Johnson meets Cotter in Canadian Direct Insurance A-Final Thursday at Nelson Curling Club
By The Nelson Daily Sports
Michael Johnson is betting against the odds, and winning.
The underdog Victoria rink knocked off its second heavyweight at the 2016 Canadian Direct Insurance BC Men’s Curling Championships, outlasting club mate Wes Craig 6-4 during Thursday’s morning draw to advance into the A final tonight at 7 p.m.
Wednesday, Johnson doubled another top rink, Dean Joanisse of New Westminster, 6-3.
Johnson, third Chris Baier, second Ty Diello and lead Mitch Young hope to continue their mission against defending BC Champion Jim Cotter of Vernon.
“We practiced a lot going into this event and I think it’s paying off on the ice,” Johnson said after the latest victory Thursday.
“It’s kind of a new team that we put together and we haven’t played a lot together so we focused a lot in practice and his paying off in the game.”
They did it the hard way, scoring single points in six ends to edge Craig.
Trailing 5-4 with last rock in the tenth, Craig missed on is final attempt to give Johnson the win.
Meanwhile, Cotter, third Ryan Kuhn, second Tyrel Griffiths and lead Rick Sawatsk continue to roll as the Okanagan rink dumped Glen Jackson of Victoria 7-4 in the other A semi final.
Cotter scored consecutive points in the third, fourth and fifth ends — in the fifth the rink counted three — to open a 5-1 lead.
Jackson scored a single in the sixth before stealing another point in the seventh but could never further cut into the Cotter lead.
In B Event play, Kootenay Rep Chris Ducharme of Creston edged out Stephen Schneider of Vancouver 7-6 in 11 ends; Jeff Richard of Kelowna doubled Chase Martyn of New Westminster 10-5 and Daniel Wenzek of Langley sent pre-tournament favourite Joanisse to his second loss in as many games, 8-7.
Action continues today with two draws at 2 and 7 p.m.
