THUNDER BAY — John Epping didn’t waste a lot of energy winning his first Northern Ontario Men’s Curling Championship.
The Toronto-based skip, throwing fourth stones for the Sudbury-based team consisting of third Jacob Horgan, second Tanner Horgan and lead Ian McMillan, of Dryden, only needed four games to capture title, rolling through A-side in the triple-knockout format event before demolishing Thunder Bay’s Dylan Johnston 10-2 in Sunday’s final.
In their first three games, they outscored their opponents 30-9.
The former Ontario junior champion, in his first year with his new squad, will make his fourth Brier appearance, having skipped previous teams to Ontario championships in 2018, 2020 and 2021.
Epping, 41, was forced to one in the first, with hammer, but didn’t make many mistakes after that.
His opponent, Thunder Bay’s Dylan Johnston, was left to navigate hordes of Epping stones as skip stones arrived, and even little mistakes proved costly.
Facing three Epping stones in the second end, Johnston’s draw was long, resulting in a steal of two. One end later, with three of the wrong-coloured stones in counting positions, Johnston wrecked on a guard and gave up two more and trailed 5-0 after three ends. He stole two more in the fourth when Johnston’s draw came up short of the four-foot.
It was academic from there.
“It’s always exciting and it feels great, but there’s also a sense of relief. This has been a big goal of ours, our biggest goal starting the season. There’s definitely a lot of excitement, but a big relief for us,” Epping said.
Johnson got two back in the fifth, but it was too little too late. Epping was left with a hit for three in the sixth and the teams shook hands.
Epping said he’s excited to wear the green and gold at the Montana's Brier, which starts on Feb. 28 in Kelowna, B.C.
“This has been a different experience this week and everybody has just been so fantastic to us and very welcoming to me. It’s going to be exciting to wear the moose,” he said.
He added it was a total team effort that won them this year’s Northern Ontario title.
“I need their support. They’ve got to play well. That just makes my job easier the better they play. If they don’t, the tougher it’s going to be on me, so it was nice to have some less stressful shots out there in that game and that showed by how well the guys played,” Epping said.
