Team Pätz picked up its first win of the tournament as they beat Team Middaugh 5-4 in seven ends in draw 11 of the Masters curling event in Truro, N.S.
Although Alina Pätz only curled 77 per cent in the match, it was the mistakes of Sherry Middaugh that really were the focus.
Middaugh only made 73 per cent of her shots, which proved to be very costly in the final few ends.
With the hammer in the sixth end, Middaugh’s first stone caught her own guard, leaving Pätz (1-3) sitting two with just one shot each remaining in the sixth.
After the team from Switzerland drew to the house to sit three, it was up to Middaugh to try and limit the damage to just one.
However, the veteran curler would have a miscue once again, failing to make the double-takeout to give up a steal of two and go down 5-3 through six.
Team Middaugh (1-3) had the opportunity to take advantage of a mistake by Pätz in the seventh end to take three points and the lead going into the final end. Unfortunately for the Canadian team, the stone the skip was attempting to take out jammed a rock in the back of the 12-foot, leaving team Middaugh with just a single point.
The opening half of the game was a back-and-forth affair, with the two teams exchanging two-point ends through the first two, and a single point each in the following couple frames to go into the break tied at 3-3.
Pätz, the reigning world champion, didn’t have the bonspiel that they were hoping for, picking up their first victory after a trio of defeats and failing to make the quarters.
For Middaugh, she needed a victory in this game to have a chance of making the playoffs through a tiebreaker.
Let that one slip away. Need to win tomorrow and should be in a tie breaker. #cross fingers
— Team Sherry Middaugh (@slider1_) October 30, 2015
This was the final game for both of the teams in the event, as they both were eliminated after the round-robin. They will look for redemption in the next Grand Slam of Curling event, the National, taking place in Oshawa, Ont., beginning on Nov. 10.