A Whitehorse junior curling rink returned home with a few extra bucks in their wallets at the start of the week.
Thomas Scoffin, along with teammates Will Mahoney, Mitchell Young and NWT’s David Aho, took in $1,000 by reaching the semifinals of the Yukon Title Curling Classic, a US$10,000 cash spiel in Fairbanks, Alaska, over the weekend.
The rink, which expects to compete at the junior nationals later this season, went undefeated in a four-game round-robin, but then lost 7-6 to a team skipped by Fairbanks’ Dave Hill.
“We played really well in the in our pool of five teams. In the semi we ran into a hot team and didn’t come out on top in that one,” said Scoffin. “It was battle; it was definitely a good game. The guy played unbelievable; he stood on his head and there was not much more we could do.”
The junior rink wasn’t the only Whitehorse team in Fairbanks, nor the only led by a Scoffin.
Wade Scoffin, president of the Yukon Curling Association, competed with local juniors Patty Wallingham, Ryan Burke and Brian Avery. The mixed team went 2-2 in the round-robin and carried on to win the consolation draw, defeating a mixed Alaskan team headed by Peter Lundquist 9-6 in the final.
“That was an interesting game,” said Wade Scoffin. “We exchanged single points through the first five ends and in the sixth end we were able to break the game open by scoring six points.”
A third Whitehorse rink, skipped by Pat Paslawski, with teammates Greg Dawson, Trent Derkatch and Gord Zealand, also went 2-2 in the round-robin but were knocked out in the first-round of the consolation draw.
Yukon winless at mixed nationals
It’s been tough going for Team Yukon this week at the Canadian Mixed Curling Championships in Sudbury, Ontario.
As of Thursday morning the team, which consists of skip Scott Hamilton, third Darlene Hutton, second Herb Balsam and lead Corinne Delaire, are 0-11 with two games to go.
“It’s certainly been a really rewarding experience for all of us,” said Hamilton. “We haven’t won a game yet, but any day curling is better than a day working.”
Team Yukon had its closest game on Monday, pushing Team Northern Ontario to an extra end in a 10-8 loss.
“That was by far our best game and it was a thriller for sure; everyone was on the edge of their seats,” said Hamilton.
The last chances to put a check in the win column will be when the Yukon squad faces Nova Scotia Thursday evening and PEI on Friday to end the round-robin.
“If we manage to put everything together, then we might have a shot,” said Hamilton. “PEI has a pretty strong team and Nova Scotia is kind of hovering around the bottom with us.”
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com