In his eighth time representing the Yukon at the national level, Pat Paslawski said what made this one a bit different was the competitiveness and how close they were in games against the top senior teams from across the country.

Paslawski skipped the Yukon squad at the Canadian Senior Men’s Curling Championships in Stratford, Ont. March 24-29 and the team was incredibly close to making the championship playoff bracket – missing out by a quarter of an inch to be exact.

“We were just really happy to be there,” Paslawski said to the Star yesterday on his second experience at these championships. “It’s such a privilege, we’re really lucky to curl out of the Yukon where our chances of going to the nationals are better than they would be in any of the provinces for sure.”

But the team consisting of Paslawski at skip, Terry Miller as the third, Doug Hamilton at second and Don McPhee in lead did face a five-team tournament in the Yukon to represent the territory.

The same team, minus Hamilton, also went to the 2017 event where they finished with an overall record of 3-6.

In this year’s 14-team competition, the Yukon squad was up against former Brier champions and even former men’s world champions, but played tight competition right till the end, which Paslawaski said garnered recognition from the other teams.

Against former world champion Al Hackner and his Northern Ontario team, the Yukon fell 5-1 in a tight game that was 1-1 until the seventh end.

“We had a really close game. They won, but we felt good about the game and he was impressed,” Paslawski said of Hackner’s response after the game. “And we heard that over and over throughout the week with tight games against each. We gave them all good games and we felt we belonged there.”

The Yukon team opened the round-robin with a 5-4 win over Newfoundland and Labrador before dropping their next three, including an extremely close 5-4 loss to Alberta.

They rebounded with an 11-2 win over Nunavut to hold a 2-3 recording heading into the final game of the round robin against Saskatchewan. With four out of the seven teams advancing to the championship pool, the Yukon needed a win to advance.

Tied at four after the sixth end, Saskatchewan stole one in the seventh to take the lead, but gave Yukon the hammer in the eighth and final end. With a shot for two with the hammer, Paslawski said the team thought they had it and were lying two rocks but after a measure, they only had one point which tied the game and forced an extra end.

With the hammer in the extra end, Saskatchewan got one point to win the game forcing the Yukon team into the seeding pool with a record of 2-4.

“We just continued the good play that we had had all week, it was such a good game, so close and so competitive,” Paslawski said of the tight loss. “The team from Saskatchewan was so nice. There’s the games you don’t mind losing, everyone had fun, everyone feels like it was a good game and it’s a lot easier to walk off the ice and hold your head high.”

In the seeding pool, the team out of the Whitehorse Curling Club played three more games finishing with a record of 2-1.

They beat the Northwest Territories 5-2 and Prince Edward Island 7-3, but also dropped a disappointing game to British Columbia 10-3.

After the tournament was over, the Yukon team was recognized again in the form of the prestigious MVP Award – given to only one player at the event – awarded to team third Terry Miller.

“The whole team is super proud of Terry for winning that. It’s voted on by Curling Canada and all the officials,” Paslawski said of the honour given to the player that demonstrated a high-level of compete and sportsmanship throughout the event. “He’s a great guy to curl with and curl against and he totally deserved that award. I think he was pretty shocked to get it. It floored him.”

Having come so close to qualifying for the championship round, Paslawski said the event was more of an achievement for the team than defeat because they showed that teams from the Yukon can be competitive against the top teams in the country.

“It’s nice to go and have the potential to be in the playoffs. We wanted to make the championship pool – and we were within a quarter of an inch of doing that,” he said.