It doesn’t matter what level you play at, curling is one of those sports where anything can happen at any given time.
Like a team with a losing record knocking off a first-place team in the playoffs. Or a close game suddenly becoming a blowout because of one end.
Both situations were on tap during the Canadian Forces Canada West Curling Championship at the Moose Jaw Events Centre on Thursday, as 17 Wing Winnipeg would go on to claim the title with a 10-2 win over 15 Wing Moose Jaw.
“It was a good game, the score definitely doesn’t reflect the level of play we saw out there today,” said 17 Wing skip Mathew Lazaruk shortly after their six-end win. “I’m quite happy with the week, it was a great group of teams here. I’ve been to this championship six times representing 17 Wing, and it was a brand new team this year so it was nice for them to come out here and get this experience and get the win.”
Winnipeg had put together a 3-1 record through the round robin and advanced to the title game with an 8-5 win over 4 Wing Cold Lake’s 2nd Lieut. Kyle Walker in their semifinal.
Lazaruk would end up facing a surprise opponent for gold, as 15 Wing’s Cpl. Jonathan Benson pulled off the upset of the tournament in his semifinal.
Benson, third Cpl. Jay McLellan, second Capt. Greg Heffern and lead Capt. Jean Doyon lost their final round robin game to 7-2 to Winnipeg on Wednesday night to finish with a 1-3 record and sneak into the playoffs as the fourth seed.
There, they’d rally for a 7-2 win over Comox’s Master Cpl. Joey Beaudin, who had put together a 3-1 record of their own and were part of the three-way tie with Cold Lake for first place in the round robin.
“We were just on our game, we were making our shots and that’s the nature of curling,” Benson said. “We could have played the same game 20 times and had 20 different results.”
The title game was close in the early going, with Lazaruk -- who took the ice with third Capt. Paul Neilands, second Sgt. Frank Charest and lead Capt. Ian Aastrom -- holding a two-point lead heading into the fifth end. That’s where the game would change, though, thanks to a massively cluttered house and a single shot that went awry for Benson.
The Snowbirds technician would attempt a raise takeout on his first shot of the end, but would instead remove one of his own counters in the four foot and set up Lazaruk for a four-ender and a 7-2 lead.
“It was a lot of clutter in the house, and it was a game of tic tac toe,” Lazaruk said. “I’m very happy that we were able to make the shots that were called, especially in that end, I have a great team in front of me and it made my life a lot easier.”
Benson had hoped to keep things clean, but with every rock played except for one in the house when he went down the ice for his first shot, that certainly wasn’t the case.
“The fifth end got junked up and I had to take a desperation shot, for the lack of a better word… it was like quicksand, the harder I fought the faster I sunk,” Benson said with a good-natured laugh. “We just got away from our game a bit and that’s what happens.”
Benson was forced to play aggressively to try and get back into things in the sixth end, but would give up three more before shaking hands early.
Reaching the title game was naturally a positive for 15 Wing, especially after a less-than-satisfying round robin that saw a handful of close losses that could have gone either way.
“It was very unexpected, but I’m happy with the way it ended up and I’m happy with how we curled,” Benson said. “Sometimes things didn’t go our way, and that’s how it goes. All in all it was a great week… we were essentially professional athletes because we got paid to curl this week and hey, a bad day curling is better than a good day at work.”
The championship wasn’t all that surprising to Lazaruk, who has seen his crew around the medals every year the Canada West tournament has been played.
“This year still feels extra special since we haven’t won it since our first year,” he said. “So to come back with a new team and take it against a great group of opponents is a great feeling.”
The Canadian Forces Canada West tournament will be back at the Moose Jaw Events Centre in 2023, and Benson is already looking forward to taking another crack at winning a medal.
“This was awesome and a lot of fun and we’ll be looking forward to it next year, and like I said to Winnipeg, we’ll get you next year,” Benson said with a grin.
