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A parade of January curling Provincials not new to these parts
2025-01-18
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With provincial championships pretty much backing directly onto each other for a stretch of three to four weeks, it can only mean that the northern Ontario curling community has turned the calendar to the month of January and all of the craziness that the start of a new year carries in.

Just days in, the NOCA (Northern Ontario Curling Assocation) crowned Sudbury skips Mia Toner and Brendan Rajala as U21 champions, their teams now setting their sights on the national bonspiel taking place in Summerside (P.E.I.) from March 22nd to the 30th.

Next up, the Provincial Men’s Masters as the decorated local rink of Robbie Gordon, Ron Henderson, Dion Dumontelle and Doug Hong secured a second trip to nationals in three years – to go along with four other Canadian playdown appearances as a senior division entry.

That bonspiel gave way to the current focus in Timmins as the McIntyre Curling Club welcomes a total of 13 teams to their venue for the NOCA U18 Championships. While the size of the field is both healthy and encouraging, it is worth noting that there is only one Sudbury team in the mix as the Idylwylde Golf & Country Club foursome of Sophie Perreault, Vivienne Bolestridge, Gracie Schmidt and Caitlyn Connors cut their teeth at this event.

Six draws in, Team Perreault find themselves sporting a record of 2-4, opening the tournament with a 6-5 win over Claire Dubinsky (Kakabeka Falls) before dropping back to back games to Deanna Chilton (6-1 - McIntyre – Timmins) and Emma Tucker (8-3 - Fort Frances).

The locals repeated that pattern a second time, upending Lily Wright (7-2 - Kakabeka Falls) but losing at the hands of Rhya Baker (4-3 - Horne Granite - New Liskeard) and Skye Bergounhon (9-7 - McIntyre).

The eight team girls’ field is being led by Claire Dubinksy (5-1), with Deanna Chilton and Lily Wright both one game back at 4-2. With just five teams to contend with on the boys side, key macthups remain for the teams representing Sault Ste Marie, Thunder Bay, North Bay and Timmins.

The “biggie”, from an NOCA perspective, kicks off next Tuesday at the Port Arthur Curling Club as 13 men’s teams and 7 women’s entries vye for the right to represent Northern Ontario / The Province at the Brier and Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

Though the men’s draw is not flush with Sudbury entries, the two rinks representing the Northern Credit Union Community Centre (NCUCC) are certainly among those that people will be watching.

A pair of bonspiel wins in Waterloo and Toronto combined with a second place finish at the Red Deer Curling Classic (lost to Matt Dunstone in the final) has propelled Team Epping (John Epping; Jake Horgan; Tanner Horgan; Ian McMillan) very quietly into a top-ten ranking in the world and legitimate status as the team to beat in Thunder Bay.

And for as much as the second NCUCC entry have a good 5-6 years of collective team experience under their belts, it’s a rejigged lineup that sees Dustin Montpellier throwing third rocks but in the house calling the game as skip, with Sandy MacEwan throwing fourth. Luc Ouimet (now second) and Lee Toner (lead) have also flipped positions as the quartet that has twice made the NOCA final in recent years looks to earn a first ever visit to the Brier.

“Every year, we’re trying to figure out how to peak for provincials,” said Montpellier, his team joining both the Epping and defending champion Trevor Bonot rinks in earning a first round bye in the triple-knockout format that sends three qualifiers through to the playoff round. “It’s always an on-going conversation about how best to prepare, how to make sure that we are playing our best when it matters the most.”

“I would say that we are tweaking every year, but typically, we have a bonspiel season in the fall and then have a nice break in December and early January to practice and set-up some games.”

Added to that schedule in recent years has been the team’s participation at the Malette-Goring Bonspiel hosted last weekend at the Idywlylde as Team MacEwan advanced to the “A” final for the third straight year but were dethroned via a 6-4 loss to the mixed rink of Mike Assad, Abby Deschene, Matt Gordon and Kameron Tellier.

“We’ve found that this really helps, just getting some games in close enough to when we go to provincials,” stated Montpellier, whose team added another component to their off-ice preparation this year.

“This year, we put a real emphasis on the mental side of the game,” said Montpellier. “We have a sport psychologist that we work with quite extensively, and it’s really been working for us. Our season has been a bit up and down, but we’ve had some of our best games ever as a team this season.”

“We’ve had a few games where our precision was very high level, our percentage of shot-making was high, our communication skills were as good as we’ve ever seen them – and we’re all on the same page strategy-wise.”

“Everything kind of clicked together perfectly and we played a solid eight or ten ends as a team,” Montpellier added. Hit that game at just the right time in Thunder Bay and that might be enough to translate into a trip to Kelowna at the end of February for the 2025 Montana’s Brier.

The seven team women’s draw which features multi-time provincial champion Krista McCarville – with lead Kendra Lilly, from Sudbury – also includes the NCUCC rink skipped by Emma Artichuk (with teammates Megan Smith, Jamie Smith and Lauren Rajala) as well as the Lauren Mann rink, with CND graduate Stephanie Barbeau at lead.

As for the Robbie Gordon rink that will head to their sixth national championship since the skip joined forces with Ron Henderson, Dion Dumontelle and Doug Hong some 14 years ago, the pathway to victory was anything but easy.

Their double round robin schedule included losses to both Chris Gordon (NCUCC – 7-5) and Al Harnden/Bruce Munro (Idylwylde – 8-4), before they turned the tables in the final, beating the Harnden/Munro defending championship rink 7-2.

And closing out Malette-Goring Bonspiel coverage, congratulations go out to the "B" event championship team of Tom Cull, Amanda Corkal, Nick Bissonnette and Martin Lafferriere, which needed an extra end to subdue the Faith Hebert, Tyler Laflamme, Kendra Carriere, Shane Robinson foursome.

"C" draw bragging right went to the Idylwylde quartet of Pat Chartier, Rich Schmidt, Steve Pellatt and Philip Ng, victors over Joe Natale, Cosimo Micelotta, Joe Greco and Phil Hopkins in the final.

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