MAPLE RIDGE - It was fourth-time lucky Sunday for Patti Knezevic. She finally didn't have to go through a Kelly (or a Kelley) to win her first B.C. Scotties women's curling title.
The Prince George skip, who took advantage of heavy draws in the 10th and 11th ends by young Sarah Wark to beat the Victoria Curling Club skip 5-3, had lost in the 2005 and 2013 finals to six-time champion Kelly Scott and in 2007 to two-time champion Kelley Law.
"I was just happy to see a Kelly not on the ice," cracked a grinning Knezevic, who went 5-0 in the eight-rink, triple-knockout tournament, beating Wark in the A bracket final and 8-3 in Saturday night's No. 1 vs. No. 2 Page Playoff game.
Sunday's game was a tight, low-scoring affair with the two rinks trading singles around four blank ends.
But when Knezevic was a bit outside on a takeout with her last rock in the 10th, it wound up shuffling a couple of her rocks in the back of the house and left Wark, down 3-2, with a clean draw for two and the win. But Wark's rock was heavy, sliding right through the house. She counted just one, sending the game to an extra end.
Wark was again heavy on a draw with her first shot. Then, on an attempted draw to the button with her last, she wrecked on a Knezevic stone in the 12-foot. Knezevic didn't even need to throw her last rock.
"That's curling," said Knezevic. "We truly did get a break, a huge break to even go into 11.
Wark said the crucial mistakes in 10 and 11 "are going to haunt me for the rest of my life, probably."
Knezevic said it was "fantastic" to finally win a B.C. title. She and long-time lead Rhonda Camozzi and 2013 additions Jen Rusnell (second) and Kristen Fewster (third) now head to the Canadian championships in Moose Jaw, Sask., next month.
"It's so exciting, a little bit surreal right now," said Fewster, who lives in Squamish now.
In fact, the rink almost never practiced together this season. Not only did Fewster live a few hundred kilometres away, but a boiler problem at the curling rink in Prince George meant the rest of the team didn't have ice until this month.
"We were travelling every second weekend on the cashspiel circuit," said Knezevic, who operates a couple of taco restaurants in Prince George.
"We have busy schedules, there's a lot of kids involved in the picture with our families. So we just really took on a different focus when we were at those cashspiels and worked on a little bit more on mental training.
"We were really ready [Sunday]. I really thought it was going to be our turn to get to the next level."
Wark had advanced to the final with a 7-6 win over Scott on Sunday morning.
"The two teams in the final have paid their dues, they've been knocking on the door for a while now," said the veteran Kelowna skip, whose string of four consecutive titles was snapped in the final in 2014.
Scott, who had lived on the edge all tournament in going 5-3, had leads of 4-0 and 6-3 in the semifinal, but couldn't close things out and had a disastrous 10th end tied 6-6 with the hammer. All four members of the rink missed both their shots, with Scott being too heavy on a draw with her first rock and then wide and a bit heavy with her second.
"We're pretty disappointed," said Scott, whose rink was playing its third game in 18 hours. "We didn't bring our best game this morning. We didn't capitalize on some opportunities.
Scott needed to draw to the four foot with her final rock and had backing in the form of Wark's last rock, but her shot didn't curl enough and slid just by.
"It wasn't a precise 10th. I was happy with the last shot I had to throw. It just got stuck in a little rut out there at the edge of the eight-foot. Those ones you just wish you could have a mulligan and throw it again."
