THUNDER BAY — If Frank Morissette and Chris Silver have a theme song from here on out, it’s probably the Bee Gees’ classic Stayin’ Alive.
Both skips faced elimination on Thursday night, having already lost twice at this week’s Northern Ontario Men’s Curling Championship, the triple-knockout format leaving them no more room for error, knowing another loss would send them packing.
Morissette, the crafty veteran whose lone Brier appearance came 49 years ago, in 1976, needed only eight ends to end North Bay skip Brad Minogue’s week, scoring three in the sixth and four in the eighth to advance with a 12-2 win at the Port Arthur Curling Club, home of this week’s playdowns.
Silver had almost as easy a time sending Kenora’s Dustin Kroeker packing with his third loss of the event, scoring deuces in the fourth, seventh and eighth ends on his way to a 9-2 triumph that earned him a chance to live to see another day.
Morissette earlier in the day won another elimination match, scoring three in the ninth to pull out a 7-6 win over North Bay’s Matthew Hunt.
“The first few games, we had nothing going for us, particularly well. We just didn’t play as well as we should have been,” the 73-year-old said.
“Tonight, we played a really good game and it was nice to have a good one for a chance, having the lead. It’s the first time we’ve had (a big) lead since we’ve started.”
Morissette, his team including lead Gary Champagne, second Kris Leupen and third Pat Berezowski, jumped out in front 2-0 with a deuce in the second, then added two more and took a 4-2 lead into the fifth-end break.
It was all Morissette from there on in.
“We know we can play and it’s just a matter of getting our shots together and making the shots one after another. Tonight was a good game.”
Team Morissette will take on Thunder Bay’s Zach Warkentin in their next outing, the elimination match for both teams scheduled for Friday at 2 p.m.
Silver, who plays Thunder Bay’s Gary Weiss on Friday afternoon, put plenty of rocks in play against Kroeker, and it led to a steal of one in the second, as they built a 4-1 lead through the break. Kroeker got one back in the sixth, but gave up two in the seventh and a steal of two more in the eighth, which led to handshakes.
It’s do or die time, Silver said.
“I think it was a tighter game than it might have looked, but I think we played a lot better than we have the last few games,” he said.
“The last couple of games, we blew leads in both games, but I’m really proud of the guys with how we stuck together.”
Silver, lead Travis Showalter, second Brayden Sinclair and third Owen Riches, said the mentality now is not letting ends get away from them.
“We’ve got to treat every rock like it’s the shot that will keep us in it, like it’s the last rock of the game. We have to keep the focus and intensity up for the whole game and make sure we don’t have any bad ends. And if we miss one, we’ve got to make sure we make the next one.”
Action continues on Friday morning at 9:30 a.m., with draws at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Defending men’s champion Trevor Bonot will be on the ice in the morning draw against Thunder Bay’s Brian Adams Jr.
