THUNDER BAY – Dylan Johnston had to sweat it out, but managed to squeak into the Tbaytel Major League of Curling playoffs with a triple takeout on his final shot of the night.
The four-time champion, with two titles under his belt as a skip, was facing three Denis Malette stones and needed to take out all of them and hold his own rock deep enough into the house to score two. A single point wouldn’t have done the trick, Johnston needing to win in regulation and grab the full three points to edge ahead of Gary Weiss, 26 points to 25.
The single would have sent the game to an extra end, a win at that point only worth two points, which would have left Johnston tied with Weiss for the eighth and final playoff berth. Weiss, however, held the tiebreaker, having beaten Johnston in their only matchup of the season, the triumph coming on Nov. 1.
Weiss (8-0-5-1) had a long wait, making easy work of Andrew Sinclair, needing just six ends to carve out a 6-0 victory.
“It was an all-or-nothing shot, but it was there,” Johnston said. “It was not the most difficult one. But there was a lot of tricky ice out there.”
The win earns Johnston the seventh seed and a shot at a fifth championship.
The team, which includes Brennan Wark, Chris Briand and Travis Belchior, has managed to peak at just the right time, he said.
“It was a struggle to start the year. I think we’re having more fun now. We’re not doing provincials, so there’s less stress on us. Hopefully we’ll get on a roll and keep going to club playdowns.”
Johnston wasn’t the only skip with securing a playoff berth on their mind.
Chris Silver and Robyn Despins, who faced off on Wednesday night, each had a chance to grab one of the two remaining spots up for grabs.
Down 5-2 after six ends, Silver scored a pair with hammer in the seventh and, when Despins final shot came up short, send the game to an extra-end shootout. Silver hit the back four-foot and Despins came up short again, giving Silver a 6-5 triumph and the two points he needed to claim eighth place.
“It wasn’t our best game, for sure, especially the first half. But we knew if we stuck with it that we’d get the results, eventually,” said Silver, who will be one of 14 teams competing in Little Current, Ont. later this month at the Northern Ontario men’s playdowns.
“We were playing all right, just missing by a hair, here and there. We were able to just pull it out in the eighth end.”
Silver will take on Trevor Bonot in Saturday’s quarterfinal.
Bonot wrapped up top spot in the round-robin with an 8-5 win over fellow playoff skip Ron Rosengren, scoring three in the sixth to jump in front 6-5 and stealing two more in the seventh, running his opponent out of rocks in the eighth.
“We just wanted to finish off the round robin consistently,” said Bonot, who will also compete at provincials.
“We just played our game out there and got the three points.”
Krista McCarville grabbed the second seed with a hard-fought 6-4 win over Brian Adams.
In other action, Al Hackner rolled into the playoffs with a 9-0 win over Jodi Judd, the two teams shaking after just three ends.
Bryan Burgess finished in fifth with a 7-6, extra-end win over Zack Warkentin and Ben Mikkelsen finished on a winning note, edging Jackson Dubinsky 5-3.
