The introduction to Canadian curling in St. Albert through the Over the Pond exchange was the thrill of a lifetime for the rinks from Norway and Sweden competing at the Marc Kennedy Junior Classic.
“It’s mind blowing,” said Eirin Mesloe, skip for the Norwegians competing in the U18 female competitive division. “We’ve never been in Canada before so it’s an amazing experience for us as a team and since we’re so young we’re lucky to be here.”
Robin Ahlberg, the Swedish skip, was also walking on sunshine over the opportunity to soak up the Canadian version of the roaring game.
“It’s cool to see how the curling is different here and how huge the curling is because in Sweden there is not a lot of people knowing what curling is. Some of them do but the common joke is like, ‘Are you a good cleaner at home?’ but not here. That joke you never hear here,” said Ahlberg, who is based in Stockholm. “It’s a lot of fun here.”
The St. Albert Curling Club was too good to be true in Ahlberg’s eyes.
“I love this curling club. It’s so cool to have a restaurant and a bar. That’s not usual in Sweden,” said the 18-year-old. “This is really cool to have a huge arena.”
Mesloe’s rink curls out of Oppdal (“It’s the biggest curling club in Norway,” she said) and is also home to Markus Hoiberg, third for the Steffen Walstad rink as the Norway reps at the world men’s championship, starting Saturday in Las Vegas.
“This one is so much bigger. Our curling club has four sheets and not so much people are participating. There are far more people here helping,” said Mesloe, 17. “The curling club here is great. I like the ice. I like the people here. Everything is really nice.”
“St. Albert is just a great place.”
The Junior Classic, presented by Sarasota Homes & Realty, also featured the two U18 Alberta rinks – Taitan Hagglund of the St. Albert Curling Club and Jacob Libbus of the Oilfields Curling Club – who are joining the Swedes and Norwegians for the final event on the Nordic Junior Curling Tour, the 50th annual Bill Ross Trophy, and the April 28 to 30 bonspiel will be played on arena ice in Ostersund. The first games will be staged a few hours after the conclusion of the World Mixed Doubles and World Senior Championships.
The NJCT is the driving force behind the Over The Pond program through the initiatives of Kennedy and James Dryburgh, a former world junior champion for Sweden.
“I’m super excited to go with my team. It’s going to be a wonderful experience,” said Hagglund, 19, who will call the shots for Rebecca Bartz, Quinn Prodaniuk and Brennin Turner, a Grade 11 Paul Kane High School student. “Our goal is just to learn and have a fun time. We’re not really sure about the competition because we don’t know any of the teams but we’re going to try and play our best.”
The girls bonded with the Norwegians during the Junior Classic.
“We had dinner with them and just meeting them and hearing what the differences are we’re super excited to see how curling is over there for sure,” Hagglund said. “I guess their rinks are a lot smaller but we're actually playing on arena ice when we get there so it's going to be a little different.
“Apparently they have no alcohol in their curling rinks so that's a weird thing. They were super weirded out about that here because we have a bar (Friendly Giant Lounge) upstairs.”
Team Hagglund curled out of the Avonair last season and was chosen as the Over The Pond female reps after losing the U18 intermediate final to a male team in last year’s Junior Classic and this year missed the playoff round in the five-team U21 competitive female division (Penelope Viens filled in for Prodaniuk, who was in Red Deer competing at the pre-trials for the 2019 Canada Winter Games).
In the provincial junior ranks this year, the Hagglund foursome won the C event at northerns for a berth at the U21 championship.
“We've been doing really well. We went to the junior playdowns together and that was one of our goals at the beginning of the season so that was awesome,” said Hagglund, an Eastglen High School graduate.
The Swedes, with Ludvig Kohn, Rasmus Israelsson, Arvid Norin and Gustav Kohn in the lineup, punched their ticket to the Junior Classic as last year’s NJCT champions and are currently in first place entering the Bill Ross Trophy.
“If we win that we win the whole thing, “ said Ahlberg, a newcomer this season while his teammates have ties to the Swedish National Curling Academy in Harnosand.
The Swedes wrapped up the bonspiel in the 7-4 semifinal loss to Libbus after going 4-1 in pool play in the six-team U18 men’s competitive division.
“Lots of good teams here. We have that in Sweden as well but I think the teams that are here are more consistent,” Ahlberg said.
As for the style of play by the Swedes, “It depends on the team we're facing. We like to play pretty offence so a lot of draws but if the other team is good at draws then we might play more defensive play,” said Ahlberg, a big fan of Swedish standouts Niklas Edin and Anette Norberg, and topping the list of his favourite Canadians, “Marc Kennedy is one of them and of course his teammates as well.”
Mesloe, who holds Kevin Martin in high regard among Canadian curlers, was the female runner-up on last year's NJCT circuit, “but the team in first was too old so we got to go here,” she said. “I didn’t believe it at first. To get to go to Canada, it was amazing.”
Mesloe’s current crew “is a new team” in the middle of the pack in the NJCT.
“At the start we were trying to get the team going,” Mesloe said. “We’re looking forward to next year.”
The Norwegians, featuring Nina Aune, Sara Holmen, Ingeborg Forbregd and Torild Bjornstad as Mesloe’s teammates, finished the Junior Classic at 2-3 in pool play.
“We didn’t quite know the range of how good the teams were. We haven’t heard of them before or seen them before,” Mesloe said, “But the competition is similar to what we're facing in Europe back home.”
Mesloe recently competed at the World Junior Championships in Aberdeen, Scotland as the alternate for Team Norway skipped by Maia Ramsfjell but did see action in several games at a variety of positions for the fourth-place finishers.
“It was a very good experience and a lot of fun, just like here.”
