Asselin Wins Stu Sells 1824 Halifax Classic

Felix Asselin put the pressure on Sam Mooibroek at the start of their men's final and didn't let up en route to a comfortable 8-3 victory at the Stu Sells 1824 Halifax Classic on Sunday. "We cracked a deuce in the first end to a pretty good young team," Asselin said. "That gave us the lead and we could sort of dictate play from there on." The Montreal skip and teammates Martin Crete, Emile Asselin and Jean-Francois Trepanier caught a break with a steal in the second end when Mooibroek was light with a draw against three. "Instead of 2-1, it was 3-0," Asselin said. "And then we even got a nice force. So we controlled that game pretty well but the difference is still pretty slim between the two teams in that game even though the score was heavily in our favour." A three-ender in the fifth made it 6-1 and Asselin iced it with a big-weight double-takeout for a pair in the seventh. Asselin considered a draw but the double was appealing because there was no chance of a jam, he said. Even if he gave up a steal, Asselin would still have the hammer coming home with a two-point lead. "It worked out," he told CurlingZone. "We just got it at the right angle." Mooibroek was coming off an 8-4 win over John Epping in the semifinal. The 23-year-old native of Kitchener, Ont., has enjoyed some breakout performances over the last year or two, claiming the U-25 NextGen Classic and skipping Wilfrid Laurier University to a U Sports title. Asselin, meanwhile, needed two extra ends to get by Matthew Manuel of Halifax in the morning semifinal. The four-time Quebec representative at the Brier estimated it was his first double extra-end game in about seven years. In the quarterfinals, Manuel (Halifax, NS) defeated Owen Purcell (Halifax, NS) 6-3, while Epping deeated Michael Fournier (Toronto, ON) 9-1. "Some of them you get an open hit and you roll out, but that one we actually made the shot to go to another end," he said. "Otherwise we were losing." The skip enjoyed a quick breakfast burrito before returning to the ice after a 15-minute break for the final. "We just had to refocus, which was the hard part," Asselin said. "But I guess we managed to do that well. We were ready to play." Asselin's side hadn't played in a while as the skip and his brother were in Aberdeen, Scotland for the recent world mixed team championship. Canada beat Norway's Steffen Walstad 4-3 for the bronze. Asselin entered the event at the Halifax Curling Club unsure of how it would go but he ended up posting a perfect record. Asselin finished 4-0 in the 15-team qualifying round. In their opening game, Asselin defeated Jean-Michel Arsenault (Levis, QC) 6-5, then won 7-2 against James Grattan (Oromocto, NB) and 7-5 against Bryce Everist (Halifax, NS). Asselin won 4-2 against Alex Champ (Toronto, ON) in their final qualifying round match. "We did get a lot of practice in," he said. "We just made a lot of shots and put pressure on our opponents most of the time. They put a little less on us. Generally I was happy with how we played. We played well." Switzerland's Silvana Tirinzoni beat Winnipeg's Team Jennifer Jones - skipped by Chelsea Carey - in the women's final. Select games were live-streamed on YouTube with replays available on the CurlingZone website (www.curlingzone.com). "It was a great week," Asselin said. "It's always a good event."