Harnden falls twice on day two

Team Harnden will need to be on top of their game as the final two days of competition begins at the Northern Ontario Men's Curling Championships.

Skip Al Harnden, along with Eric Harnden, E.J. Harnden and Rob Thomas, dropped both of their round robin games on Wednesday at the Soo Curlers Association to fall to 1-3 in the competition.

The eventual winner will represent Northern Ontario at the Nokia Brier March 6-14 in Saskatoon.

With four draws remaining in the nine-team playdown, Harnden is in desperate need of a winning streak.

After winning the opening draw 11-4 over Timmins' Dave MacInnes on Tuesday, Harnden has now dropped three straight including a 6-4 decision to Thunder Bay's Denis Malette in Wednesday's morning draw and an 8-7 extra end decision to Sudbury's Tim Phillips in the afternoon match.

Harnden will hit the ice twice on Thursday beginning with a 2 p.m. matchup against Thunder Bay's Jeff Currie followed by a 7:30 p.m. draw with Haileybury's Rob Gordon.

Against Malette, Harnden grabbed a 4-3 lead in the ninth end after Eric Harnden, who throws skip stones, played a draw for two after Malette missed his double takeout attempt. In the 10th end, Malette was left with a tap back for three points to take the 6-4 win.

Team Harnden would feel last end heartbreak again in the afternoon match with Phillips.

Harnden grabbed a 5-1 lead early after Eric Harnden drew for two in the first end and three more in the third. Phillips replied in the fourth end with a open hit for three points of his own. Phillips took two in the eighth end to take a 7-6 lead into the 10th end.

With the hammer in the 10th end, Harnden was looking to secure the victory but Phillips had a little luck fall on his side. With his last rock, Phillips threw what was intended to be a double takeout inside and hit the centre guard which spilled the two Harnden stones.

After Harnden was forced to draw for one point to send the game into an extra end without last rock advantage, Phillips played a hit on his final rock to sit one and take an 8-7 win in the 11th end.

In other results on Wednesday, Gordon held off a late run by MacInnes to win 6-5, Phillips edged Atikokan's Bruce Melville 6-5 and Currie scored three points in the 10th end to defeat Sudbury's Chris Johnson 9-8 in the morning draw.

In the afternoon draw, Malette broke open a 4-4 tie with two points in the eighth and ninth ends to beat Gordon 8-4, Kirkland Lake's Rob McKelvey made a hit and stick for three points with his last rock to defeat Johnson 10-9 and Melville used a four-point seventh end and a three-point ninth to knock off MacInnes 10-4.

In the evening draw, a four-point eighth end lifted Johnson over Phillips 9-5, Gordon took three points in the third end and then stole a single point for six consecutive ends to defeat Melville 8-2, Malette scored five in the second end and stole points in other four ends to beat Currie 12-5 and MacInnes clipped McKelvey 8-5.

In other action on Thursday, McKelvey meets Melville, Phillips battles Malette and Gordon faces Johnson in the sixth draw at 2 p.m. At 7:30 p.m., Phillips plays Currie, Johnson meets MacInnes and Malette faces McKelvey.

*** DRAW TO THE BUTTON:

All nine teams threw four rocks each to the button in a skills competition on Wednesday. The results will be used to break ties in the event that wins and losses cannot be used to break the tie. Teams were allowed to use sweepers and the cumulative distance from the button was measured. The results are as follows:

1. McKelvey 77 cm 2. Malette 118 cm 3. Gordon 120 cm 4. Johnson 263 cm 5. MacInnes 275 cm 6. Harnden 314 cm 7. Melville 321 cm 8. Currie 324 cm 9. Phillips 351 cm

*** STANDINGS:

Following draw five on Wednesday evening:

Malette 4-0 Currie 3-1 Gordon 3-2 McKelvey 2-2 Johnson 2-2 Phillips 2-3 MacInnes 2-3 Harnden 1-3 Melville 1-4