THUNDER BAY – It’s not the way Al Hackner wanted to bow out.
But the two-time world champion can hold his head high, despite falling 6-5 to reigning Olympic champion Brad Jacobs of Sault Ste. Marie on Saturday to close out what may be his final shot at a Brier berth, finishing the 2017 Travelers Provincial Championship at 3-4.
It was a good run, the 62-year-old skip said, but it came up just a little short.
“It’s probably true,” said Hackner, asked if this was his final Northern Ontario provincial men's curling championship.
“I’m getting up there in age now and I didn’t play in anything last year, mainly because all the provincials were away. And it gets really expensive to travel. There’s no funding or anything. So if next year’s men’s are in Sudbury, we’re not going to bother with it. By then it’s too far gone.”
Hackner, whose squad includes Gary Champagne, Frank Morissette and Kory Carr, needed a win over Jacobs to ensure at least a spot in the tiebreaker. Barring that, they needed losses by Sudbury skips Chris Glibota and Jordan Chandler in their final round-robin matches.
Chandler complied, but Glibota scored four in the fourth against winless Ryan Sayer (0-7) and cruised to an 8-2 win to finish at 4-3 and earn a spot in Saturday night’s semifinal against Thunder Bay’s Dylan Johnston (5-2), who lost 6-4 to Sudbury’s Tanner Horgan (3-4).
“They’re a great team,” Hackner said of his opponent, who he met in the 2015 final. “We played really well that game and you can see how many great shots they can fire back at you. His last one in the ninth end was an amazing shot, to feather the guard and push (his) rock in two inches and take us away from our deuce.”
Hackner, with hammer, had a shot at returning the favour to score his two, but was an ounce or two light on his final stone and settled for one, the two teams even at five through nine.
Jacobs, who did not lose once in round-robin play, facing a single stone, made an easy hit and stick on his final stone in the 10th to eliminate Hackner.
All in all, he was happy with the way the game played out.
“That’s the type of game we want going into the final, I think – a good tight battle. It made us come out here and continue to stay sharp,” said the 31-year-old Jacobs, whose team has yet to give up a steal this week.
“We had our nervous moments. Even though we were directly into the final, we still wanted to win that game. I think that’s exactly what we needed going into the final. “
Glibota is as surprised as anyone to still be standing. His rink dropped their first three games to Jacobs, Hackner and Johnston, but rallied with four straight wins to keep their championship hopes alive in just their second provincials.
“We managed to finally get on a roll and start playing a little bit better and finish the games off,” Glibota said.
Thunder Bay’s Bryan Burgess knocked off Chandler 9-5 in the morning’s other match, finishing the week at 3-4.
“I thought we played very well at the beginning and then we struggled in the middle games,” Burgess said. “All in all it was a good week.”
Johnston and Glibota will battle in the semifinal at Fort William Curling Club starting at 7:30 p.m.
