There will be no provincial appearance for the Michael Dahms rink.
Dahms and his Prince George Golf and Curling Club crew lost three consecutive Friday games and, in doing so, were eliminated from a Curl B.C. men's interior playdown. Home ice was no advantage for Dahms, who dropped his last-chance game 9-8 in an extra end to John Pierce of Smithers on Friday night.
With the winners staying alive for a provincial berth and the losers packing up their gear, Pierce broke open a 4-4 game with four points in the seventh end. Dahms fought back with two in the eighth end and steals of one in the ninth and 10th, but without the hammer in the 11th, couldn't complete what would have been a stunning comeback.
In Dahms's first game, played Friday morning, he fell 9-4 to Brent Giles of Kelowna. In the afternoon draw, Dahms slipped to 0-2 after a 7-1 loss to Michael Smith of Kamloops.
"We were making shots but we weren't making the right ones at the right time," Dahms said. "We'd play an end and we'd make the first seven shots and that was fine but then when it came down to that key shot we were missing it and giving them the end, or when it was our [hammer] we were missing it and taking the end away from ourselves. We were close, but we weren't at the level to compete."
For Dahms and rinkmates J.T. Blanchett, Chris Calder and Matt Gyorfi, there were two killer ends against Giles. In the fifth, Giles stole three points and moved into a 4-1 lead. After Dahms answered back with a deuce in the sixth end, Giles scored five -- yes, five -- in the seventh.
"The [fifth] end really hurt us," Dahms said. "I made a mental error on my first shot. They were only sitting one and we were trying an in-off to get shot rock and ended up taking our own out.
"Then in the seventh, when he got his five, it was one of those ends where we would miss by a hair, just rub a guard and they would hit and roll behind. If you put yourself in a hole early then you've got to take more risks and that's how ends can end up getting out of hand. You either come back, or you get blown out."
In the game against Smith, Dahms was down 4-1 after five ends. The fatal blow came in the sixth, when Smith pulled off a steal of three.
"The steal of three in six was kind of unfortunate," Dahms said. "We had an open draw to the eight foot and I had thrown the exact same draw two ends before, to the button. I threw it [in the sixth] and the sweepers thought it was light. They ended up sweeping it almost the whole way down and then watched it sail through. It stuck in the back eight-foot but too deep to out-count theirs. If we make that shot, then the game is totally different. That was a key mental error, not execution."
After Friday play, Tom Buchy of Kimberley and Brent Yamada of Kamloops lead the way with 2-0 records.
Games continue today and Sunday at the PGGCC.
In the eight-team field, the top two finishers will qualify for the Canadian Direct Insurance B.C. Championship, Feb. 7-13 in Vernon.
