THUNDER BAY – Bryan Burgess and Gary Weiss say sometimes curlers need to catch a break or two to win.
They both got plenty of them on Wednesday night.
Not surprisingly, both skips walked away with victories, adding to their early success during the 2024-25 Tbaytel Major League of Curling season.
Weiss stole his way to victory, scoring a single in the first with hammer, then added one in the second, three in the third and closed it out with a deuce in the fourth, completing a 7-0 whitewashing of Andrew Sinclair at the halfway point of the match.
Burgess had a much tighter outcome, but pulled away from Dylan Johnston, scoring three in the sixth end to pull out a 7-4 triumph.
“We had a couple of good breaks tonight,” said Weiss, his team improving to 7-0-0-1, good for a tie for top spot in the standings with undefeated Ron Rosengren, who continued his winning ways on Wednesday with a 5-2 win over Robyn Despins.
“The ice was pretty straight, so if you’re not throwing it true off the stick, it’s tough to make some shots. We put them in some good positions and made it tough on (Andrew) to make some shots.”
It’s gone that way all season, Weiss said, adding they’re thrilled with where they’re at in the standings, the season about to hit its halfway mark on Thursday night.
“It is a good start for us this year. Usually it takes a little while for us to get warmed up. We try to gear up for the seniors, which is later on in the year, so all these are good practice games for us to get ready for senior provincials,” said Weiss, who curls with Deron Surkan, Aaron Rogalski and Mark Beazley.
Burgess has played one fewer game than Weiss, but also came into Draw 9 action with just a single loss to his name.
His team, which includes lead Brent Adamson, second Tristan Vale and third Mike Vale, opened strong, putting up three in the first against Johnston, a three-time Major League of Curling champion, winning twice as a skip in 2020 and 2022.
The pressure was off early, but Burgess said they got a little help along the way.
“We got the breaks that game,” Burgess said. “We didn’t play that great. It looked like they were off their game and it just kind of went our way. We made the shots when it counted for the points and lucky for us, we were on the winning side.”
Given how tight the standings are, and seven teams remaining with two or fewer losses, every point counts, said Burgess, who is penning a curling column this season in the Chronicle-Journal.
“It’s nice to be at the top of leaderboard early in the round robin, for sure. We’re going to need a few more wins to stay up top, but hopefully we continue to play good as a team and we’ll see what happens.”
In other action, Denis Mallette scored three in the eighth and downed Ben Mikkelsen 7-3, Chris Silver fought back from an early 2-0 deficit to double up Claire Dubinsky 6-3, Brian Adams Jr. needed just four ends to dispatch Myles Stevens 8-2, Trevor Bonot roared back from three down to knock off Rob Skinner 7-3 and Ashley Palmer’s team, skipped by Oye-Sem Won, won the draw-to-the-button playoff against Krista McCarville, prevailing 7-6.
