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Three-peat for Holowaychuk

Like a fine wine, Dan Holowaychuk is better with age as a competitive curler with the Wade White rink.
WEB SPORTS 2002 seniors
LORDS OF THE RINGS - Sunday's 10-6 extra-end victory over the Mark Johnson rink of Grande Prairie marked the third Curling Alberta senior (50-plus) men's championship for, from left, skip Wade White, third Barry Chwedoruk, second Dan Holowaychuk of St. Albert and lead George White. The 2017 Canadian champions and 2018 world gold medallists finished 8-1 at provincials in Spruce Grove. Nationals start March 22 in Chilliwack and the winner will represent Canada at the 2020 worlds. Nationals will be the fourth since 2013 for Holowaychuk, a St. Albert Curling Club wall of fame inductee, and Wade White.

Like a fine wine, Dan Holowaychuk is better with age as a competitive curler with the Wade White rink.

The third senior (50-plus) provincial championship in a row for the 56-year-old Holowaychuk with White as skip, third Barry Chwedoruk and lead George White was the 10-6 extra-end decision over Mark Johnson in Sunday’s final at Spruce Grove to finish 8-1.

“We’re playing pretty good now than we were in men’s,” said Holowaychuk of the 2017 Canadian champions and 2018 world gold medallists. “That day is gone. We can’t get that back. I guess we’re doing what we can now and it’s worked out well.”

The first senior men’s foursome to three-peat in Alberta is in select company.

“I got texts from some people saying it’s a dynasty but I don't know about that yet,” said Holowaychuk, a St. Albert Curling Club wall of fame inductee who celebrated his first senior provincial championship in 2013 with White, third Doug McLennan and lead George Parsons.

“With the first one there is a lot of memories of winning Alberta, but obviously winning Canadians and winning worlds was the pinnacle. I guess if we can do that part of it again that would be maybe sweeter but we had good sponsors, good times and good parties and all that stuff so we’re looking forward to that again if we can pull it off," said the alternate for the Ferbey Four, five-time Alberta champions, four-time Brier winners and three-time world gold medallists.

Visit www.stalbertgazette.com to view the team’s championship picture.

Nationals are March 22 to 28 in Chilliwack, B.C., to determine the Canadian rep at the 2020 worlds.

This year, worlds are in Norway and the Team Canada rink is skipped by Bryan Cochrane of Russell, Ont.

“There is a new batch of rookies every year. They all come from the men’s tour so you never know who you’re playing against at nationals. We’ll have to be sharp,” Holowaychuk said. “We’re also playing in a brand new (eight sheet) curling facility at Chilliwack. That’s kind of unheard of these days, too. I’m looking forward to that.”

The senior men’s nationals started in 1965 and has grown to 14 rinks split into two pools compared to the 12-team round robin in 2013 when the White foursome finished 9-3 as bronze medallists at Summerside, P.E.I.

“We know a lot about the process,” said Holowaychuk of the team’s 6-4 result last year in Stratford, Ont., and 9-3 in 2017 at Fredericton, N.B. “We still have to play everybody at the top, even if you come out of your pool you still have to play the top teams in the other pool.”

Team Alberta is in a unique position as the defending Canadian champions at nationals.

“It’s a little strange because we didn’t win Canadians last year. We probably should’ve made the playoffs but we were so focused on the worlds (in Oestersund, Sweden, after qualifying as the 2017 champions). It’s kind of strange how that works. It’s different if you go that year but we were maybe looser at those Canadians than probably we should’ve been and not maybe as focused as we should’ve and could’ve been,” said Holowaychuk of the team’s 5-1 record for a three-way tie for first-place in pool A before going 1-3 against pool B teams in the championship pool for a share of fifth-place as the top four qualified for the playoffs.

“Now we’ll be back there this year with a little bull’s eye on our backs as the reigning world champions.”

Leading up to the three-peat was the 2016 loss to Ed Lukowich at provincials in Coaldale.

“We were undefeated through the city, undefeated through the northerns, undefeated at the provincials and we lost the final to Lukowich. I think we were 14-0 going into the game. We had that one bad end against him and that ended that,” Holowaychuk said. “When we didn't win, we were kind of upset. We were all younger then and Barry was a rookie and we had played really good. We didn’t even have a close game I don’t think for those 14 games. We were just kind of rolling along and it didn’t happen so that loss probably made us stronger and more strong-willed to have that desire.”

The next year in Dawson Creek, the fifth straight win at provincials was 3-2 against Kurt Balderston of Grande Prairie as White didn’t have to throw his last shot in eight.

Last year in Coaldale, White’s draw shot to the eight foot with Balderston lying one was the winning point in the last end of the 7-6 decision for the provincial repeat.

“Every year it’s been a grind the last game. They’re all close games. It could go either way,” Holowaychuk said. “It’s been fun but obviously nerve-wracking when it comes down to the end like that and it’s anybody’s game.”

The final against Johnson (6-2), with Balderston at third, Rob Bucholz at second and lead Del Shaughnessy, featured deuces by White in two, four and six to lead 6-4. Johnson counted one in seven and in eight stole the tying point.

“We had to wrestle away the hammer early. We forced them to one in the first end and then took two,” Holowaychuk said. “There were some great shots made by both skips to get out of trouble. We had to make a double angle raise to freeze in the back of the four-foot to cut them down and they had to do a similar thing in another end.”

In eight, and Johnson looking to steal with a rock just off the button that was guarded, White’s last shot “didn't grab like some of the other ones and it just slid an inch too far,” Holowaychuk said. “Most of the rocks were fudging coming into the button a little bit and it slowed down some but one of our guys was still sweeping, thinking that it needed it but it didn’t.

“George thought we had it. He had his hands up in the air and I think the whole place did, too – it was pretty full, upstairs and the downstairs, too – but George was jumping up and down until the rock stopped and it had slid too far.”

In the extra end, White’s second rock was an attempt to sneak past a guard to nudge Johnson’s shot rock out of harm’s way.

”We could only see about an inch of the rock that we had to take out and we were just throwing hack to board quiet weight and it got out off his hand and hit that spot where it started to curl hard so I had to get on it really hard. We scraped by the guard and I think I got my last stroke in when I fell down. I was on my knees so I had a good eye level of the last rock coming in there and once we got by the guard we had a piece of the rock and we didn’t need to stay. I think it curled up hard enough that it came almost right up to the nose and stuck around,” Holowaychuk said. “Somebody said we got four and I didn’t know how we did that, I just knew we had to get that one out and we did.

“So that four at the end of the game wasn’t indicative of the game.”

In Sunday’s semifinal against Terry Meek (6-4) of Calgary, who qualified for the playoffs through tiebreakers, White scored a deuce in four and stole one in five to make it 5-3. The seventh end was blanked before White iced it with one in eight for the 6-4 win.

The eight-team round robin for the Lac La Biche-based rink included a 6-3 loss to Johnson in seven ends.

“They stole one (in seven after a deuce with hammer in six) and we were three down coming home and that’s pretty much the end of story there,” Holowaychuk said.

The last two games before the playoffs were 6-0 in four ends against the winless Spruce Grove/St. Albert crew of skip Randy Guidinger, McLennan at third, second Conrad Yaremchuk and lead Lyle Biever and 8-4 in seven ends against Colin Griffith (1-6) of Grande Prairie.

“Against Griffith, we were down 4-1 (after three ends) and we weren't going to pack it in. We stayed in there and battled and got our deuce (in four before stealing the next five points),” Holowaychuk said.

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