Jasper Place – St. Albert rinks skipped by Kathy Piper and Doug McLennan swept the women's and mixed finals at the Tournament of Championships.
The winning teams struck for points with last shot in Thursday's playoffs, as Piper knocked off Lorna Alfrey of Sherwood Park 8-6 and McLennan cruised past Nevin deMilliano of the Saville Sports Centre 7-5.
"The double victory is sweet," said a smiling Piper during post-game hugs from well-wishers. "We were going for gold all the way."
The annual competition brought together 12 Edmonton and area club champions in the women's, mixed and men's brackets.
"It speaks volumes to have two of our club teams win," said a beaming McLennan, president of the St. Albert Curling Club. "The girls had a great run and we're super proud of them. For us, it's pretty relieving to finally win the mixed."
The last four trips to cities ended with losses in the semifinal qualifiers last year and three straight semifinals by the four-time reigning St. Albert champions and 2006 club finalists.
"Fifth time is the charm, is that what they say?" McLennan joked. "We've been close every time we've come here and it's because of the competitiveness of our leagues in St. Albert. We've got to show up every time in our club playoffs and we've been fortunate to get through there and we carry that into here.
"You look at a lot of these teams, they're the best that those clubs have and I'm not saying anything about their leagues but we could've sent five or six of our teams here and quite frankly they could've done just as well."
The Award Windows foursome of McLennan, third Alison Howes and the brother/sister front-end of Colin and Lauren Jenkyns (filling in for lead Ashley Ferguson) curled up a storm to go undefeated in four games. The first two wins were blowouts and the last two games went down to the wire.
"We've been here before so we never got rattled," McLennan said.
Piper rocked the ice with third Nicole Bellamy, second Jackie-Rae Greening and lead Laurie Schreiner to go 4-0 at cities.
"We were really better curlers than the other teams here," Piper said. "We're competitive and we know how to play the game."
Women's final
The women's crown was only the second for a St. Albert rink since Cathy Borst won the inaugural playoff in 1993.
Last year Piper, Bellamy and Schreiner played for Christina Monk as the St. Albert ladies fell 7-5 in the final to Cindy Westgard of the Thistle. The previous two years they made it as far as the semifinals.
"We've been the bridesmaids too many times," said Piper, who played lead for Monk before her long-time skip went on maternity leave last fall. "It feels real good what we accomplished, considering we only curl once a week [Wednesday nights]."
In the semifinals Wednesday the four-time defending St. Albert playoff winners turned the tables on Westgard for a return trip to the final with a steal of three in eight.
"The whole turning point in this game was when we beat Cindy. It was like, 'Yeah, we can do this now,'" Piper said.
The final marked the third tilt been St. Albert and Sherwood Park in less than three weeks. In the double-knockout draw, Piper crushed Alfrey 9-3 in Tuesday's A semifinal qualifier with a five-ender in the first.
They also hooked up in the C semifinal at the Dominion Curling Club northern bonspiel last month at the Park, with Alfrey prevailing 6-5 in the extra end as Piper struggled to make her shots count. Down 5-1 after giving up steals of one in the fourth and fifth ends, Piper rallied with two in six and stole singles in seven and eight to knot it at five. Alfrey didn't have to throw her last rock in the extra end after Piper's final attempt over-curled, leaving Palfrey sitting one.
"We came out focused tonight. We wanted to keep the house clean and keep them hitting," Piper said. "They're much better at drawing than they are at hitting and I think they were getting frustrated by having to hit all the time."
St. Albert started the final with a bang by counting three with the hammer in the first end and a steal of one in two as Alfrey cut the damage to only a counter with her last shot. After giving up two in three, Piper settled for a deuce in four after coming up short with a draw for three to lead 6-2. Alfrey added two in five, but fell behind by three after Piper scattered the rocks to score one in six. Alfrey's third deuce of the game cut the lead to 7-6 after seven.
"She made the shots to get her two points. She had to work for them," Piper said.
In the last end, Alfrey's lead hogged the first shot. Greening did some damage to Alfrey's rocks in the house with a bing-bang throw. St. Albert would later overcome a rare miss by Bellamy against counters by Alfrey to seal the deal in dramatic fashion. A couple of clutch deliveries by Piper included a slick draw with the hammer to the four-foot with Alfrey lying shot rock to avoid the tie.
"I said to myself, 'Come on Kathy, you know the weight. You can throw this. Leave it to the sweepers. The girls can get it there, regardless of what you give them," Piper recalled of the championship-clinching shot. "It was exciting to see it play out as planned."
Mixed final
A three-ender in four by McLennan with the hammer to make it 4-3 propelled St. Albert to victory in the cautiously played affair.
"That three was huge. We needed it," said the winning skip. "They looked like they were so worried that we were going to score points that they weren't concentrating on themselves scoring points."
With very few rocks in play, McLennan scored first with a steal of one and in two deMilliano tacked up a point. After a steal of one in three by deMilliano, he gave up three as McLennan fired a hit and stick while lying one. deMilliano answered with one in five. In the next end, with two counters by deMilliano strategically placed, McLennan hit the shot rock to count one. deMilliano pulled even at five apiece with two in seven. In the last end, aggressive play-calling by McLennan generated rocks in play. A hogged rocked by deMilliano's third with her first shot opened the door of opportunity for St. Albert. A pair of peaches by Howes and a couple of gems by McLennan, including the decisive hit and stick for two with last shot, capped off a rare city championship by a St. Albert mixed team.
"We thought he was probably half buried at the back but when I went to throw the draw, I could see the whole thing so it was kind of a no brainer to throw the hit," McLennan said.
What separated his rink from the rest of the contenders at cities was the ability to play different styles to perfection.
"To win you've got to control that finesse game. We've done a really good job the last couple of years working on that and it shows now. We don't throw those brick splitters anymore. Everything is more sort of control board kind of weight. We also play the rolls because we've got such great sweeping," McLennan said. "Last night [eight-end semifinal squeaker against the Thistle], Ally makes two absolute pistols because of the sweeping of Colin and Lauren and the line and the weight. That got us into a position to steal a point. It was a huge turnaround in that game because it was really tight."
HOG LINES: Showing off his world championship ring as the fifth-man for the Kevin Koe rink at Thursday's finals was St. Albert skip Jamie King. Commitments with the Brier-winning Saville foursome at worlds in Italy prevented King from playing with his five-time reigning St. Albert men's championship team of Craig King, Ralph Killips, Brian Pfeifer and spare Elson Keown at cities. Without King in the backend, last year's finalists were eliminated in two straight games.
