Yukon’s Team Scoffin has the weight of two territories on their shoulders.
Representing both the Yukon and NWT at the 2010 Canadian Mixed Curling Championships in Burlington, Ontario, Team Scoffin is midway through the “full round-robin” with 11 other teams, with six more matches before the playoffs.
Only the top three teams advance.
So far Scoffin has had some close contests, but as of press time, had a 1-4 record, tied with Team Saskatchewan in last place.
“We haven’t got the wins next to our names but we’ve been playing very well,” said Team Scoffin skip and former Brier competitor Wade Scoffin. “We’re working hard to get a few more breaks and get a few more wins.”
Scoffin took their win against Team Quebec, beating them 7-2 Sunday evening in their second match of the bonspiel.
“We played very steadily and controlled the game for the most part,” said Scoffin. “They’re a really experienced team, so we were really pleased with how everything turned out.”
Peculiarly, Team Scoffin had closer matches against powerhouses like Alberta and Ontario, losing by two points against each, while suffering more lopsided losses against New Brunswick (losing 9-4) and the Northern Ontario team (losing 6-1).
“We gave them the lead and came back, but just couldn’t finish the game off,” said Scoffin, of his team’s match-up with Ontario.
The Yukon rink qualified to represent both territories in March, going 4-0 at the Yukon/NWT Mixed Championships in Whitehorse.
Joining Scoffin on the team are Steve Facteau, throwing second, Helen Strong third and Rhonda Horte as lead. Both Strong and Horte are former Scotties participants and all four play out of the Whitehorse Curling Club.
The team continued the bonspiel with a match against PEI Tuesday evening.
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com