TANKARD CONTINUES IN MELFORT.
MELFORT — Judging by the way fellow curlers seeded his team, not many people pegged Josh Heidt for great things at this week’s SaskTel Tankard.
Except for Heidt and his teammates, that is.
“We’re a younger team, so I kind of expected that would be the range we were in,” Heidt — seeded ninth out of 16 teams — said after advancing to today’s A-event final against Saskatoon Nutana’s Bruce Korte with a 7-4 win over Estevan’s William Coutts. “I ranked us second (behind Steve Laycock), because I feel we’re coming on strong. It’s really fun playing out there right now because we’re making a lot of shots.
“The majority of teams will be surprised to see us in the A final. They expected us to come out, win some games, maybe battle through the C. I don’t think anybody would put us here. We did, though —we were planning on coming here through the A.”
Not that they’ve accomplished anything concrete yet, which Heidt and his team of Brock Montgomery, Matt Lang and Dustin Kidby fully realize.
Today’s A final against Korte goes at 12 noon, with the winner gaining a brief reprieve before the playoff starts.
“The gist of it is every game we play is going to get a little bit harder and a little bit harder. We’ve got to stay focused,” said the 23-year-old Heidt, who went 1-3 at the 2010 Tankard, his only previous appearance.
A delicate tap for three in seventh end busted up a close game and gave Heidt a 6-2 lead. Earlier in the day, he beat No. 1 seed Steve Laycock 8-5.
Korte, meanwhile, hit a wide-open draw to beat Regina Callie’s Randy Bryden 6-5 in an extra end.
“The longer you stay in the A, the greater it is,” Korte — seeded second by fellow curlers and last year’s provincial finalist — said after the tight win over Bryden.
“We had a big battle with Randy, and we’re pretty happy with where we are right now.
“We’ve put ourselves in a good position, and hopefully the rolls and the rocks go our way.”
Fifth seed Darrell McKee, meanwhile, dropped his first two games, including a 6-2 B-event loss to Swift Current’s Max Kirkpatrick Thursday afternoon.
One more loss, and his Saskatoon Nutana team is out of the Tankard. McKee and fourth-seeded Jamie Schneider of Regina Tartan are the highest-ranked teams so far to face that potential fate.
“I knew we were going to have to play well to win here, but I was also expecting a better start than this,” McKee said after dropping to the C-event.
“We’re not playing very well. We’re going to have to pick it up a lot better. It’s that old adage — take one game at a time.
“You try and win one, because you can’t win seven in one game. Then see if you can keep going from there.”
Also facing elimination on the C-event are Saskatoon Sutherland’s Michael Carss, Highland teams skipped by Justin Mihalicz and William Coutts, and Saskatoon Nutana’s Randy Woytowich.
Today’s draws go at 8 a.m., noon, 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.