‘It was kind of the TSN turning point’

Daniels tied the game 3-3 in the eighth (a measurement was required) but Connor used the hammer in the extra end and sealed the one-point victory.

“We just played clean the whole game and as soon as we had the opportunity to score points, we jumped on that,” said Connor, a Grade 11 student at Duchess Park secondary school. “It was a long game and the extra end was very stressful but we came out on top and that was nice.”

In the pressure-filled atmosphere, Connor made a great shot with the first of her two rocks in the ninth. With a mess of granite out front of the house, she drew to the button, behind cover, for shot stone. The only chance Daniels had to counter was to play an inoff – to play her rock off another and angle her shooter to the button – but she hit her target stone too thick and the game was over.

In the final, Drexel led 2-1 after five ends and took a key three points in the sixth.

“We had a couple misses in six, unfortunate misses,” said Doug Dalziel, coach of the Connor rink. “And it was kind of the TSN turning point – we gambled on trying to freeze to one because we didn’t really want to go down 4-1. We decided we were going to try to freeze to one of her back rocks and hold her to one, hopefully, but we just rolled off and gave her the wide-open hit for three.”

Connor got one back in the seventh end but that was as close as the game got.

With the win, Drexel and team- mates Everly Royea, Bailey Burke and Madeline Britz advanced to the inaugural edition of the under-18 nationals, April 17-22 in Moncton, N.B.

“It stings a little when you’re that close (to winning) but it was a good weekend,” Dalziel said. “They’re super-proud of their silver medal – they played awesome all weekend.”

In round-robin play, Team Connor beat Clare Schmidt of Winfield 10-5, edged Gracelyn Richards 7-6 and lost 6-2 to Drexel.

In the men’s under-18 provincial tournament, also in Nanaimo, the James Brown rink of Prince George finished at 0-3. Team Brown lost 8-4 to Jordan Geiger of Invermere, 7-4 to Adam Raber of Vernon/Salmon Arm and 8-3 to eventual champion Tyler Tardi. Brown’s rinkmates are Alasdair Wilson, Tyler Slaney and Andrew Sherstan.

In the final, Tardi’s Langley/Victoria team defeated Raber 7-3.