For the second straight year, a rink from the N.W.T. will be representing the territories at the Scott Tournament of Hearts next month.

Four women's teams Kerry Koe and Maureen Miller from the N.W.T., along with Sandra Mikkelsen and Nicole Baldwin from the Yukon took part in the ladies territorial playdowns, and it all came down to a tiebreaker on Sunday afternoon, as both the Koe and Baldwin rinks finished the round robin with a 4-2 record.

Koe and Baldwin started the tournament on opposite ends. Koe, third Monique Gagnier, second Kelli Sharpe and lead Heather McCagg-Nystrom began the weekend at 0-2.

Baldwin, third Donna Scott, second Dawn Cowan and lead Rose Heisz were at 3-0 heading into draw four.

The tiebreaker remained close for the first six ends, as Baldwin jumped ahead 4-3, but the final three ends belonged to Koe, who picked up six points for a 9-5 victory.

'It was a good win,' said Koe. 'We just got stronger and stronger as the game went on. Monique just curled the best game out there she throws last rock.

'We lost two (games) right off the bat and I didn't even think we has a chance, but we dug underneath and pulled out everything. It was all or nothing for us.'

Baldwin said despite the loss, she's proud of the way her team played and that there are a lot of positives to take away from the tournament.

'We played very well. This weekend, we really came together as a team. Most of our games were pretty close, we got to the 10th or extra ends in most of them.'

Koe said she knew coming in that Baldwin would be the toughest competition. The teams played each other twice in the round robin, splitting the games, and Baldwin said it really came down to one shot in the final.

'We knew there was a fifty-fifty chance (of winning) coming in,' said Baldwin. 'We had our opportunities and they had theirs. It's hard to say what the difference was. It only really mattered on one shot, that the whole game changed over. You make that draw in the ninth end and you're tied coming home.'

Instead, Koe and her squad will be off to the Scotts at the end of February, a tournament they haven't been to since 2001 fellow N.W.T. skip Miller went last year.

'It's been a couple of years since we've been back, so it's very, very exciting,' said Koe. 'We've worked very hard for it.'

Especially considering the rink has somewhat of a long-distance relationship. While both Koe and McCagg-Nystrom are from Yellowknife, Sharpe lives in Inuvik and Gagnier resides in Hay River. The group develops practice and training plans with each other, but completes the plan on their own.

'It's tough, but we wanted to give it a go, because we wanted to put a good team together,' explained Koe, adding they are either playing or practicing every day on their own.

They won't have much time together before the Scotts either, although they will try to get in at least one practice as a team. Despite the limited interaction, Koe feels the rink is prepared for what they will face in St. John's, Newfoundland.

'We've all been on the national scene before, so we all know every single game is going to be just like that one (against Baldwin Sunday). It's going to be tough.

'We haven't really talked about (our goals) yet, but I mean, we would like to make playoffs. A Northern team hasn't made playoffs in years, so that would be nice.'

It's also been years since a Northern team has made playoffs at the Brier, which is now just a couple of months away.

The road to the men's championship also began this past weekend, with the Yukon championships taking place at the Mount McIntyre Recreation Centre. Four men's teams Chad Cowan, Curtis Prosko, Doug Gee and Pat Paslawski ñ� competed for two spots available for the territorial playdowns to be held in Yellowknife next month.

Cowan, third Wade Scoffin, second James Buyck and lead Ross Milward were named the Yukon's number one team after the round robin, as they finished with a record of 5-1. Cowan's only loss came at the hands of Gee, who needed the victory to force a tiebreaker with Prosko for the second spot at playdowns both rinks finished with a 3-3 round robin record.

Gee was curling with third Robert Drapeau, second Kyle Gee and lead Dustin Zdan while Prosko hit the ice with third Steve Fraser, second Greg Thom and lead Travis Adams.

In the tiebreaker on Sunday afternoon, Prosko was up by one point in the 10th end, with the hammer. But Gee stole two points to win 8-7, much to the surprise of everyone, including the skip himself.

'My thoughts coming into the final end were, we'd try and get some guards up and see if we could steal a point and play for an extra end,' smiled Gee. 'To not have to play the extra end was a bonus.

'Curtis' team played extremely well all weekend. I thought we were in real trouble halfway through this game. We were four points down at one point.'

Gee, who hasn't skipped a team since his days in junior curling, said he wanted to make a comeback this year to see what he was capable of.

'We really struggled to start out, I really struggled, but the boys were persistent with it and we ended up coming out in second anyway, which was good enough to get to the next level. The biggest thing was, I had to start making a few better shots and I was thankfully able to to that.'

The Cowan rink started out fast at the men's tournament and never really faltered. In fact, they curled even better this year than when they won the same competition in 2004.

'We curled awesome,' Cowan stated. 'We managed to get through what's usually our Friday slump. We've been practicing hard. We've been putting a lot more effort into our training this year and it's paid off.

'My mother's been doing the scoring, so she was giving us our percentages. We're curling over 80 per cent as a team, so it helps. We're just starting to gel.'

One of the big differences this year for the Cowan rink is the fact Scoffin has more experience with the rest of the crew he had just started curling with them last year.

'Now, he knows our demeanours, he knows our attitudes and he knows our habits, so he can pick up on that,' said the skip. 'And we know his now too.

' He knows how to read my rocks. I'm a left-handed thrower and in the past, he was used to right-handed thrower. So everything is gelling, everything is starting to work.'

While the N.W.T. hasn't held their men's championship yet, both Cowan and Gee said they're fairly certain what level of competition they can expect.

'(Peter) O'Driscoll is usually pretty good,' said Cowan. 'And Jamie Koe is back, so he'll probably have a team together. He'll be strong and he'll be gunning.'

Gee said his team will be looking at needed improvements as well as emphasizing the positives at practice over the next few weeks, in anticipation of the playdowns. When asked what he thinks is the key to winning in Yellowknife, he laughed, 'Putting more points on the board.

'We have to catch onto the ice fast. If we struggle catching onto the ice, we could get behind before we even get into the event.'

For Cowan, he and his rink will be looking to avoid a similar fate to last year, when they just seemed to get cold at the wrong time. After two previous trips to the Brier (2000 and 2003), Cowan hopes to return.

'We had high hopes last year and we had our chances,' he stated. 'We'd really love to get back (to the Brier) this year.

'And it's in Edmonton, so it would be nice because I've got lots of relatives in Saskatchewan that can come and watch.'