Flasch rink $9K richer after win at classic
Saskatoon’s Colton Flasch and South Korea’s Chang-Min Kim came into Monday’s College Clean Restoration Curling Classic championship final miles apart — both on the globe and in the World Curling Tour money standings.
After a steal in the final end for a 4-3 win, Flasch’s Saskatoon rink left with a $9,000 first-place cheque to take a giant leap up the money list.
Flasch prevailed despite being heavy on a draw with his last rock, but it didn’t matter as Kim missed on his last shot to leave the hometown favourites still counting one.
“To get our first win of the season is great,” said Flasch, a 26-year-old native of Biggar now living in Saskatoon.
“It’s not great winning that way. If we would have put ourselves in a better spot, we probably would have had the win, too.”
Flasch — along with third Kevin Marsh, second Daniel Marsh and lead Trent Knapp — cruised through the 24-team event, going undefeated with a 7-0 record.
“We’ve all played well all week and controlled every single game all week,” said Flasch, whose team came into the event ranked No. 47 on the money list. “It was just a great week. Undefeated is great. We played well enough to go undefeated and played well enough to win this final.”
The last time a Saskatchewan skip won the event was Brad Heidt in 2009. Eugene Hritzuk prevailed in 2008 and Randy Woytowich in 2007. Saskatoon’s Brian Humble took top honours in 2006 and Glen Despins in 2005.
Saskatchewan had a five-year winning streak going until 2009. Now, the seven-year itch is over.
Flasch’s itch to skip his own rink is panning out quickly.
“Just sticking to our plan (was key),” offered Flasch, who split from the Steven Laycock rink.
“We had a plan every end and every game, just to stay in routine and don’t worry about who we are playing or what we are playing and just stick with our plan. We did a very good job of that.”
Kim and his rink of Se Hyeon Seong, Eun Soo Oh and Ki Bok Lee had a 7-2 record before Monday’s finale with earlier losses to John Morris and Reid Carruthers.
Brad Jacobs won the event last year. Mike McEwen won it in 2014 and 2015, as well as 2011. The 2013 winner was Jeff Stoughton.
John Epping — the 2010 champ — lost out to Flasch in Monday’s semifinal.
Next up for Flasch and company are events in Edmonton (Direct Horizontal Drilling Fall Classic) and Portage la Prairie (Canad Inns Men’s Classic) over the next two weeks.
Success has come early for them. “I don’t expect to win events this early, but I do expect to do well,” said Flasch. “I expect to qualify and we expect to do well. We had control all week. Even this game, we had pretty good control. The other team played very well.
“It was a great week.”