., at the end of November. Team Scoffin took the title with a win over Cross in the final.
Though next month will be Scoffin’s first time at the Alberta men’s championship, it won’t be his first provincial playdown. The 22-year-old won Alberta’s junior title in 2013 and went on to take silver at the junior nationals.
Scoffin, who led Canada to a bronze medal in curling at the 2012 Winter Youth Olympic Games, is in his fifth year of study at the University of Alberta.
Last season Scoffin and Jason Ginter won silver on the University of Alberta Golden Bears senior curling team at the 2016 CIS/Curling Canada University Championships. The previous year they won eight straight to claim the national CIS title.
Contact Tom Patrick at tomp@yukon-news.com