It was shaping up to be a four-way tie, as the four teams involved in the Yukon men's curling championship faced off in the the final draw Sunday morning.

Wade Scoffin and Dave Kalles came into the final draw with identical 3-2 records while Steve Fraser and Gordon Puddister were at 2-3. The top two teams would advance to the territorial playdowns against the N.W.T. next month, but Kalles was down 9-4 in the sixth end and Scoffin was up just one, 4-3, in the seventh.

Organizers drew a collective breath and began planning for perhaps a double tie-breaker, especially after Fraser pulled away for good and cinched the win, leaving both he and Kalles with 3-3 records, and then Puddister tied Scoffin at five heading into the 10th end.

It came down to the final rock, which belonged to Scoffin, before the organizers were able to breath a sigh of relief, as the skip edged out Puddister by just inches to stake his claim as Yukon's number-one seed.

'Overall, I think we had good control of our game today,' said Scoffin, who's rink also included third James Buyck, second Ray Mikkelsen and lead Clint Ireland. 'The ninth end, where they scored two, was the first time we felt we weren't dictating the direction.

'If I hadn't made that last shot, it would have been a four-way for first. That would have meant a lot more curling and we were ready to get it over with as soon as possible.'

With the loss, Puddister was out of the competition for Yukon's number two spot, but Fraser and Kalles were forced to play a tie-breaker Sunday afternoon.

It was Fraser, along with third Dale Enzenauer, second Doug Hamilton and lead Mike Menzies, who would come out on top, 8-3 in 10 ends.

That ended what Scoffin said was an impressive run for Kalles, third Gunter Mulorz, second Gerry Amann and lead Scott Cole, who hail from Watson Lake.

'Dave has been a really pleasant surprise throughout the competition. He won a game against each of the Whitehorse teams. It would be really great to see more communities try and compete. Maybe now they'll see they can do well no matter where they're from.'

Scoffin took a new team into this year's Yukon championships. With the absence of Chad Cowan, who took a year off for personal reasons, and Ross Milward, who left the territory, Mikkelsen and Ireland were added.

'Everybody is in a bit of a different role than previous years,' said Scoffin, who played third for Cowan at last year's playdowns.

'Ryan Mikkelsen just joined up with us for the playdowns. Coming into this week, we had played just one game with him. But we went to the Brier together in 2002, so he and I are very familiar with each other.'

Scoffin said the competition throughout the weekend was very even, as evidenced by the records. He felt his rink got stronger each draw, but knows they will have to take it up another notch when they head to Yellowknife for the playdowns.

That may be especially true now considering the outcome of the N.W.T. championship, with the Jamie Koe rink once again coming out on top.

Koe, who has been to five national junior curling championships and three mixed nationals, went undefeated in last year's territorial playdowns, beating out Yukon's Chad Cowan and Pat Paslawski, as well as fellow N.W.T. skip Steve Moss, to represent the territories at the Brier.

At the 2006 Brier in Regina, Koe finished with an impressive 6-5 record. Now, he's back and looking for another shot, this time on home ice. Joining Koe, who went undefeated at the N.W.T. championships to claim the number-one spot, will be Darcy Moshenko, a former member of Moss' rink.

'(The championships) went pretty good for us,' said Koe, in an interview from Yellowknife this morning. 'We went 5-0 and our main goal was obviously to get top spot, so we accomplished that.

'It was pretty tough competition. All of our games were pretty tight.'

Koe estimated his rink, which also consists of lead Brad Choroskowski, second Mark Whitehead and third Kevin Whitehead, is currently averaging around 80 per cent when it comes to shots made.

'I don't think we're quite where we need to be, but we're getting there. We took a month off in December, so we're just starting to get back into shape.'

Koe is very familiar with both Scoffin and Fraser, and insisted he won't be taking either of them too lightly.

'I expect them to come over here and play hard. We know we have to play our best to be successful.

'But at the same time, I think we're more confident because of our success last year. We're pretty confident in our ability to win the tight games.'

Scoffin is also feeling confident, although he expects the games to be extremely close.

'We're as strong of a team as any of those fellows,' he said. 'If you have good health and if things go your way ... a lot of it is going to come down to who gets the big breaks.'

Here are the results from all six draws at the Yukon men's curling championship, plus the tiebreaker:

Draw #1

Fraser 8, Scoffin 7

Puddister 8, Kalles 7

Draw #2

Fraser 12, Puddister 3

Scoffin 9, Kalles 5

Draw #3

Kalles 8, Puddister 4

Scoffin 8, Fraser 3

Draw #4

Kalles 13, Fraser 7

Scoffin 10, Puddister 2

Draw #5

Puddister 9, Fraser 2

Kalles 7, Scoffin 6

Draw #6

Scoffin 6, Puddister 5

Fraser 11, Kalles 10

Tiebreaker

Fraser 8, Kalles 3