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HAY RIVER
A Fort Simpson team finished second over the weekend in a bonspiel that's as much about firefighters getting together and socializing as it is about curling.

Roger Pilling, right, Michael Rowe and Scott Cameron sweep a rock thrown during the NWT Firefighters Curling Championship in Hay River. The Fort Simpson team took second place in the event. - Angele Cano/NNSL photo

The team of skip Roger Pilling, Pat Rowe, Scott Cameron and Michael Rowe competed in the NWT Firefighters Curling Championship in Hay River from Jan. 6 to 8.

A total of five teams from fire departments around the territory participated in the event.

Although there was some good curling, that's not the only focus of the championship, said Rowe, who's attended the event almost every year since 1986.

'Getting together'

"It's more of us getting together, the different departments," he said.

"It's not about the competition. It's about the people."

Because of the distances between communities in the territory, the championship is one of the only opportunities NWT firefighters have to meet members of other fire departments, said Rowe.

When the teams did get out on the ice sheets, Fort Simpson went undefeated during its first three games in the round robin, winning against Inuvik, Fort Smith and Hay River 2.

By chance through the way the draw was set up, Fort Simpson's final game was against Hay River 1, which had also gone undefeated to that point.

The game became the deciding point of the championship.

The game was close with the lead moving back and forth between the two teams up until the eighth end, said Rowe.

Shake hands

Coming into the eighth end Fort Simpson was down three points. When skip Roger Pilling missed a takeout with the last shot, the team was down four and made the decision to shake hands and end the game.

"It really just came down to one or two people missing their shots and you capitalize on it," said Wyatt Scheller, the skip of Hay River 1.

Scheller, Kyle Wright, Brent Medernach and Dustin Smith now have the opportunity to represent the territory in the Canadian Firefighters Curling Championships in Truro, N.S., at the end of March.

Scheller said the team will know by the end of this weekend if it is able to attend.

This is the second year in a row that a Hay River team has won the NWT Firefighters Curling Championship. Both Scheller and Wright were part of the team that won last year.

Scheller, additionally, has competed at the nationals seven times.

Scheller agreed with Rowe that the championship is primarily about firefighters getting together and having fun.

It was a really good bonspiel and it was nice to see a team from Inuvik come down and participate, he said.

Based on input from the participants, Jason Panter of Fort Smith was named the winner for the second consecutive year of the Les McPhee Award for sportsmanship both on and off the ice.

Next year the championship will be held in Inuvik.

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