Day 5 of the Morning Cup Newspaper

CANADA CUP OF CURLING – MORNING CUP - March 22, 2009 - Page 1

'ALLAGHER #ENTRE s -ARCH

The

Morning Cup

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Official Newspaper of the Canada Cup of Curling

RANDY FERBEY (EDMONTON) VS. KEVIN MARTIN (EDMONTON)

MARIE-FRANCE LAROUCHE (ST-ROMAULD) VS. SHANNON KLEIBRINK (CALGARY)

Page 2 - CANADA CUP OF CURLING – MORNING CUP - March 2009

Once more, with feeling Larouche, Kleibrink clash for all the marbles

By LARRY WOOD Morning Cup Editor

M

Cheryl Bernard of Calgary finished third for the second straight Canada Cup.

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arie-France Larouche would like nothing better today than to beat Calgary again this morning.

The Quebec skip assured her Canada Cup team of $18,200 in prize money and a likely place in November’s Olympic pre-trials at Prince George late Saturday afternoon with a last-rock out-turn takeout looking at three enemy stones to clinch a 7-6 extra-end semifinal victory over Cheryl Bernard’s Calgary entry.

Which brings the issue to this morning’s final at the Gallagher Centre against Shannon SEE Kleibrink, also of Calgary.

RESULTS, Kleibrink (5-1) Page 10 defeated Larouche 6-4 in Saturday morning’s Page playoff involving the roundrobin section winners. Hence, the team from St-Romauld will look for revenge and an additional $10,000 in prize money today.

Bernard finished third for the second straight Canada Cup and took home $12,400. She finished with a 4-3 record.

Larouche heads into today with a 5-2 record.

The Quebec team — third Annie Lemay, second Joelle Sabourin and lead Veronique Brassard — hit for an opening deuce against Bernard’s team, survivor of the suddendeath Page playoff.

Bernard tied it with a deuce in the third but Larouche earned total control by steal-

ing a single in the seventh when Bernard’s last brick slipped through the four-foot on a draw attempt.

Again the Calgary squad tied it with a deuce in the eighth but Larouche took one in the ninth, locked in her foe for a tying single in the 10th and won it with the 11th-end hammer.

“This is especially satisfying because we don’t have our real team — third Nancy Belanger is missing,” said Larouche. “So it’s pretty amazing for us.

“I think we have all the expenses covered.

Now it’s gravy and we love gravy.”

Larouche said her team will have to “up our level of play a little bit to win against her (Kleibrink)”

WOMEN “We played well against them but they played better than us,” she said.

“If we play well, I think we’re going to have a tight game. And maybe we have a chance to win this. Either way, this has been our best year by far.”

Following the morning win, Kleibrink defined it as “probably one of our better games of the year”.

“We finally put it all together,” she said.

Later in the day, she said she’d treat herself with a trip to the Painted Hand Casino.

“I like to play blackjack,” she said. “The team hasn’t let me go to a casino this year so . . . we haven’t had a chance because we’re always coming out of the C section in bonspiels and there’s never time. But, now, time to go.”

PLEASE SEE WOMEN P11

CANADA CUP OF CURLING – MORNING CUP - March 2009 - Page 3

Martin, Ferbs in showdown Brier champ finding his groove

By LARRY WOOD Morning Cup Editor

I

t’s Randy Ferbey vs. Kevin Martin, one more time, in the Canada Cup at the Gallagher Centre.

This occasion is the men’s championship final, a fixture Ferbey has won three times and Martin twice in the last six years.

The action goes tonight at 7:30 p.m.

Ferbey, the six-time Brier champ directing a four-time Brier champion team, caught Martin with a cold hand on Saturday morning and advanced to the final with a 6-2 decision anchored by a three-ender in the seventh panel.

MEN Martin then bounced back Saturday night in a rematch of last Sunday’s Brier finalists at Calgary and again defeated Jeff Stoughton of Winnipeg 8-3 in the semifinal.

“The ice was so much better tonight,” said Martin. “You could bury rocks. We were taking four, three-and-a-half feet and we were taking less than two earlier. So that’s a significant difference.

“If the ice is like this, it (tonight’s final) is going to be a heckuva game.”

Stoughton reached the semi by dealing out Toronto’s Wayne Middaugh 5-3 in the morning’s sudden-death Page playoff match.

“Things were definitely going their (Martin’s) way this week,” assessed Ferbey’s last-rock dispenser David Nedohin in the wake of the morning decision.

“Today things didn’t go their way. They had a game where they were a little flat and we played reasonably well. The ice is tricky but I think we adjusted well.”

Ferbey took a go-ahead single in the fourth, stole one in the fifth and put the wraps on the affair in the seventh.

“Straight, straight, straight,” said Martin, nodding toward the ice. “ You can’t bury a thing out there.

“I think we’re curling pretty good. I don’t think we’re out of gas. You just can’t bury to save yourself. You can’t come around and that’s frustrating. But we’ll come out again and deal with it.”

The loss was the second straight for the Martin team after winning five at provincials, 13 at the Brier and its first four at this Canada Cup.

PLEASE SEE MEN P11

Kevin Martin is in a familiar position — the final of a major event.

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On behalf of Richardson International, I congratulate the organizing committee and the numerous volunteers involved in the hosting of the 2009 Canada Cup of Curling. Having grown up in Yorkton and knowing first-hand the capacities of its citizens, I have no doubt that this will be a world-class event. To all competitors, sponsors and fans, I wish you a great week of curling!

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Page 4 - CANADA CUP OF CURLING – MORNING CUP - March 2009

EDITOR Larry Wood ASSOCIATE EDITOR Dave Komosky PHOTOGRAPHER Mike Burns Jr. PUBLISHED BY The News Review

The Wood file

Marcel Rocque says the sacrifices players have to make today to chase their Olympic dream are huge.

Rocque says grind of chasing Olympics sucking joy out of curling

M

arcel Rocque, who has sacrificed time and moolah to pursue his curling dreams the past eight years, harbours no doubts about the value of the returns.

Lead player and one-half of the Huff and Puff sweeping duet with the Randy Ferbey crew from Edmonton, Rocque has won four Briers and three world championships since 2001.

But he’s the first to admit the competitive game is changing and he’s not certain it’s for the better.

“The Olympic grind,” he observes, “sure seems to have changed the game a bit, eh?

“It’s not just one year at a time like it used to be. It’s not having some fun, relaxing, go to a couple of ’spiels, entering the playdowns and enjoying it. Not any more.

Now, it’s work!

And curling has changed.”

More than one competitor has made mention of the fact over the course of this season.

Toronto’s Wayne Middaugh went so far on a TSN talk show as to suggest the Olympic chase has ruined the game.

Numerous others have talked about the long grind in the quest for Canadian Team Ranking System points which lead to berths in the Canadian Olympic trials starting gate.

“It’s been a grind all right,” says

Larry WOOD

Rocque. “We’ve had a pretty consistent year but we just haven’t broken through.

Randy and I went 10 in a row before Christmas. We’ve really been going hard.

But we’re still hanging in. We’re still working toward our goal (the Olympic trials).”

But some would shudder at the expense.

“I negotiated four years ago for four years and maybe an extra year off,” says Rocque, a physical education teacher. “I’m itinerant supply right now so I work at the beginning of the school year and then I

take unpaid leave and I go back at the end of the curling season.

“It’s a big sacrifice on my part but it has to be because there’s just so much more time involved in this game now. I just don’t know how you keep a job and maintain performance at a high level to compete against the guys that can spend the time? I mean, you hear guys like Blake MacDonald (third for Kevin Koe) who say they don’t see how they can manage it much more, and these are young guys, they’re our future, and

they’re going on about doubting they can keep doing this!”

Question is, will this elongated schedule have to be repeated in advanced of future Olympics or will saner heads prevail and ease up on the system of qualification?

“A lot of these guys, if they so choose, can continue going,” says Rocque. “But how many will be willing to commit for four more?

PLEASE SEE WOOD P6

CANADA CUP OF CURLING – MORNING CUP - March 2009 - Page 5

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Marie-France Larouche knows she can only do her best, and thatʼs all.

Everything’s under control Larouche remains emotional, but losses no longer eat her up

By LARRY WOOD Morning Cup Editor

S

he’s skipping at the Canada Cup for the second time and, heading to Yorkton, she was generating the kind of positive hope you’d find in a back room full of Obama disciples.

Now Marie-France Larouche and her Quebec express train have chugged into the championship final, forcing a rematch of Saturday morning’s Page One-One playoff against Calgary’s Shannon Kleibrink.

During her previous Canada Cup visit, Larouche might have allowed the experience to devour her insides. She finished 1-and-4. In younger years, there were times when emotion threatened to cause derailments like that.

“Not now,” she says. “I’m still emotional,

yes, but maybe I am controlling it better. I think I am mentally good and my attitude is good. Now I know that if it works it is good and if it doesn’t, it’s too bad and, well, we’ve done our best and see you next year . . . or at the next tournament.

“There’s still the final here and the Players’ championship this season. So I know now when I’m in the hack I cannot do more than my best. Just throw well and we will see. Before I took the year away from the game (following a heartbreaking performance at the 2005 Olympic trials), I was always putting pressure on myself. I kept telling myself I couldn’t dare miss a shot.

Now I know I’m not likely to play 100 per cent but I will try to do my best.”

PLEASE SEE LAROUCHE P8

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Page 6 - CANADA CUP OF CURLING – MORNING CUP - March 2009

Marcel Rocque (right) and Scott Pfeifer work the brushes for skip Randy Ferbey.

Rocque suggests the game needs to be addressed with a view to bringing some fun back into it.

Wood From Page 4 “I don’t know the answer, I really don’t.

Something needs to be looked at but I don’t know what. I don’t like complaining if I don’t have suggestions. I just know something has to change.

“From our perspective, we finally just said, t’heck with it. We’re in the Pre-trials, we’ve always had that, and once we qualified for that, the next year we went flat. So we’re just not worrying about it any more. Whatever we have to do to get there we’ll do.

“We’re trying to take some of that heat off because all year it’s been, ‘OK, we need to do better than this team, and they need to do better than that team”. And you know what? You forget about having any fun curling. You get so worked up on these damn points.”

Rocque suggests the game needs to be addressed with a view to bringing some fun back in to it.

“I mean, you try to have fun but the more you say you try to have fun the more serious it becomes,” he says. “Some times you bring yourself up a notch and you wind up hindering yourself in some way.”

Still, when you toss Saturday’s victory over Kevin Martin into the mix, propelling The Ferbs to the Canada Cup final tonight, Rocque maintains confidence in the prospects for the old champs.

“I’m pretty optimistic and pretty positive

with the way our year has gone,” he says.

“We’re always competing with Martin and Howard and Stoughton and all these top teams. I mean, we’re still there. We just need to break through.”

Meanwhile, there’s nothing but praise for crosstown rival Martin, whose Brier streak currently stands at 26 wins and two straight titles.

“He was fantastic at the Brier but it wasn’t a surprise because we play him all the time — three times last year and three times this year,” says Rocque. “He beat us three times last month and played like that every time.

“Obviously he intimidates some people.

Look at what he’s done here this week? He should have lost three times right off the bat.

Other people miss against him. But you earn that. And he earns it, especially, because he’s got such a weapon with that big weight.

Everyone seems to be trying to guard against him so much and, now, you add Kennedy and Morris who are steps above, and they’re solid right from the first rock to the last.

“But they are beatable. And a lot of teams here should know that, too, because they should have got all three.

“Granted, you’d expect them to be flat and tired and still high from coming off the Brier.

We’ve been there. We know all about it.

“We hope they go and roll through the Worlds at Moncton like they did last time . . . and maybe next year a little bit of complacency will drop into their hat and all these breaks might turn around a little bit and give some of the rest of us a chance.”

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CANADA CUP OF CURLING – MORNING CUP - March 2009 - Page 7

Canada Cup trivia Name the only skip in Canada Cup history to be blanked, failing to score a point in a game.

1. Who was the opposing skip administering the blanking?

2. What was the final score and in what year?

3. Name the skip who has accrued the most defeats in Canada Cup history.

4. How many losses?

5. One women’s skip has absorbed the same number of losses. Name her.

6. Name three skips in the current

(Answers)

QUESTION OF THE DAY:

QofD: Jean-Michel Menard.

1. Jeff Stoughton 2. 8-0 in 2007.

3. Kerry Burtnyk 4. 15 defeats.

5. Kelly Scott.

6. Mike McEwen, Ted Appelman, Kevin Koe. 7. Amber Holland.

8. Cathy King, Kaitlyn Lawes.

TODAY’S QUIZ

Canada Cup field who have never skipped teams in the Brier.

7. Name one skip in the current field who has never directed a team in the Scotties Tournament Of Hearts.

8. One team in the current Canada Cup features two players who have skipped Canadian junior titlists. Name the pair.

9. When did they win those junior titles?

10. There are 14 other national junior champions in this Canada Cup field.

Seven of them also won world junior titles. Can you name the seven? We’re not including fifth players here.

11. If you can, then can certainly name the other seven who won national junior titles.

12. Name the six runners-up in the women’s section of past Canada Cups.

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Page 8 - CANADA CUP OF CURLING – MORNING CUP - March 2009

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Annie Lemay (left) and Veronique Brassard have had a good week. against Connie. And I think the first five ends I just watched her. I was mesmerized. I was so impressed to play against her. I may have been intimidated then. Maybe I was From Page 5 afraid.”

She skipped the Quebec entry at the Second player Annie Lemay — she’s playing third here in the absence of regular Hearts the next time around, won seven vice Nancy Belanger — recently told Lynne games and lost the Page Three-Four playoff.

Bermel of Sun Media that “the stars have In 2004 she skipped the Scotties runnerup.

“If there was fear back then it was playing been aligned for our team all year long . . . our confidence is really high these days and in front of the big crowd,” she muses. “And maybe knowing that all the teams we were our mindset is good.”

The Larouche team has won five cash- playing wanted to be there just as much as spiels and the Quebec provincials this sea- we did. I started that first year 1-and-4. Then son, including the Canada Cup qualifier at we won six in a row. So after that my fear Ottawa and the star-studded Sobeys Slam at was behind me.

“But now I think we’re one of the top New Glasgow, N.S., and was runner-up in another event, finishing the tour season at teams in the country. Now I’m OK with that.

No. 2 in earnings with $46,800, three posi- I have no fear now because we’ve played a tions ahead of Scotties and World defending lot of top teams in a lot of ’spiels. There’s no pressure because I know the good teams champion Jennifer Jones of Winnipeg.

“It’s our second year together and we are know they have to play well against us.

“It’s because in Quebec we are always the more consistent,” the 28-year-old Larouche maintains, “and we know we can make all favourites and we’re used to that. After the shots, all the time. It’s the first time we 2005, there was too much of that kind of have had that kind of confidence that we can pressure. And now I don’t feel that pressure win, that we can beat anybody in this game. any more.”

At Victoria, Larouche moved beyond “We are so close but we have never won a Agnes Charette as Quebec’s top winner at national title.”

Well, not since junior days, anyway. the national women’s championship.

“The difference is we are more consistent Marie-France and Belanger racked up 31 wins in four national junior championships and we’re more positive. We believe!

“My goal is just to be in these events and before finally winning with an 11-3 record that attitude is best for us. in their fifth try.

“We have a good chance now to be in the The next year, Marie-France was on hand for her first Scotties as an alternate for Olympic pre-trials, that looks good, and that was our first goal this season.

Janique Berthelot.

“And if I didn’t think we could win those “I remember the first time I played against Connie Laliberte at the Scotties,” she recalls. trials we wouldn’t be playing.

“But we will see at the end.”

“I played in the one game in 2000 and it was

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THIS FINAL ISSUE, AND WE’RE OUTTA HERE There’s something you should know about this estimable news sheet to which you’ve subscribed the past nine days.

What’s that? Well, simply, it never gets the final story. Hardly ever. And certainly not this year, either. Sorry about that.

The Morning Cup, you see, does not publish on the post-Canada Cup Monday. The way the Yorkton organizing committee figures it, if we’re over budget after five days, we won’t be going for six.

Oh yes, and there’s something else you should know. This publication would not exist without the efforts of the Yorkton organizing committee, the Canadian Curling Association and its sponsors.

Between them, they fund the whole shebang. So, save a cheer, also a tiger, for them.

Now, what we’re asking from you today is this. We set up today’s championship final matches in this last edition. Hereafter, you’re on your own. The name of the win-

ner of the 2009 Canada Cup will not be recorded for posterity in the Morning Cup. At least, not before the initial issue of the 2011 competition, if there is an issue.

Meantime, it has been a chunk of the proverbial heaven, folks. We at the Cup would like to thank you for your interest.

We’d like to thank all the competitors for their time and courtesy. We’d like to thank our supporters for theirs. And we’d especially, also specifically, like to thank Carol Melnechenko at the News Review for the job she performed on our behalf.

Then there are all those wonderful people who kept us company in the noisiest media office in captivity. Yeah, wonderful!

What else is there to say? Have a good final day and don’t forget to reserve early for the 2009 Olympic Trials at Edmonton’s Rexall Place in early December. This one will be a blast!

Cheers.

HOST COMMITTEE

CANADA CUP OF CURLING – MORNING CUP - March 2009 - Page 9

Brian Kruger put on a first-rate show in Yorkton.

Yorkton shows it knows how to put on super show

By DAVE KOMOSKY Morning Cup Associate Editor

B

rian Kruger says nobody should be surprised that Yorkton has put on one hum-dinger of a curling event this week at the Gallagher Centre.

After all, the city has had a lot of practise staging these kinds of things.

“We’ve had a lot of experience,” says Kruger, the 54-year-old host committee chairman of the Canada Cup of Curling, which reaches its competitive climax today at the Centre. “You have to remember we’ve hosted a World Curling event (PharmaChoice Classic) for seven years, so this is nothing new. They were good experience for us to get ready for this.

“This is bigger, of course, but a lot of the elements are the same.”

Those elements include volunteers who knew their jobs from the get-go, and several members on the host committee who have worked on the WCT event with first-hand knowledge in the art of putting on a curling show, from promotion to putting in arena ice.

It also extended to the community, which rallied around the event by snapping up just about all the available tickets.

The end result: a Canada Cup that met, or exceeded, all expectations.

“We’re very happy, very pleased,” says Kruger, who took on the role of chairman after Yorkton was awarded the event 16 months ago. “I think our community is very happy. Our hotels have been booked for months, our restaurants and some of our retail stores have been doing great business.

This has been a good event.”

The host committee wasn’t short on experience, but any of the grey areas were coloured in with some ‘scouting’ trips.

“We did have a few reps attend the Scott Tournament of Hearts in Regina last year,” says Kruger. “We also met with the Swift Current group (charged with hosting next year’s world women's championship). It is a similar-sized city, with a similar-sized facility and demographics.”

The Yorkton Curling Club has a big role in the event, working in conjunction with the Canadian Curling Association and supplying many of the 200 volunteers. Kruger headed an eight-person executive, with a committee of 20. Other key figures have been Regina’s Gord McNabb, the event co-ordinator from the CCA, and office manager Sharon Pedde.

So with all that experience, Yorkton put on a show that will certainly earn the town another look when a similar-sized curling

event needs a home.

“We sure hope so,” says Kruger. “Based on size and venue, there may be some other opportunities. We’d have to take a look and see if there’s something the community would support.”

But Kruger says this week’s show goes beyond Yorkton’s ability to host curling events.

“In some sense this is putting Yorkton on the map in terms of our volunteers and facilities . . . what we’ve got to offer,” he says.

“We’re hoping other groups, not just curling groups, can see what Yorkton has here and give us some consideration for hosting their own event.”

But this week has been about curling, and there has been nary a misstep. It begins in the stands where the 2,000-seat arena has been filled almost every draw.

“We’re running, we think, essentially at capacity,” Kruger says. “Yesterday (Friday) they were selling standing-room-only tickets.

“People are telling us they’re having a real good time. A lot of people didn’t have to drive huge distances, so it was sort of a vacation for them. They really enjoyed coming out and watching some of the top teams in Canada.”

The Keith’s Patch in the Flexi-Hall has been good, too, although Kruger says Friday’s crowd could have been better.

“We thought we’d have bigger crowds on

“In some sense, this is putting Yorkton on the map in terms of our volunteers and facilities.”

— Host committee chairman Brian Kruger the Friday night, but it’s very deceptive in there just because of the size of the venue.

It’s really hard to know exactly how many people you really have in there.”

Kruger is hoping the event turns a profit, but that won’t become clear until all the numbers are crunched in the weeks to come.

Until then, the city will bask in the glory of a job well done.

“There’s been a tremendous sense of pride in the job we’ve all done,” says Kruger, an investment advisor for BMO Nesbitt Burns in Yorkton. “We were awarded this event 16 months ago but the time has gone by very, very quickly. A lot of us are tired today and need a break, but I’m sure a lot of people would step up to the plate again if something came up.”

Page 10 - CANADA CUP OF CURLING – MORNING CUP - March 2009

LINESCORES LATE FRIDAY TIEBREAKER 9 a.m.

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WOMEN Shannon Kleibrink Marie-France Larouche S P Bell 19 59 Webster 20 74 Nixon 20 76 Kleibrink 19 72 TEAM 78 281

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Torontoʼs Wayne Middaugh gets down for a close look at an incoming stone Saturday.

8 5 % 86 81 56 60 71

Marie-France Larouche Cheryl Bernard S P Brassard 22 68 Sabourin 22 74 Lemay 22 61 Larouche 22 71 TEAM 88 274

SEMIFINAL 3 p.m.

WOMEN 200 002 % 77 84 69 81 78

SEMIFINAL 7:30 p.m.

MEN

101 010

101 020 S Bartel 22 Darbyshire 22 O’Connor 22 Bernard 21 TEAM 87

01 — 10 — P 75 67 70 60 272

MEN Page A1-B1 /A2-B2

A1

B1

Semi-final

Final

Page A1-B1 /A2-B2

Ferbey

Ferbey Martin

7:30 p.m.

Sunday

B2

Stoughton

S 15 16 16 16 63

P 55 60 51 59 225

% 92 94 80 92 89

030 201

01x 00x S Gould 16 Fowler 16 Park 16 Stoughton 16 TEAM 64

B1

Semi-final

Final

Kleibrink

Larouche Larouche

8:30 a.m.

Sunday

Loser of 1-2 game

Martin Middaugh

Hebert Kennedy Morris Martin TEAM

112 000

Kleibrink

Loser of A1-B1 game

A2

Kevin Martin Jeff Stoughton

WOMEN A1

Martin

7 6 % 85 76 80 71 78

A2

Stoughton

B2

Larouche Englot

Bernard

Bernard

x x

— — P 57 50 48 45 200

8 3 % 89 78 75 70 78

CANADA CUP OF CURLING – MORNING CUP - March 2009 - Page 11

Men From Page 3 It was a different story on the late shift.

“We got to be aggressive to start the game and that gave us the lead,” reasoned Martin.

“You could bury, so we got aggressive and got the lead. And that’s the way we like to play.

“Sometimes you get nipped, though. You have to watch it. That’s when my dad gets mad at me because he always tells me to be more careful.”

Nedohin looked upon the earlier victory as inevitable.

“It was bound to happen eventually that we’d beat them and I’m glad it was today,” he said.

“We may have to do it again but, like I’ve said, they’ve struggled throughout the week, they lost last night, they lost to us.

“We’re just happy to be in the final and to sort of get that monkey off our backs — probably an ape, actually.

“We’ve never walked into games with them thinking they were unbeatable. In fact, we felt a lot of games we lost to them we deserved to win. It was just the wrong shot at the wrong time, or a huge bailout shot by them, something they’re very good at.

“So we never got frustrated by how we were playing. It’s just that the results weren’t there.”

Today’s winner will pick up $28,200. The loser gets $18,200. Stoughton picked up $13,200.

“More important for us right now is to get on a bit of a roll over the next number of months as opposed to what has happened in the last 12 months,” said Nedohin.

He admitted Tim Yeo’s ice differed somewhat Saturday morning.

“The ice changed a little bit and it was pretty difficult to bury, no question. It meant the game was decided more by mistakes than really great shots. But we adjusted well to it and that’s what we focus on. If the ice is different, adjust to it.”

He said it was clear the Martins “got more frustrated with the ice than we did”.

“We just try to hang in there and say, ‘it is what it is’ and try to do our best on it.’’

Martin scored on the first three ends against Stoughton, led 4-0, gave up a fourthend deuce, then salted it away with three in the fifth.

“You have to make shots to win any game, whether it’s against him (Martin) or anybody else. We didn’t get any rocks in play and you can’t beat these guys if you don’t make any shots,” said Stoughton.

“Last week (in the Brier final), I missed a draw in the second end, a draw in the third that was pretty much it. We were done and it was chasing after that.

“I don’t think you have to be perfect. We watched their games this week and they certainly weren’t perfect. They could have had three losses early and guys were choking their brains out.

But they definitely played their best game of the week right here tonight. That’s what they needed to do.”

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Shannon Kleibrink (left) talks strategy with third Amy Nixon.

Women From Page 2 Kleibrink wasn’t surprised she’d be facing Larouche today in a rematch.

“She is an amazing player,” said Kleibrink. “She just made everything. She made some doubles, perfect freezes, she really kept them in there. We controlled it all the way but she’s still dangerous.”

Kleibrink hit for a tie-breaking deuce in the fourth and was never headed.

Larouche said she was “never worried it (the late game) would get away on us”.

“My team played well and we had the draw weight and I think our rocks curled a little bit more than their rocks. I was a little nervous on the last one but I was sure that rock would curl and it did curl enough.

“We chose those rocks for that reason.

We’d play with them in another game against Amber Holland and all that game our rocks curled more than her’s.

“Joelle (second Sabourin) is very good at scouting rocks and finding rocks that are not

good.”

On the subject of the Olympic trials, Larouche said: “This was the object of the season. We know it’s good for us to be confident playing against the best teams. And all the best teams will be in the trials.”

Bernard assessed: “They (Larouche) played great against us but it was just one shot”.

“They’ll have to be up for Kleibrink,” she said.

“It’s been a long year for us and we’ve had a lot of curling.

“I think we’d have to have something really weird happen at the Players championship to miss qualifying for the trials. But I hate to say anything about it until somebody phones me and tells me I’m there.

“With an 0-and-2 start, I’d have to say we were happy with this. We didn’t have a great start. To rally from that, it was a good sign.”

Bernard scored a mere 56 per cent on her shots but persevered to sideline Michelle Englot of Regina 8-5 in the sudden-death Page playoff.

Englot advanced to the playoff by ousting Halifax’s Mary-Anne Arsenault 7-6 in a wee-hours extra-end tiebreaker.

Page 12 - CANADA CUP OF CURLING – MORNING CUP - March 2009

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