St. Albert's most prolific curling team continued its domination in the club playoffs with another men's championship.
"Six in a row; that's pretty special," said a happy Jamie King, the last rock thrower for Craig King, Ralph Killips, Brian Pfeifer and fifth man Elson Keown. "We're pretty proud of our history as a team. It's going to be tough for whatever team, when we do lose, to win six in a row like this."
The eighth President's Cup in their glorious 19-year history was decided in Sunday's 6-3 sudden-death playoff against Warren Sadoway.
"We seem to find ways to win games. Whether it's bad conditions, good conditions or tough teams, we just seem to find the right shot at the right time," said King, the fifth man for Kevin Koe's 2010 Brier and world championship rink.
It's also the second year in a row King's men won the tiebreaker playoff to represent St. Albert at the Tournament of Champions.
"It never gets any easier. This was tough but last year was tough too," King said of beating Dale Briske 8-6 in eight ends and 7-1 in four ends as the B-side challenger in the 2010 double knockout draw.
The 48th annual Edmonton and area club playdowns start April 4 at the Crestwood.
"Any time you get to wear the St. Albert colours it's always a lot of fun, especially with these guys," said King, the youngest curler at 37 on the Hootie and the Old Fish quintet, boasting of three grandfathers and four curlers over the age of 60. "We're all getting older. We have more aches and pains so it's tougher every year to do this."
Sadoway handed the first-place 11-1-2 Thursday night rink their second loss of the season, 6-5 in the A-B playoff tilt.
In the extra game, after Sadoway counted one in six to knot it at three apiece, King scored two in seven and one in eight.
"Warren played fantastic. He made every draw he had to and put a lot of pressure on us. It made for two tough games," King said.
Sadoway, third Dave Rogers, second Tim Fell and lead Dave Grykuliak dropped down into the B final after Saturday's six-end loss to King in the A final.
The next day, Sadoway squeaked out a 7-6 win against Darrell Skarban. With last rock, and Sadoway lying one with the game tied 6-6, Skarban's draw slowed down to a crawl in front of the rings. That's when the sweepers jumped on it but could only drag it into the outside ring, and just short of becoming shot rock. Depending on who you talked to, the rock picked or there was a sweeping snafu.
The close call was the first of three games for Sadoway's crew during Sunday's marathon playoff run.
"It was a little tough playing 24 ends in a row. We started at four o'clock and it's now midnight," Sadoway said of the late night of curling.
First final
In the A-B match against King, Sadoway opened with a deuce and stole points the next two ends to lead 4-0 after three.
"Jamie was off a little bit. They gave us a couple and we took advantage," Sadoway said. "After they cracked a three on us [in four] to make it close, we had to fight for our lives. They pushed it right to the end and it came down to having to make the last shot of the game to force back to back games."
Down 5-3, King rallied with singles in six and seven to even the score. In eight, Sadoway made a successful draw with the hammer after King was heavy with his last rock. If successful, it would have made Sadoway's final delivery even tougher to make.
"I didn't play very good," King said. "I had a few shots for big ends and missed them early. We dug ourselves a pretty big hole but we still made Warren throw his last one and he just barely made it."
Second final
The rematch got off to a rocky start, with no icemaker available to pebble the sheet. Jamie's dad, Craig, did the honours after Keown (filling in for the injured Pfeifer) swept the ice.
"The ice conditions were tough but it was the same for both teams," King said.
Deuces by King in the five and seven with the hammer was the difference.
"We got lucky in the fifth. They had a pick with one of Warren's shots and it gave us a chance for two," King said. "In the seventh he had a shot to force us to one and threw it a little wide, and because of that we had a shot for two and we went up by two."
Down 3-2, Sadoway settled for one in six after his draw for two was light. In the eighth, he really had no shot for two to tie.
"We had our chances, even being tired like that," Sadoway said. "They told us we gave them a real good run and we appreciated that. They're a good team to play against."
The playoffs brought out the very best in Sadoway's first-year rink that went 7-7-3 in the Tuesday league.
"We kind of surprised ourselves to get this far, but once we started playing we played hard and it just started coming together," said Sadoway, the last skip to win the club's mixed championship before Doug McLennan's four in a row. "We definitely didn't give up. We got ourselves in a pickle a couple of times but we were able to dig out of it and prolong it. We pushed it as far as we could."
Up next for King is the Dominion northern bonspiel this weekend at the Ottewell. Three berths for provincials are at stake.
"It will be a good warm-up for cities," said King, the Tournament of Champions winner in 2006 and finalist in 2009.
