BOUCHERVILLE, Que. — Saskatchewan’s Marie Wright is a single win away from playing for gold at the Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championship.
Wright and her Moose Jaw foursome of third Gil Dash, second Moose Gibson, lead Pete Andrews and coach Ben Gamble battled to a 5-4 victory over Ontario’s Karl Allen in the first round of the playoffs on Thursday afternoon, and as a result have advanced to the Page Playoff 1-2 game on Friday.
There, they’ll face the host province’s Carl Marquis after Quebec took a 9-2 win over Northern Ontario’s Douglas Dean in their playoff match-up.
“It feels great to be only one win away from the final,” Wright said on the Curling Canada website. “This felt like a pretty big game because now we don’t have to battle so many games to get back, but it’s fun playing our friends from Ontario.”
As the score would indicate, it wasn’t an easy outing against Allan, third Chrissy Molnar, second Reid Mulligan and lead Jill Hopkins. Wright got on the board first with a single point in the first end, but Ontario strung together singles the next three ends for a 3-1 lead. Wright got one back in the fifth, but the end took a difficult turn when Gibson fell and was injured during the frame. Saskatchewan finished with three players, giving up one in the sixth before rallying with a pair in the seventh and steal in the eighth for the narrow victory.
“These things happen so fast,” said Wright of Gibson’s injury. “I didn’t even see it happen, but your emotions run high. We kind of just rallied around and said, ‘Let’s go out and play our best for Moose.’ Because he really wanted this win.”
The game came down to the final shot, with Molnar wrecking on a guard out front to give Wright the single point win.
It’s been a perfect week this far for Saskatchewan, as they posted a 5-0 record in the round robin to finish first in their pool. That included a 5-4 win over Northern Ontario on Monday before playing two games Tuesday and taking a 6-5 victory against New Brunswick’s Sarah Benevides and 8-5 win against Nova Scotia’s Laughlin Rutt.
Wright then closed out the preliminary round with an 11-2 victory over Newfoundland’s Cecilia Carroll and 7-3 win over Quebec’s Luc Hamel on Thursday.
The Page Playoff 1-2 game is set for 1 p.m. Saskatchewan time, with the winner advancing directly to the final at 12 p.m. on Saturday.
