Seniors nationals
Dan Holowaychuk of St. Albert added a bronze medal to his collection in the senior (50-plus) division as Team Alberta finished third at the Curling Canada nationals in Chilliwack, B.C.
Holowaychuk is the second for the Wade White rink, the 2017 Canadian champions and 2018 world gold medallists with third Barry Chwedoruk and lead George White that finished 8-4 at nationals after Thursday’s 10-3 victory in six ends over Dave Boehmer (Peterfield Curling Club) of Manitoba in the medal round.
White also defeated Manitoba 10-3 in five ends to go 5-1 in pool B for qualification in the championship pool against the top four teams in pool A.
In the bronze-medal match, a steal of two in four made it 5-2 and the handshakes started after a five-ender in six.
White qualified for Thursday’s semifinals as the second playoff seed at 7-3. Bruce Korte (Nutana Curling Club) of Saskatchewan was first at 10-0 while Manitoba and Bryan Cochrane (Russell Curling Club) of Ontario were 6-4.
Cochrane is off to worlds in April in Stavanger, Norway, as the 2018 Canadian champion.
In the championship pool, White knocked off Ontario 4-3 but the tables were turned in the semifinals with Cochrane winning 6-3 in seven ends.
Steals gave Ontario the edge in the playoff with one in two to go ahead 3-0 and two in six to lead 6-1.
The final was 8-4 for Saskatchewan over Ontario.
One of the losses for White was 9-3 in seven ends to Saskatchewan in the championship pool as the Saskatoon rink counted three in five before stealing a deuce in six and one in seven.
Holowaychuk, 56, a St. Albert Curling Club wall of fame inductee in 2014 and the alternate for the Ferbey Four, was competing in his third nationals in a row with the White foursome based out of Lac La Biche and the fourth Canadians since 2013 with the bronze-medal rink of White, third Doug McLennan and lead George Parsons.
Mixed provincials
The St. Albert rink skipped by Tyler Pfeiffer won two and lost two with three games remaining at the Curling Alberta mixed championship.
Pfeiffer, who replaced Doug McLennan as team captain when the St. Albert Curling Club wall of fame inductee was unavailable to compete at provincials because of work commitments, is joined by third Kim Zsakai, second Lyle Biever and lead Brenda Doroshuk at the eight-team tournament at the Shamrock.
In the playdowns, the St. Albert squad finished 4-1 as the B qualifiers with McLennan as the skip in the 13-team competition in Camrose.
Wednesday’s opening draw for Pfeiffer saw victories of 5-4 against Glen Hansen of Spruce Grove and 6-4 in seven ends against Cassiel Kobylnyk of Calgary.
Pfeiffer and Hansen traded points after the first end was blanked by Hansen, the 2015 senior (50-plus) provincial champion with McLennan as his third, and in eight Pfeiffer counted one in for the win.
A steal of two by Pfeiffer in five against Kobylnyk put the game out of reach at 6-1.
Thursday’s losses were 6-5 to Daylan Vavrek of Sexsmith and 8-4 in seven ends to Albert Gerdung of Brooks.
Vavrek opened the scoring with a three-spot in two and ended the game with one in eight after blanking the seventh following a deuce by Pfeiffer in six.
Gerdung stole one in two to lead 3-0 and in four counted three to make it 6-2 and in the next end stole another point.
Friday’s scores against Graham Powell of the Avonair and Warren Cross of the Saville Centre were unavailable at press time.
The last round-robin game is today at 10 a.m. against Craig MacAlpine of the Saville Centre.
The top team advances to the final.
The semifinal is 7 p.m. tonight and Sunday’s final is 1 p.m.
Visit www.albertacurling.ab.ca for results.
