Black, Kleiter capture HearingLife Tour Challenge Tier 2 titles
CHARLOTTETOWN — Christina Black still couldn’t believe her team had won the HearingLife Tour Challenge Tier 2 women’s title.
Black and her Halifax-based club claimed the title with a 7-3 victory over Japan’s Team Sayaka Yoshimura during Sunday’s final at the Bell Aliant Centre.
The event provides teams lower in the rankings the opportunity to play on arena ice and compete for invitations to the WFG Masters, Jan. 14-19, in Guelph, Ont. The finals are held simultaneously with the Tier 1 championship games and Black celebrated her victory with the roar and support of the Atlantic Canada crowd.
“We’ve had a wild ride,” Black said. “We really got lucky and stole three to win our quarterfinal game or we would never be here today. My girls, we played so great all week and really gelled as a team. It’s just so much fun. I can’t believe we won.”
Black is supported by third Jill Brothers, second Jenn Baxter and lead Karlee Everist. Alternate Marlee Powers filled in for Baxter during the event.
“It’s super fun having lots of crowds here,” Black said. “Lots of people we know were in the stands too and just having them cheering us on because we’re just over across the bridge a little bit.”
Rylan Kleiter and his squad from Saskatoon earned the Tier 2 men’s title after edging Norway’s Team Magnus Ramsfjell 6-5 in an extra end.
“It’s great,” said Kleiter, whose team includes third Joshua Mattern, second Matthew Hall and lead Trevor Johnson. “It’s nice to see some of our hard work paying off there and just looking to keep building for the rest of the season.”
He added: “It’s an awesome event to get the next generation an opportunity to play in Slam-type events and we’re looking forward to seeing what we can do at the next level.”
The Tier 2 featured a triple knockout preliminary round, just like the Tier 1 event, where teams had to win three games before they lost three to qualify for the playoffs.
Team Black got out to a 1-2 start to fall into the last-chance C Event brackets but prevailed and picked up five consecutive wins with elimination on the line. Black said even though they dropped into the C early, they played well every game.
“Even the two we lost, we could have won them, so we knew we didn’t need to do anything different, just make one extra shot here or there,” Black said. “Then we started doing that and just got better and better.”
Kleiter went clear through the A Event and finished with an unblemished 6-0 overall record. Still, Kleiter was in for a battle in the final against Ramsfjell, who made a great shot to score two points in the eighth to force the extra end. Ramsfjell also forced Kleiter to make a tricky draw with the last rock of the game.
“Just trusting the guys to get it there,” Kleiter said. “They did a good job managing it and it was awesome.”
Neither skip is a stranger to the Slams. Black played in the Tier 2 event for a third consecutive season and competed in the KIOTI National last year when it was held in Pictou County, N.S. Kleiter was a sponsor’s invite to the 2019 Canadian Open in North Battleford, Sask., when he was still in juniors.
The berth to the WFG Masters ensures both will be back. While Black had the fans on her side during this event, Kleiter is looking forward to the WFG Masters as Hall is from nearby Kitchener.
“I think it’s just like 40 minutes away, so that’ll be awesome,” Kleiter said. “He can probably have some friends and family come out to that one.”
