Yukon’s Team Paslawski was the most exemplary men’s team for the Travelers Club Curling Championship, last week in Halifax.
The Paslawski rink traveled farther than any other in the men’s draw at the sixth annual event, formerly called the Dominion Curling Club Championships, held for club-level curling teams.
But bonus points weren’t awarded for longest distance traveled.
The Paslawski team, who was representing the Whitehorse Curling Club, went 3-3 and missed a spot in the playoffs.
“We absolutely want to go back. It’s a great time,” said skip Pat Paslawski. “First and foremost, it’s a great party. And the level of curling there is better suited to the level that we’re at.
“If we were to go to the Brier we’d get killed. So it’s nice to go there and compete for a national championship where we have a reasonable chance at winning some games.”
The Paslawski team, which included third Doug Hamilton, second Trent Derkatch and lead Gary Brown, jumped out to a 3-1 record with wins over Northern Ontario, B.C. and N.W.T.
They lost to Alberta, Manitoba and were eliminated with a 9-2 loss to New Brunswick on Thursday.
“We were 3-2 and we had to win against New Brunswick,” said Paslawski. “I missed a shot and it was a five-point swing; instead of us getting four, we gave them one. That really took the wind out of our sails. If I made that shot it would have been a very different game.”
Paslawski, Hamilton and Derkatch, along with Alexx Peeach, won last year’s Yukon Men’s Curling Championships.
The same four became the first men’s rink from Yukon to reach the playoffs of the Travelers championships last year. They went 5-1 in the round-robin to make the semis, where they lost 5-1 to Saskatchewan.
Yukon had less success on the women’s side of the tournament. Team MacInnis, which was representing the Atlin Curling Club, went winless at 0-6.
On board to represent the Atlin club were skip Sherry MacInnis, third Daniyel McNeil, second Bev Murphy and lead Janis Harper,
Their closest loss was 8-5 to Manitoba, who went on to reach Friday’s semifinal.
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com