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Whitehorse's Scoffin edged out of first World Curling Tour title

It all came down to a make-or-break shot. Unfortunately for Whitehorse's Thomas Scoffin, he came out on the wrong side of the equation.
curlingscoffin

It all came down to a make-or-break shot. Unfortunately for Whitehorse’s Thomas Scoffin, he came out on the wrong side of the equation.

The 19-year-old skip and his Team Scoffin rink lost on the last shot in the final of the Original 16 World Curling Tour Bonspiel at the Calgary Curling Club on Sunday.

Though the Scoffin team missed a chance at their first World Curling Tour title, they are still pleased with their performance.

“We’re definitely feeling pretty confident right now, especially going 7-0 into the final,” said Scoffin. “It shows a lot of good signs leading up to our goals here in the next couple of months.

“We’re happy with that performance for sure.”

Team Scoffin, which includes third Dylan Gousseau, second Jaques Bellamy and lead Andrew O’Dell, lost 3-2 to South Korea’s Chang-Min Kim in the final.

Scoffin scored points in the fourth and fifth end to take a slim 2-1 lead. Kim scored one in the eighth to push to an extra end where his team registered the decisive point.

Scoffin needed to make an in-turn shot to the four-foot through a port, but the rock didn’t curl enough.

“We controlled the whole game, really,” said Scoffin. “We played a good eighth end. He made a really nice shot for one point. It was close to being over right there actually.

“We played a pretty good extra end. I had a shot to win it and it didn’t quite react the way we thought it would.”

Sunday marked the second time Scoffin reached the final of WCT event. He was runner-up at the WCT Shamrock Shotgun Cashspiel in Edmonton last season.

Over the weekend Team Scoffin won seven consecutive games to reach the final, defeating Team Kim 6-4 during the round-robin. Team Kim won the 2013 Karuizawa International Curling Championship in Japan last season and is vying to represent South Korea at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

“They were both good games,” said Scoffin. “In the final the Korean team played really defensive, so there was a low score that kept things close.

“Both games I had a shot for the win. One game I made it and one game not quite.”

Team Scoffin is the junior team for the University of Alberta Golden Bears. Scoffin and Gosseau are in their second season with the team while Bellamy and O’Dell are new this season.

Last season the rink won Alberta’s Junior Provincial Championships and went on to win silver at the Canadian Junior Curling Championship.

Scoffin was named skip of the First Team All-Star with a 78-per-cent shot rate at the junior nationals. He is currently tied for fourth on the all-time win list with 33 career wins at the junior nationals and still has two more years of eligibility, including this season.

Team Scoffin reached the semifinal of the WCT Avonair Cash Spiel with four wins and two losses early last month in Edmonton.

“It was our goal to qualify (for the playoff) and we achieved that with flying colours,” said Scoffin of Calgary. “And I’m really happy with how we kept pushing on through the quarter and through the semis and right to the final. We played a good game and I know if we keep working hard we’ll win more finals than we lose in the future.”

Contact Tom Patrick at

tomp@yukon-news.com