By Jordan Bay and Stephen Moore

Alberta curling teams off to hot start

Feb 26, 2019 | 1:55 PM

Alberta has had a solid start to the 2019 Canada Winter Games curling competition with both the men’s and women’s teams opening with strong performances.

On the men’s side, Alberta has started the tournament at 3-1 through their first four games with wins over Quebec, Northwest Territories and most recently a tight win over Manitoba Tuesday morning. Their only setback came against Newfoundland by a score of 8-3.

Alberta Skip Nathan Molberg says he’s been impressed with his team’s play so far.

“Our first two games were good, had a rough game against a good team in Newfoundland, then had a good bounce-back here against Manitoba, pretty happy so far,” he said.

“We’re really appreciating the fan support, it’s been fantastic. The venue is great, just really enjoying the experience and having fun curling.”

Ground School Training

New aviation career pathway elevates opportunities for students

8h ago

4-7 p.m. Wednesday

City to host downtown parking feedback session

10h ago

Albertafirebans.ca

Fire advisories, restrictions, and bans in place for much of central Alberta

11h ago

Alberta needed an extra end to come away with the win over Manitoba. Molberg said it took a team effort to get the job done.

“It took a lot of good shots. We were in a good position there at the end, had hammer, tied, you know you’re always happy there. Lead made some great ticks and we were good to go from there.”

Alberta’s men’s team will face its next test Tuesday night, when they face PEI at 7 p.m. From there Alberta will battle New Brunswick and Nova Scotia on the 27th, Ontario and Saskatchewan on the 28th, and will close out the round robin on March 1st against B.C.

As for the women, they defeated a strong Manitoba team 5-4 Tuesday morning to improve to 4-0 on the tournament.

Team skip, Julia Bakos was happy with Alberta’s effort.

“It was great. We went out fully prepared. We knew it was a tough team so we brought our best game.”

Bakos described what Alberta need to do to stay prepared heading into their next game vs. PEI.

“We make sure that we’re in our bubble just so our team stays together, no outside distractions and then we take it shot by shot. It’s a full team effort.”

The St. Albert native is also excited to continue in the experience of the Canada Games.

“It’s amazing we’re very happy to be here. We’re trying to represent Alberta very well.”

Alberta’s women’s team have six games left in the preliminaries and will play New Brunswick and Nova Scotia tomorrow at the Pidherney Curling Centre, while the remainder of their games will mirror the men’s team schedule.