Sunday's pre-game draw to the button set the tone of the 2008 Skookum World Curling Tour Cash Spiel championship final between Alberta rink Team Schille and Seattle's Team Larway.

Team Schille made the shot, while Team Larway just missed, coming in a little heavy to sit in the four foot in what gave the Alberta squad last stone in the opening end.

After blanking the first end on purpose, the four Alberta players used the hammer perfectly, notching two points in the second and then scoring once in each of the game's remaining ends before Larway conceded in the sixth.

The 6-0 win gave the Schille foursome their first tournament win of the season.

"We got lucky," said Team Schille's player Charley Thomas.

"They make a couple of shots here and there and it's either a tie game or they are even leading, but we played really well and we just capitalized when they missed. That's all it really came down too."

After getting one stone into the house early on in the fourth end, Team Schille went to work guarding the rock.

The tactic worked and Larway wasn't able to remove the stone, but did manage to bring two of their own rocks into the house as well as set up some key guards of their own, which created some options for the team's skip.

With the score 3-0 and Schille still lying one in the fourth end, Jason Larway had a chance to bring his team back into the game using the hammer.

The shot Larway attempted was a tough drawback, which involved hitting one of his own guards into the house to remove Schille's stone and stick for three points.

Unfortunately for Larway, despite making contact with the guard, he ended up being off by less than an inch on the drawback and failed to remove Schille's rock.

Team Schille would take advantage of a couple more misses by the Seattle group and recorded two more points of their own in each the fifth and sixth.

The game ended prematurely after Larway, once again, was unable to remove his opponent's stone.

"It's going to be the perfect day," one of the players on Team Schille said, making reference to the 22-14 lead that the Calgary Stampeders had over the Montreal Alouettes with less than 30 seconds to go in the Grey Cup.

The game was being shown on the T.V. at the curling club.

Coming into the cash spiel, Team Schille was one of the favourites and won its pool with a round robin record of 4-1.

The Alberta rink's only loss came at the hands of Whitehorse's junior Team Scoffin, which is skipped by Thomas Scoffin.

Team Schille's Thomas, who won the World Junior Curling Championship in 2006 and 2007, said it felt good to come in first at the Skookum cash spiel.

"We came in knowing that we definitely had the potential to do it," he said.

"So to come out here and actually play well, which we did, and then win the bonspiel is very nice."

He said the team plans on coming back next year to defend its title.

"The reason we came in the first place was because it was one of my favourite spiels to go to last year," Thomas said.

"I love this city and I love curling here. It's a great club and great ice and just everything is really nice."

Despite losing in the final, this was a successful curling tournament for Team Larway.

The squad also went 4-1 in round robin competition with its only loss occurring to Schille.

Colin Hufman, Larway's third, said this was the first final the team has made all season.

"Anytime you make the final at a world curling tour event, it's definitely a successful week," he said.

"Obviously you always want to win, but you can't complain too much. Our goal was to win the spiel, but coming in second was definitely not a bad thing either."

The team is set to compete in a Seattle cash spiel this coming weekend and Hufman said the strong finish in Whitehorse is evidence that the group is proof that the pieces are finally coming together for them.

"This was definitely a step in the right direction," he said.

"We played a lot better and we played a game that we know we can win at, kind of thing."

This was the third annual Skookum cash spiel, which saw a dramatic increase in both prize money and participating teams.

Thanks to two new corporate supporters, the cash spiel awarded $20,000 more than it did last year.

The total cash purse was set at $50,000. Besides Skookum Asphalt, sponsors of this year's curling event included Air North and the Best Western Gold Rush Inn.

A total of 24 teams took part in the cash spiel this weekend, including 14 out of territory squads.

The draw format included a four pool round robin format that saw the top two teams in each division qualify for Sunday's playoff round.

All of the games for the cash spiel, which got underway on Thursday were played at the Whitehorse Curling Club.

The $50,000 was divided up among the top eight teams, which will include $15,000 being awarded to the winner, while second place will be given $9,000.

The third and fourth place rinks will be given $6,000, while the fifth to eight spots will each be given $3,500.

The 10 Whitehorse rinks curling in the cash spiel include Team Tuton, Team S. Koltun, Team T. Scoffin, Team Grant, Team Cowan, Team Balsam, Team Diakow, Team Hilderman, Team Andison and Team Gee.

This was the first year at the cash spiel that a Yukon based team was unable to qualify for Sunday's playoff round.