CURL: Thompson Rivers women, Dinos men to play for CW Banner Sunday

CALGARY – With both matches going to an extra end, the Thompson Rivers University women and the University of Calgary men both won their top-seeded matches in the page playoff Saturday night and advance to Sunday’s 2025 Canada West Finals at the Calgary Curling Club.

The WolfPack women downed a red-hot Regina squad, 5-4 – scoring one in the eighth and one in the extra end to advance to Sunday’s final.

“We actually hadn’t been playing that well (coming into the page playoff) – just squeaking the wins out. But this was more us – making the shots…they just played well,” Thompson Rivers coach Monica Makar said.

“Going into the seventh, we were one down and we said, ‘If they’re going to put it in and let us blank, let’s just blank.’ And that’s what we did. Hit, hit, hit and then blank. And then always in the eighth when you only need one for the tie, we talked about going for two but we have to have one. It was a little nerve wracking guarding…but we got our one and in extra end when you’re down and have to seal, it’s pretty simple.”

Meanwhile, the Dinos men are now the lone undefeated team still standing at this year’s championship after knocking off the TRU men, 6-5. The WolfPack jumped out to a 3-0 lead after two ends, but Calgary didn’t panic and tallied two in the third and one in the fourth to level things back up. TRU used a nice shot to tie things up in the eighth, but Calgary positioned themselves nicely in the extra end for the win.

With a guaranteed top-two finish, both the Dinos men and WolfPack women now officially punch their tickets to the 2025 U SPORTS Championships, scheduled for Feb. 24-28 in Lethbridge, Alta.

“Coming into this, our goal here was to just start out and build over time,” Dinos head coach Laine Peters said. “We’re going to off to the Junior Worlds, and we need more games. So, for us to play at U SPORTS is huge for our season and our prep.

“We knew they (Thompson Rivers) was going to be good, as well. They came into this undefeated, as well, and we saw them beat UofA in that first game where they made a wickedly good shot for that win. But we didn’t panic (when TRU started up 3-0) and we just played our game.”

In yet another surprise turn at this year’s championship, both Alberta squads saw their runs come to an end Saturday. The Golden Bears – who have won all five Canada West Men’s Championships in league history – saw Regina score three in the eighth end for a 7-4 win in the other side of the page playoff. Regina will now take on TRU Sunday at 9 a.m., with the winner advancing to the 2 p.m. final against the Dinos.

On the women’s side, it was Victoria who knocked off Alberta – the defending women’s champion. The Pandas used a strong third end to stake an early 3-1 edge. But the Vikes showed their resilience with single tallied in the fourth, fifth, sixth and eighth for a 5-3 win – advancing to Sunday’s semifinal against Regina.

The Vikes nearly didn’t make through pool play, after a flurry of finishes in the fourth draw saw UBC, Calgary and Victoria all finish with a 2-2 record, but the Vikes advanced on the tiebreaker.

Sunday’s semifinals are set to start at 9 a.m. from the Calgary Curling Club, with the two championship games slated for 2 p.m.