THUNDER BAY – A week that started out with promise is quickly starting to slip away for the Bryan Burgess foursome.
The team, which calls the Kakabeka Curling Club home, on Thursday afternoon dropped a second straight match at the 2017 Travelers Provincial Men’s Championship and slipped to 1-2 at the event, being staged at the Fort William Curling Club.
It was Sudbury’s Tanner Horgan who tamed the local squad in Draw 3, scoring four in the fourth to break open a 1-1 contest and went on to claim an 8-6 victory, running the Burgess team out of rocks in the 10th end with the hammer.
“Our first game was a good win. We actually played well last night and Dylan (Johnston) played well and they made the last shot to win. Today we came out and we really struggled,” said Burgess, whose team’s schedule doesn’t get any easier in the evening draw, when they’ll face 3-0 Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie, winners of six of the last seven Northern Ontario titles.
“We definitely had our chances, but we didn’t play good enough to win that game.”
Dropping two of their first three isn’t idea for Burgess and teammates Rob Champagne, Pat Berezowski, Al Macsemchuk and Mike McCarville.
But it can be overcome, Burgess said.
“I think we’ve just got to get on top of the ice, make a few more key shots. When you have hammer, you’ve got to score two and today we only got the one three and other than that we really struggled,” Burgess said.
The results were markedly better for Thunder Bay’s other two representatives at the event, the winner of which earns Northern Ontario’s berth at next month’s Brier.
Dylan Johnston coasted to a 7-0 win over Sudbury’s Jordan Chandler (1-2) and improved to 3-0, tied with Jacobs in top spot.
Johnston stole a single in the fourth, three more in the fifth and put the game away with another steal of two in the sixth.
“We got more used to the ice. We’re on top of every rock now. But I think we can still play better though,” Johnston said.
For Al Hackner, the nine-time Northern Ontario champion, it was as close to a complete game his rink has put together through three draws, as he raced out to a 3-0 lead, added two in the fourth to go up 5-1 and put away Ryan Sayer’s winless New Liskeard team with steals of two in the fifth and one in the sixth to score an 8-1 win and up their record to 2-1.
That’s a pretty good spot, said the 62-year-old Hackner said, whose evening draw pits him against Chandler.
“This last one especially, everybody played pretty sharp, so hopefully we can keep that tone of good play for the next one,” said Hackner, who struggled with the ice on Day 1.
Jacobs remained perfect, shutting down Sudbury’s Chris Glibota 9-4, a steal of three in the seventh the turning point in the game.
Johnston will look to keep pace with Jacobs against Sayer on Thursday night.
